Soil erosion, due to intensive agricultural practices, has been and continues to be of significant concern in the Whitewater Watershed, a coldwater tributary of the Mississippi River, in southeastern Minnesota. Conservation efforts, in the form of best management practices (BMPs) have been underway for many years and a number of residents have enrolled in various government programs designed to...

Soil degradation is one of the most serious ecological problems in the world. In arid and semi-arid northern China, soil degradation predominantly arises from wind erosion. Trends in soil degradation caused by wind erosion in northern China frequently change with human activities and climatic change. To decrease soil loss by wind erosion and enhance local ecosystems, the Chinese government has ...

A series of soil conservation measures have been carried out to reduce soil loss on the Loess Plateau of China since 1950s, and the biologic measures were implemented according to topographic factors such as slope and elevation; therefore, the changes in topographic factors of land use can indicate the effects of the biologic measures. The objectives of this study were to (i) analyze the land u...

Abstract: Ridge culture is a special conservation tillage method, but the long-term influence of this tillage system on soil aggregate-size stability in paddy fields is largely unknown in southwest of china. The objectives of this paper are to evaluate soil aggregates stability and to determine the relationship between SOC and soil aggregate stability.Soil samples at 0-20 cm layer were adopted ...

Terracing is one of the oldest means of saving soil and water. The objective of this paper is to provide information on the different types of terraces and their functioning, and to describe advantages and disadvantages of terraces regarding their efficacy to stop or reduce soil erosion. Existing literature and information shows that terraces can considerably reduce soil loss due to water erosi...

Conservation tillage is an extensively used agricultural practice in northern China that alters soil texture and nutrient conditions, causing changes in the soil microbial community. However, how conservation tillage affects rhizosphere and bulk soil fungal communities during plant growth remains unclear. The present study investigated the effect of long-term (6 years) conservation (chisel plow...

Literature reporting the development of conservation tillage and the research that has been conducted on nematode control in crops grown in conservation tillage systems is reviewed. Effects of different types of conservation tillage on population densities of various nematode species in monocropping and multicropping systems, effects of tillage on nematode distribution in the soil profile, effe...