Non-inversion tillage benefits soil N retention during bare soil period coinciding with wet spell

Holzkämper, Annelie; Spiess, Ernst; Humphrys, Clay; Meier-Zimmermann, Karin; Heller, Olivier; Keller, Thomas; Prasuhn, Volker

doi:10.5194/soil-12-733-2026

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-733-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-733-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

Original research article

|

03 Jul 2026

Original research article |

| 03 Jul 2026

Non-inversion tillage benefits soil N retention during bare soil period coinciding with wet spell

Annelie Holzkämper, Ernst Spiess, Clay Humphrys, Karin Meier-Zimmermann, Olivier Heller, Thomas Keller, and Volker Prasuhn

Data sets

Lysimeter reserach data in support of Holzkämper et al. 2026 SOIL Annelie Holzkämper et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20825203

Short summary

We studied whether reduced soil disturbance can lower nitrate losses from farmland in Switzerland. In a large lysimeter experiment, we compared chisel ploughing with conventional ploughing.

Reduced tillage lowered nitrate leaching by up to 42 percent in some soils during a very rainy period without crop cover. The results suggest that reduced soil management could help protect water quality under future climate conditions with wetter winter and spring conditions.