No-Till and Crop Rotation Are Promising Practices to Enhance Soil Health in Cotton-Producing Semiarid Regions: Insights from Citizen Science

• Published in: Soil systems 2024-10, Vol.8 (4), p.108
• Main Authors: Hailu, Tirhas A., Devkota, Pawan, Osoko, Taiwo O., Singh, Rakesh K., Zak, John C., van Gestel, Natasja
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2571-8789; 2571-8789
• DOI: 10.3390/soilsystems8040108

This on-farm study was conducted to assess the impact of six prevalent crop management practices adopted by growers in West Texas on various indicators of soil health. This study is a part of a citizen science project, where we collaborated with cotton growers who helped with standardized sample and data collection from 2017 to 2022. This project aimed to identify soil management practices that increase carbon sequestration, enhance biological activities, and improve overall soil health. We monitored soil moisture, soil organic matter (SOM), inorganic nitrogen (NH4+-N and NO3−-N) and other exchangeable nutrients, and soil microbial abundances as obtained via fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in 85 fields, incorporating different management practices during the cotton growing season. In our study, volumetric moisture content (VWC) was increased by no-till, irrigation, and crop rotation, but the addition of residue decreased VWC. No-till, irrigation, and crop rotation increased SOM, but a cover crop decreased SOM. No-till and residue retention also increased microbial biomass carbon (MBC). Tillage, irrigation, and crop rotation influenced the abundance of the main microbial groups, including bacterial, fungi, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Additionally, water content, SOM, and microbial abundances are correlated with clay percentage. Our results indicate that no-till and crop rotation are the two most crucial soil management approaches for sustainable soil health. As such, implementing both no-till and crop rotation in the cropping systems has the most promising potential to increase the soil resilience in dryland cotton production in semiarid regions, thereby helping growers to maintain cotton production.