Abstract
The status of macronutrients phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) was assessed 15 years after the establishment of a long-term crop rotation and soil tillage trial with mouldboard ploughing (MP), no-till (NT), deep conservation tillage (CTd) and shallow conservation tillage (CTs). The mobile proportions of macronutrients in an Austrian Chernozem soil were determined to a depth of 50 cm with the single reagent extractant acetic acid (AA) and Mehlich 3 (M3), which uses several reagents as extractants. AA revealed less P and K, but more Ca and Mg compared to M3. Both extractants could capture the distribution pattern of the nutrients in the soil profile, but M3 showed higher differences among the soil layers. In the first 5 cm in NT, the P concentration was higher than in MP, CTd and CTs. The concentration of K was higher in NT, CTd and CTs than in MP in the first 10 cm of the soil. Phosphorus and K concentrations did not differ between tillage treatments below these soil layers, and S, Ca and Mg were similar in all soil layers. As none of the analysed elements except for Ca were fertilized and no accumulation of S, Ca and Mg was observed in the upper soil layer, the higher concentrations are attributed to accumulation through crop residues and then less leaching of P and K. Crop rotation did not affect the distribution of the analysed macronutrients in the soil but affected the nutrient uptake by winter wheat mostly due to the yield differences of winter wheat in the two crop rotations.
Highlights
Tillage systems are generally categorized into conventional tillage, where the soil is inverted by using a mouldboard plough, conservation tillage, where the soil is cultivated by using a chisel plough, disk plough, harrow disk or cultivators but not inverted, and no-till, where seeds are sown directly into the untilled soil
No-till has several economic benefits: fuel consumption and working time for establishing winter wheat can be reduced compared to conventional tillage by about 85% [4,5], and the direct energy input is lower as shown for winter wheat [6], sugar beet and soybean [7] and maize; in maize, no-till resulted in the highest energy efficiency [8]
In a previous study conducted in the same field experiment, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, total organic carbon and total nitrogen were higher in the upper soil layer of no-till compared to conventional tillage after
Summary
Tillage systems are generally categorized into conventional tillage, where the soil is inverted by using a mouldboard plough, conservation tillage, where the soil is cultivated by using a chisel plough, disk plough, harrow disk or cultivators but not inverted, and no-till, where seeds are sown directly into the untilled soil.Conventional tillage is being increasingly superseded by reduced tillage systems on a global perspective [1]. Tillage systems are generally categorized into conventional tillage, where the soil is inverted by using a mouldboard plough, conservation tillage, where the soil is cultivated by using a chisel plough, disk plough, harrow disk or cultivators but not inverted, and no-till, where seeds are sown directly into the untilled soil. Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yields in Eastern Austria were generally at similar levels in conventional, conservation and no-till, but no-till has higher yields in very dry years, and conventional and conservation tillage have higher ones with higher amounts of rainfall during the growth period [3]. In a previous study conducted in the same field experiment, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, total organic carbon and total nitrogen were higher in the upper soil layer of no-till compared to conventional tillage after
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