Applicability of full inversion tillage to semi-natural grassland restoration on ex-arable land

Abstract

The application of full inversion tillage (FIT) for the creation of semi-natural grasslands on ex-arable land raises the question of its influence on the availability of soil mineral nutrients as increased soil fertility may cause competitive exclusion of the target plant species. This work is an attempt to answer how FIT influences the availability of N, P, K and Mg and associated soil properties and accordingly how to use this method so that elevated nutrients availability during the establishment of semi-natural grassland species could be avoided. An experiment was conducted in 2-ha area of abandoned fields in east Poland, on Rendzic, Cambic Leptosol and Mollic Gleysol. The area was divided into 8-m-wide strips, every second of which was subjected to FIT; 19 pairs of permanent plots were regularly allocated across the area, each pair containing a plot located on a cultivated strip and a plot on the neighbouring control strip. The comparison of soil properties within the pairs resulted in no significant differences, except for a lower K status in the FIT plots. Presumably FIT did not change the soil conditions in a way which could affect the intensity of the inter-specific competition in a newly created plant community.