Influence of Soil Texture, Tillage and Management Systems On Soil Quality Indicators.

We studied how selected soil quality indicators were affected by soil texture, tillage and management systems in soils from several regions in the Northeastern USA. Commercial farms with management systems including cash grain, corn silage and vegetable production were sampled for this study. These management systems were further classified based on texture (coarse or medium) and tillage (no till [NT] or plow till [PT]). Soil quality indicators were measured for over 700 samples from different fields. Soil quality indicators that were studied included wet aggregate stability (WAS), available water capacity (AWC), surface and subsurface hardness, organic matter, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POC), potential mineralizable nitrogen (PMN) and root disease potential (RDP).

Results show that the effect of tillage on soil quality indicators was dependent on texture and management systems. For example, while wet aggregate stability was not significantly different between the tillage and management systems in medium textured soil, it was significantly different in coarse textured soils with NT having higher WAS than PT in cash grain and corn silage systems. The AWC, though not significantly affected by management and tillage systems, was generally higher in medium than coarse textured soils. For all the management systems, the mean surface hardness values in NT were higher than in PT in the coarse textured soils across all management systems, while surface hardness did not show differences between NT and PT in the medium textured soils. The subsurface hardness tended to be higher in NT corn silage systems for both textural classes compared to other management systems. Organic matter, POC and PMN responded more to management systems than to tillage or texture. Corn silage systems had higher mean values than other management systems. The RDP was generally highest for the vegetable systems and lowest for the corn silage systems across texture and tillage systems.