Plant, Soil and Environment, 2017 (vol. 63), issue 1
Chemical properties and microbial responses to biochar and compost amendments in the soil under continuous watermelon croppingOriginal Paper
Yun CAO, Yan MA, Dejie GUO, Qiujun WANG, Guangfei WANG
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):1-7 | DOI: 10.17221/141/2016-PSE 
Biochar added to soil can improve crop growth and productivity. However, the mechanisms of crop growth improvement by biochar application are not well understood, particularly in the presence of soil-borne pathogens caused by continuous monocropping. Thus, a two-year field experiment was carried out to study the chemical and microbiological response of Lixisols (pH 5.8) to the amendment of biochar and its effect on watermelon productivity and Fusarium wilt disease incidence. Biochar was added alone or together with compost before watermelon transplanting. Mixed application of biochar with compost significantly increased watermelon yield as...
The long-term changes in soil organic matter contents and quality in ChernozemsOriginal Paper
Jan HORÁČEK, Pavel NOVÁK, Peter LIEBHARD, Eduard STROSSER, Mária BABULICOVÁ
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):8-13 | DOI: 10.17221/274/2016-PSE
For the purposes of assessment of long-term changes, two sets of Chernozems soil samples were analysed and compared in parallel: 'old' file samples obtained during the Soil Survey 1960-1970 in the former Czechoslovakia and a 'present' (2013) set of samples from exactly the same sites as the archive samples. The recently collected samples revealed worse qualitative parameters (lower humic acid to fulvic acid (HA/FA) ratios and higher colour quotient Q4/6 values) than the file samples, for all the localities. On the other side, the quantitative soil organic matter (SOM) parameters (oxidizable carbon (Cox) and all its determined components)...
Soil respiration and net ecosystem production under different tillage practices in semi-arid Northwest ChinaOriginal Paper
Shirley LAMPTEY, 4, Lingling LI, Junhong XIE, Renzhi ZHANG, Zhuzhu LUO, Liqun CAI, Jie LIU
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):14-21 | DOI: 10.17221/403/2016-PSE
In semi-arid areas, increasing CO2 emissions are threatening agricultural sustainability. It is unclear whether different tillage practices without residue returned could help alleviate these issues while increasing crop productivity. This study aimed to quantify soil respiration under conventional tillage (CT); rotary tillage (RT); subsoiling (SS) and no-till (NT), all without residue returned in the Western Loess Plateau. The results showed that SS and NT significantly decreased soil respiration compared to CT, but the effects of SS was the greatest. As a result, SS decreased carbon emission by 22% in 2014 and 19% in 2015 versus CT. The...
Effects of winter wheat season tillage on soil properties and yield of summer maizeOriginal Paper
Yunqi WANG, Yinghua ZHANG, Zhimin WANG, Hongbin TAO, Shunli ZHOU, Pu WANG
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):22-28 | DOI: 10.17221/692/2016-PSE
The North China Plain (NCP) serves as China's second most important maize production region. Rotary tillage, a popular method used in winter wheat/summer maize systems in the region, has adverse effects on maize production. The current study was conducted to determine whether rotary tillage after subsoiling in the winter wheat season (RS) improves the grain-filling rate and yield of summer maize by decreasing soil bulk density, when compared with rotary tillage (R), in the NCP. The RS treatment decreased soil bulk density and increased soil moisture in the summer maize season when compared with the R treatment. Root number under the RS treatment at...
Air-drying pretreatment effect on soil enzymatic activityOriginal Paper
Rodrigo Santos MOREIRA, Marcio Koiti CHIBA, Stefany Batista NUNES, Isabella Clerici de MARIA
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):29-33 | DOI: 10.17221/656/2016-PSE
Air-drying of soil samples is a common practice for all-purpose soil testing. However, it may cause the cessation of microbial activity changing the biochemical attributes. For this reason, field-moist samples are commonly used in the assessment of the enzyme activity in soils. This practice may, therefore, discourage the use of enzymes in soil quality evaluations. This study evaluated the effects of air-drying on cellulase, arylsulfatase and acid phosphatase activities in soil; the hypothesis was that the activities of these enzymes determined in air-dried soil samples are similar to those obtained at field-moist samples. Soil samples were collected...
Yield and chemical composition of soybean seed under different irrigation regimes in the Vojvodina regionOriginal Paper
Branka KRESOVIĆ, Bosko Andrija GAJIC, Angelina TAPANAROVA, Goran DUGALIĆ
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):34-39 | DOI: 10.17221/673/2016-PSE
The goal of the present research is to determine an effective sprinkler irrigation strategy for soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] in temperate climate conditions, in order to maximize yields and seed quality. A three-year field experiment with four different irrigation treatments was conducted on Calcic Chernozem in the Vojvodina region of Serbia. The irrigation regimes included: no irrigation; full irrigation (I100); and two deficit irrigation treatments - 65% of I100 (I65) and 40% of I100. The irrigation treatments generally had a statistically significant effect on the increase of soybean yield...
Impact of heat and drought stresses on size and quality of the potato yieldOriginal Paper
Krystyna RYKACZEWSKA
Plant Soil Environ., 2017, 63(1):40-46 | DOI: 10.17221/691/2016-PSE
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a plant typical mainly for temperate climate and develops best at about 20°C. Heat stress due to increased temperatures is an agricultural problem in many areas in the world. The aim of our work was to assess the response of selected new potato cultivars to heat and drought stress during the subsequent stages of plant growth starting from buds forming. The pot experiment was carried out over the course of two years with the following early cultivars: Lord, Miłek, Gwiazda, Hubal, Oberon and Tetyda. The impact of heat (38°C/25°C) and drought stress on potato plants was tested in four periods of two weeks. In...