Effects of Soil Tillage Systems and plant Residue Management on Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity of soil in Wheat-Corn Rotation

Document Type : Complete scientific research article

Author

Abstract

Abstract:
Background and objectives: Soil is the most important factor on agriculture production. Tillage operation has affected on crop production due to soil characteristics. Tillage systems changed water infiltration of soil. incorporation of plant residual improved infiltration of soil to water. In reduced tillage system stability of soil aggregation and water infiltration rate was more than conventional tillage. Intensive tillage operation during the crop seeding and ignore of soil organic matter management, caused to soil compaction of agricultural lands in Iran. It is postulated that tillage change from conventional to conservation will be necessary. Conservation tillage caused to improving soil structure and water use efficiency, and decreasing production cast. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of plant residual management and tillage systems on unsaturated hydraulic conductivity [K(ψ)] at semi arid region in the Fars province in the south of Iran.
Materials and Methods: In this research, treatments of the field experiment included two kinds of residual management (residual retention on soil surface and complete removal residual from soil surface) as main factor and tree tillage practices: Conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT) and no tillage (NT) as sub factor. K(ψ) was measured at applied tensions (0, 2, 4, 8, 10 and 15 cm) by tension disk infiltrometer with six times(two point at each plot). A completely randomized block in split plot was designed with three replications.
Results: The results showed in both soil, after first crop (wheat) and second crop (corn) by decreasing applied tension, K(ψ) increased significantly. Changes in K(ψ) in the soils of first and second crop, at tension of 0 m compared to 0.15 m increased 655 and 420 percent respectively. K(ψ) changed significantly(p1.5 mm, and for second soil, 19.22 and 80.77% respectively. Also in both soils, the percentage of water flow in macro pores (MacP) was affected with tillage treatments. So minimum value of this factor (%flow) 84.96 and 79.49% were occurred in CT in first and second soils respectively. Although the maximum of this factor(%flow) 90.47 in first and 81.95% in second soils were obtained with NT and MT respectively.
Conclutions: We concluded that conservation tillage (MT and NT) was increased percentage of MacP in soil by decreasing of passing of machinery. In two soils MacP were more effective than micro pores at water flow in soil. Plant residual retention and decreasing of tillage operations were decreased unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in soil. Also decreasing of K(ψ) in corn soil was higher than of wheat soil. Corn production was destroyed soil structures more than wheat cropping.

Keywords


1.Alleto, L., and Coquet, Y. 2009. Temporal and spatial variability of soil bulk density
and hydraulic conductivity under two contrasted tillage management systems. Geoderma. 152: 85-94.
2.Allmaras, R.R., Ward, K.Jr., Douglas, C.L., and Ekin, L.G. 1982. Long-term cultivation effects on hydraulic properties of a Walla Walla silt loam. Soil Till. Res. 2: 265-279.
3.Alvarez, R., and Steinbach, H.S. 2009. A review of the effects of tillage systems on some soil physical properties, water content, nitrate availability and crops yield in the Argentine Pampas (Review). Soil Till. Res. 104: 1. 1-15.
4.Ankeny, M.D., Ahmed, M., Kaspar, T.C., and Horton, H. 1991. Simple field method for determining unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. J. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. 55: 467-470.
5.Azooz, R.H., Arshad, M.A., and Franzluebbers, A.J. 1996. Pore size distribution and hydraulic conductivity affected by tillage in Northwestern Canada. J. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. 60: 1197-1201.
6.Bagarello, V., Castellini, M., and Iovino, M. 2005. Influence of the pressure head sequence
on the soil hydraulic conductivity determined with tension infiltrometer. Appl. Eng. Agric. 21: 383-391.
7.Bear, M.H., and Hendrix, P.F. 1994. Water stable aggregates and organic carbon fractions in conventional and no tillage soils. J. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. 58: 777-786.
8.Bodner, G., Scholl, P., Loiskandl, W., and Kaul, H.P. 2013. Environmental and management influences on temporal variability of near saturated soil hydraulic properties. Geoderma.
204: 120-129. 
9.Capowiez, Y., Cadoux, S., Bouchant, P., Ruy, S., Estrade, J.R., Richard, G., and Boizard, H. 2009. The effect of tillage type and cropping system on earthworm communities, macroporosity and water infiltration. Soil Till. Res. 105: 209-216. 
10.Castellini, M., and Domenico, V. 2012. Impact of conventional and minimum tillage on soil hydraulic conductivity in typical cropping system in Southern Italy. Soil Till. Res. 124: 47-56.
11.Chang, C., and Lindwall, C.W. 1992. Effects of tillage and crop rotation on physical properties of a loam soil. Soil Till. Res. 22: 383-389.  
12.Darvishpasand, Z., Sayyad, G., Shariaty M., and Mansory, Y. 2013. Evaluation of effects of agricultural machineries traffics on soil water-conducting meso and macro pores using disk infiltrometer. J. Water Soil Cons. 20: 5. 207-220.
13.De Vita, P., Di Paolo, E., Fecondo, G., Di Fonzo, N., and Pisante, M. 2007. No tillage and conventional tillage effects on durum wheat yield, grain quality and soil moisture content in southern Italy. Soil Till. Res. 92: 69-78.
14.Fan, R., Zhang, X., Yang, X., Liang, A., Jia, S., and Chen, X. 2013. Effects of tillage management on infiltration and preferential flow in a black soil, Northeast China. Chin. Geogra. Sci. 23: 3. 312-320.  
15.Gardner, W.R. 1958. Some steady-state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table. Soil Sci. 85: 228-232.  
16.Ghiberto, P.J., Pilatti, M.A., Imhoff, S., and De Orellana, J.A. 2007. Hydraulic conductivity of Molisolls irrigated with sodic-bicarbonated waters in Santa Fe (Argentine). Agric. Water Manage. 88: 192-200.
17.Gill, S.M. 2012. Temporal variability of soil hydraulic properties under different soil management practices (PhD thesis), University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
18.Horne, D.J., Ross, C.W., and Hughes, K.A. 1992. Ten years of maize/oat rotation under three tillage systems on a silt loam in New Zealand. Soil Till. Res. 22: 1-2. 131-143.
19.Hu, W., Shao, M., Wang, Q., Fan, J., and Horton, R. 2009. Temporal changes of soil hydraulic properties under different land uses. Geoderma. 149: 355-366.
20.Irena, M., Andrzej, B., Zuzanna, S., and Tomasz, D. 2012. The effect of various long-term tillage systems on soil properties and spring barley yield. Turk. J. Agr. For. 36: 217-226.
21.Jabro, J.D., Stevens, W.B., Evans, R.G., and Iversen, W.M. 2009. Tillage effects on physical properties in two soils of the Northern Great Plains. Appl. Eng. Agric. 25: 377-382.
22.Jessica, H.D. 2010. Hydraulic conductivity, infiltration, and runoff from no-till and tilled cropland. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. M.Sc. Thesis: 140p.
23.Kamenickova, I., Larisova, L., and Stoklaskova, A. 2012. The impact of different tillage treatments on hydraulic conductivity of loamy soil. Ata. Univ. Agric. Et. Silvic. Mendel. Brun. 12: 5. 109-114.
24.Kelishadi, H., Mosaddeghi, M.R., Hajabbasi, M.A., and Ayoubi, S. 2014. Near-saturated soil hydraulic properties as influenced by land use management systems in Koohrang region of central Zagros, Iran. Geoderma 213: 426-434.
25.Lal, R. 2009. Soil quality impacts of residue removal for bioethanol production. Soil Till. Res. 102: 2. 233-241.
26.Licht, M., and Al-Kaisi, M. 2012. Less tillage for more water. Integrated Crop Management News, IowaStateUniversity Extension and Outreach, Department of Agronomy.
27.Miller, J.J., Sweetland, N.J., Larney, F.J., and Volkmar, K.M. 1998. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of conventional and conservation tillage soils in southern Alberta. Can. J. Soil. Sci. 78: 643-648.
28.Moazeni, M. 2008. Effect of plant residual on hydraulic and water properties of soil in paddy soil of Gillan provinc. M.Sc. Thesis. EsfahanTechnicalUniversity, 186p. (In Persian) 
29.Moosavi, A.A., and Sepaskhah, A.R. 2012. Determination of unsaturated soil hydraulic properties at different applied tensions and water qualities. Arch. Agro. Soil Sci. 58: 1. 11-38.
30.Mulumba, L.N., and Lal, R. 2008. Mulching effects on selected soil physical properties.
Soil Till. Res. 98: 1. 106-111.
31.Perroux, K.M., and White, I. 1988. Designs for disk perm meters. J. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer.
52: 1205-1215.
32.Philip, J.R. 1957. The theory of infiltration, sorptivity and algebraic infiltration equations. Soil Sci. 84: 257-264.
33.Ramazani, N., Barzegar, A.R., Sayyad, G., Haghnia, G.H., and Mansuri, Y. 2012. Effect of compaction on physical and hydraulic properties of a loamy soil. J. Water Soil. 26: 1. 214-225.
34.Rasse, D.P., and Smucker, A.J.M. 1998. Root colonization of previous root channels in corn and alfalfa rotations. Plant and Soil. 204: 203-212. 
35.Reynolds, W.D., Gregorich, E.G., and Curnoe, W.E. 1995. Characterizations of water transmission properties in tilled and untilled soils using tension infiltrometers. Soil Till. Res. 33: 117-131.
36.Simunek, J., Angulo-Jaramillo, R., Schaap, M.G., Vandervaere, J., and van Genuchten, M. 1998. Using an inverse method to estimate the hydraulic properties of crusted soils from tension disc infiltrometer data. Geoderma. 86: 61-81.
37.Strudley, M.W., Green, T.R., and Ascough, J.C. 2008. Tillage effects on soil hydraulic properties in space and time: State of the science (Review). Soil Till. Res. 99: 4-48.
38.Watson, K.W., and Luxmoore, R.J. 1986. Estimating macroporosity in a forest watershed by use of a tension infiltrometer. J. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. 50: 578-582.
39.White, C.I., and Sully, M.J. 1987. Macroscopic and microscopic capillary length and time scales from field infiltration. Water Res. Res. 23: 8. 1514-1522.
40.White, I., Sully, M.J., and Perroux, K.M. 1992. Measurement of surface soil hydraulic properties: Disk permeameter, tension infiltrometers, and other techniques. Water Res. Res. 43: 8. 3514-3522.
41.Wilson, G.V., and Luxmoore, R.J. 1988. Infiltration, macro porosity, and mesoprosity distributions on 2 Forested Watersheds. J. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. 52: 329-335.
42.Wooding, R.A. 1968. Steady infiltration from a shallow circular pond. Water Res. Res.
4: 1259-1273.
43.Yunusa, I.A.M., and Newton, P.J. 2003. Plants for amelioration of subsoil constraints and hydrological control: the primer-plant concept. Plant and Soil. 257: 261-281.