TY - JOUR AB - Agricultural production in Central Europe increasingly suffers from extreme drought events. Improving root access to nutrient and water resources in the subsoil below the plow layer is a potential option to maintain productivity during dry summers. Here, we tested a strip-wise subsoil amelioration method that combines subsoil loosening with organic matter incorporation into the subsoil (biowaste or green waste compost) and compared it with a treatment of only subsoil loosening and a non-ameliorated control. A field experiment with randomized block design was conducted on a Luvisol with an argic horizon (Bt), with a rotation of spring barley and winter wheat. In the first two years after amelioration, we monitored soil physico-chemical parameters, microbial biomass, and shoot and root growth at anthesis as well as harvested grain yield and quality. Subsoil loosening with organic matter incorporation significantly decreased soil bulk density at the depth of compost incorporation when biowaste compost was used, but not when green waste compost had been incorporated. Nutrient stocks, nutrient availability and microbial biomass were not consistently affected by the subsoil amelioration. Nevertheless, the incorporation of organic material, especially biowaste compost, significantly increased root growth into the subsoil and subsequently significantly enhanced crop nutrient uptake, biomass and grain yield production. Green waste compost incorporation had less pronounced effects, with an increase in grain yield only in the second year after amelioration. Differences in crop development could not be explained by any single soil parameter, suggesting that it was rather a combined effect of loosened subsoil and better supply of subsoil resources that resulted in an increase in subsoil root length density and subsequently led to better crop performance. AU - Bauke, S.L.* AU - Seidel, S.J.* AU - Athmann, M.* AU - Berns, A.E.* AU - Braun, M.* AU - Gocke, M.I.* AU - Guigue, J.* AU - Kautz, T.* AU - Kögel-Knabner, I.* AU - Ohan, J. AU - Rillig, M.* AU - Schloter, M. AU - Schmittmann, O.* AU - Schulz, S. AU - Uhlig, D.* AU - Schnepf, A.* AU - Amelung, W.* C1 - 68823 C2 - 53698 CY - Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands TI - Short-term effects of subsoil management by strip-wise loosening and incorporation of organic material. JO - Soil Tillage Res. VL - 236 PB - Elsevier PY - 2024 SN - 0167-1987 ER - TY - JOUR AB - After reclamation of open-cast mining pits, soil formation starts from the deposited calcareous loess characterised by its basic physical and chemical properties whereas soil biology and structure need to develop to achieve a fully functional soil. In this study we used a chronosequence approach to elucidate soil formation on agriculturally reclaimed loess soils in an open-cast lignite mining area in Garzweiler (Germany). We selected six fields aged 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 years after the first seeding in order to observe the initial stage of development of soil properties and assess the role of management with conventional crop rotation in soil structure formation and soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation. Loess parent material had a strong impact on aggregation, as CaCO3 acted as a strong cementing agent. Alfalfa cultivation in the pioneering phase was of high importance in the development of microbial biomass, as it protects microbes from N limitation. Soil macroporosity and pore connectivity increased only after compost application and ploughing during agricultural crop rotation. Soil organic matter (SOM) build-up was strongly dependent on the addition of compost, as crop residues from conventional crop rotation are not sufficient to maintain high SOC contents. AU - Pihlap, E.* AU - Vuko, M. AU - Lucas, M.* AU - Steffens, M.* AU - Schloter, M. AU - Vetterlein, D.* AU - Endenich, M.* AU - Kögel-Knabner, I.* C1 - 55923 C2 - 46654 CY - Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands SP - 224-237 TI - Initial soil formation in an agriculturally reclaimed open-cast mining area - the role of management and loess parent material. JO - Soil Tillage Res. VL - 191 PB - Elsevier PY - 2019 SN - 0167-1987 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Frequently, organic fertilizers are applied to maintain or to increase soil fertility and plant yields. However, as the N availability of organic fertilizers is difficult to calculate, applied fertilizer N may be subject to loss, particularly through leaching. The objective of this study was to evaluate the fate of fertilizer N from two common organic manures (chicken manure, mushroom compost) in arable topsoil during one winter cover cropping and cropping season. For this purpose, 15N-labelled fertilizers were produced by feeding chicken with 15N-labelled maize pellets and by incubating a mushroom substrate with 15N-labelled mineral fertilizer, respectively. Thereafter, the 15N uptake by a mustard winter cover crop, its release to the main crop (sugar beet), and its retention in soil were investigated in two differently textured soils under otherwise identical conditions during a period of 400 days. Mineral K15NO3 fertilizer served as control. In the surface soil (0–10 cm), only 20–40% of the applied 15N was recovered after the first 50–60 days, which was the period of mustard growth. Thereafter, the amount of 15N recovered in the soil increased again until day 259, reflecting the re-release of the fertilizer N from the winter cover crop in all treatments. The fertilizer N recovery in the winter cover crop itself was highest for mushroom compost (60%), followed by mineral fertilizer (50%) whereas it was almost not detectable for chicken manure (3%). Soil texture did not affect the overall retention of the fertilizer N in soil, and even after 400 days we recovered 67% of the fertilizer N from mushroom compost, 37% from chicken manure and 28% from the mineral fertilizer (0–30 cm). The following main crop, sugar beet, still utilized between 7 and 13% of the initial fertilizer addition from the previous summer. We conclude that mustard winter cover cropping after organic fertilization is efficient in retaining available N during winter time, and mushroom compost is better than mineral N-fertilizer and chicken manure in respect of being a slow and sustainable N fertilizer source for the plants at reduced N losses. AU - Holbeck, B.* AU - Amelung, W.* AU - Wolf, A.* AU - Südekum, K.-H.* AU - Schloter, M. AU - Welp, G.* C1 - 23691 C2 - 31239 SP - 120-127 TI - Recoveries of 15N-labelled fertilizers (chicken manure, mushroom compost and potassium nitrate) in arable topsoil after autumn application to winter cover crops. JO - Soil Tillage Res. VL - 130 PB - Elsevier Science PY - 2013 SN - 0167-1987 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The choice of tillage system affects crop growth and soil nitrogen dynamics. Models help us to better understand these systems and the interaction of the processes involved. Objectives were to test a calibration and validation scheme for applications of the denitrification-decomposition (DNDC) model to describe a long-term field experiment with conventional tillage (CT) and reduced tillage (RI) at two sites (G and silty Haplic Luvisols) near Gottingen, Germany (G-CT, G-RI, H-CT, H-RI). Crop growth of field bean (Vicia faba L) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L) as well as soil water dynamics and nitrous oxide (N(2)O) emissions were determined for two subsequent years. A model test was performed based on a model parameterization to best describe the case G-CT. This parameterization was then applied to the other cases as a retrospective simulation. Results of model variant vi (no parameter optimization) indicated that soil water contents were not accurately simulated using the DNDC default values for a silt loam. After successful calibration of the soil water flow model using modified water-filled pore spaces at field capacity and wilting point and a modified hydro-conductivity that led to a good fit of the measured water content data, grain yields were markedly underestimated and modelled N(2)O emissions were too large (v2). An optimization of the crop properties (maximum grain yield. N fixation index, thermal degree days, transpiration coefficient) was essential for a better match of measured yields (v3). Further adjustments in the model (v4) were required to better match cumulative N(2)O emissions: reducing the initial soil organic carbon content and mineralization rates. Predictions of crop yields and annual cumulative N(2)O emissions using model variant v4 were fairly accurate for the reduced tillage system G-RI and also for the second field experiment H-CT and H-RI, but annual distributions of N(2)O emissions were not. Overall our results indicate that site specific calibration was an essential requirement for the silty German sites, and that the pedotransfer functions and denitrification submodel of DNDC may need further improvement. AU - Ludwig, B.* AU - Bergstermann, A.* AU - Priesack, E. AU - Flessa, H.* C1 - 5257 C2 - 28723 SP - 114-121 TI - Modelling of crop yields and N2O emissions from silty arable soils with differing tillage in two long-term experiments. JO - Soil Tillage Res. VL - 112 IS - 2 PB - Elsevier PY - 2011 SN - 0167-1987 ER - TY - JOUR AU - Auerswald, K.* AU - Gerl, G. AU - Kainz, M.* C1 - 3053 C2 - 23642 SP - 22-34 TI - Influence of cropping system on harvest erosion under potato. JO - Soil Tillage Res. VL - 89 PY - 2006 SN - 0167-1987 ER -