Tillage System and Cover Crop Effects on Soil Quality: II. Pore Characteristics

Abdollahi, Lotfollah; Munkholm, Lars J.; Garbout, Amin

doi:10.2136/sssaj2013.07.0302

Cited by 76 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Were it so, this would offer the potential that such mixtures could be adopted in circumstances where thorough exploration of the soil resource is required. The species prescribed for this study are commonly adopted as cover crops in arable rotations [ 22 , 42 , 43 ], and our study provides evidence as to why tillage radish and black oats in particular are likely effective species in this role where there is soil compaction. It also suggests that a mixture of the three might be more potent, particularly in terms of increasing the porosity of a soil via complementary penetrating and proliferating growth modes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Developmental morphology of cover crop species exhibit contrasting behaviour to changes in soil bulk density, revealed by X-ray computed tomography

et al. 2017

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Plant roots growing through soil typically encounter considerable structural heterogeneity, and local variations in soil dry bulk density. The way the in situ architecture of root systems of different species respond to such heterogeneity is poorly understood due to challenges in visualising roots growing in soil. The objective of this study was to visualise and quantify the impact of abrupt changes in soil bulk density on the roots of three cover crop species with contrasting inherent root morphologies, viz. tillage radish (Raphanus sativus), vetch (Vicia sativa) and black oat (Avena strigosa). The species were grown in soil columns containing a two-layer compaction treatment featuring a 1.2 g cm-3 (uncompacted) zone overlaying a 1.4 g cm-3 (compacted) zone. Three-dimensional visualisations of the root architecture were generated via X-ray computed tomography, and an automated root-segmentation imaging algorithm. Three classes of behaviour were manifest as a result of roots encountering the compacted interface, directly related to the species. For radish, there was switch from a single tap-root to multiple perpendicular roots which penetrated the compacted zone, whilst for vetch primary roots were diverted more horizontally with limited lateral growth at less acute angles. Black oat roots penetrated the compacted zone with no apparent deviation. Smaller root volume, surface area and lateral growth were consistently observed in the compacted zone in comparison to the uncompacted zone across all species. The rapid transition in soil bulk density had a large effect on root morphology that differed greatly between species, with major implications for how these cover crops will modify and interact with soil structure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Developmental morphology of cover crop species exhibit contrasting behaviour to changes in soil bulk density, revealed by X-ray computed tomography

et al. 2017

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“…Besides, the roots promote the approximation and cohesion between the solid particles of the soil as it exerts biophysical pressures (axial and radial), and also by the drying in the adjacent region to the roots, resulting in a soil with a higher flocculation state (Gardner et al, 1999). Under these conditions, the proportion of macroaggregates will be higher than of microaggregates, consequently increasing macroporosity (Dexter, 1988) and reducing the compaction (Abdollahi et al, 2014). Hubbard et al (2013) related that when sunn hemp was included in the rotation as a late summer cover crop, it added significantly more C to the soil than cropping systems with fallow in this period, improving soil physical proprieties.…”

Section: Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil compaction management and soybean yields with cover crops under no-till and occasional chiseling

Calonego

Raphael

Rigon

et al. 2017

European Journal of Agronomy

164

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“…In terrestrial systems, soil is the fundamental base which supports vegetation growth (van Breemen 1993), but plants also affect the nature of their belowground habitat both directly and indirectly. In agricultural systems, the use of cover crops is increasing (Storr et al 2019) in order to increase the sequestration of carbon (Reicosky and Forcella 1998;Scott et al 2017), soil macroporosity (Abdollahi et al 2014;Bodner et al 2014;Burr-Hersey et al 2017;Cercioglu et al 2018) and decrease soil erosion (Reicosky and Forcella 1998;Storr et al 2019). Furthermore, cover crops have an impact on the biota of the soil, increasing microbial diversity and richness (Patkowska and Konopiński 2013;Fernandez et al 2016) and the abundance of saprophytic and mycorrhizal fungi (Six et al 2006;Duchene et al 2017;Finney et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.) affects soil structure differently depending on soil texture

et al. 2019

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Aims We studied the effects of Phacelia tanacetifolia, increasingly used as a cover-crop species in arable agricultural systems, upon soil structural properties in the context of two contrasting soil textures. We hypothesised there would be differential effects of the plants upon soil structure contingent on the texture. Methods A sandy-loam and a clay soil were destructured by passing through 2 mm sieves, and planted with Phacelia in a replicated pot experiment, with associated unplanted controls. X-ray Computed Tomography was used to visualise and quantify the soil pore networks in 3D. Results For the sandy-loam soil, there was no impact of plants upon aggregate size distribution porosity, pore connectivity, and pore surface density decreased in the presence of plants, whereas for the clay, there was a significant increase of aggregates <1000 μm, the porosity was constant, the pore-connectivity decreased, and surface density increased in the presence of plants. Conclusions Plants can impact the structural genesis of soil depending on its inherent textural characteristics, leading to a differential development of pore architecture in different contexts. These results have implications both from an ecological perspective and in terms of the prescription of plants to remediate or condition soil structure in managed systems.

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Tillage System and Cover Crop Effects on Soil Quality: II. Pore Characteristics

Cited by 76 publications

References 42 publications

Developmental morphology of cover crop species exhibit contrasting behaviour to changes in soil bulk density, revealed by X-ray computed tomography

Developmental morphology of cover crop species exhibit contrasting behaviour to changes in soil bulk density, revealed by X-ray computed tomography

Soil compaction management and soybean yields with cover crops under no-till and occasional chiseling

Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.) affects soil structure differently depending on soil texture

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