Soil health indicators after 21 yr of no-tillage in south coastal British Columbia

Thomas, Ben W.; Hunt, Derek; Bittman, S.; Hannam, Kirsten D.; Messiga, Aimé J.; Haak, Dennis; Sharifi, Mehdi; Hao, Xiying

doi:10.1139/cjss-2018-0146

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In China, managing a silty clay loam Mollisol without tillage had more macroaggregates and greater MWD of WSA than this soil managed with tillage (Yan et al, 2020). Thomas et al (2019) reported that WSA measured with a rainfall simulator nearly doubled under NT compared with conventional tillage (moldboard plow) on silt loam soil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantifying improvements in water‐stable aggregation caused by corn stover retention

Ojekanmi

Johnson

2021

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

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Corn (Zea mays L.) stover harvest must be balanced against protecting soil properties, including water-stable aggregates (WSA). The formation and maintenance of WSA functions of multiple factors including management. Harvesting stover alters the mass of the residue retained, which might alter a soil's ability to form and maintain WSA. A study was conducted on two independently replicated fields under chisel plow (CP) and no-till (NT) management, both in a corn-soybean [Glycine max.(L.) Merr.] rotation with four corn residue retention treatments (RRT): [harvesting only grain, grain plus cobs, grain plus about half the stover, and grain plus as much stover as possible (Grain + Aggressive)], returning about 8, 5, 4 and 2 Mg ha −1 yr −1 dry stover, respectively. Water-stable aggregates, their distribution, and mean weight diameter (MWD) were determined on a clay loam or loam Mollisol collected at 0 to 5 and 5 to 10 cm. Treatments, crop phase, soil depth, and their interactions were analyzed via a mixed linear model. Linear regression was used to assay the relationships between WSA and the average mass of residue returned. In both fields, Grain + Aggressive had the lowest WSA and MWD, and fewer ≥2-mm aggregates than other RRTs and, in the NT field, fewer in the 1-to 2-mm class size as well. Overall, WSA increased by 0.85 and 2.25% per Mg stover returned under CP and NT, respectively.Harvesting stover reduced the formation and/or the maintenance of WSA, thereby reducing their ability to resist the erosive force of water.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thomas et al. (2019) reported that WSA measured with a rainfall simulator nearly doubled under NT compared with conventional tillage (moldboard plow) on silt loam soil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying improvements in water‐stable aggregation caused by corn stover retention

Ojekanmi

Johnson

2021

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

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“…However, soil factors and topography as indicators were selected only in the traditional farmland quality assessment [47]. The ecological conditions of farmland have not been adequately considered in current research [59]. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish an index system that considers both socioeconomic factors and the ecological environment.…”

Section: Superiority Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Three Deep Machine-Learning Algorithms in a Construction Assessment Model of Farmland Quality at the County Scale: Case Study of Xiangzhou, Hubei Province, China

Wang

Yong

et al. 2021

Agriculture

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Constructing a scientific and quantitative quality-assessment model for farmland is important for understanding farmland quality, and can provide a theoretical basis and technical support for formulating rational and effective management policies and realizing the sustainable use of farmland resources. To more accurately reflect the systematic, complex, and differential characteristics of farmland quality, this study aimed to explore an intelligent farmland quality-assessment method that avoids the subjectivity of determining indicator weights while improving assessment accuracy. Taking Xiangzhou in Hubei Province, China, as the study area, 14 indicators were selected from four dimensions—terrain, soil conditions, socioeconomics, and ecological environment—to build a comprehensive assessment index system for farmland quality applicable to the region. A total of 1590 representative samples in Xiangzhou were selected, of which 1110 were used as training samples, 320 as test samples, and 160 as validation samples. Three models of entropy weight (EW), backpropagation neural network (BPNN), and random forest (RF) were selected for training, and the assessment results of farmland quality were output through simulations to compare their assessment accuracy and analyze the distribution pattern of farmland quality grades in Xiangzhou in 2018. The results showed the following: (1) The RF model for farmland quality assessment required fewer parameters, and could simulate the complex relationships between indicators more accurately and analyze each indicator’s contribution to farmland quality scientifically. (2) In terms of the average quality index of farmland, RF > BPNN > EW. The spatial patterns of the quality index from RF and BPNN were similar, and both were significantly different from EW. (3) In terms of the assessment results and precision characterization indicators, the assessment results of RF were more in line with realities of natural and socioeconomic development, with higher applicability and reliability. (4) Compared to BPNN and EW, RF had a higher data mining ability and training accuracy, and its assessment result was the best. The coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.8145, the mean absolute error (MAE) was 0.009, and the mean squared error (MSE) was 0.012. (5) The overall quality of farmland in Xiangzhou was higher, with a larger area of second- and third-grade farmland, accounting for 54.63%, and the grade basically conformed to the trend of positive distribution, showing an obvious pattern of geographical distribution, with overall high performance in the north-central part and low in the south. The distribution of farmland quality grades also varied widely among regions. This showed that RF was more suitable for the quality assessment of farmland with complex nonlinear characteristics. This study enriches and improves the index system and methodological research of farmland quality assessment at the county scale, and provides a basis for achieving a threefold production pattern of farmland quantity, quality, and ecology in Xiangzhou, while also serving as a reference for similar regions and countries.

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“…Soil tillage is a vital cultural practice to control soil water, soil nutrients, and soil temperature (Yang et al 2018). In many dry regions, conversion from conventional tillage to conservation tillage is a promising strategy to improve soil structure (Martínez et al 2013;Pareja-Sánchez et al 2017), preserve soil water (Jin et al 2007(Jin et al , 2008, and enhance the accumulation of SOC (Sun et al 2018a;Thomas et al 2019;Wang and Zou 2020a). For instance, it has been shown that long-term no tillage with mulch (NT) improved the capacity of the soil to store and conserve water, to increase the content of dissolved organic carbon and available nutrients through retaining more crop residues (Singh et al 2019); subsoiling with mulch (SS) also proved to be an effective strategy to increase soil water content by stimulating water infiltration, and increasing soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations (Wang et al 2020b); reduced tillage (RT) also served as a conservation tillage practice and could increase the content of SOC by reducing the number of tillage operations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Keystone microbiome in the rhizosphere soil reveals the effect of long-term conservation tillage on crop growth in the Chinese Loess Plateau

Jia

Wang

et al. 2022

Plant Soil

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Purpose Keystone taxa play an important role in soil nutrient cycling and crop growth and can be influenced by soil tillage. We investigated the composition of keystone taxa and their relationships with soil properties under different long-term tillage practices.Methods Four tillage treatments were applied (i.e., CT, conventional tillage; NT, no tillage with mulch; RT, reduced tillage; and SS, subsoiling with mulch), maintained for 21 years. Co-occurrence network (CoNet) was constructed to identify the keystone taxa, and redundancy analysis (RDA) was carried out to explore the relationships between keystone taxa and soil properties under four tillage practices at two growth stages (elongation and grain filling stages) of winter wheat. ResultsCompared with CT, RT had no significant effect on the microbial community and the keystone microbiome, while NT and SS remarkably altered the microbial community structure and the keystone microbiome at both crop stages. Massilia was the keystone genus under CT and RT, whileSphingomonas, Asanoa and Hoeflea were the keystone genera under NT and SS. RDA results showed that keystone genera were significantly correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) at both stages, but especially at the elongation stage. Our results further revealed that the effects of NT and SS on crop growth might be related to the changes in keystone microbiome. ConclusionOur study suggests that NT and SS were suitable conservation regimes and may contribute to the development of sustainable agricultural production in the Chinese Loess Plateau.

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Soil health indicators after 21 yr of no-tillage in south coastal British Columbia

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Quantifying improvements in water‐stable aggregation caused by corn stover retention

Quantifying improvements in water‐stable aggregation caused by corn stover retention

Application of Three Deep Machine-Learning Algorithms in a Construction Assessment Model of Farmland Quality at the County Scale: Case Study of Xiangzhou, Hubei Province, China

Keystone microbiome in the rhizosphere soil reveals the effect of long-term conservation tillage on crop growth in the Chinese Loess Plateau

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