Rapid change in soil properties after converting grasslands to crop production

Abstract

Changes to land management over the last 150 years, primarily the conversion of perennial grasslands to agricultural production dominated by annual row crops, have greatly changed soil properties and reduced the soil's ability to infiltrate and store water in the soil profile. Direct near-term response at the time of conversion of an uncultivated remnant prairie to row crops is rare, especially responses that include repeated measurements on the same parcel of land and resampling of soils to a depth of 1 m to document rapid changes in soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and selected soil physical properties related to hydraulic properties. The objective of this research was to measure changes in soil chemical and physical properties after the conversion of perennial grassland to annual row-crop production. A before-and-after approach was used to compare soil properties from a 0.31-ha field in southwest Minnesota. Cultivation resulted in a negative shift in soil properties. Two years postcultivation, there was an overall reduction in soil organic carbon of 18.6 Mg ha −1 for the 0-1.0 m soil profile. Infiltration rates and soil sorptivity exhibited significant decreases following cultivation. The average decrease in the mean postcultivation infiltration and sorptivity rates were 0.30 mm s −1 and 0.12 mm s −0.5 , respectively. Bulk density increased on average by 0.10 Mg m −3 between 0-0.2 m and 0.14 Mg m −3 between 0.2-1.0 m. This work provided a rare glimpse of the vast shift in soil properties, which occurred when the plow ripped through virgin prairie decades ago during the massive expansion of agriculture.

Enhanced Understanding of Key Soil Properties in Northern Xinjiang Using Water-Heat-Spectral Datasets Based on Bioclimatic Guidelines

“…Multiple studies have confirmed that soils under natural vegetation cover exhibit decreasing levels of soil organic matter after cultivation [69]. Carbon loss from such soils has been estimated to range between 30% and 50% after converting grasslands into agricultural lands [70,71]. Wastelands and bare lands, which remain in their natural state for extended periods, lack surface vegetation and possess inadequate water and nutrient retention abilities.…”

Land use modification causes slow, but predictable, change in soil microbial community composition and functional potential

“…Additionally, certain practices (e.g. tillage) involved in some land use conversions or land use intensification, can rapidly change soil properties, with declines in soil organic carbon observed after only two years following conversions of prairie grasslands to croplands [51]. To gain a more in-depth understanding of the functional changes occurring after land use conversion, larger-scale studies are required that allow for multiple comparisons between converted sites and their former and current land uses, and at sufficient scale to account for the huge natural spatial variations in bacterial community traits.…”

Soil health responses of circular grass buffer strips in center‐pivot irrigated agriculture

“…The natural ecosystems in the US Great Plains were fully functional under the native prairie vegetation (DeLuca & Zabinski, 2011; Ford & McPherson, 1996). In the past century, the conversion of grasslands to croplands and intensive tillage for farming has resulted in massive depletion in soil organic matter (SOM) storage (Lal, 2002, 2004; Strock et al., 2022). With the conversion to croplands, agroecosystems have depleted SOM storage by 54%–63% (Ghimire & Khanal, 2020; Ghimire et al., 2015).…”