Response of soil physical properties and dehydrogenase activity to contrasting tillage systems

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the influence of conventional tillage (CT) and no tillage (NT) on sandy loam and loamy sand soils in three sites of Estonia: 1) Viljandi county (Gleic Albeluvisol), 2) Valga county (FragiStagnic Albeluvisol) and 3) Pärnu county (Mollic Gleysol). The dry bulk density, gravimetric water content and dehydrogenase activity of the soils were determined in the spring of 2013 and 2014. In addition, a soil density index based on soil dry bulk density differences was introduced. Soil samples were collected from 0-10 and 10-20 cm layers in spring. The no tillage treatment had higher soil dry bulk density than the conventional tillage in Gleic Albeluvisol and Mollic Gleysol, where the no tillage fields had not been ploughed for 10 and 2 years, correspondingly. The index of soil density varied between 0.289-0.511, when compared the no tillage and conventional tillage treatments the lowest values were obtained in Gleic Albeluvisol and Mollic Gleysol. Gravimetric water content was significantly lower 2-5% (p < 0.05) in the conventional than in no tillage treatments. No tillage fields showed higher soil dehydrogenase activity in the upper 0-10 cm layer, conventional tillage treatments had no significant differences between the layers. Soil dehydrogenase activity had significant positive correlation (p < 0.01) with soil gravimetric water content and organic carbon, and negative correlation (p < 0.05) with soil dry bulk density and soil density index.

The Assessment of Soil Quality in Contrasting Land-Use and Tillage Systems on Farm Fields with Stagnic Luvisol Soil in Estonia

“…Studies on the farm field level that account for the variability across the landscape are scarce, although they can be valuable to characterise soil functioning under different management systems at the agroecosystem level. Although previous research exists on the impact of tillage systems in Estonia, it has been mostly focused on comparing no-tillage and conventional tillage [22][23][24][25] or focused only on soil fungal diversity [26]. There is a particular lack of studies comparing MT with either NT or CT. Due to the limited understanding of the impact of tillage intensity, a complex soil quality assessment at the farm field level using a diverse set of soil attributes is required.…”