Abstract
Sustainable agricultural practices such as reduced tillage and optimized fertilization may have potential to improve soil health and increase availability of plant nutrients and yields. However, there is very little information relating soil quality or health to crop productivity, particularly under farmer management. Therefore, the objective was to investigate the effects of two contrasting approaches to crop fertility management on crop productivity, soil test measurements, and soil enzyme activity as integrative measures of soil health. A three year study was conducted at on-farm sites in Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa where topsoil (0-15 cm) and crop yield of Zea mays L. (corn) and Glycine max. (L.) Merr. (soybean) rotations were collected from two contrasting fertility management systems. The two contrasting approaches tested were the Maximum Farming System (MFSyst) and a more Conventional system (Conv) that differ in approaches to tillage and the frequency of fertilizer applications during the growing season. The MFSyst approach resulted in significantly higher yields, soil nutrient test levels along with β-glucosidase (GLU) and arylsulfatase (ARYL) which are sensitive soil health indicators. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of corn was significantly elevated by nearly 18%, corn yield correlated with GLU activities, and soil test phosphorous (P) levels were reduced by over 50% using the MFSyst approach. These results indicate that improvements in soil health detected by soil GLU and ARYL enzyme activities are associated with significant improvements in soil quality and crop productivity.
Highlights
Soil is a vital ecosystem and, on a human time scale, a nonrenewable natural resource [1]
Research has shown that hydrolytic soil enzyme activities are well suited as soil health indicators because certain ones are sensitive for detecting soil management, disturbance or contamination [11]
The objectives of this study were to determine the ability of GLU and ARYL activities to detect the effects of contrasting crop fertility management practices on soil fertility and crop productivity, and, thereby, be used as indexes of soil health in relation to corn and soybean production in the Midwest USA
Summary
Soil is a vital ecosystem and, on a human time scale, a nonrenewable natural resource [1]. Studies have shown that certain soil properties can detect effects of diverse crop and soil management systems and putative indicators of soil quality or health [5,6,7,8,9]. Research has shown that hydrolytic soil enzyme activities are well suited as soil health indicators because certain ones are sensitive for detecting soil management, disturbance or contamination [11]. In particular β-glucosidase (GLU) and arylsulfatase (ARYL) have been shown to be sensitive for detecting changes in soils due to a variety of management systems [6,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. Soil enzyme activities have shown to be sensitive to changes in land management within 1 to 3 years, long before SOM increased significantly [6,19]
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