Soil degradative effects of slope length and tillage methods on alfisols in western Nigeria. III.Soil physical properties

✍ Scribed by R. Lal

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 228 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1085-3278
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-145x(199712)8:4<325::aid-ldr265>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

Eects of six slope lengths, 60 m to 10 m with 10-m increments, on soil physical properties were evaluated for ploughbased conventional till and no-till seedbed preparation on ®eld runo plots for three consecutive years from 1984 to 1987. Soil physical properties measured included texture, bulk density, in®ltration capacity, and soil moisture retention characteristics. Conventional till treatment caused a rapid increase in soil bulk density and penetration resistance, and decrease in available water capacity and equilibrium in®ltration rate. Gravel content increased with cultivation duration. Soil bulk density of 0±5 cm depth was 1 . 20 Mg m À3 for 1984, 1 . 39 Mg m À3 for 1985 and 1 . 46 Mg m À3 for 1986 for conventional till; and 1 . 13 Mg m À3 for 1984, 1 . 33 Mg m À3 for 1985, and 1 . 27 Mg m À3 for 1986 for the no-till treatment. The penetration resistance of the no-till treatment was relatively low and increased with cultivation duration. Mean penetration resistance for 0±5 cm depth was 2 . 2 kg cm À2 in 1984, 2 . 71 kg cm À2 in 1985, and 3 . 79 kg cm À2 in 1986. The available water capacity decreased in both tillage methods without any consistent trends with regard to slope length. The equilibrium in®ltration rate declined drastically for long slopes and conventional till methods. The data support the conclusion that these soils should be managed with short slope lengths and a no-till method of seedbed preparation.