Plant Soil Environ., 2009, 55(8):327-333 | DOI: 10.17221/25/2009-PSE

Effects of conservation tillage on soil porosity in maize-wheat cropping system

N. Tangyuan1, H. Bin2, J. Nianyuan3, T. Shenzhong1, L. Zengjia1
1 State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Agronomy College of Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an Shandong, P.R. China
2 College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, P.R. China
3 Agronomy College of Henan Science and Technology University, Luoyang, P.R. China

A study was conducted on the effect of two single practices, including soil tillage and returning straw to soil, and their interaction on soil porosity of maize-wheat cropping system. Field experiments involved four tillage practices, including conventional tillage (C), zero-tillage (Z), harrow-tillage (H) and subsoil-tillage (S), with straw absent (A) or straw present (P). Total porosity, capillary porosity and non-capillary porosity of soil were investigated. The results showed that the soil total porosity of 0-10 soil layer was mostly affected; conventional tillage can increase the capillary porosity of soil, but the non-capillary porosity of S was the highest. Returning of straw can increase the porosity of soil. Through the analysis of affecting force, it can be concluded that interaction of soil tillage and straw is the most important factor to soil porosity, while the controlling factor to non-capillary porosity was soil tillage treatment.

Keywords: soil tillage; maize-wheat cropping system; soil porosity; affecting force

Published: August 31, 2009  Show citation

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Tangyuan N, Bin H, Nianyuan J, Shenzhong T, Zengjia L. Effects of conservation tillage on soil porosity in maize-wheat cropping system. Plant Soil Environ. 2009;55(8):327-333. doi: 10.17221/25/2009-PSE.
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