• Authors:
    • Carbonell, R.
    • Perea, F.
    • González, P.
    • Rodríguez-Lizana, A.
    • Ordóñez-Fernández, R.
  • Source: Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
  • Volume: 79
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: With the aim of assessing the benefits of crop remains left on the soil surface, a study was carried out on the decomposition and characteristics of residue deposited on a clay soil in southern Spain during the agricultural seasons of 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2003/04, in which a legume-cereal-sunflower rotation was followed. Each of the residues studied possessed a characteristic justifying its inclusion in the rotation. The legume residue (Pisum sativum L. cv. Ideal) supplied the highest amount of nitrogen to the soil since, throughout its decomposition cycle, it lost 76.6% of its initial content in nitrogen, compared to the 48 and 56% of N released by wheat residues (Triticum durum L. cv. Amilcar) and sunflower (Helianthus annus L. cv. Sanbro), respectively. At the beginning of its decomposition cycle, the wheat residue had the lowest mass, and gave the most cover, with values of 65%, which was 8.6 and 20.2% more than the cover estimated for the pea and sunflower residues, respectively. The sunflower residue lasted longest, only losing 18% of its initial cover over 109 days of decomposition, compared to 47% for wheat and 53% for pea. The amount of carbon released was similar for the three residues and was around 500 kg ha(-1). The straw decomposition rates under our conditions indicate that the residue of the most common crops in the area under dry farming makes protection possible during the intercrop period.
  • Authors:
    • Radford, B. J.
    • Yule, D. F.
    • McGarry, D.
    • Playford, C.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 97
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Heavy wheel traffic causes soil compaction, which adversely affects crop production and may persist for several years. We applied known compaction forces to entire plots annually for 5 years, and then determined the duration of the adverse effects on the properties of a Vertisol and the performance of maize and sorghum crops under no-till dryland cropping with residue retention. For up to 5 years after a final treatment with a 10 Mg axle load on wet soil, soil shear strength at 70-100 mm and cone index at 180-360 mm were significantly ( P<0.05) higher than in a control treatment, and soil water storage and grain yield were lower. We conclude that compaction effects persisted because (1) there were insufficient wet-dry cycles to swell and shrink the entire compacted layer, (2) soil loosening by tillage was absent and (3) there were fewer earthworms in the compacted soil. Compaction of dry soil with 6 Mg had little effect at any time, indicating that by using wheel traffic only when the soil is dry, problems can be avoided. Unfortunately such a restriction is not always possible because sowing, tillage and harvest operations often need to be done when the soil is wet. A more generally applicable solution, which also ensures timely operations, is the permanent separation of wheel zones and crop zones in the field-the practice known as controlled traffic farming. Where a compacted layer already exists, even on a clay soil, management options to hasten repair should be considered, e.g. tillage, deep ripping, sowing a ley pasture or sowing crop species more effective at repairing compacted soil.
  • Authors:
    • Schmidt, C. J. J.
    • Adriaanse, F. G.
    • Preez, C. C. du
  • Source: South African Journal of Plant and Soil
  • Volume: 24
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: The principle objective of this study was to establish P fertilizer guidelines for dryland maize on the South African Highveld according to the sufficiency concept of soil extractable P. Data sets from nine different P fertilizer trials at various localities in the Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West provinces were used. Different P treatments were applied for all trials in order to establish differences in extractable soil P levels, which were expected to have corresponding effects on maize yield. Long-term rainfall varied from 765 mm per annum for the Dirkiesdorp trial in the east to 494 mm per annum for the Wolmaransstad trial in the west. The duration of trials varied between one and nine seasons. The clay content of the top 150 mm soil at these localities ranged between 8.4 and 47%. Extractable P threshold values with varying R 2 values were derived for all localities. These values were related to soil properties and it was shown that the degree of leaching and silt-plus-clay content were the parameters that explained most of the variation. However, it was decided only to explore relationships between threshold P values and silt-plus-clay contents in more detail. By excluding data from two localities of which the topsoil contained free lime, the R 2 values of the mentioned relationships improved substantially so that P threshold values could be derived from the silt-plus-clay content range of the other seven localities. The extractable soil P threshold concentrations based on Bray 1 for the top 150 mm soil layer, to obtain 90% relative yield varied from 33.5 mg kg -1 at 13% silt-plus-clay to 14.6 mg kg -1 at 60% silt-plus-clay. These P thresholds were much higher on the sandy soils than the value of 19 mg P kg -1 (Bray 1) for 95% relative yield according to the ARC-Grain Crops Institute (1994) guidelines over all soils. This may not necessarily imply that overall more P fertilizers should be applied, since the corresponding soil sampling procedure also measures residual P from enriched zones over rows where P fertilizer was band-placed. Research results used to establish the ARC-Grain Crops Institute (1994) guidelines excluded sampling from enriched zones over rows.
  • Authors:
    • Souza, R. A.
    • Crispino, C. C.
    • Franchini, J. C.
    • Torres, E.
    • Hungria, M.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 92
  • Issue: 1/2
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: The objective of this work was to identify soil parameters potentially useful to monitor soil quality under different soil management and crop rotation systems. Microbiological and chemical parameters were evaluated in a field experiment in the State of Parana, southern Brazil, in response to soil management [no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT)] and crop rotation [including grain (soybean, S; maize, M; wheat, W) and legume (lupin, L.) and non-legume (oat, O) covers] systems. Three crop rotation systems were evaluated: (1) (O/M/O/S/W/S/L/M/O/S), (2) (O/S/L/M/O/S/W/S/L/M), and (3) (O/S/W/S/L/M/O/M/W/M), and soil parameters were monitored after the fifth year. Before ploughing, CO 2-emission rates were similar in NT and CT soils, but plough increased it by an average of 57%. Carbon dioxide emission was 13% higher with lupin residues than with wheat straw; decomposition rates were rapid with both soil management systems. Amounts of microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (MB-C and MB-N, respectively) were 80 and 104% higher in NT than in CT, respectively; however, in general these parameters were not affected by crop rotation. Efficiency of the microbial community was significantly higher in NT: metabolic quotient ( qCO 2) was 55% lower than in CT. Soluble C and N levels were 37 and 24% greater in NT than in CT, respectively, with no effects of crop rotation. Furthermore, ratios of soluble C and N contents to MB-C and MB-N were consistently lower in NT, indicating higher immobilization of C and N per unit of MB. The decrease in qCO 2 and the increase in MB-C under NT allowed enhancements in soil C stocks, such that in the 0-40 cm profile, a gain of 2500 kg of C ha -1 was observed in relation to CT. Carbon stocks also varied with crop rotation, with net changes at 0-40 cm of 726, 1167 and -394 kg C ha -1 year, in rotations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the N stocks, with 410 kg N ha -1 gained in NT, while crop rotations 1, 2 and 3 accumulated 71, 137 and 37 kg of N ha -1 year -1, respectively. On average, microbial biomass corresponded to 2.4 and 1.7% of the total soil C, and 5.2 and 3.2% of the N in NT and CT systems, respectively. Soil management was the main factor affecting soil C and N levels, but enhancement also resulted from the ratios of legumes and non-legumes in the rotations. The results emphasize the importance of microorganisms as reservoirs of C and N in tropical soils. Furthermore, the parameters associated with microbiological activity were more responsive to soil management and crop rotation effects than were total stocks of C and N, demonstrating their usefulness as indicators of soil quality in the tropics.
  • Authors:
    • Mielniczuk, J.
    • Dieckow, J.
    • Zanatta, J.
    • Bayer, C.
    • Vieira, F.
    • He, Z.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 96
  • Issue: 1/2
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: The carbon management index (CMI) is derived from the total soil organic C pool and C lability and is useful to evaluate the capacity of management systems to promote soil quality. However, the CMI has not been commonly used for this purpose, possible due to some limitations of the 333 mM KMnO 4-chemical oxidation method conventionally employed to determine the labile C fraction. We hypothesized, however, that physical fractionation of organic matter is an alternative approach to determine the labile C. The objectives of this study were (i) to assess the physical fractionation with density (NaI 1.8 Mg m -3) and particle-size separation (53 m mesh) as alternative methods to the KMnO 4-chemical oxidation (60 and 333 mM) in determining the labile C and thus the CMI, and (ii) to evaluate the capacity of long-term (19 years) no-till cropping systems (oat/maize: O/M, oat + vetch/maize: O + V/M, oat + vetch/maize + cowpea: O + V/M + C, and pigeon pea + maize: P + M) and N fertilization (0 and 180 kg N ha -1) to promote the soil quality of a Southern Brazilian Acrisol, using the CMI as the main assessment parameter. Soil samples were collected from 0 to 12.5 cm layer, and the soil of an adjacent native grassland was taken as reference. The mean annual C input of the cropping systems varied from 3.4 to 6.0 Mg ha -1 and the highest amounts occurred in legume-based cropping systems and N fertilized treatments. The C pool index was positively related to the annual C input ( r2=0.93, P
  • Authors:
    • Mielniczuk, J.
    • Vieira, F. C. B.
    • Dieckow, J.
    • Bayer, C.
    • Zanatta, J. A.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 94
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Conservation management systems can improve soil organic matter stocks and contribute to atmospheric C mitigation. This study was carried out in a 18-year long-term experiment conducted on a subtropical Acrisol in Southern Brazil to assess the potential of tillage systems [conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT)], cropping systems [oat/maize (O/M), vetch/maize (V/M) and oat + vetch/maize + cowpea (OV/MC)] and N fertilization [0 kg N ha-1 year-1 (0 N) and 180 kg N ha-1 year-1 (180 N)] for mitigating atmospheric C. For that, the soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and the C equivalent (CE) costs of the investigated management systems were taken into account in comparison to the CT O/M 0 N used as reference system. No-till is known to produce a less oxidative environment than CT and resulted in SOC accumulation, mainly in the 0-5 cm soil layer, at rates related to the addition of crop residues, which were increased by legume cover crops and N fertilization. Considering the reference treatment, the SOC accumulation rates in the 0-20 cm layer varied from 0.09 to 0.34 Mg ha-1 year-1 in CT and from 0.19 to 0.65 Mg ha-1 year-1 in NT. However, the SOC accumulation rates peaked during the first years (5th to 9th) after the adoption of the management practices and decreased exponentially over time, indicating that conservation soil management was a short-term strategy for atmospheric C mitigation. On the other hand, when the CE costs of tillage operations were taken into account, the benefits of NT to C mitigation compared to CT were enhanced. When CE costs related to N-based fertilizers were taken into account, the increases in SOC accumulation due to N did not necessarily improve atmospheric C mitigation, although this does not diminish the agricultural and economic importance of inorganic N fertilization.
  • Authors:
    • Denmead, O. T.
    • Macdonald, B. C. T.
    • Bryant, G.
    • Wang, W.
    • White, I.
    • Moody, P.
  • Source: Proceedings of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists
  • Volume: 29
  • Year: 2007
  • Authors:
    • Grace,P.
  • Source: Healthy Soils Symposium
  • Year: 2007
  • Authors:
    • Grace, P.
    • Rowlings, D.
    • Peterson, N.
    • Weier, K.
    • Kiese, R.
    • Butterbach-Bahl, K.
  • Source: Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Australian-New Zealand Landscapes
  • Year: 2007
  • Authors:
    • Kelly, K.
    • Phillips, F.
    • Baigent, R.
  • Source: Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture
  • Year: 2007