Effects of perennial fodder crops on soil structure in agricultural headlands

In agricultural headlands, rooting and yield of crops may be limited because of soil‐structure changes as a consequence of multiple passes of turning machinery. We hypothesized that perennial forage crops can substantially alter soil structure in agricultural headlands. On one experimental field and two commercial farms on Haplic Luvisols from respectively loess and sandy loess in the Lower Rhine Bay (Germany), we investigated how 4 y of continuously grown grass/clover or alfalfa affected soil structure and the performance of subsequent spring wheat. Compared with a crop rotation with annual plowing to 30 cm soil depth, perennial forage crops led to increased soil C content (+1.3% to +22.8%) and N content (+4.2% to +15.1%), higher densities of medium and coarse biopores at a depth of 35 cm, more large water‐stable soil macroaggregates, higher biomass and abundance of anecic earthworms, and higher grain yield and grain protein content of spring wheat grown as the following crop. Root‐length density of spring wheat in the subsoil was not affected by the preceding perennial fodder crops in two of the three field trials. We concluded that besides increasing N input to the soil, perennial cropping of grass/clover or alfalfa has effects on soil structure that may substantially reduce yield losses in agricultural headlands.     

Relationship between soil organic matter and micropores in a long-term experiment at Ultuna,Sweden

Our study showed that long‒term addition of organic matter to a fine textured soil (36.5% clay, 41% silt, 22.5% sand) resulted in an increase of both macro‒ and microporosity in the top soil layer. In terms of changes of the absolute pore volume, macropores were of main importance. However, in relative terms, the increase of microporosity was comparable to that of macroporosity (75% and 90%). Changes in porosity upon different organic matter levels had a marginal effect on the water storage capacity. Micropores with diameters in the range of 1—30 μm were highly significantly correlated to soil organic matter characteristics showing that there is a non‒uniform distribution in relation to pores. Mechanisms leading to disproportionally high concentrations of soil organic matter in relation to micropores are discussed.