Scholarship & Research
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Item An Overview of the Impact of Tillage and Cropping Systems on Soil Health in Agricultural Practices(Hindawi Limited, 2023-05) Bishnu Angon, Prodipto; Anjum, Nafisa; Masuma Akter, Mst.; KC, Shreejana; Parvin Suma, Rucksana; Jannat, SadiaThere is currently a demand to grow more crops in less area as a result of urbanization’s reduction of agricultural land. As a result, soil fertility is gradually declining. To maintain soil fertility, various management methods are used in modern times. The conventional tillage method is a traditional tillage method that damages soil structure, but zero tillage can improve soil quality. By maintaining soil structure with no-tillage, biological processes are frequently improved and microbial biodiversity is increased. This review helps to understand the role of tillage as well as cropping systems in increasing crop production by maintaining soil fertility. For agricultural production and environmental protection to be sustained for future generations, soil quality must be maintained and improved in continuous cropping systems. The nodulation, nitrogen fixation, and microbial community are all impacted by different cropping systems and tillage methods. They also alter soil properties including structure, aeration, and water utilization. The impact of tillage and cropping system practices such as zero and conventional tillage systems, crop rotation, intercropping, cover cropping, cultivator combinations, and prairie strip techniques on soil fertility is carefully summarized in this review. The result highlights that conservational tillage is much better than conventional tillage for soil quality and different aspects of different tillage and their interaction. On the other hand, intercropping, crop rotation, cover cropping, etc., increase the crop yield more than monocropping. Different types of cropping systems are highlighted along with their advantages and disadvantages. Using zero tillage can increase crop production as well as maintain soil fertility which is highlighted in this review. In terms of cropping systems and tillage management, our main goal is to improve crop yield while minimizing harm to the soil’s health.Item Effects of agricultural practices on microtopography in restored prairies(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2022) Cich, Karli Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Scott PowellTallgrass prairies are often restored from agricultural fields that have long since removed the natural microtopography. Therefore, our study investigates how these restored prairies recover microtopography. We used precise elevation data collected from LiDAR to compare differences in microtopography between crop fields, fallow fields, newer restored prairies (restored within the last 10 years), and older restored prairies (restored 10 to 20 years ago). We also compared plant biodiversity indices between newer and older restored prairies using nested plot vegetation sampling. Our first research question is how microtopography differs between the sites. Our results show that older restored prairies had the most microtopographic variation, followed by newly restored prairies. Our second research question is how plant biodiversity correlates with microtopographic variation. Our results show that older restored prairies had the highest biodiversity and the highest microtopographic variation. Our third research question is how microtopographic variation changes between 2011 LiDAR data to the 2021 LiDAR data. Our results show an increase in microtopographic variation after a decade once farming has ceased. Synthesis and application: Land managers that have better access to LiDAR data may want to add microtopographic variation as a tool for long-term monitoring ecosystem function in restored tallgrass prairie sites. Our study suggests that microtopographic features appear to increase with the age of a restoration site, providing a visual way to show a restoration’s success.