Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado

In the past several decades conservation tillage systems have been introduced to address the negative impacts of intensive tillage, but the potential of these technologies to improve soil function and maintain yields is still not fully understood. This study sought to examine the effects of conserva...

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Autores principales: Deleon, Emmanuel, Bauder, Troy A., Wardle, Erik, Fonte, Steven J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33776194
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20167
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author Deleon, Emmanuel
Bauder, Troy A.
Wardle, Erik
Fonte, Steven J.
author_facet Deleon, Emmanuel
Bauder, Troy A.
Wardle, Erik
Fonte, Steven J.
author_sort Deleon, Emmanuel
collection PubMed
description In the past several decades conservation tillage systems have been introduced to address the negative impacts of intensive tillage, but the potential of these technologies to improve soil function and maintain yields is still not fully understood. This study sought to examine the effects of conservation tillage on key soil quality parameters and profitability at a production scale. We evaluated soil properties and yields during the fifth and sixth years (2015 and 2016) of a field study comparing two conservation tillage systems: minimum tillage (MT) and strip tillage (ST), versus a conventional tillage control (CT). Measurements included residue cover, macrofauna abundance and diversity, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), aggregate stability, and infiltration. Results from both years suggest that conservation tillage can enhance macrofauna abundance (especially earthworms) and diversity. For example, ST had higher abundance of macrofauna (486 ind. m(‒2)) than CT (178 ind. m(‒2)) in 2015, while MT had greater species richness than CT (4.12 vs. 2.00 taxa sample(‐1); respectively). Infiltration rate in the ST treatment was 18% higher when compared with CT in 2015. Residue cover was positively correlated with earthworm abundance, while earthworm abundance was positively correlated with aggregated stability and infiltration. When comparing economic costs and profitability across systems, ST and MT treatments had a 34% and 22% greater net return relative to CT. These results suggest that conservation tillage has potential to improve soil quality, water dynamics, and increase farmer incomes within furrow‐irrigated systems of Colorado and beyond.
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spelling pubmed-79860632021-03-25 Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado Deleon, Emmanuel Bauder, Troy A. Wardle, Erik Fonte, Steven J. Soil Sci Soc Am J Soil & Water Management & Conservation In the past several decades conservation tillage systems have been introduced to address the negative impacts of intensive tillage, but the potential of these technologies to improve soil function and maintain yields is still not fully understood. This study sought to examine the effects of conservation tillage on key soil quality parameters and profitability at a production scale. We evaluated soil properties and yields during the fifth and sixth years (2015 and 2016) of a field study comparing two conservation tillage systems: minimum tillage (MT) and strip tillage (ST), versus a conventional tillage control (CT). Measurements included residue cover, macrofauna abundance and diversity, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), aggregate stability, and infiltration. Results from both years suggest that conservation tillage can enhance macrofauna abundance (especially earthworms) and diversity. For example, ST had higher abundance of macrofauna (486 ind. m(‒2)) than CT (178 ind. m(‒2)) in 2015, while MT had greater species richness than CT (4.12 vs. 2.00 taxa sample(‐1); respectively). Infiltration rate in the ST treatment was 18% higher when compared with CT in 2015. Residue cover was positively correlated with earthworm abundance, while earthworm abundance was positively correlated with aggregated stability and infiltration. When comparing economic costs and profitability across systems, ST and MT treatments had a 34% and 22% greater net return relative to CT. These results suggest that conservation tillage has potential to improve soil quality, water dynamics, and increase farmer incomes within furrow‐irrigated systems of Colorado and beyond. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-01-07 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7986063/ /pubmed/33776194 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20167 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Soil Science Society of America Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Soil Science Society of America This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Soil & Water Management & Conservation
Deleon, Emmanuel
Bauder, Troy A.
Wardle, Erik
Fonte, Steven J.
Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado
title Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado
title_full Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado
title_fullStr Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado
title_full_unstemmed Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado
title_short Conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of Colorado
title_sort conservation tillage supports soil macrofauna communities, infiltration, and farm profits in an irrigated maize‐based cropping system of colorado
topic Soil & Water Management & Conservation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33776194
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20167
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