Habitat disturbance affects numerous ecosystem components and processes, but its effect on continuous soybean system is less available. Soybean was seeded following six preceding crops, including grain soybean (Glycine max L. Merill.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), corn (Zea mays L.) and hemp (Cannabis Satia L.), on a Mollisol ...

Long-term rotation experiments were established at five sites (Tully, Ingham, Ayr, Mackay and Bundaberg) in sugar growing areas of coastal Queensland, Australia in 1993 and 1994. The rotations or breaks consisted of either pasture, crop other than sugarcane, or bare fallow for various periods of time ranging from 6 to 42 months. The type of break established three basic soil management strategi...

The reasons why some plant species were selected as crops and others were abandoned during the Neolithic emergence of agriculture are poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that the traits of Fertile Crescent crop progenitors were advantageous in the fertile, disturbed habitats surrounding early settlements and in cultivated fields. We screened functional traits related to competition and ...

Reducing the tillage of agricultural soils can increase early-season crop-P uptake. Consistent increases in plant-P have been found in both fieldand laboratory-systems with undisturbed (U) compared to disturbed (D) soil. A concomitant stimulatory effect on colonization of roots in U soil by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi has been found in some cases, but in others the colonization has been s...

An improved crop rows detection presented based-Hough transform. In the paper, the two argument r q 、 of peaks in Hough space were mapped into the Cartesian coordinate system to extract straight line segments fitting the crop rows, in which the template matching was firstly designed to filter the noises from isolated, or scattering points, then the weighted averaging were employed to eliminate ...

Tillage controls perennial weeds, such as Elymus repens, partly because it fragments their underground storage organs. However, tillage is difficult to combine with a growing crop, which limits its application. The aim of this study was to evaluate how soil vertical cutting with minimum soil disturbance and mowing affect the growth and competitive ability of E. repens in a grass-clover crop. A ...

Conservation agriculture (CA) integrates ecological management with scientific agricultural production. CA promotes minimal disturbance of the soil by tillage (zero tillage), balanced application of chemical inputs (only as required for improved soil quality and healthy crop and animal production), and careful management of residues and wastes. CA Promotes application of fertilizers, pesticides...

Conservation agriculture (CA) is promoted as a cropping system that has potential to alleviate poor crop yields in smallholder farming while protecting the environment. It involves maintenance of permanent soil cover, diverse crop rotations and/or interactions; and minimum soil disturbance. CA is associated with crop residue management challenges due to low crop biomass yields and crop-livestoc...

Land-use conversion into bioenergy crop production can alter litter decomposition processes tightly coupled to soil carbon and nutrient dynamics. Yet, litter decomposition has been poorly described in bioenergy production systems, especially following land-use conversion. Predicting decomposition dynamics in postconversion bioenergy production systems is challenging because of the combined infl...

In recent decades, there has been growing interest among farming and scientific communities toward integrated crop– range–livestock farming because of evidence of increased crop production, soil health, environmental services and resilience to increased climatic variability. This paper reviews studies on existing cropping systems and integrated crop– range–livestock systems across the USA which...