Abstract
Conservation tillage options in Europe have not seen the same adoption rate as compared to its widespread use in the Americas and other equally advanced nations partly because most of studies on the practice have been done outside the region. This study exploited temporal and spatial changes in bulk density and their influences on the changes in some hydraulic functions of a Haplic Luvisol under three tillage options: (1) reduced tillage (RT), (2) strategic tillage (ST), and (3) conventional tillage (CT). While dry bulk densities on RT and ST were stable through the two phases of the experiments, values on CT decreased significantly after the tillage and seeding operations. No significant relationship between temporal changes in dry bulk density and volumetric water content was observed. The statistically insignificant changes in dry bulk density on RT and ST produced similar outcomes in saturated hydraulic conductivity improvements on CT linked to the lower dry bulk density values. Changes in dry bulk density on all the tillage options did not have any significant effect on the changes in unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. Overall, the RT and ST practices produce more stable dry bulk density values and can serve as sustainable alternatives in improving soil water relationships, while variations in dry bulk density are not strongly correlated with hydraulic properties, sidelining the historic reliance on CT practices in this region.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr. Pavel Růžek, Dr. Radek Vavera, and their co-workers from the Crop Research Institute for their cooperation and experimental field management.
Funding
This study was financially supported by the National Agency of Agricultural Research (NAZV), project no. QK1910086, and by the Czech University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources project no. SV21-20-21380.
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David Kwesi Abebrese: conceptualization, methodology, writing – original draft, formal analysis, investigation, visualization, writing – review and editing. Matula Svatopluk: conceptualization, writing – review and editing, funding acquisition. Kamila Báťková: writing – review and editing, visualization.
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Abebrese, D.K., Matula, S. & Báťková, K. Relating Immediate Changes in Bulk Density to Changes in Hydraulic Properties on a Silty Clay Loam Under Different Tillage Systems in the Czech Republic. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 23, 819–830 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-01085-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-01085-3