The Influence of Different Technologies of Soil Processing on Infiltration Properties of Soil in the Cambisols Area of the Opava District

Abstract

The subject of the contribution is the evaluation of the influence of the conventional tillage and reduced tillage technology of soil processing on the infiltration properties of the soil in the Větřkovice area. Field experimental work at the area was carried out in the years 2013–2015 on Cambisol district medium-heavy clayey soil. The research was conducted on sloping erosion-endangered blocks of arable land sown with spring barley. The areas were chosen each year in the way that one of the experimental areas was handled by conventional tillage technologies and the other by reduced tillage technologies. Intact soil samples were taken into Kopecký’s cylinders in the three landscape positions, at a depth of 10 cm (representing topsoil) and 30 cm (representing subsoil). The cumulative infiltration was measured using a mini-disc infiltrometer near the consumption points. The Zhang method (1997), which provides an estimate of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity K(h), was used for the evaluation of the infiltration tests of the mini-disc infiltrometer. The soil profile processed by conventional tillage showed a higher degree of compaction. The bulk density was between 1.10–1.67 g.cm-3, compared to the land processed by the reduced tillage technology, where the values were between 0.80–1.29 g.cm-3. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity values were about one‑third higher within the reduced tillage technology soil processing.