TY - JOUR
T1 - (Micro)biological, chemical and physical properties of soils subjected to conventional or no-till management
T2 - An assessment of their quality status
AU - Aon, M. A.
AU - Sarena, D. E.
AU - Burgos, J. L.
AU - Cortassa, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Prof. Dr. J.W. Doran (University of Nebraska, USA) for very useful criticism and suggestions, and Agric. Eng. Rodolfo C. Gil (INTA Castelar, Argentina) for helpful discussions and suggestions concerning physical measurements in soil. The thoughtful comments by the reviewers is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors are specially indebted with Fundación Antorchas, Argentina, for a grant with which the Gas Analyzer Columbus, OH, used in the present work was acquired. MAA and SC are research scientists from CONICET, Argentina; DES is professional staff from Ministerio de Asuntos Agrarios (Buenos Aires), and JLB is technician from Comisión de Investigaciones Cientı́ficas (CIC, Buenos Aires). This work was performed with the financial support of CONICET (PIP Nr. 0264/98 to MAA).
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - In order to evaluate the impact of no-tillage (NT) against conventional-tillage (CT), or the effect of different fertilizers and herbicides, soils recently incorporated to agriculture from the El Salado basin river (Buenos Aires, Argentina) under a corn (1996/1998)-pasture (1998-)rotation were monitored for several soil (micro)biological, physical and chemical properties during the second (1997) to fourth (1999) years from the beginning of the experiment (1996). The rates of exchange of O2 and CO2 expressed in terms of kg O2 or CO2-C per hectare per day, are denoted as qO2 and qCO2. They decreased at the end of the corn growth cycle (T2) along with an increase of the respiratory quotient (RQ = qCO2/qO2), when compared to the time of land preparation (T0), irrespective of the management system. Both, qO2 and qCO2, increased 8 months after the mixed-grass-legume pasture planting (T3) keeping similar RQs with values slightly higher for NT than CT. At T4 (after 20 months of pasture), a 22 and 21% decrease of organic carbon was registered for NT and CT, respectively, with respect to the beginning of the experiment. A 22% (not significative) and a significative 31% diminish of total nitrogen was observed in the NT and CT systems, respectively. The results obtained are discussed in terms of soil function and sustainability in both management systems tested.
AB - In order to evaluate the impact of no-tillage (NT) against conventional-tillage (CT), or the effect of different fertilizers and herbicides, soils recently incorporated to agriculture from the El Salado basin river (Buenos Aires, Argentina) under a corn (1996/1998)-pasture (1998-)rotation were monitored for several soil (micro)biological, physical and chemical properties during the second (1997) to fourth (1999) years from the beginning of the experiment (1996). The rates of exchange of O2 and CO2 expressed in terms of kg O2 or CO2-C per hectare per day, are denoted as qO2 and qCO2. They decreased at the end of the corn growth cycle (T2) along with an increase of the respiratory quotient (RQ = qCO2/qO2), when compared to the time of land preparation (T0), irrespective of the management system. Both, qO2 and qCO2, increased 8 months after the mixed-grass-legume pasture planting (T3) keeping similar RQs with values slightly higher for NT than CT. At T4 (after 20 months of pasture), a 22 and 21% decrease of organic carbon was registered for NT and CT, respectively, with respect to the beginning of the experiment. A 22% (not significative) and a significative 31% diminish of total nitrogen was observed in the NT and CT systems, respectively. The results obtained are discussed in terms of soil function and sustainability in both management systems tested.
KW - Bacteria
KW - Conventional or no-tillage
KW - Corn and pasture yields
KW - Fungi
KW - Pore size distribution
KW - Soil microbial respiration
KW - Soil organic carbon
KW - Soil quality
KW - Sustainability
KW - Water-filled pore space
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U2 - 10.1016/S0167-1987(01)00190-8
DO - 10.1016/S0167-1987(01)00190-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034941535
SN - 0167-1987
VL - 60
SP - 173
EP - 186
JO - Soil and Tillage Research
JF - Soil and Tillage Research
IS - 3-4
ER -