The Effects of Tillage-Induced Soil Disturbance on Soil Quality

Abstract

Specification of the tillage trends (conventional, reduced, conservation etc.) and endeavours (e.g., energy saving, sustainable) has been made possible in the last 50-60 years. Soil protection has become the main requirement in the soil conservation trend contributing to the implementation of the long-term defence strategy [1]. In the relevant experiments, control often involves conventional tillage as a treatment with negative impact on soil compared with treatments that present a possible solution as direct drilling, mulch-till, etc. [2]. Nowadays soil tillage aim has been changed. The minimal soil disturbance may be replaced with soil intervention to the required extent that is reinforced by the use of several protection techniques, e.g., surface cover, surface layer consolidation, loosened layer adaptable to the water conservation and organic matter protection. Today, soil health evaluates compliance of the tillage systems and appropriate factors are applied that could be evaluated anywhere: crumb ratio, soil moisture range

Agriculture Management Impacts on Soil Properties and Hydrological Response in Istria (Croatia)

“…This was attributed to the fact that tillage in the vineyard and olive orchard were carried out more recently than in the cropland (2 years before measurements). It is widely known that tillage reduces, in the short term, topsoil BD [13,32,33]. Natural consolidation and traffic-induced compaction cause the highest soil BD in this study [34].…”

“…Compaction decreases water infiltration, and soil and nutrient losses are high [12]. However, tillage is a millenary tradition that can improve, preserve, or deteriorate soil quality [13]. In the Mediterranean, farmers use tillage to reduce water competition, increase water infiltration, and mix soil amendments [14].…”

Three-Year Investigation of Tillage Management on the Soil Physical Environment, Earthworm Populations and Crop Yields in Croatia

“…Investigations of the ratio of different soil fractions such as clods (>10 mm), crumb (2.5-10 mm), fine crumb (0.25-2.5 mm) and dust (<0.25 mm) give the real state about the effect of tillage treatments on soil structure and the consequences of weather effects. The soil structure ratio can be determined from the weight of the fractions [18].…”

“…Residue retention under DC contributed to water conservation through multiple effects on water regime which also has effects on SPR. Very low percentage of stubble residues in P [16,18] may negatively affect soil physical properties in several ways, such as higher soil temperature [52], higher soil evaporation [53], lower soil moisture content (SMC) [54] and greater deterioration of soil structure and soil settling [55] through the kinetic energy of raindrops. However, Afzal et al (2008) [56] found that rapid increase of soil temperature in bare soil, especially in early spring, might be recognized as the crucial factor for faster seed germination.…”

“…The soil cover protects soil agronomic structure [17]. According to results from eight experimental years, Dekemati et al (2019a) [18] pointed out that deep tine cultivation (DC) provided significantly higher crumb ratio (80.5%) as compared to ploughing (P) (70.0%), however there was no difference between DC and shallow tine cultivation (SC). In addition, Bogunovic et al (2019) [19] found in a three-year investigation that DC significantly influenced crumb ratio, it provided 7.3-16.1% more crumbs as compared to P. Moreover, in the last year of the experiment P had only 50.0% crumbs, while the other 50.0% was clod and dust.…”