Abstract:
During the last decades, notillage
has started to be used on more and
more areas, being a conservative tillage
system practiced in many farms in the
country. The aim of this study was to
quantify the effects of the no-tillage system
on the physical properties of the soil
compared to the conventional system, in a
plateau area with cambic chernozem soil
under the current climatic conditions in the
north-east of Romania, in order to implement
it in agricultural practice of the studied area.
The soil samples were taken in natural and
undisturbed conditions for bulk density and
moisture content, soil penetration resistance
was determined using the Eijkelkamp
penetrologger. The status of soil compaction,
the various porosity categories, and the soil
moisture content were all determined based
on field and laboratory analysis.
Measurements performed at a depth of 0-40
cm showed a lower bulk density in the
conventional system, and in terms of
variation in values from sowing to
harvesting, there was a maximum increase of
18% in the 10-20 cm soil layer, an
intermediate of 10% in the topsoil and 20-30
cm layers, and a minimum of 1% in the 30-
40 cm layer. Total porosity, which reflects
soil pore volume, is inversely correlated with
bulk density, which means that under
conventional tillage practices, soil
macropore volume (>0.05 cm) was higher
(47.79-60.82% v/v) than under no-tillage
practices (45.90-50.79% v/v) for 0-40 cm
depth at the sowing time. The results
confirm that the no-tillage system conserves
more water in the soil under current climatic
conditions.
