Monitoring soil properties, especially soil organic carbon (SOC) and Carbon-to-Nitrogen (C:N) ratios, is vital for understanding degradation and developing black soil conservation strategies. Most soil mapping research has leveraged satellite imagery from limited bare-soil periods. The predictive accuracy using time-series images capturing crop growth is underexplored. Moreover, while the new Landsat-9

Soil permeability associated with pore characteristics is a critical factor affecting water and nutrient transport in agricultural fields. However, which soil pore characteristics determine soil permeability remains inconclusive due to high heterogeneity of soil pore structure affected by soil and crop management practices. The objective of this study was to compare the pore characteristics of soils

On-the-go soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) sensors are great tools for mapping and monitoring soil properties such as water content, texture, and salinity. ECa maps and surveys are most useful and reliable when obtained in uniformly wet fields. However, soil moisture in micro-irrigated (e.g., drip or micro-sprinklers) orchards is typically non-uniform, with moist soil along tree and irrigation

Soil structure mediates soil functioning and can be influenced by agricultural management practices (cropping intensity, tillage, and nitrogen source). This study evaluated the effectiveness of multiple soil aggregate indices to quantify soil structural development using long-term data from three locations within the central Great Plains: Alternative Crop Rotation (ACR) and Long-Term Tillage (LTT)

The splash erosion-induced soil aggregate turnover is important to understand the mechanisms of soil degradation and soil organic carbon (SOC) cycling. However, the relationship between aggregate turnover and rainfall impact has not been explored directly because of methodological difficulties. The soil samples, developed from Quaternary red clay, were adopted from three land use types: natural forest

Evaluation of new cultivars for the agronomic performance under actual on-farm conditions is a highly recommended method for assessing the performance and stability of new cultivars in variable environments and under different management practices. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance and agronomic characteristics of new wheat cultivars in on-farm conditions using different

Regularly flooded rice paddies usually show greater soil organic C and microbial-derived C contents than adjacent upland counterparts, but the soil microbial physiological traits under these two different land uses spanning regions remain unclear. Here, we collected 40 pairs of adjacent paddy and upland soils from four different climates (mid temperate, warm temperate, subtropics, and tropics) across

Carbon (C): nitrogen (N): phosphorus (P) stoichiometry in terrestrial ecosystems largely determines nutrient cycling in plant-soil-microorganism systems. However, a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of warming on plant-soil-enzyme C-N-P stoichiometry has not been well documented. Here, a global meta-analysis of 603 pairwise observations was conducted to reveal the impacts of experimental warming

Microbial activity is a sensitive indicator of soil structure improvement provided by plant species in the physical recovery of compacted soils. This study aimed to assess the impacts of crop species on soil aggregate classes for soil recovery after compaction and identify which microbial attributes best describe the structural quality index for soil physical health in an Oxisol under no-tillage. The

Ammonia (NH3) volatilization losses have severe impacts on human health, climate change and natural environments, but the effect of tillage intensity on these emissions has been barely evaluated in field conditions, particularly using micrometeorological methods, which require large surfaces. In this context, a field experiment in a barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) crop was set up in central Spain, in which

Utilization of alternative soil substrates for minesoil reconstruction can affect the nutrient status of reclaimed minesoil (RMS), particularly the availability of phosphorus. This study investigated the adsorption and desorption capacities of phosphorus in three typical reclamation lands using coal gangue (CGR), lake mud (LMR), and Yellow River sand (YSR) as filling materials. The results showed that

Understanding the role of organic amendments on soil potassium (K) distribution characteristics in Chinese paddy fields, we conduct a meta-analysis to explore the effect of organic amendment under different climatic and management practices. The meta-analysis consisted of 376 published papers from which 1294 paired observations were collected to evaluate the response of exchangeable K (EK) to different

Liming materials are widely applied to alleviate soil acidification and increase rice yield in acidic soils, but their effects on nitrogen (N) use efficiency are still unclear. Here, we conducted a field-, pot-, and micro-plot experiment to investigate how the application of slaked lime (i.e., Ca(OH)2) affects the fate of chemical fertilizer-N and straw-N in a double rice cropping system. In the field

Subsoiling tillage (ST) is a promising agronomy practice to improve soil physicochemical properties, soil microbial diversity during the crop growing season, and ultimately crop yield, but little is known about whether and how the ST practice will impact soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities in fallow season and their impacts on crop growth in next season. Here, a four-year continuous

Conservation agriculture with three management principles has been widely adopted to alleviate the current global agricultural soils facing threats such as soil erosion and nutrient loss. However, unclear understanding of rational crop rotation and the lack of global quantitative assessment limit our deeper insight into soil nutrient cycling under conservation agriculture. Considering the important

Traditionally, soil strength is estimated from uniaxial, confined compression tests by procedures adopted from classical soil mechanics. The heterogeneity of agricultural topsoil calls for an alternative approach. Undisturbed soil cores were collected in the plough layer of 14 soils in arable agriculture. Soil texture ranged from coarse sandy to silty loam soils with a maximum of 20% clay. The samples

High nitrogen (N) input often induces soil carbon (C) limitation, eutrophication of macronutrients, deficiency of base cations, and accumulation of toxic micronutrients. These changes are perceived to be critical factors in regulating soil C mineralization. Previous studies primarily focused on the individual effects of C, macronutrients, exchangeable base cations, and micronutrients on soil C mineralization

Rill erosion easily occurs on tilled surfaces because the soil shear resistance is less than the runoff shear stress. However, rill erosion formation and evolution on tilled surfaces under upslope inflow conditions remain unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the rill formation process and rill erosion amount on tilled surfaces via flow scouring under different inflow rates (4, 6

Transition towards soil-health sustaining crop production is at the core of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in agriculture. Improving soil conditions for resilience to variable and extreme weather conditions are among the main expectations of farmers implementing sustainable management practices. In this study, we evaluate whether the transition from conventional arable towards soil-health

Soils of the loess belt of Western Europe are intensively cropped and particularly prone to runoff and soil erosion, especially when planted with row crops such as maize or potatoes, characterized by a low soil cover during erosive spring storms. In this context, micro-basin tillage techniques could help mitigate these risks while being fairly easy to integrate into conventional cropping systems, yet

Photosynthetic gas exchange indices can be used to assess spatial variation of crop growth and yield on the field. Spatial variation of soil parameters can be an important tool to assess and manage crop growth status and product quality in the field, given the impact of soil on photosynthetic function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the spatial relationships between the van Genuchten (vG)

No-tillage (NT) combined with a cover crop is a climate-smart agricultural practice that eliminates nearly all physical disturbance of the soil surface and increases soil aggregation and soil organic carbon (SOC); however, the response of SOC and soil water retention (SWR) to long-term NT and cover crops systems in the volcanic ash Andosol soil of Japan has not been well addressed. This study aimed

Soil wettability is an important property that affects the behaviour of fine-grained soils. Previous studies have shown that hydrophobicity induced by organic or silane additives may affect the soil-water retention curve (SWRC). However, current findings regarding the effect of hydrophobicity on the SWRC are controversial. Previously, organic or silane additives were assumed to change only the soil

Quantifying the potential of soil carbon (C) mineralization improves our understanding of changes in soil health in agricultural ecosystems. Previous studies rarely linked the trait of interactions inherent in soil communities to soil C mineralization rate (Cmin). This study provides field-based evidence of tillage-driven changes in biological associations and their impacts on soil Cmin. Data obtained

Soil reinforcement by fibrous roots of rangeland plants is essential for soil conservation. This study was done to: i) determine the effect of two genotypes 75B and 75C of Festuca arundinacea, Bromus inermis, and Bromus tomentellus on soil reinforcement at saturated/unsaturated conditions, and ii) explore the relationships between soil shear strength, and root area ratio (RAR) determined by image analysis

In agricultural fields, soil erosion is usually associated to surface runoff. However, in drained fields, tile drains are additional pathways for soil particles. Few studies have quantified erosion in drained fields and they mainly focused on tile drained fields, without considering fields combining surface and tile drainage. These studies show high inter-site and inter-annual variabilities that highlight

No-tillage (NT) with residual plastic film mulching from an earlier year (NTR) is considered an excellent agricultural strategy in arid regions, recommended to reduce not only soil disturbance but also plastic film residues. However, the soil water dynamic in the root zone under this management is more complex due to variations in soil properties and upper boundary conditions. Soil compaction and a

Integrated crop and livestock systems (ICLS) have the potential to minimize soil degradation, improve soil health, and maximize food production. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of no-till (NT) in association with ICLS on soil health and soybean yield in Inceptisol and Oxisol soils in Southern Brazil. The response of physical, chemical, and biological soil health indicators to soil and crop management

Recent studies have shown that long-term irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW1) can lead to land degradation and reduction of crop performance in clayey soils due to additions of salts and organic compounds. This study investigated the effects of two remediation and two mitigation methods intended to alleviate the damage to soil properties following long-term irrigation with TWW. The experiment

Colluvisols form a significant part of the erosion–deposition soil catena mainly in undulating, agriculturally managed landscapes. Due to their sedimentary origin, they are soils with highly variable properties. For such diverse and often extremely deep soils, it is essential to capture the vertical distribution of properties in as much detail as possible. This study demonstrates the potential of the

To achieve sustainable agricultural activity, phosphatase determination is an important practice for improving the efficiency of phosphorus (P) management in tropical agriculture. The objective of this study was to evaluate acid phosphatase activity in different soil textures and P stress levels affecting the nutritional, chemical, biochemical, and agronomic aspects of soybean. Treatments resulted

The "formiguers" (earth mounds to burn woody plant residues) constituted a common practice of fertilization of soils in many regions of Spain in the past. The result of combustion is the formation of char, charcoal, soot, graphitic carbon and black carbon, which increased soil fertility. We applied a micromorphological approach to study the relationship between charcoal and features due to biological

Satellite remote sensing of vegetation has indicated that vegetation greenness has increased globally. However, the feedback mechanisms of vegetation restoration on eco-hydrological functions remain unclear, especially in fragile ecosystems. In this study, twelve three-dimensional hillslope plots with different vegetation restoration strategies were selected and their surface and subsurface runoff

Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a crucial role in soil functions and the global carbon cycle. Considering the disconnection of research emphasis between soil and ecology, little is known about the large-scale edaphic controls and their interaction with climate in SOM dynamics. This study aimed to explore the geographic evolution mechanisms of SOM from the perspective of soil intrinsic properties. A

A novel bionic profiling energy storage device was designed in this research to reduce the energy consumption of deep loosening operations. As the core technology of conservation tillage, deep loosening has always been difficult to promote on a large scale in the Phaeozem region of Northeast China due to its high energy consumption. The deep loosening mechanism is mainly composed of deep loosening

Erratic and intensively erosive natural rainfall is becoming more frequent with the intensification of global climate warming, increasing uncertainty and unpredictable risks of the stability of contour ridge system. However, little attention has been paid to the in situ quantitative evaluation of contour ridge stability under natural rainfall. When water ponds in furrows, contour ridges tend to breach

Conservation tillage has been widely used in the North China Plain to improve the aggregate structure and promote soil organic matter (SOM) retention, which is closely associated with phosphorus (P) turnover. However, a quantitative description of how conservation tillage alters P adsorption and desorption characteristics via affecting soil physical and chemical properties remains lacking. Thus, we

Intercropping maize (Zea mays L.) with ruzigrass (Urochloa ruziziensis) is a strategy for improving soil physical quality. However, effects of ruzigrass sowing time on soil physical properties with maize intercropping are unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of intercropping times of maize and ruzigrass over three years (2019/2020–2021/2022) on the soil physical properties

Weed management is an important part of crop production. Efficient weeding can help increase the yield and quality of crops. However, traditional weeding methods often fail to consider weeding quality and environmental protection. To address these shortcomings, a weeding method in which herbicides are applied after injury to weed tissue was developed, and an intelligent intra-row weeding robot was

Soil pressure is an important parameter for soil tillage. This study provides an alternative method for the fabrication of novel fiber optic pressure sensors which can be used for the measurement of soil pressure in the field. Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry (OFDR) based distributed fiber optic sensor was adopted as a sensing element and embedded inside 3D printed prototypes to fabricate pressure

The development of water-saving irrigation in paddy soils is crucial because of the increasing demand for water resources. There is a need to improve the understanding of water use strategies that save water and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without causing yield losses in double rice-cropping systems. The current study was conducted to examine the net global warming potential (NGWP) and net

Subsoil compaction is increasingly a problem. Subsoiling breaks up the soil, removes compaction, and improves root growth. However, it is unclear whether subsoiling depth affects root growth and physiological functioning of film-mulched and drip-irrigated cotton, which has a shallow root system (< 60 cm). A 2-year experiment (2019–2020) was performed under field conditions (soil texture was sandy loam

The root zone soil water content at field capacity, θFC, is often crucial for irrigation scheduling and soil-plant-atmosphere modelling. Although θFC is traditionally determined using methodologies based on matric head or when water flux at the bottom of the root-zone equal to a prescribed negligible flux, these approaches can be problematic for some soils and applications. In this study, a novel water

Strip-till (ST) is a conservation tillage wherein the “inter-row” is not tilled and remains covered with protective residues, while the “row zone” is strip tilled. In comparison to conventional ridge tillage (CT), maize yield under ST is maintained due to its growth recovery at grain filling stage (GFS), though its growth lag at early growth stage in cold regions. To explore microbial mechanisms underlying