Effects of conventional and reduced tillage technologies on basic soil chemical properties

Since tillage technologies considerably influence soil properties and have a major impact on soil sustainability, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of conventional (CT) and reduced (RT) tillage on basic soil chemical properties at selected Slovak agricultural farms. Subsequently, the relationships between the chemical properties and soil organic matter (SOM) in both tillage technologies were ascertained. Differences in soil properties between long-term RT and CT were investigated at the adjacent plots on thirteen sites, where six soil pits were excavated on each RT and CT plots. Soil samples were collected from all pits, for each 0.1 m layers from the depth of 0.0-0.4 m. The results revealed that the regular overturn of topsoil, and thus the transfer of leached base cations to the surface layer, as well as deeper incorporation of crop residues and fertilizers in the soil cultivated conventionally has been manifested by higher values of pH, lower hydrolytic acidity (H) and the almost uniform content of base cations (mainly in the layer 0.0-0.3 m) compared to the soil cultivated by RT. Apart from H,, none of the examined sorption properties and pH differed significantly between the compared tillage technologies. Therefore, H can be considered as an important indicator of the change of basic chemical soil characteristics. While in RT, there was a significant correlation only between labile SOM fractions and basic soil chemical properties, in CT the sorption parameters and pH were influenced by labile and also stable SOM.