Reduced tillage and rotational diversity improve soil health in Missouri

Abstract

The Missouri Soil and Water Conservation Program was initiated by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to address challenges related to soil and water degradation by examining soil health under real-world management practices. Soil health data from 5,300 field sites enrolled in a DNR cost-share program were analyzed for the effects of tillage intensity [no-till (NT), reduced tillage (RT), and intensive tillage (IT)] and crop rotational diversity (monoculture, two-crops, and three or more crops in rotation) within and across six regions in the state. Soil health indicators included soil organic carbon (SOC), active carbon, potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), and aggregate stability. At the state level, SOC, active carbon, and PMN were 14.4, 14.0, and 17.5% greater under NT, and 10.2, 11.0, and 11.2% greater under RT, respectively, compared with IT. Aggregate stability was greater under NT (33.8%) and RT (30.4%) relative to IT (28.0%). Across the state, diversified rotations with three or more crops exhibited 6.1 and 7.9% greater SOC, 6.5 and 7.9% greater active carbon, and 10.7 and 11.6% greater PMN relative to two-crop rotations or monocultures, respectively. Aggregate stability was significantly greater under diversified rotations (35.5%) relative to two-crop rotations (30.6%) and monoculture (30.8%). This study highlights the value of on-farm datasets from real crop production systems and illustrates the potential to increase soil health with adoption of conservation tillage and extended crop rotations in Missouri.

SHAPEv1.0 Scoring curves and peer group benchmarks for dynamic soil health indicators

“…• Climate and edaphic factors are relevant to soil health data interpretation. ment effects on soil health (Karlen et al, 2019;Veum et al, 2022;Zuber et al, 2020). To facilitate the interpretation of soil health indicators across soils and climate, an interpretive framework must provide a wide range of regionally relevant indicator options (Wander et al, 2019) that can: (i) account for inherent site-specific factors, (ii) be sensitive to anthropogenic activities, and (iii) facilitate broad-scale monitoring to ensure sustainable land management (Veum et al, 2021).…”

“…In addition, studies from the field scaled to the continental scale have shown that these indicators are sensitive to inherent factors such as climate and soil type (e.g., Fine et al., 2017; Hurisso et al., 2016; Nunes et al., 2020b; Zuber et al., 2020). The influence of inherent site conditions on dynamic soil properties is complex and must be quantified when assessing management effects on soil health (Karlen et al., 2019; Veum et al., 2022; Zuber et al., 2020). To facilitate the interpretation of soil health indicators across soils and climate, an interpretive framework must provide a wide range of regionally relevant indicator options (Wander et al., 2019) that can: (i) account for inherent site‐specific factors, (ii) be sensitive to anthropogenic activities, and (iii) facilitate broad‐scale monitoring to ensure sustainable land management (Veum et al., 2021).…”