A1 Journal article (refereed)
Comparing structural soil properties of boreal clay fields under contrasting soil management (2024)

Hyväluoma, J., Niemi, P., Kinnunen, S., Brobbey, K., Miettinen, A., Keskinen, R., & Soinne, H. (2024). Comparing structural soil properties of boreal clay fields under contrasting soil management. Soil Use and Management, 40(2), Article e13040. https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.13040

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Publication details

All authors or editors: Hyväluoma, Jari; Niemi, Petri; Kinnunen, Sami; Brobbey, Kofi; Miettinen, Arttu; Keskinen, Riikka; Soinne, Helena

Journal or series: Soil Use and Management

ISSN: 0266-0032

eISSN: 1475-2743

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 11/04/2024

Volume: 40

Issue number: 2

Article number: e13040

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.13040

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2024041216781

Abstract

Soil management significantly affects soil structure. Tillage and grassland renovation may have destructive influences, while conversion of arable land to grassland can improve pore structure and related soil functions. In crop rotations including perennial grasses, soil structure is affected by these counteracting processes. This work aimed to quantify the impacts of different soil management practices on the structure of boreal clay soils. We studied intact topsoil samples taken from two locations by X-ray computed microtomography, image-based flow simulations and water retention measurements. At both locations, adjacent field areas with two contrasting soil management histories were compared. Both locations had at least a 30-year-old grassland site, which was compared to arable soils either under no-till management with annual crop rotation or conventional tillage with crop rotation including perennial grasses. Both imaging and water retention measurements showed significant differences in the soil macropore structure between the long-term grassland and arable no-till soil such that macroporosity and hydraulic conductivity of the long-term grassland were higher than those of soil under agricultural production. On the contrary, at the second study location, differences between long-term grassland and cultivated fields were minor and the long-term grassland exhibited lower macroporosity. Our results confirm that soil management affects the macropore structure of boreal clay soil and that no-till annual cropping and periodically tilled crop rotation including perennial phases exert different effects on the soil structure as compared with long-term grassland.

Keywords: land use; tillage; clay soils; soil physics; porosity; tomography; rotational cropping; grassland farming

Free keywords: porosity; soil management; soil structure; water retention, X-ray tomography

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