Effects of Soil Conservation Practices on Soil Properties in a Cotton and Soybean System in West Tennessee

Integration of conservation agriculture practices can provide benefits to crop production. The number of studies focusing on conservation agriculture practices’ effects on sustainable agriculture and environment have increased. In this study, two different experimental field were focused on. In the first one, we evaluated different tillage systems, cover crops and nitrogen fertilizer rates impact on soil properties which are soil total organic carbon (TOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), total nitrogen (TN) and wet aggregate stability (WAS) under continuous cotton production. The results showed that cover crops were statistically significant in increasing all the properties measured. No-till only increased WAS and TOC compared to conventional tillage among the soil properties. Overall conservation practices had potential for enhancing soil properties on a long-term experiment. in the second study, effect of different rate of biochar on hydro-physical properties of fluvial deposits was evaluated. In this study, soil organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) infiltration, bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity Ksat and moisture content were analyzed. The results indicated that Biochar rate over 82 t/ha has increased total organic carbon at both depths (0-5/5-15cm) while it has decreased bulk density significantly at 0-5 and 5-15 cm. 20.5, 41 and 82 t/ha rates of biochar showed higher moisture content compared to the other treatments. Except the highest rate of biochar, the other treatments showed no effect on total nitrogen at 0-5 cm. these are two studies evaluating conservation practices impacts on soil properties under different main crops. More similar studies are needed to help farmers to make decision of selecting the most proper practice for their production systems.