Drainage Characteristics of a Southern Piedmont Soil Following Six Years of Conventionally Tilled or No-Till Cropping Systems
2002
Endale, D.M. | Radcliffe, D.E. | Steiner, J.L. | Cabrera, M.L.
Site-specific soil water movement research is needed in order to fully understand chemical movement into subsurface water bodies. Water flow paths depend on soil, climate, topography, and management practices. In this study, we evaluated drainage and drainage hydrographs over a 12-month period from a Southern Piedmont Cecil sandy loam following a combined six years of corn/rye and cotton/rye cropping system under no-till or conventionally tilled treatments. No-till exhibited significantly higher mean and peak drainage rates, drainage in the rising and recession limbs of hydrographs as well as total drainage, and total drainage time, compared to conventional tillage treatments (P < 0.05). The recession time constant of the hydrographs, an index of the structural macropore development in the soil above the water table, was significantly less in the no-till than conventional tillage, which indicated that no-till had less tortuous water flow paths. No-till, therefore, enhanced water movement into deeper profiles in a Cecil sandy loam. Additional longer-period data would be useful to further evaluate temporal, environmental, and management factors that affect drainage under no-till. A study of the implications of more drainage in no-till for nutrient and chemical losses in these systems is pending.
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