Short-Term Effect of Different Tillage Systems on Soil Salinity, Density and Nutrients in Irrigated Wheat. Case Study: Agricultural Land, City of Chenaran– Khorasan Razavi

This study was designed to investigate the effects of different tillage systems on some parameters such as soil salinity (pH, EC, SAR), soil density and nutrients in a nested experimental design with three treatments (no tillage, reduced tillage and conventional tillage) and three replications. Chenaran city fields were selected as the case study areas. Result of the statistical analysis indicates that no tillage system with 0.12, 12.04 and 360.29 mg.kg-1 of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium respectively, produced the highest levels. As in the case of the conventional tillage, the lowest amounts of soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was reached as respectively 0.07, 8.55 and 261.48 mg.kg-1. By changing tillage system from conventional tillage to no tillage, soil bulk density and porosity changed to a range of 1.41 to 1.29 gr.cm-3and 47.58 to 52.45%. Likewise, the no tillage had the highest electrical conductivity (1.78 decisiemens) and sodium adsorption ratio (9.22) and the lowest amount of acidity (7.65). In the case of the conventional tillage system, the lowest electrical conductivity (1.19 decisiemens) and sodium adsorption ratio (7.52) and the highest acidity (7.77) was observed. Although soil salinity and density under the conventional tillage treatment compared to the no tillage method show lower values, but it seems that improvement of the physiochemical properties of soil in the long-term approach is different from the short-term. So these studies on longer timescales and for different climatic conditions are recommended.