Tillage Effects on Soil Biochemical Properties and Maize Grown in Latosolic Red Soil of Southern China

Evans Asenso,Jiuhao Li,Lina Zhang,Luyong Zhang,Fuseini Issaka,Kai Tian,Lian Hu,Haibo Chen

doi:10.1155/2018/8426736

Evans Asenso, Jiuhao Li + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/8426736

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Abstract

Based on the hypothesis that soil biochemical and maize yield components should be affected by different tillage methods, a field experiment was conducted to study the effects of subsoiling (SS), two passes of rotary tillage (2RT), two passes of rotary tillage + subsoiling (2RTSS), and zero tillage (ZT) on distribution of organic C, available NPK and soil enzyme, and its effects on maize yield in latosolic red soil of southern China in 2016 and 2017. ZT treatment had significantly higher organic C and available NPK than the other treatments, whereas the SS treatment had higher concentration of soil urease, catalase, and acid phosphatase. Also, maximum grain yield, dry matter, harvest index, and 1000-grain weight were recorded under SS treatment. Overall, although ZT facilitated more organic C and available NPK, soil with ZT had lower soil enzyme and maize yield components compared to SS treatment, and therefore SS treatment could be exploited as a strategy for soil health and productivity resulting in a sustainable agricultural system.

Highlights

Increase in world population has led to intensive farming systems resulting in an increase in high level of food security [1,2,3,4]
Intensive farming is characterized by environmental degradations like freshwater pollution through nitrate leaching, fade of biodiversity, and increase of soil erosion [3, 5, 6]. e proper use of the plant nutrients for agricultural production is of importance to reduce the negative impacts on the environment caused by unsustainable farming systems [3, 7]
Soil Physical Properties. e bulk density and porosity were significantly higher under zero tillage (ZT) and SS treatments, respectively, in both years. e bulk density was greater at all tillage treatments in the growing seasons. e greatest bulk density (1.47 and 1.50 g·cm−3) and the greatest increase of 6.52 and 8.70% were observed under ZT treatment in the layer of 0–40 cm, respectively, in both years, whilst the lowest values 1.4 and 1.42 g·cm−3 were observed under SS treatment in 0–40 cm soil depth in the lowest increase of 1.45 and 2.90% in both years, respectively (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Increase in world population has led to intensive farming systems resulting in an increase in high level of food security [1,2,3,4]. Intensive farming is characterized by environmental degradations like freshwater pollution through nitrate leaching, fade of biodiversity, and increase of soil erosion [3, 5, 6]. E proper use of the plant nutrients for agricultural production is of importance to reduce the negative impacts on the environment caused by unsustainable farming systems [3, 7]. Different studies found that tillage has a negative impact on soil microbial biomass, community structure, and enzymatic activities [9,10,11]. Alvaro-Fuentes et al [9] observed significant differences for tillage and depth in microbial biomass carbon and soil enzyme activities, finding a reduction in the surface layer with tillage but an increase in the 10–25 cm layer and no difference below the 25 cm soil depth. In comparison with conventional tillage, conservation tillage and no-tillage were found to increase soil bulk density and penetration resistance across the tillage layer [12,13,14] to increase soil water content [13,14,15], to reduce erosion [15], to improve soil structure [16, 17], and to increase microbial component and cation exchange capacity [18]

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