Tillage Impact.pdf

Soil quality depends on structure, natural productivity, and human influence, with tillage being a major management practice affecting soil physical parameters. Reduced tillage and no tillage often result in lower crop yields than conventional tillage due to soil compaction, residue management, and weed and pest incidence. However, long-term no tillage increases organic carbon content, positively affecting soil structure and microbiota activity. The effect of tillage on soil microbial populations has been studied, with results showing that bacteria and fungi are more abundant under no-tillage than conventional tillage. An experiment in Lithuania explored the effect of tillage intensity on soil physical conditions and biological activity, finding that tillage intensity positively affected microbial substrate utilization and urease activity, but negatively affected dehydrogenase activity, bacteria and fungi amounts, and Shannon diversity index of microbiological community. Higher total porosity provoked higher enzyme activity, but microbial activity correlated negatively with bulk density.