Impact of Long-Term Fertilization Practice on Soil Structure Evolution

The study characterized soil structure development and evolution in six plots that were amended with varying amounts of animal manure (AM) and NPK fertilizer over a period of 106 years in a long-term fertilization experiment in Bad Lauchstadt, Germany. Two intact soil cores (10-cm diameter and 8-cm tall) and bulk soil samples were extracted from a depth between 5 and 15-cm from each plot. Soil properties including texture, organic carbon, soil–water characteristic, air permeability and diffusivity were measured and analyzed along with X-ray computed tomography (CT) data. Long-term applications of AM and NPK had a major impact on soil organic carbon content which increased from 0.015 kg kg− 1 (unfertilized plot) to 0.024 kg kg− 1 (well fertilized plot, 30 T ha− 1 2y− 1 AM with NPK). Total porosity linearly followed the organic carbon gradient, increasing from 0.36 to 0.43 m3 m− 3. The water holding capacity of the soil was considerably increased with the increase of AM and NPK applications. Gas diffusivity and air permeability measurements clearly indicated that the level of soil aeration improved with increasing AM and NPK fertilizer amount. The three-dimensional X-ray CT visualizations revealed higher macroporosity and biological (earthworm) activity in the well fertilized areas when compared to plots without or only a small amount of fertilizer applied. A combined evaluation of the soil water characteristic, gas transport and X-ray CT results suggested that pore size distributions widened, and pore connectivity was significantly improved with increasing fertilizer amount. Furthermore, the soils fertilized with both AM and NPK showed a more aggregated structure than soils amended with AM only.

[1]  Shuangcai Li,et al.  Quantification of 3-D soil macropore networks in different soil types and land uses using computed tomography , 2010 .

[2]  E. Perfect,et al.  Effects of organic and inorganic fertilization on soil aggregation in an Ultisol as characterized by synchrotron based X-ray micro-computed tomography , 2013 .

[3]  D. Or,et al.  Water Retention and Characteristic Curve , 2005 .

[4]  Wolfgang Fink,et al.  Segmentation of X-Ray CT Data of Porous Materials: A Review of Global and Locally Adaptive Algorithms , 2015 .

[5]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Gas Transport Parameters in the Vadose Zone: Development and Tests of Power‐Law Models for Air Permeability , 2006 .

[6]  William E. Lorensen,et al.  Marching cubes: a high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm , 1996 .

[7]  Hans-Jörg Vogel,et al.  Quantification of soil structure based on Minkowski functions , 2010, Comput. Geosci..

[8]  Benjamin Schmid,et al.  A high-level 3D visualization API for Java and ImageJ , 2010, BMC Bioinformatics.

[9]  Robert P. Chapuis,et al.  Predicting the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils: a review , 2012, Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment.

[10]  D. Or,et al.  Liquid retention and interfacial area in variably saturated porous media: Upscaling from single‐pore to sample‐scale model , 1999 .

[11]  B. Wolf,et al.  Sustainable Soils: The Place of Organic Matter in Sustaining Soils and Their Productivity , 2003 .

[12]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Predicting the Gas Diffusion Coefficient in Repacked Soil Water‐Induced Linear Reduction Model , 2000 .

[13]  John C. Russ,et al.  The Image Processing Handbook , 2016, Microscopy and Microanalysis.

[14]  D. Wildenschild,et al.  Revealing Soil Structure and Functional Macroporosity along a Clay Gradient Using X-ray Computed Tomography , 2013 .

[15]  Porosity Analysis of Two Acrisols by X-Ray Computed Microtomography , 2009 .

[16]  G. Heckrath,et al.  Density of macropores as related to soil and earthworm community parameters in cultivated grasslands , 2011 .

[17]  Mark L. Rivers,et al.  Using X-ray computed tomography in hydrology: systems, resolutions, and limitations , 2002 .

[18]  Per Schjønning,et al.  IN SITU, ON-SITE AND LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS OF SOIL AIR PERMEABILITY: BOUNDARY CONDITIONS AND MEASUREMENT SCALE , 2001 .

[19]  Markus Tuller,et al.  Evaluation of an Advanced Benchtop Micro-Computed Tomography System for Quantifying Porosities and Pore-Size Distributions of Two Brazilian Oxisols , 2011 .

[20]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Modelling soil pore characteristics from measurements of air exchange: the long‐term effects of fertilization and crop rotation , 2002 .

[21]  G. Gee,et al.  Particle-size Analysis , 2018, SSSA Book Series.

[22]  Matti Pietikäinen,et al.  Adaptive document image binarization , 2000, Pattern Recognit..

[23]  W. Stepniewski.  Oxygen-diffusion and strength as related to soil compaction. I. ODR. , 1980 .

[24]  I. Merbach,et al.  Long-term fertilization effects on crop yields, soil fertility and sustainability in the Static Fertilization Experiment Bad Lauchstädt under climatic conditions 2001–2010 , 2013 .

[25]  Shulan Zhang,et al.  Long-term-fertilization effects on soil organic carbon, physical properties, and wheat yield of a loess soil , 2011 .

[26]  M. Deurer,et al.  The impact of soil carbon management on soil macropore structure: a comparison of two apple orchard systems in New Zealand , 2009 .

[27]  Hans-Jörg Vogel,et al.  Soil‐structure development including seasonal dynamics in a long‐term fertilization experiment , 2011 .

[28]  Per Schjønning,et al.  Predicting the Gas Diffusion Coefficient in Undisturbed Soil from Soil Water Characteristics , 2000 .

[29]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Linking Soil Physical Parameters Along a Density Gradient in a Loess-Soil Long-Term Experiment , 2012 .

[30]  Ş. Kılıç,et al.  Effects of compost, mycorrhiza, manure and fertilizer on some physical properties of a Chromoxerert soil , 2004 .

[31]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Density and permeability of a loess soil: Long-term organic matter effect and the response to compressive stress , 2013 .

[32]  P. Williams,et al.  Effects of pasture improvement and intensive cultivation on microbial biomass, enzyme activities, and composition and size of earthworm populations , 1994, Biology and Fertility of Soils.

[33]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Gas Permeability in Undisturbed Soils: Measurements and Predictive Models , 1998 .

[34]  S. O. Prasher,et al.  Three‐Dimensional Quantification of Macropore Networks in Undisturbed Soil Cores , 1999 .

[35]  David J. Chittleborough,et al.  3D‐visualization and analysis of macro‐ and meso‐porosity of the upper horizons of a sodic, texture‐contrast soil , 2007 .

[36]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Two-Chamber, Two-Gas and One-Chamber, One-Gas Methods for Measuring the Soil-Gas Diffusion Coefficient: Validation and Inter-calibration , 2013 .

[37]  N. Ferro,et al.  Dual-scale micro-CT assessment of soil structure in a long-term fertilization experiment , 2013 .

[38]  Van Genuchten,et al.  A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils , 1980 .

[39]  L. Feldkamp,et al.  Practical cone-beam algorithm , 1984 .

[40]  S. Mooney,et al.  Investigating the effects of organic and conventional management on soil aggregate stability using X‐ray computed tomography , 2009 .

[41]  R. J. Haynes,et al.  Influence of lime, fertilizer and manure applications on soil organic matter content and soil physical conditions: a review , 1998, Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems.

[42]  B. Christensen,et al.  Physical and chemical properties of a sandy loam receiving animal manure, mineral fertilizer or no fertilizer for 90 years , 1994 .

[43]  Sandra J Shefelbine,et al.  BoneJ: Free and extensible bone image analysis in ImageJ. , 2010, Bone.

[44]  P. S. Blackwell,et al.  The use of air‐filled porosity and intrinsic permeability to air to characterize structure of macropore space and saturated hydraulic conductivity of clay soils , 1990 .

[45]  Shangguan Zhouping,et al.  Effects of long-term repeated mineral and organic fertilizer applications on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in a semi-arid cropland , 2013 .

[46]  P. Schjønning,et al.  Generalized Density-Corrected Model for Gas Diffusivity in Variably Saturated Soils , 2011 .

[47]  K. Ritz,et al.  Investigating microbial micro-habitat structure using X-ray computed tomography , 2006 .

[48]  M. Amato,et al.  Relationships between soil structure, root distribution and water uptake of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Plant growth and water distribution , 2000 .