Effect of tillage system on soil aggregate stability

Abstract

 The current research was carried out to study the effect of reduced tillage (RT) in comparison with traditional tillage (TT) on soil aggregate stability after 3 years of application the two tillage systems. Effect of the two tillage systems on dry aggregate size distribution (ASD), soil aggregate stability (AS) under wet sieving, mean weight diameter (MWD), bulk density (DB) and total porosity (PT) were studied. (ASD) increased by using (RT) in comparison with (TT) for the aggregates > 0.5 mm in the range of 4.4 – 14.6 %, on the contrary for the aggregates < 0.5 mm which decreased in the range of 77.1 – 83.6 %. Similar results were found for (AS) which increased for the aggregates > 0.25 mm and decreased for the aggregates < 0.25 mm. Greater (MWD) was obtained after two years of applying (RT) in comparison with (TT) at the two considered depths in a 12 %, and in the third year the percentage was decreased to 6.3 % at the depth 0 – 10 cm and increased to 17.8 % at the depth 10 – 20 cm. (RT) in comparison with (TT) caused an increase in the (BD) in the range of 5.8 – 8.1 % which led to a decrease of (PT) in the range of 10.0 – 24.2 %.