Infiltration as a tool for detecting soil changes due to cropping, tillage, and grazing livestock

Abstract

Soil physical and biological properties often change when different cropping, tillage, or management systems are imposed. Changes occasionally occur quickly, but usually become evident only after months or years. Infiltration rates are affected by several soil properties and may provide the most sensitive indication of changes in soil properties. To evaluate the use of infiltration measurements for detecting changes in soil properties, we conducted infiltration tests on a cropping systems experiment, a tillage experiment, and two beef cattle grazing experiments. In Pennsylvania, significant changes in infiltration rates did not occur until more than four years after converting from a conventional to a low-input cropping system. Infiltration rates were higher on 14th-year no-till plots compared with moldboard plow and chisel treatments in an Iowa tillage study. Earthworm populations and activity were highest in the no-till treatment. Infiltration rates correlated negatively with increased stocking rates in a long-term beef grazing study in Oklahoma. The number of earthworms did not correlate positively with infiltration in this study, suggesting a complex interaction. A short-term study of overwinter beef corn-stalk grazing in Iowa did not show consistent patterns in infiltration rate or other soil properties with different stocking rates. Infiltration appears to be a good indicator of soil structural changes associated with cropping, tillage, and management systems.

Effect of land use on infiltration characteristics of soils in Northern Akwa Ibom State, South-eastern Nigeria

“…Increased infiltration rate associated with well-structured soil decreases surface runoff and in turn reduces soil erosion. Radke and Berry (1993) observed that increases in soil bulk density due to soil use and management, e.g., tillage operation as well as raindrop impact, reduced infiltration rate in their study. Gumbs and Warkent in (1972) showed that a large decrease in infiltration rate resulted from a small increase in bulk density.…”

“…In addition, soil texture directly affects soil moisture redistribution through its effect on soil permeability and on the hydraulic conductivity, which expresses how easily water flows through the soil, as well as the water holding capacity, and ultimately the infiltration rate. Soil structure and its surrogate, soil aggregates, influences infiltration characteristics and have been used as a good indicator of changes in soil physical and biological properties (Radke and Berry, 1993). Well structured soils have optimum infiltration rates at varying moisture levels.…”

Water infiltration influenced by agroforestry and grass buffers for a grazed pasture system

“…Water infiltration is affected by various factors such as soil texture and structure, landscape position, management system, soil organic carbon, vegetative cover, antecedent water content, and rainfall intensity (Radke and Berry 1993). Vegetative covers have been found to increase soil organic carbon which improves soil properties and increases water infiltration rates.…”

“…In these buffer systems where the tree and grass buffer areas are left undisturbed by grazing animals, soil properties are different compared to pasture areas (Kumar et al 2008(Kumar et al , 2010a. Uneven grazing in continuously stocked pastures has been shown to lower water infiltration rates because of soil compaction in certain areas (Daniel et al 2002;Radke and Berry 1993;Wheeler et al 2002). However rotationally stocked pastures, where rest periods are provided to allow forage to recover between grazing events, have been shown to be important in minimizing the effects of livestock grazing on water infiltration rates (Warren et al 1986b).…”

The influence of vegetation types on water yields in the Da Hinggan Mountains of China

“…Vegetation has an important influence on infiltration, especially in arid and semi-arid areas (Blackburn et al 1990, Reynolds andReddy 2012), and it can help to maintain higher infiltration rates by increasing soil organic matter, reducing soil bulk density, and reducing compaction and crusting of soil (Mukhtar et al 1985, Radke andBerry 1993). These effects were shown by Bharati et al (2002) who reported that cumulative infiltration in a multi-species riparian buffer in the U.S.A. had the order of: silver maple > grass filter > switch grass > crop fields > pasture.…”