Abstract
Abstract. Soil compaction is a common problem of mineral soils under conventional tillage practices. Organic matter addition is an efficient way of reducing the effects of field traffic in soil compaction. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of number of tractor passes (one, three, and five) on depth-dependent (0–10 and 10–20 cm) penetration resistance, bulk density, and porosity of clay-textured soil (Typic Xerofluvent) under organic vegetable cultivation practices in the 2010–2013 growing seasons. Fields were treated with farmyard manure (FYM, 35 t ha−1), green manure (GM; common vetch, Vicia sativa L.), and conventional tillage (CT). The number of tractor passes resulted in increases in bulk density and penetration resistance (CT > GM > FYM), whereas the volume of total and macropores decreased. The maximum penetration resistance (3.60 MPa) was recorded in the CT treatment with five passes at 0–10 cm depth, whereas the minimum (1.64 MPa) was observed for the FYM treatment with one pass at 10–20 cm depth. The highest bulk density was determined as 1.61 g cm−3 for the CT treatment with five passes at 10–20 cm depth; the smallest value was 1.25 g cm−3 in the FYM treatment with only one pass at 0–10 cm depth. The highest total and macropore volumes were determined as 0.53 and 0.16 cm3 cm−3 respectively at 0–10 cm depth for the FYM treatment with one pass. The volume of micropores (0.38 cm3 cm−3) was higher at 0–10 cm depth for the FYM treatment with three passes. It can be concluded that organic pre-composted organic amendment rather than green manure is likely to be more efficient in mitigating compaction problems in soil.
Highlights
Agricultural development resulted in the increase in the food supply for humankind, but it resulted in the increase in soil and water losses, reduction of the vegetation cover, and degradation of the soil (Cerda, 2000)
The application of farmyard manure (FYM) and green manure (GM) for 4 subsequent years significantly reduced penetration resistance in both depths; the effect of FYM treatment was higher than GM treatment (Fig. 1, Table 3)
The larger amounts of added organic matter may mediate the formation of clay–organic matter complexes, which reduces the penetration resistance on the one hand and protects organic matter against microbial decay on the other hand
Summary
Agricultural development resulted in the increase in the food supply for humankind, but it resulted in the increase in soil and water losses, reduction of the vegetation cover, and degradation of the soil (Cerda, 2000). Soil compaction, which can be defined as a soil degradation process in which an applied pressure to the soil causes soil grains to get closer together, resulting in reduction of porosity and pore volume ratio, is regarded as the most serious environmental problem in conventional agriculture (McGarry, 2003). Intensive agriculturally-related soil compaction may be regarded as one of the significant reasons for land degradation (Cerda, 2000; Barbero-Sierra et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2015; Yan et al, 2015) and the elevated risks concerned with food security, water scarcity, climate change, biodiversity loss, and health threats, which were pointed out as soilrelated challenges for a sustainable society (Keesstra et al, 2016)
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