Soil Porosity as Affected by Land Management Practices in Sandy Loam and Loamy Sand Soils

摘要

Land management practices significantly affect soil porosity and related characteristics including soil moisture characteristics, soil consistency and water holding capacity. Hence, a field study was conducted with 3 land management practices in mainplots including conventional tillage (CT), no-tillage with residue (NTR) and deep tillage (DT) under 2 textured soils i.e. sandy loam and loamy sand with 3 replications. Soil porosity (%) was found to be significantly higher under DT (0.494 and 0.416) followed by CT (0.478 and 0.399) and least in NTR (0.458 and 0.383) in sandy loam and loamy sand soils, respectively. However, the effect of tillage and residue management practices on soil consistency limits i.e. liquid limit and plastic limits were neither significant nor uniform. The highest liquid limit was found in NTR (45.9) in sandy loam while, the same was highest in DT (39.7) in loamy sand soil. The liquid limits were found to be 36.7 and 44.8 in CT in loamy sand and sandy loam soils, respectively. The plastic limit followed the similar trend with maximumvalue was observed in NTR (19.7 and 22.8) followed by CT (18.8 and 22.2) and least in DT (18.3 and 21.7) in loamy sand and sandy loam soils, respectively. The soil organic carbon content (g kg1) was found to be highest under NTR (4.2 and 4.7) followed byCT (3.8 and 4.1) and least in DT (3.6 and 3.9) in loamy sand and sandy loam soils, respectively. Maximum water holding capacity (%) was observed in NTR (48.2 and 41.3) followed by DT (45.4 and 38.7) and minimum in CT (43.5 and 34.5) in sandy loam and loamy sand soils, respectively. At field capacity (0.3 bar suction) the maximum soil moisture content was observed in NTR (24.3 and 18.1), followed by DT (23.8 and 17.6) and least in CT (22.7 and 17.3) in sandy loam and loamy sand soils, respectively. Meanmaximum GMD (mm) was observed in NTR (1.5 and 1.2) followed by CT (1.3 and 1.1) and least under DT (1.2 and 0.9) in sandy loam and loamy sand soils, respectively.