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Effects of Tillage on Phosphorus Release Potential in a Spanish Vertisol
Author(s) -
Saavedra Concepción,
Velasco Juan,
Pajuelo Purificación,
Perea Francisco,
Delgado Antonio
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj2006.0162
Subject(s) - vertisol , plough , tillage , chemistry , conventional tillage , organic matter , agronomy , alfisol , pedogenesis , zoology , precipitation , soil horizon , soil science , soil water , environmental science , biology , physics , organic chemistry , meteorology
No‐till (NT) practices usually increase the P content in soil surfaces. The main purpose of this work was to study the long‐term effects of the soil tillage system on the P release potential in the surface layer of a Vertisol from southwest Spain and to correlate it with changes in P content and forms. The three tillage treatments investigated were: (i) conventional tillage (CT) with a moldboard plow and field cultivator; (ii) minimum tillage (MT) with a field cultivator; and (iii) NT, which involved direct sowing into crop residue from the previous year. After 21 yr, NT resulted in enhanced organic matter, Olsen P, organic P, and total P contents relative to CT and MT in the top 5 cm of soil. The ratio of labile inorganic P fractions to P related to sparingly soluble pedogenic Ca phosphates in the surface soil layer was much greater under NT (0.8) than under CT (0.57) or MT (0.55). This was ascribed to a decreased precipitation of sparingly soluble Ca phosphate because of the enrichment in organic matter under NT, and accounted in part for the higher portion of inorganic P related to labile fractions in NT (0.19 vs. 0.09 in CT and 0.10 in MT). The increased P release potential of surface soil as estimated by using P sinks indicated that an increased dissolved P concentration in runoff and a greater amount of potentially releasable P per unit mass of surface soil lost through erosive processes can be expected with NT than with MT or CT.