Soil Tillage, subject area within SLU Agricultural Long-Term Experiments
Project overview
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Short summary
Tillage is practiced to create optimal conditions for crop growth, incorporate crop residues and control weeds and pathogens, but requires considerable amounts of energy. Minimal tillage may have ecological benefits but typically results in a crop yield decline.
The long-term field experiments managed by the subject area Soil tillage are designed to monitor the long-term changes in soil structure, soil biota and soil organic carbon as well as crop yield in different soil tillage systems, and to evaluate potential trade-offs and synergies between crop yield and other soil functions. Five experiments on mineral soils combine different tillage practices with different i) crop rotations, ii) soil compaction levels, iii) liming options, iv) crop residue management, and v) fertilizer placement, while one experiment on an organic soil investigates vi) soil organic carbon losses in different tillage practices. The currently six long-term field experiments were initiated between 1974 and 2022, with three experiments located close to Uppsala and one experiment each in Västra Götaland, Västerbotten and Gotland. Besides long-term monitoring, the experiments are also used in shorter-term research projects, for example to evaluate the impact of tillage system or compaction level on crop drought response.