Influence of conservation tillage and crop rotation on the resilience of an intensive long-term potato cropping system: Restoration of soil biological properties after the potato phase
2009
Carter, M.R. | Noronha, C. | Peters, R.D. | Kimpinski, J.
Conservation tillage in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) systems, in cool-humid climatic regions, can benefit soil physical and biological properties. However, insight is needed on how the combination of conservation tillage and crop rotation enhances the resilience of intensive short-term potato cropping systems, specifically the restoration of the soil condition after the perturbations that occur in the potato phase. A long-term 3-year rotation (potato-barley-red clover) and conservation tillage study was initiated in 1994 on a fine sandy loam in Prince Edward Island, eastern Canada. Over a 3-year period (2004-2006), soil physical (bulk density) and biological (C and N fractions, structural stability; densities of plant parasitic and bacterial-feeding nematodes, and micro-arthropod abundance and diversity) properties were monitored over each phase of the crop rotation cycle to assess the restoration or rejuvenation of the surface (0-10cm) soil condition. Conservation compared to conventional tillage, increased soil organic C, large water-stable macro-aggregates, and soil particulate C and N in the potato year only. After the potato phase, rotation crops were associated with the further restoration of all soil C and N fractions and soil structural stability indices; and also increases in soil microbial biomass C and microbial activity indices, and soil Collembola abundance. Soil nematode densities showed some incidences of treatment differences but no clear trends. The study indicated that conservation tillage has a positive influence on soil biological properties and that the 3-year rotation successfully restored many of the soil parameters that had declined in the potato year.
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