Porosity aspects of the regeneration of soil structure after compaction

Soil porosity characteristics and water movement under zero tillage in silty soils in Argentinian Pampas

“…Sá (2002) observed that crop sequence seems to provide an intermittent effect on soil surface aggregate formation due to polysaccharides and polyphenols excreted by legumes and grasses, respectively. Bullock et al (1985) attributed the platy macroporosity to planes of weakness induced by compaction (traffic), which became accentuated as the soil regenerated, or to wetting-drying fronts.…”

Tillage effects on soil hydraulic properties in space and time: State of the science

“…Mahboubi et al (1993) found greater bulk density and penetration resistance in the top 15 cm of the traffic zone versus row zone under NT, while Pierce et al (1994) found that wheel traffic increased bulk density substantially in plowed soils (0.14-0.18 Mg m À3 ), but minimally under NT. The reader is referred to the literature for additional information (Bullock et al, 1985;Blackwell et al, 1986;Johnson et al, 1989;Lal et al, 1989a,b;Hill and Mezamontalvo, 1990;Bathke et al, 1992;Bruand and Cousin, 1995;Fritz et al, 1995;Dao, 1996;Assouline et al, 1997;Lal and Ahmadi, 2000;Logsdon and Cambardella, 2000).…”

Assessment of soil compaction using soil shrinkage modelling: Experimental data and perspectives

“…This reduction not only may associate with altered pore morphology (e.g. Murphy et al, 1977;Bullock et al, 1985;Wiermann et al, 2000;Kremer et al, 2002, Horn et al, 1994 but also the pore size distribution may be changed (Gupta et al, 1989;Alakukku, 1996a;Richard et al, 2001), as macropores and micro-pores are not equally affected by compaction (e.g. Horn and Domzal, 1995).…”

“…Although abiotic and biotic regeneration processes are quite effective in alleviating topsoil compaction (e.g. Bullock et al, 1985;Von Albertini et al, 1995;Werner and Werner, 2001), subsoil compaction can persist over many years, decades and possibly even centuries (Etana and Håkansson, 1994;Håkansson and Reeder, 1994;Alakukku, 1996b;Sharratt et al, 1998). Compaction impacts the soil pore space and thus may cause a whole series of modified soil physical properties.…”