SOIL PROPERTIES AFFECTED BY COVER CROPS AND FERTILIZATION IN A CROP ROTATION ...

144 Pages·2016·3.58 MB·English

SOIL PROPERTIES AFFECTED BY
COVER CROPS AND FERTILIZATION
IN A CROP ROTATION EXPERIMENT
VAHEKULTUURIDE JA VÄETAMISE
MÕJU MULLA OMADUSTELE
KÜLVIKORRAKATSES
DIEGO SÁNCHEZ DE CIMA
A Thesis
for applying for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Agriculture
Väitekiri
filosoofiadoktori kraadi taotlemiseks
põllumajanduse erialal
Tartu 2016

EESTI MAAÜLIKOOL
ESTONIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES

SOIL PROPERTIES AFFECTED BY
COVER CROPS AND FERTILIZATION
IN A CROP ROTATION EXPERIMENT
VAHEKULTUURIDE JA VÄETAMISE
MÕJU MULLA OMADUSTELE
KÜLVIKORRAKATSES
DIEGO SÁNCHEZ DE CIMA
A Thesis
for applying for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Agriculture
Väitekiri
filosoofiadoktori kraadi taotlemiseks
põllumajanduse erialal
Tartu 2016
Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Estonian University of Life Sciences
According to verdict 6-14/17-11 of December 22, 2015, the Doctoral Com-
mittee of the Agricultural Sciences of the Estonian University of Life Sciences
has accepted the thesis for the defense for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Agriculture.
Opponent: Thomas Keller, PhD
Agroscope, Switzerland
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Supervisors: Endla Reintam, associate professor
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Anne Luik, professor
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Defense of the thesis:
Estonian University of Life Sciences, room 2A1, Kreutzwaldi 5, Tartu
on February 11, 2016 at 11:15.
The English language was edited by Elsevier Language Editing Services
The Estonian language was edited by Marian Suitso
This research was supported by European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and
Internationalization Programme DoRa. Publication of this thesis was supported
by the Estonian University of Life Sciences.
© Diego Sánchez de Cima, 2016
ISSN 238-7076
ISBN 978-9949-569-14-4 (trükis)
ISBN 978-9949-569-15-1 (pdf)
CONTENTS
LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ......................................... 7
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 8
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................... 11
2.1. Crop rotations in northern climate conditions ................. 11
2.2. Cover crops ...................................................................... 13
2.2.1. Winter rye (Secale cereale L.) ................................... 13
2.2.2. Winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) ................... 14
2.2.3. Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) .................................. 14
2.3. Fertilization ...................................................................... 15
2.4. Soil management and tillage ............................................. 17
3. HYPOTHESIS AND AIMS OF THE STUDY ....................... 19
4. MATERIALS AND METHODS ............................................. 21
4.1. Field experiment .............................................................. 21
4.1.1. First rotation (2008−2012): Comparison between
conventional and organic farming systems (I, II, IV) ........ 21
4.1.2. Experimental setup from 2013 to 2014: Comparison
among organic systems (III) ............................................. 23
4.2. Tillage and field operations .............................................. 24
4.3. Sampling, measurements and analysis .............................. 25
4.3.1. Soil chemical analysis ............................................. 25
4.3.2. Plant analysis .......................................................... 26
4.3.3. Soil physical analysis .............................................. 26
4.3.4. Earthworms and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis
activity (FDA) .................................................................. 27
4.4. Weather conditions .......................................................... 27
4.5. Statistical analysis ............................................................. 29
5. RESULTS ................................................................................. 31
5.1. First rotation (2008−2012) ............................................... 31
5.1.1. Soil chemical properties (2008−2012) .................... 31
5.1.2. Soil physical properties (2010−2012) ..................... 32
5.2. Second period. Organic farming systems (2013−2014) .... 33
5.2.1. Soil chemical properties .......................................... 33
5.2.2. Soil physical properties ........................................... 34
5.2.3. Earthworms and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis
activity (FDA) .................................................................. 37
6. DISCUSSION ......................................................................... 38
6.1. Soil chemical properties (I, III, IV) .................................. 38
6.2. Soil physical properties (II, III, IV) .................................. 44
6.3. Earthworms and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis activity
(FDA) (III) ...................................................................... 48
7. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................... 51
REFERENCES ............................................................................... 55
SUMMARY IN ESTONIAN .......................................................... 71
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................... 80
ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS ....................................................... 83
CURRICULUM VITAE .............................................................. 136
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS .......................................................... 137
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LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS
This thesis based on the following papers, which are referred to by their
Roman numbers in the text. All papers are reproduced with due permis-
sion from the publishers.
I Sánchez de Cima, D., Reintam, E., Tein, B., Eremeev, V., Luik, A.
2015. Soil nutrient evolution during the first rotation in organic and
conventional farming systems. Communication in Soil Sciences and
Plant Analysis, 00: 1–13.
II Sánchez de Cima, D., Luik, A., Reintam, E. 2015. Organic farming
and cover crops as an alternative to mineral fertilizers to improve soil
physical properties. International Agrophysics, 29: 405−412.
III Sánchez de Cima, D., Tein, B., Eremeev, V., Luik, A., Karin, K.,
Reintam, E., Kahu, G. 2015. Winter cover crops effect on soil struc-
tural stability and microbiological activity in organic farming. Biolo-
gical Agriculture & Horticulture (accepted).
IV Kauer, K., Tein, B., Sánchez de Cima, D., Talgre, L., Eremeev, V.,
Loit, E., Luik A. 2015. Soil carbon dynamics estimation and depen-
dence on farming system in a temperate climate. Soil & Tillage
Research, 154: 53−63.
The contributions from the authors to the papers were the following:
I II III IV
Idea and design AL, ER AL, ER, DSdC AL, ER, DSdC AL, KK
Field work BT, VE DSdC, ER DSdC, ER, DSdC, BT,
BT, VE LL, VE
Data collection BT, VE DSdC, ER DSdC, ER, BT, DSdC, BT,
VE, GK LL, VE
Data analysis DSdC DSdC DSdC KK
Preparation of DSdC, DSdC, DSdC, DSdC, AL, BT,
the manuscript ER ER ER EL, KK
DSdC – Diego Sánchez de Cima; ER – Endla Reintam; AL – Anne Luik; BT – Berit
Tein; KK – Karin Kauer; VE – Vyacheslav Eremeev; LL – Liina Talgre; EL – Evelin
Loit; GK – Greete Kahu.
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1. INTRODUCTION
The current problems associated with the intensive conventional man-
agement of agriculture, such as the decline of organic matter, degradation
of the soil structure, nitrate leaching (Herzog & Konrad, 1992), and
groundwater pollution (Poudel et al., 2002), have promoted the interest
in and study of organic farming (van Diepeningen et al., 2006). Further-
more, the interest in organic farming has also been stimulated by the
financial support of the European Union through the Rural Develop-
ment Programme (Cesevičienė et al., 2009; Sacco et al., 2015) and the
increasing consumer awareness of food safety.
In 2011, the total area of organically farmed land in the world was 37.2
million hectares and there were more than 1.8 million organic farm-
ers. In Europe, in the same year, there were 280,000 organic farmers
and the total area of organically farmed land was 10.6 million hectares.
In Estonia, after the re-establishment of independence in 1991, several
governmental actions promoted a number of environmentally friendly
agricultural practices across the country, including organic farming. In
2014, the Estonian Farming Action Plan 2014–2020 was launched to
support the development of organic farming and increase the consump-
tion of local, organic food (Estonian Minister of Agriculture, 2014).
Organic farming is an agricultural management practice that leads to
the improvement of soil quality and fertility by maximizing the use of
resources that are already present in the agro-ecosystem and excluding or
limiting the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified
organisms (Shannon et al., 2002; Steinshamn et al., 2004). Among these
management practices, crop rotation and cover crops have been incor-
porated into many farming systems, and their use is especially common
in organic farming. The benefits of both practices on soil fertility, plant
nutrition and productivity have been previously explored (Berzsenyi et
al., 2000; Hao et al., 2002; Aziz et al., 2011). The adoption of crop rota-
tion and/or cover cropping commonly leads to an increase in soil organic
carbon (SOC) (Hao et al., 2002; West & Post, 2002; Aziz et al., 2011)
and a decrease in nitrogen (N) leaching (Hooker et al., 2008). However,
less known are the effects of these practices on soil microbial biomass
activity and soil biota as well as on the soil physical properties, such as
soil porosity and aggregate stability (Haruna et al., 2015).
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