Surface-soil responses to paraplowing of long-term no-tillage cropland in the Southern Piedmont USA

• Published in: Soil & tillage research 2007-10, Vol.96 (1), p.303-315
• Main Authors: Franzluebbers, A.J., Schomberg, H.H., Endale, D.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agricultural soils; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Bulk density; Chemical, physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties; Conservation tillage; Cropping systems. Cultivation. Soil tillage; deep tillage; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General agronomy. Plant production; long term experiments; nitrogen; no-tillage; Organic carbon; Organic matter; Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils; piedmont; piedmont soils; plowing; poultry manure; sandy clay loam soils; sandy loam soils; soil depth; Soil erosion, conservation, land management and development; Soil nitrogen; soil organic carbon; soil profiles; soil properties; Soil quality; Soil science; soil separates; Soil tillage; spatial distribution; Tillage. Tending. Growth control; Ultisols
• ISSN: 0167-1987; 1879-3444
• DOI: 10.1016/j.still.2007.07.001

The type of conservation-tillage management employed could impact surface-soil properties, which could subsequently affect relationships between soil and water quality, as well as with soil C sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions. We determined soil bulk density, organic C and N fractions, plant-available N, and extractable P on Typic Kanhapludults throughout a 7-year period, in which four long-term (>10 years), no-tillage (NT) water catchments (1.3–2.7 ha each) were divided into two treatments: (1) continuation of NT and (2) paraplowing (PP) in autumn (a form of non-inversion deep ripping) with NT planting. Both summer [cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.), maize ( Zea mays L.), sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), soybean ( Glycine max L. Merr.)] and winter [wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.), barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.), rye ( Secale cereale L.), crimson clover ( Trifolium incarnatum L.)] crops were NT planted throughout the study under each management system. Soil bulk density was reduced with PP compared with NT by as much as 0.15 Mg m −3, but the extent of reduction was inversely related to the time lag between PP operation and sampling event. Soil organic C became significantly enriched with time during this study under NT (0.49 Mg C ha −1 year −1), but not under PP, in which poultry litter was applied equivalent to 5.7 Mg ha −1 year −1 to all water catchments. Soil maintained a highly stratified depth distribution of organic C and N fractions and extractable P under both NT and PP. Inability to perform the PP operation in the last year of this study resulted in rapid convergence of soil bulk density between tillage systems, suggesting that PP had