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Effects of tillage methods on soil physicochemical properties and biological characteristics in farmland: A review.

LI Yu-jie, WANG Hui, ZHAO Jian-ning, HUANGFU Chao-he, YANG Dian-lin   

  1. (AgroEnvironmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin 300191, China)
  • Online:2015-03-18 Published:2015-03-18

Abstract: Tillage methods affect soil heat, water, nutrients and soil biology in different ways. Reasonable soil management system can not only improve physical and chemical properties of the soil, but also change the ecological process of farmland soil. Conservation tillage can improve the quality of the soil to different degrees. For example, no-tillage system can effectively improve soil enzyme activity. No tillage and subsoiling tillage can provide abundant resources for soil microbe’s growth and reproduction. No tillage, minimum tillage and other conservation tillage methods exert little disturbance to soil animals, and in turn affect the quantity and diversity of the soil animals as well as their population structure. Effects of different tillage methods on soil physical and chemical properties as well as biological characteristics were reviewed in this article, with the soil physical and chemical indices, enzyme activities, soil microbe diversity and soil animals under different tillage patterns analyzed. The possibility of soil quality restoration with appropriate tillage methods and the future research direction were pointed out.