Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale
Maintaining soil health and sustainable crop production has been challenged by climate variability and wind erosion in semi-arid regions. To understand the initial effects of the transition of tilled cotton systems to no-tillage with winter wheat as a cover crop, we sampled 18 commercial grower site...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Soil Systems |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/7/3/72 |
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| author | Veronica Acosta-Martinez Jon Cotton Lindsey C. Slaughter Rajan Ghimire Wayne Roper |
| author_facet | Veronica Acosta-Martinez Jon Cotton Lindsey C. Slaughter Rajan Ghimire Wayne Roper |
| author_sort | Veronica Acosta-Martinez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Maintaining soil health and sustainable crop production has been challenged by climate variability and wind erosion in semi-arid regions. To understand the initial effects of the transition of tilled cotton systems to no-tillage with winter wheat as a cover crop, we sampled 18 commercial grower sites from 2019 to 2022 in the Southern High Plains (SHP). We evaluated the soil biological component, which often responds rapidly to changes in residue additions or minimized soil disturbance providing an early indication of changes in soil health, especially in the low organic matter soils in this region. After two years, compared to tilled systems, no-till systems had significant increases in ester-linked fatty acid methyl ester (EL-FAME) bacterial and saprophytic and AMF fungal markers, enzyme activities of nutrient cycling, and various SOM pools, under both center-pivot irrigation and dryland. Similar increases were also observed in two dryland sites sampled before and up to two years after transition to no-till. Our study demonstrates the potential of no-tillage and cover crops to improve soil health in cotton production in semiarid regions, and a framework for a soil health assessment that links different soil health indicators with functions related to soil organic matter, soil water, and biogeochemical cycling. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:59:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-27c31d4676d64327beb8c7f7d3b16247 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2571-8789 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:59:08Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Soil Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-27c31d4676d64327beb8c7f7d3b162472023-11-19T12:59:49ZengMDPI AGSoil Systems2571-87892023-08-01737210.3390/soilsystems7030072Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site ScaleVeronica Acosta-Martinez0Jon Cotton1Lindsey C. Slaughter2Rajan Ghimire3Wayne Roper4USDA-ARS, Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, 3810 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79415, USAUSDA-ARS, Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, 3810 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79415, USADepartment of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79415, USAAgricultural Science Center, New Mexico State University, Clovis, NM 88101, USAUSDA-ARS, Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, 3810 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79415, USAMaintaining soil health and sustainable crop production has been challenged by climate variability and wind erosion in semi-arid regions. To understand the initial effects of the transition of tilled cotton systems to no-tillage with winter wheat as a cover crop, we sampled 18 commercial grower sites from 2019 to 2022 in the Southern High Plains (SHP). We evaluated the soil biological component, which often responds rapidly to changes in residue additions or minimized soil disturbance providing an early indication of changes in soil health, especially in the low organic matter soils in this region. After two years, compared to tilled systems, no-till systems had significant increases in ester-linked fatty acid methyl ester (EL-FAME) bacterial and saprophytic and AMF fungal markers, enzyme activities of nutrient cycling, and various SOM pools, under both center-pivot irrigation and dryland. Similar increases were also observed in two dryland sites sampled before and up to two years after transition to no-till. Our study demonstrates the potential of no-tillage and cover crops to improve soil health in cotton production in semiarid regions, and a framework for a soil health assessment that links different soil health indicators with functions related to soil organic matter, soil water, and biogeochemical cycling.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/7/3/72soil healthtillagecottondrylandcover cropscommercial fields enzyme activities |
| spellingShingle | Veronica Acosta-Martinez Jon Cotton Lindsey C. Slaughter Rajan Ghimire Wayne Roper Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale Soil Systems soil health tillage cotton dryland cover crops commercial fields enzyme activities |
| title | Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale |
| title_full | Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale |
| title_fullStr | Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale |
| title_full_unstemmed | Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale |
| title_short | Soil Health Assessment to Evaluate Conservation Practices in SemiArid Cotton Systems at Producer Site Scale |
| title_sort | soil health assessment to evaluate conservation practices in semiarid cotton systems at producer site scale |
| topic | soil health tillage cotton dryland cover crops commercial fields enzyme activities |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/7/3/72 |
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