Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset

<p>Tillage is a central element in agricultural soil management and has direct and indirect effects on processes in the biosphere. Effects of agricultural soil management can be assessed by soil, crop, and ecosystem models, but global assessments are hampered by lack of information on the type...

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Main Authors: V. Porwollik, S. Rolinski, J. Heinke, C. Müller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2019-06-01
Series:Earth System Science Data
Online Access:https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/11/823/2019/essd-11-823-2019.pdf
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author V. Porwollik
S. Rolinski
J. Heinke
C. Müller
author_facet V. Porwollik
S. Rolinski
J. Heinke
C. Müller
author_sort V. Porwollik
collection DOAJ
description <p>Tillage is a central element in agricultural soil management and has direct and indirect effects on processes in the biosphere. Effects of agricultural soil management can be assessed by soil, crop, and ecosystem models, but global assessments are hampered by lack of information on the type of tillage and their spatial distribution. This study describes the generation of a classification of tillage practices and presents the spatially explicit mapping of these crop-specific tillage systems for around the year 2005.</p> <p>Tillage practices differ by the kind of equipment used, soil surface and depth affected, timing, and their purpose within the cropping systems. We classified the broad variety of globally relevant tillage practices into six categories: no-tillage in the context of Conservation Agriculture, traditional annual, traditional rotational, rotational, reduced, and conventional annual tillage. The identified tillage systems were allocated to gridded crop-specific cropland areas with a resolution of 5&thinsp;arcmin. Allocation rules were based on literature findings and combine area information on crop type, water management regime, field size, water erosion, income, and aridity. We scaled reported national Conservation Agriculture areas down to grid cells via a probability-based approach for 54 countries. We provide area estimates of the six tillage systems aggregated to global and country scale. We found that 8.67&thinsp;Mkm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span> of global cropland area was tilled intensively at least once a year, whereas the remaining 2.65&thinsp;Mkm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span> was tilled less intensely. Further, we identified 4.67&thinsp;Mkm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span> of cropland as an area where Conservation Agriculture could be expanded to under current conditions.</p> <p>The tillage classification enables the parameterization of different soil management practices in various kinds of model simulations. The crop-specific tillage dataset indicates the spatial distribution of soil management practices, which is a prerequisite to assess erosion, carbon sequestration potential, as well as water, and nutrient dynamics of cropland soils. The dynamic definition of the allocation rules and accounting for national statistics, such as the share of Conservation Agriculture per country, also allow for derivation of datasets for historical and future global soil management scenarios. The resulting tillage system dataset and source code are accessible via an open-data repository (DOIs: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.009">https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.009</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.010">https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.010</a>, Porwollik et al., 2019a, b).</p>
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spelling doaj.art-20282c71be9a4f5ea098c7b3c6a7d3c42022-12-22T00:49:01ZengCopernicus PublicationsEarth System Science Data1866-35081866-35162019-06-011182384310.5194/essd-11-823-2019Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage datasetV. PorwollikS. RolinskiJ. HeinkeC. Müller<p>Tillage is a central element in agricultural soil management and has direct and indirect effects on processes in the biosphere. Effects of agricultural soil management can be assessed by soil, crop, and ecosystem models, but global assessments are hampered by lack of information on the type of tillage and their spatial distribution. This study describes the generation of a classification of tillage practices and presents the spatially explicit mapping of these crop-specific tillage systems for around the year 2005.</p> <p>Tillage practices differ by the kind of equipment used, soil surface and depth affected, timing, and their purpose within the cropping systems. We classified the broad variety of globally relevant tillage practices into six categories: no-tillage in the context of Conservation Agriculture, traditional annual, traditional rotational, rotational, reduced, and conventional annual tillage. The identified tillage systems were allocated to gridded crop-specific cropland areas with a resolution of 5&thinsp;arcmin. Allocation rules were based on literature findings and combine area information on crop type, water management regime, field size, water erosion, income, and aridity. We scaled reported national Conservation Agriculture areas down to grid cells via a probability-based approach for 54 countries. We provide area estimates of the six tillage systems aggregated to global and country scale. We found that 8.67&thinsp;Mkm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span> of global cropland area was tilled intensively at least once a year, whereas the remaining 2.65&thinsp;Mkm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span> was tilled less intensely. Further, we identified 4.67&thinsp;Mkm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>2</sup></span> of cropland as an area where Conservation Agriculture could be expanded to under current conditions.</p> <p>The tillage classification enables the parameterization of different soil management practices in various kinds of model simulations. The crop-specific tillage dataset indicates the spatial distribution of soil management practices, which is a prerequisite to assess erosion, carbon sequestration potential, as well as water, and nutrient dynamics of cropland soils. The dynamic definition of the allocation rules and accounting for national statistics, such as the share of Conservation Agriculture per country, also allow for derivation of datasets for historical and future global soil management scenarios. The resulting tillage system dataset and source code are accessible via an open-data repository (DOIs: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.009">https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.009</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.010">https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.010</a>, Porwollik et al., 2019a, b).</p>https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/11/823/2019/essd-11-823-2019.pdf
spellingShingle V. Porwollik
S. Rolinski
J. Heinke
C. Müller
Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset
Earth System Science Data
title Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset
title_full Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset
title_fullStr Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset
title_full_unstemmed Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset
title_short Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset
title_sort generating a rule based global gridded tillage dataset
url https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/11/823/2019/essd-11-823-2019.pdf
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AT srolinski generatingarulebasedglobalgriddedtillagedataset
AT jheinke generatingarulebasedglobalgriddedtillagedataset
AT cmuller generatingarulebasedglobalgriddedtillagedataset