Changes in Physical Properties of Soils after Five Years of Application of Conventional and Conservation Tillage Practices

Soil is one of the nonrenewable resources (in human being life time scale) that is important to be protected. Tillage operations are carried out in a variety of ways, which in general can be divided into two comprehensive classes of conventional and conservation tillage practices. The tillage has a very important impact on soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Different tillage systems can have conflicting effects on soil physical properties, which is thought to reflect the impact of different weather conditions. Therefore, it seems necessary to study the effects of different tillage practices on the soil attributes in different climatic conditions.

This experiment was conducted for five years from 2011 to 2016 in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with repeated measurements in two different locations and four replications. The applied tillage practices included no-till in standing residue (NT1), no-till in entire residue (NT2), chisel plow plus disc harrow (CH), minimum tillage with mulch cultivator (MT) and conventional plowing with moldboard plowing (CT). The experiment was carried out at Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI) in Maragheh. Soil samples were taken at the end of fifth year and then soil texture were determined by hydrometer method, weight and geometric means of aggregates diameters by wet-sieving (MWDwetو GMDwet) and dry-sieving (MWDdry GMDdry) procedures, the stability of 1 to 2 mm aggregates (WAS) by wet-sieving, total soil organic carbon (TOC) by wet oxidizing method, dissolved soil organic carbon (DOC) using carbon analyzer and mass fractal dimension aggregates using Tyler and Wheatcraft model. The soil bulk density (Db) was also measured by intact samples (from two depths of 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm) prepared from the study area using sampling cylinders with a diameter of 5 and a height of 4 cm.

In general, the results showed that the interaction of depth and location on Db was significant at 5% probability level. The measured Db in 15-30 cm was greater than the measured Db in a depth of 0-15 cm. Also, in spite of the significance of the main effects of location and tillage and the interaction of tillage-location on soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC), tillage treatments and their interaction effects on total organic carbon (TOC) were not significant. The results showed that conventional tillage, CT, had the highest amount of DOC. However, no-till in entre residue (NT2) and minimum tillage (MT) showed the lowest amount of DOC. Further, the main effects of tillage practices on MWDdry and GMDdry were significant at 5% probability level. No-till (NT1 and NT2) practices had the highest MWDdry with values of 1.17 and 1.25 mm. Tillage practices and location had no significant effect on WAS, Dm, and MWDwet and GMDwet.

It seems that the reason that DOC content of CT was higher than conservation tillage practices is due to the preservation of crop residues on the soil surface in conservation and no-till systems and less mixing of them with soil and consequently their less decomposition. While in conventional tillage, plant residues were mixed with soil, and the effect of biological degradation increased soil DOC. The greater MWDdry in NT1 and NT2 practices suggests that tillage, even at a minimum or reduced state, breaks down the aggregates and produces smaller particles or aggregates. It also seems that the main reason for GMDdry reduction in minimum tillage is due to the further degradation of aggregates by the tillage agent. Therefore, to better and more accurately observe the effects of different types of tillage, sampling should be done at the end of each growing season