Effects of Different Tillage Intensities on Physicochemical and Microbial Properties of a Eutric Fluvisol Soil

Anna Maria Gajda,Ewa Antonina Czyż,Agnieszka Klimkowicz-Pawlas

doi:10.3390/agronomy11081497

Abstract

The physicochemical and microbial properties of soil under long-term monoculture of winter wheat were studied to assess the effects of two tillage systems of different intensities: reduced (RT) and conventional (CT). The research was carried out on an 18-year-old experimental field at Grabów (eastern Poland) between 2018 and 2020. The RT (ploughless) and the CT (mouldboard ploughing) systems with machine operating depths of up to 10 and 25 cm, respectively, were used. The analysed parameters were as follows: soil texture, pH, readily dispersible clay content (RDC), soil organic matter (SOM), carbon from particulate organic matter (POM-C), hot- and cold-water-extractable organic carbon (HWEC, CWEC) and nitrogen (HWEN, CWEN), soil basal respiration (SBR), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN), nitrification potential (NP), dehydrogenases (DEH), and acid (ACP) and alkaline (ALP) phosphatases activities. Several single soil quality indices, including: metabolic (qCO2) and microbial (MicQ) quotients, enzymatic pH level indicator (EpHI), stratification ratio (SR), and metabolic potential index (MP) were calculated. The use of RT resulted in increased SOM and, therefore, in decreased RDC and increased values of soil stability, POM-C, HWEC, CWEC, HWEN, CWEN, MBC, and MBN in relation to CT. The MicQ, EpHI, SR, and MP well reflected the effects of RT and CT systems on soil and appeared to be useful in soil quality assessment. The results showed the beneficial effects on soil of the less intensive RT system in comparison with CT. Statistical analysis showed the significance of differences between tillage systems and interrelationships between the studied soil quality parameters.

Highlights

Different tillage practices may cause changes in soil physical, chemical, and microbiological properties, and have a major impact on soil sustainability and fertility [1]
Soil stability in water was measured in terms of readily dispersible clay (RDC) content expressed in g per 100 g of soil, using a Hach 2100 AN ratio turbidimeter [10]
Our results demonstrated that microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) pools and MBN pools were more sensitive for detecting effects of long-lasting different tillage were more sensitive for detecting effects of long-lasting different tillage systems use on systems use on soil environment and responded more quickly than, e.g., the total soil orsoil environment and responded more quickly than, e.g., the total soil organic carbon

Summary

Introduction

Different tillage practices may cause changes in soil physical, chemical, and microbiological properties, and have a major impact on soil sustainability and fertility [1]. Tillage practices may influence the distribution pattern of organic carbon in soil, the most valid indicator of soil quality due to its crucial effect on soil properties [2,3,4]. Conventional tillage practices, which routinely include a deep soil inversion, may adversely affect long-term soil productivity by contributing to the loss of organic matter and increase the risk of soil erosion along with further negative environmental effects, such as decrease in biodiversity [1,5,6]. No-tillage (conservation tillage) practices contribute mainly to stratification of soil organic matter, and to reduction of soil erosion processes, promotion of water retention in soil [7,8], and soil stability in water [9,10]. Crop response under 10 cm reduced tillage was positively affected com-

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