Institute of Geography, University of Augsburg, Alter Postweg 118, 86159, Augsburg, Germany.
Landscape Pedology Working Group, Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research ZALF e.V., Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374, Müncheberg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 1;12(1):20704. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-24749-7.
Tillage erosion is a widely underestimated process initiating soil degradation especially in case of large agricultural fields located in rolling topography. It is often assumed that, conservation, non-inversion tillage causes less tillage erosion than conventional inversion tillage. In this study, tillage erosion was determined on three paired plots comparing non-inversion chisel versus inversion mouldboard tillage. The experiments were performed at three sites in Northeast Germany with gentle, moderate, and steep slope, while tillage depth (0.25 m) and speed (≈ 6 km h) were kept constant during all experiments. The results indicate that non-inversion tillage produces significantly more soil movement compared to inversion tillage. The soil translocation distance was by a factor of 1.3-2.1 larger in case of chisel tillage. The largest difference in translocation distance and tillage transport coefficient (k) was found on the gentle slope exhibiting the lowest soil cohesion. Our results together with an evaluation of k values derived from literature and standardised for 0.25 m tillage depth contradict the general assumption that non-inversion tillage reduces tillage erosion. In tillage erosion dominated areas, non-inversion tillage applied with high tillage speed and depth potentially increases tillage erosion and fails its purpose to serve as soil conservation measure.
耕作侵蚀是一个广泛被低估的过程，特别是在位于起伏地形的大型农田中，会引发土壤退化。通常认为，与常规的反转耕作相比，保护性的免耕不会造成那么多的耕作侵蚀。在这项研究中，通过对比免耕凿式耕作和翻耕犁耕，在三个成对的试验区中确定了耕作侵蚀。该实验在德国东北部的三个地点进行，坡度分别为平缓、中等和陡峭，而所有实验中耕作深度（0.25 米）和速度（≈6 公里/小时）保持不变。结果表明，免耕比翻耕产生了更多的土壤移动。在凿式耕作的情况下，土壤迁移距离是犁耕的 1.3-2.1 倍。在土壤内聚力最低的缓坡上，迁移距离和耕作输移系数（k）的差异最大。我们的结果，以及对从文献中得出并标准化为 0.25 米耕作深度的 k 值的评估，与免耕减少耕作侵蚀的普遍假设相矛盾。在以耕作侵蚀为主的地区，高速和深度的免耕可能会增加耕作侵蚀，使其无法作为土壤保持措施发挥作用。
