Conservation tillage and organic farming reduce soil erosion

Guest Editorial: Conservation Tillage for Organic Farming

There is interest in reducing or even eliminating tillage in organic production systems. In this special Issue, research teams in Europe and North America summarize recent and on-going efforts to develop conservation-tillage systems that can be used on commercial organic farms. While progress is being made in the development of organic no-tillage (no-till) systems, considerable work still needs...

Strategies for soil conservation in no-tillage and organic farming systems

John R. Teasdale is a plant physiologist at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland. N o-tillage cropping systems are known to provide many benefits to soils that can enhance production of grain crops. Many of the improvements to soils that result from no-tillage production such as increases in soil aggregation, water-holding cap...

Soil Erosion and Conservation

Dynamics of Soil Organic Carbon and Microbial Biomass Carbon in Relation to Water Erosion and Tillage Erosion

Dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) are associated with soil erosion, yet there is a shortage of research concerning the relationship between soil erosion, SOC, and especially microbial biomass carbon (MBC). In this paper, we selected two typical slope landscapes including gentle and steep slopes from the Sichuan Basin, China, and used the (137)Cs technique to determine the effects of water e...

Soil erosion estimation in conservation tillage systems with poultry litter application using RUSLE 2.0 model

Soil erosion is a major threat to global economic and environmental sustainability. This study evaluated long-term effects of conservation tillage with poultry litter application on soil erosion estimates in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plots using RUSLE 2.0 computer model. Treatments consisting of no-till, mulch-till, and conventional tillage systems, winter rye (Secale cereale L.) cover cro...