Amending a loamy sand with three compost types: impact on soil quality

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the long-term addition of three compost types (vegetable, fruit and yard waste compost - VFYW, garden waste compost - GW and spent mushroom compost - SM) on the physical properties of a sandy soil and to quantify any such effects using indicators of soil physical quality. Soil samples were taken from a field with annual compost applications of 30 m3/ha for 10 yr and various physico-chemical analyses were undertaken. Results show a significant increase in soil organic carbon (21%) with the VFYW and GW compost types. With SM, soil organic carbon increased by 16%. Increased soil macroporosity and water content at saturation with a corresponding decrease in bulk density were observed for all compost types. However, quantification of these improvements using existing soil physical quality indicators such as the 'S-index', soil air capacity and matrix porosity gave mixed results showing that these indices perform poorly when applied to sandy soils. It is concluded that the long-term application of compost does not significantly improve the physical properties of sandy soils, but the absence of adverse effects suggests that these soils are a viable disposal option for these composts, but new indices of quality are needed for the proper characterization of sandy soils

Effects of spent mushroom compost application on the physicochemical properties of a degraded soil

“…The quality of soil organic matter, soil structure, microbial activity, and rainfall intensity are, in fact, important parameters that should be evaluated and correlated to assess the fate of carbon during transportation . Similar results were reported by other studies (Arthur et al, 2011;Curtin and Mullen, 2007;Yazdanpanah et al, 2016).…”

“…Thus, the application of organic materials has been proposed to improve the physical properties of degraded soils (Turgut and Kose, 2016). Similar studies have reported an increase in the soil organic carbon concentration after organic matter application and thus a higher formation of stable aggregates (Díaz et al, 1994;Cerdà, 1998;Aggelides and Londra, 2000;Celik et al, 2004;Arthur et al, 2011;Ferreras et al, 2006;Gümüs andŞeker, 2015;Murphy, 2001). …”

S-index and soybean root growth in different soil textural classes

“…According to Kutlu & Ersahin (2008), from 40% of sand on, the S-index value increases due to drastic changes in pore size distribution, as observed in Figure 1A. Therefore, the S-index shows a poor performance in the characterization of quality in soils with higher sand contents, which is consistent with Arthur et al (2011).…”

“…Most studies aiming to prove the efficiency of S-index, as an indicator of soil physical quality, have only related it to soil physical properties, with no direct correlation with plant development, especially with root growth (Kutlu & Ersahin, 2008;Andrade & Stone, 2009;Arthur et al, 2011). Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that the limiting S-index values proposed in the literature can not be used to determine the level of degradation of soils under soybean cultivation in the state of Pará, Brazil.…”

Organic waste recycling in agriculture and related effects on soil water retention and plant available water: a review

“…When using pF 2 as FC, only one of the treatments (ID 18), previously found to negatively affect PAW, displays a reduced amount of water available for plants Values in italic indicate the larger increase when comparing the two; for one treatment (ID 18), both changes are negative FC field capacity, PAW plant available water compared to control (Table 2). Also, two of three compost-amended treatments by Arthur et al (2011) (treatment IDs 20 and 22) display reduced PAW under these conditions (Table 2). However, the high sand content (c.f.…”