Long-term influence of conservation tillage on soil organic carbon and microbial diversity

Abstract

The physico-chemical and microbiological properties of soil may be modified by long-term tillage practices and crop-rotations. The tillage system, may also affect soil properties under various climatic conditions. In present investigation, soil microbial diversity at different depths was studied in long term tillage experiment continued since 1997-98 (pearl millet-wheat), 2000-01 (sorghum-wheat) and 2015-16 (mungbean-wheat) that was carried out in sandy loam textured soil at Hisar (Haryana) during 2017-18, with 20 years of zero tillage (ZT) under sorghum-wheat, 17 years under pearl millet-wheat and 2 years under mungbean-wheat cropping system, respectively. Adoption of ZT practice positively affected soil organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, dehydrogenase activity and viable counts of microbes. So, indicating that ZT is an effective measure to improve the physico-chemical and microbiological properties of soil that may lead to improved soil health along with enhanced crop productivity.

Keywords

• Crop-rotations
• Enzyme activities
• Microbial biomass carbon
• Microbial biomass nitrogen
• Soil organic matter
• Zero tillage