In the Argentina Pampas, one of the most extensive agricultural areas in the temperate fringe of southern hemisphere, soil health is jeopardized mostly by the decline of physical and biological properties due to soil fragility and agricultural managements, even under No-tillage (NT). In this study, topsoil physical health of three Mollisols and one Vertisol under two agricultural managements with no-tillage (good and poor agricultural practices -GAP and PAP-, differing mostly in their cropping intensity -CI-) was evaluated by the indirect measurement of porosity features. Two types of pore features derived from soil water release curves (SWRC) of undisturbed samples at three depths (0.0–0.05, 0.05–0.010 and 0.010–0.20 m) were employed: a) pores size distribution (>1000, 300, 50 and < 50 µm) and b) pore volume density parameters: location (D_mode, D_mean and D_median) and shape (SD, Skewness and Kurtosis). Pore parameters were related to management variables, to clay mineralogy and to several soil physical and chemical properties allowing to i) evaluate the effects of cropping intensification on soil physical properties; ii) evaluate the effects of intrinsic and dynamics factors on the behaviour of pore variable; iii) build an optimal pore size frequency curve to assess soil health. Among all porosity features assessed, P_{Mac>300 µm} and D_mode showed close relationships with agricultural management variables and were positively related to a labile organic carbon fraction (POCc) and to the aggregates stability tests, regardless of the soil type. Thus, they both may be selected as sound indicators of physical health status of different pampean soils under NT cultivation. Particularly, in the PAP treatments and for the three depths evaluated, P_{Mac>300 µm} showed values below critical thresholds, highlighting the physical deterioration of soils subjected to this management. Cropping intensification expressed by the CI index was also strongly related with large pores and soil properties (i.e. organic carbon and aggregates stability). These results demonstrate that cropping intensification expressed by the CI index was effective to counteract compaction processes in a variety of soils of the Pampa region and must be seen as an important strategy to avoid porosity loss and to improve the benefits of NT.

在阿根廷潘帕斯草原，南半球温带边缘最广泛的农业区之一，即使在免耕 (NT) 条件下，土壤脆弱性和农业管理导致物理和生物特性下降，主要危及土壤健康。在这项研究中，在两种免耕农业管理（良好和不良农业实践 - GAP 和 PAP-，主要区别在于它们的种植强度 -CI-）下，三种 Mollisol 和一种 Vertisol 的表土物理健康通过间接测量来评估孔隙度特征。采用从三个深度（0.0-0.05、0.05-0.010 和 0.010-0.20 m）未受干扰样品的土壤水释放曲线 (SWRC) 得出的两种类型的孔隙特征：a) 孔隙大小分布（>1000、300、50 和< 50 µm) 和 b) 孔体积密度参数：位置 (D_模式、D_均值和 D_中值）和形状（SD、偏度和峰度）。孔隙参数与管理变量、粘土矿物学和几种土壤物理和化学特性相关，允许 i) 评估种植集约化对土壤物理特性的影响；ii) 评估内在和动力学因素对孔隙变量行为的影响；iii) 建立最佳孔径频率曲线以评估土壤健康。在评估的所有孔隙度特征中，P _{Mac>300 µm}和 D_模式显示与农业管理变量密切相关，并且与不稳定有机碳分数 (POCc) 和团聚体稳定性测试呈正相关，无论土壤类型如何。因此，它们都可以被选为 NT 栽培下不同软壤土壤物理健康状况的可靠指标。特别是，在 PAP 处理和评估的三个深度中，P _{Mac>300 µm}显示低于临界阈值的值，突出了受这种管理的土壤的物理恶化。CI 指数表示的种植集约化也与大孔隙和土壤性质（即有机碳和团聚体稳定性）密切相关。这些结果表明，由 CI 指数表示的种植集约化可有效抵消潘帕地区各种土壤的压实过程，必须将其视为避免孔隙度损失和提高 NT 效益的重要策略。