Abstract
Among its many functions, soil represents the active natural medium for plant growth. Different soils have various structural characteristics, that correspond to their qualitative parameters in terms of physical, chemical, and biological fertility. Because of their extremely slow formation processes, soils are also a non-renewable resource, easily subject to degradative processes. Among their mineral constituents many agrarian soils present, in addition to the fine earth, variable percentages of coarse fractions in their arable layer, which interfere with the crop growth, requiring more energy to manage cultivation operations, and damaging the machinery up to making its use impractical. In these conditions, it becomes necessary to proceed with the soil destoning, particularly for the management of Precision Farming techniques. Depending on the percentages, sizes and types of coarse fractions, the soil destoning systems concern: (i) the collection and removal of stones from the field, (ii) the on-site stones crushing, and (iii) the stone burial. In this article, we report the first evaluation of a deep burial destoning system carried out in the CREA Experimental Center of Treviglio (Italy). With the described reclamation system, a significant long-term improvement of soil quality in a 600 mm thick arable layer was achieved; avoiding the shortcomings of the destoning systems as commonly applied in agricultural lands.
Highlights
Fewer specific data on effects of soil stoniness reclamation are available in the literature [22,28,29,30,31,32,35,36,37], none of them compare with this trial, which was precisely carried out with the aim of solving in long-term the highlighted shortcomings of destoning systems as usually applied in agricultural lands
The very low value of the calculated Disturbance Degree in the reclaimed soil, do not give obstacles to the cultivation machines, notwithstanding the presence of Y and Z gravel classes, which can instead be considered useful in the preservation of some soil structural characteristics, contributing to the reduction of physical degradation of fine-textured soils; while the few studies on the effects of soil stoniness on plant productivity confirm that the crop response is conditioned by the texture and nutritional properties of the fine earth available for the root systems, which amount, in this sense, depends on the stoniness level of the topsoil [15,17,19,21]
In the current conditions of diffusion of soil degradation and desertification processes, as well as soil consumption due to the expansion of artificial covers, and in absence of realistic possibilities to reverse this trend in the short term, it is of primary importance to maximize the efficiency of agricultural practices, contextually limiting the exploitation and degradative phenomena of a non-renewable resource, considering the concept of “soil quality” as “soil functionality”, in terms of aptitude to express their chemical, physical and biological potentialities, based onto their different pedogenetic structure [3,4,5,6,7]
Summary
The word “soil” defines the top layer of the earth’s crust, composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, and air, that hosts most of the biosphere and constitute the natural medium for the growth of plants [1,2].In the agricultural context, the concept of “soil quality” [3] is associated with those of productivity and sustainability of use and is evaluated in terms of physical, chemical, and biological fertility, variously defined as the soil capability to “receive, store and recycle water, minerals and energy to support plant production at optimal levels and preserve the health of the environment” [4]; or to “act as a natural means for the growth of plants that sustain human and animal life” [5]; or the “capacity to function, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation” [6].Because of their extremely slow rate of forming processes, soil must be considered as a non-renewable resource and highly susceptible to degradative processes and threats, such as erosion, mineralization of organic matter, destructuration, lack of biodiversity, floods, and landslides.Various combinations or intensities of these threats lead to the fertility reduction of soil and enhance the desertification phenomena [7]. The concept of “soil quality” [3] is associated with those of productivity and sustainability of use and is evaluated in terms of physical, chemical, and biological fertility, variously defined as the soil capability to “receive, store and recycle water, minerals and energy to support plant production at optimal levels and preserve the health of the environment” [4]; or to “act as a natural means for the growth of plants that sustain human and animal life” [5]; or the “capacity to function, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation” [6] Because of their extremely slow rate of forming processes, soil must be considered as a non-renewable resource and highly susceptible to degradative processes and threats, such as erosion, mineralization of organic matter, destructuration, lack of biodiversity, floods, and landslides. This leads firstly to maximize the efficiency of the use of resources, according to the concepts of marginal productivity pursuit in the use of production factors since, in the absence of real economic profitability, no environmental practice can be effectively adopted [13,14,15]
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