Do conservative agriculture practices increase soil water repellency? A case study in citrus-cropped soils

► Soil water repellency was studied in long-term no-tilled citrus-cropped soils. ► No-till farming induced subcritical soil water repellency. ► Manure addition and no-till farming made soils water repellent. ► Organic matter content from no-tilled soils was correlated with water repellency. Water re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil & tillage research 2012-08, Vol.124, p.233-239
Main Authors: González-Peñaloza, Félix A., Cerdà, Artemi, Zavala, Lorena M., Jordán, Antonio, Giménez-Morera, Antonio, Arcenegui, Victoria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
Biological and medical sciences
Citrus-cropped soils
Fertilization
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
No-till farming
Organic farming
Soil science
Soil water repellency
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Summary:► Soil water repellency was studied in long-term no-tilled citrus-cropped soils. ► No-till farming induced subcritical soil water repellency. ► Manure addition and no-till farming made soils water repellent. ► Organic matter content from no-tilled soils was correlated with water repellency. Water repellency is a property of soils that inhibits or delays infiltration. Long-term conservation practices as no-tillage, manure addition, application of herbicides may contribute to increase soil organic matter and, hence, soil water repellency. In this research, we have studied the effect of long-term addition of plant residues and organic manure, no-tillage and no chemical fertilization (MNT), annual addition of plant residues and no-tillage (NT), application of conventional herbicides and no-tillage (H), and conventional tillage (CT) on soil water repellency in Mediterranean calcareous citrus-cropped soils (Eastern Spain). Slight water repellency was observed in MNT soils, which may be attributed to the input of hydrophobic organic compounds as a consequence of the addition of plant residues and organic manure such has been demonstrated by the soil organic matter measurements. CT reduced the organic matter content and soils remained wettable. Subcritical water repellency (with water drop penetration times below 5s) was observed in soils under NT and H treatments.
ISSN:0167-1987
1879-3444
DOI:10.1016/j.still.2012.06.015