Articles | Volume 8, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-177-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-177-2022
Original research article
 | 
17 Mar 2022
Original research article |  | 17 Mar 2022

Long-term impact of cover crop and reduced disturbance tillage on soil pore size distribution and soil water storage

Samuel N. Araya, Jeffrey P. Mitchell, Jan W. Hopmans, and Teamrat A. Ghezzehei

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Cited articles

Abdalla, M., Hastings, A., Cheng, K., Yue, Q., Chadwick, D., Espenberg, M., Truu, J., Rees, R. M., and Smith, P.: A critical review of the impacts of cover crops on nitrogen leaching, net greenhouse gas balance and crop productivity, Glob. Chang. Biol., 25, 2530–2543, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14644, 2019. 
Abdollahi, L., Schjønning, P., Elmholt, S., and Munkholm, L. J.: The effects of organic matter application and intensive tillage and traffic on soil structure formation and stability, Soil Tillage Res., 136, 28–37, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2013.09.011, 2014. 
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for computing crop water requirements – FAO Irrigation and drainage paper 56, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, ISBN 92-5-104219-5, 1998. 
Alletto, L., Pot, V., Giuliano, S., Costes, M., Perdrieux, F., and Justes, E.: Temporal variation in soil physical properties improves the water dynamics modeling in a conventionally-tilled soil, Geoderma, 243–244, 18–28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.12.006, 2015. 
Alvarez, R. and Steinbach, H. S.: A review of the effects of tillage systems on some soil physical properties, water content, nitrate availability and crops yield in the Argentine Pampas, Soil Tillage Res., 104, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.STILL.2009.02.005, 2009. 
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Short summary
We studied the long-term effects of no-till (NT) and winter cover cropping (CC) practices on soil hydraulic properties. We measured soil water retention and conductivity and also conducted numerical simulations to compare soil water storage abilities under the different systems. Soils under NT and CC practices had improved soil structure. Conservation agriculture practices showed marginal improvement with respect to infiltration rates and water storage.
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