Conventional tillage disturbs soil structure, increasing the soil’s susceptibility to compaction by machinery traffic in sugarcane fields. In this sense, the adoption of reduced tillage or no-tillage practices associated with traffic control has been proposed to preserve the functionality of soil structure, thus reducing soil compaction and plant growth restrictions. A long-term sugarcane experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of conventional and reduced tillage practices with random and without machinery traffic on soil structure in southeastern Brazil. The soil structural quality was evaluated using a diversity of assessment scales, including on-farm Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) in the “macroscale”, aggregate stability (e.g., mean weight diameter-MWD) in the “mesoscale” and 2D micro-morphometric image analysis (size and shape of pores, and total pore area) in the “microscale”. The conventional tillage and reduced tillage with random traffic treatments showed a similar soil structure after the fourth-cycle of sugarcane ratoon in the macro (i.e., VESS Sq), meso (i.e., MWD), and micro scale (shape and total pore area). However, the reduced tillage without traffic improved soil structure (e.g., lower VESS Sq, higher total pore area, and greater percentage of complex pores) when compared to the treatments with random traffic in the 0–10 cm soil layer. While conventional tillage does not bring additional benefits in alleviating soil compaction compared to reduced tillage, the preservation of soil structure under reduced tillage is conditioned by the adoption of traffic-free seedbed zones. A diversity of assessment scales showed that different methods and scales are related to specific soil functions and have a distinct objective, but it is an advisable strategy to assess the soil structural quality.

中文翻译：

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耕作和甘蔗机械运输减少引起的土壤结构变化——评估尺度的多样性


传统耕作会扰乱土壤结构，增加土壤对甘蔗田机械运输压实的敏感性。从这个意义上说，有人建议采用与交通管制相关的少耕或免耕做法来保护土壤结构的功能，从而减少土壤压实和植物生长限制。进行了一项长期甘蔗试验，以评估随机和无机械运输的常规耕作方法和减耕方法对巴西东南部土壤结构的影响。土壤结构质量采用多种评估尺度进行评估，包括“宏观尺度”的农场土壤结构视觉评价（VESS）、“中尺度”的团聚体稳定性（例如平均重量直径-MWD）和二维微观尺度。 -“微观尺度”的形态图像分析（孔隙的大小和形状以及总孔隙面积）。常规耕作和随机交通处理的减耕在第四轮甘蔗宿根后在宏观（即VESS Sq）、中观（即MWD）和微观尺度（形状和总孔隙面积）上表现出相似的土壤结构。 。然而，与 0-10 厘米土层中随机交通的处理相比，无交通的减少耕作改善了土壤结构（例如，较低的 VESS Sq、更高的总孔隙面积和更大的复杂孔隙百分比）。虽然与减少耕作相比，常规耕作在减轻土壤板结方面没有带来额外的好处，但减少耕作下土壤结构的保存取决于采用无交通苗床区。 评估尺度的多样性表明，不同的方法和尺度与特定的土壤功能相关，并且具有不同的目标，但评估土壤结构质量是一种可取的策略。