During decades, in semiarid rainfed Aragon, intensive soil tillage and low crop residue input have led to the loss of soil structure and soil degradation. Conservation tillage and cropping intensification can improve soil structure in these areas. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of three different tillage systems (traditional tillage, reduced tillage and no-tillage) u...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cover crop mixture diversity on cover crop function. Specifically, this study evaluated the effect of cover crop species and functional richness on aboveground biomass productivity, weed suppression, soil nutrient retention, soil microbial community characteristics, and performance stability. Twenty to forty cover crop treatments were re...

soil compaction has become a widespread problem in the world and it is considered as one of the main factors affecting land degradation in arid and semi-arid agricultural land. the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of soil compaction on soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration, physical (aggregate stability, saturated soil moisture content, bulk density, and porosity) and chemical ...

SOIL pore space and its intrinsic characteristics such as surface area, roughness, tortuosity, and connectivity are probably the most important factors controlling water and solute movement in soils. Interaggregate porosity is the result of the arrangement of the soil aggregates. These aggregates are composed of subunits, of which clay minerals and other colloids are the main components. The wa...

To test direct and indirect effects of glomalin, mycorrhizal hyphae, and roots on aggregate stability, perspex pots separated by 37-μm nylon mesh in the middle were used to form root-free hyphae and root/hyphae chambers, where trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) seedlings were colonized by Funneliformis mosseae or Paraglomus occultum in the root/hyphae chamber. Both fungal species induced s...