Soil properties after conversion to conservation agriculture from ridge tillage in Southern Malawi

Mloza-Banda, H.R.; Makwiza, Chikondi; Mloza-Banda, M. L.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.11.001

Cited by 35 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This suggests that reduced tillage affects nematode communities through its positive effects on these soil properties, either directly through absence of soil inversion, i.e. lower soil disturbance, or indirectly through retention of crop residues at the soil surface, which can increase water retention and infiltration, soil organic carbon, and organism biomass and activity (Mloza‐Banda, Makwiza, & Mloza‐Banda, ; Ranaivoson et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced tillage, but not organic matter input, increased nematode diversity and food web stability in European long‐term field experiments

et al. 2019

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Soil nematode communities and food web indices can inform about the complexity, nutrient flows and decomposition pathways of soil food webs, reflecting soil quality. Relative abundance of nematode feeding and life‐history groups are used for calculating food web indices, i.e., maturity index (MI), enrichment index (EI), structure index (SI) and channel index (CI). Molecular methods to study nematode communities potentially offer advantages compared to traditional methods in terms of resolution, throughput, cost and time. In spite of such advantages, molecular data have not often been adopted so far to assess the effects of soil management on nematode communities and to calculate these food web indices. Here, we used high‐throughput amplicon sequencing to investigate the effects of tillage (conventional vs. reduced) and organic matter addition (low vs. high) on nematode communities and food web indices in 10 European long‐term field experiments and we assessed the relationship between nematode communities and soil parameters. We found that nematode communities were more strongly affected by tillage than by organic matter addition. Compared to conventional tillage, reduced tillage increased nematode diversity (23% higher Shannon diversity index), nematode community stability (12% higher MI), structure (24% higher SI), and the fungal decomposition channel (59% higher CI), and also the number of herbivorous nematodes (70% higher). Total and labile organic carbon, available K and microbial parameters explained nematode community structure. Our findings show that nematode communities are sensitive indicators of soil quality and that molecular profiling of nematode communities has the potential to reveal the effects of soil management on soil quality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced tillage, but not organic matter input, increased nematode diversity and food web stability in European long‐term field experiments

et al. 2019

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“…1). Mloza-Banda et al (2016) gained a similar observation in a 5-year tobacco-cotton rotation combined with conservation. They attributed their findings partly to the changes in the soil environment caused by no-tillage, including soil structure and density, soil pH, and nutrient cycles within the soil profile, and partly to the accumulation of crop residues at the surface which produces less soil disturbance, high plant litter quantity, intensive and deep rooting and decreasing percolation water with N nutrients in no-tillage soils.…”

Section: Changes Of Soil Nematode and Microbial Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 60%

Response of soil nematode community composition and diversity to different crop rotations and tillage in the tropics

Zhong

Zeng

Jin

2016

Applied Soil Ecology

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“…It indicates that tillage practices influence the soil major and micro-nutrients after the 4-year tillage and cropping systems. Mloza-Banda et al (2016) also used PCA to separate the influence of treatment effect under CA in Southern Malawi.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Tillage, Residue Management, and Crop Rotation Effects on Soil Major and Micro-nutrients in Semi-arid Vertisols of India

Somasundaram

Sinha

Mohanty

et al. 2020

J Soil Sci Plant Nutr

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Due to declining soil quality and increasing climate change, resource conservation technologies are often advocated for the food production system. Conservation agriculture (CA) is one of the technologies that increase soil nutrient status without jeopardizing the soil health and quality. The effects of conservation tillage, residue retention, and cropping systems on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties within the irrigated agricultural system are well established. However, scanty information is available on the combined impact of tillage, residue, and cropping system available on the major and micronutrient in the rainfed farming systems. Thus, a field experiment was conducted to measure the short-term effect of CA practices on soil properties and major (N, P, and K) and micro (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu)-nutrients in a Vertisol of Central India. The field experiment was laid out in a split-plot design consisting of two tillage systems (TS), conventional tillage (CT) and reduced tillage (RT), as the main plots and six cropping systems (CS) as subplots. A total of 144 soil samples were collected after four crop cycles to assess soil properties and nutrient (major and micro-nutrient) status. Results demonstrated that in the surface soil layer (0-5 cm), the major and micro-nutrient concentrations were higher than subsurface layers, regardless of TS and CS. In the surface soils, soil organic carbon (SOC) varied from 0.58 to 0.60% under CT and from 0.60 to 0.62% under RT. Tillage and cropping systems had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on major available nutrients (N, P, and K) at 0-5-cm depth. The DTPA extractable Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn concentrations exhibited decreasing trends with increasing depth.

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Soil properties after conversion to conservation agriculture from ridge tillage in Southern Malawi

Cited by 35 publications

References 30 publications

Reduced tillage, but not organic matter input, increased nematode diversity and food web stability in European long‐term field experiments

Reduced tillage, but not organic matter input, increased nematode diversity and food web stability in European long‐term field experiments

Response of soil nematode community composition and diversity to different crop rotations and tillage in the tropics

Conservation Tillage, Residue Management, and Crop Rotation Effects on Soil Major and Micro-nutrients in Semi-arid Vertisols of India

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