TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil fertility properties on Agave angustifolia Haw. plantations
AU - Bautista-Cruz, A.
AU - Carrillo-González, R.
AU - Arnaud-Viñas, M. R.
AU - Robles, C.
AU - de León-González, F.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Alma Mijangos-Reyes, Raúl Rivera-García, Ricardo Sandoval and Néstor Pérez-Paz for their technical support. H. Castillo-Juárez and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments to the manuscript. Also, we would like to acknowledge the cooperation of the A. angustifolia producers in Oaxaca. CONACYT (Fellowship Number 141865), who financed the doctoral program of A. Bautista-Cruz at UAM (Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas). To Fundación PRODUCE, Instituto Politécnico Nacional (SIP 20050369) and Colegio de Postgraduados, who partially financed the field sampling and laboratory tests.
PY - 2007/10
Y1 - 2007/10
N2 - This study examined the variations in soil physical, chemical and biological properties from Agave angustifolia fields in three sites with different topographic conditions (valley, hill and mountain), in Oaxaca, Mexico, associated with the tillage systems, disk ploughing (DP), animal drawn ploughing (ADP) and minimum tillage (MT), respectively. Plant ages were 1.5-3.5 years (class 1), 3.6-5.5 years (class 2) and 5.6-7.5 years (class 3). Soil samples were taken at two soil depths (0-20 and 21-40 cm) from plots of 4000 m2 within each site and plant age classes, during the spring of 2005. The main changes in soil properties were found in the mountain site. Soil bulk density (2.0 g cm-3), cone penetration resistance (CPR) (3.96 MPa), 0.7 and 1.0 mm water stable aggregates (WSA) (28.3 g kg-1 and 102.2 g kg-1, respectively) were higher in the mountain site than in the hill and valley fields. This result is consistent with the rocky substrate beneath the shallow soil. Soil organic carbon (SOC) (23.9 g kg-1), available N (23.1 mg kg-1) and soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) (969.6 μg g-1) at the mountain site showed the highest values, suggesting that MT practiced in this topographic condition favours the organic matter accumulation and biological activity. Soil microbial biomass carbon and SOC seem to be the soil properties that were mainly affected by the sites and soil management associated with them. For the three sites, SOC, POlsen, available N, exchangeable Na+ and SMBC were higher at 0-20 cm depth than at 21-40 cm depth within each site. Exchangeable Ca2+ and K+, POlsen and CPR increased with plant age. In contrast, available N decreased. Soil chemical properties were more affected by the age of the plant than physical and biological properties. Results reported here represent a reference of the fertility properties of soils cultivated with A. angustifolia, which could be used in further studies focused on management and tillage systems.
AB - This study examined the variations in soil physical, chemical and biological properties from Agave angustifolia fields in three sites with different topographic conditions (valley, hill and mountain), in Oaxaca, Mexico, associated with the tillage systems, disk ploughing (DP), animal drawn ploughing (ADP) and minimum tillage (MT), respectively. Plant ages were 1.5-3.5 years (class 1), 3.6-5.5 years (class 2) and 5.6-7.5 years (class 3). Soil samples were taken at two soil depths (0-20 and 21-40 cm) from plots of 4000 m2 within each site and plant age classes, during the spring of 2005. The main changes in soil properties were found in the mountain site. Soil bulk density (2.0 g cm-3), cone penetration resistance (CPR) (3.96 MPa), 0.7 and 1.0 mm water stable aggregates (WSA) (28.3 g kg-1 and 102.2 g kg-1, respectively) were higher in the mountain site than in the hill and valley fields. This result is consistent with the rocky substrate beneath the shallow soil. Soil organic carbon (SOC) (23.9 g kg-1), available N (23.1 mg kg-1) and soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) (969.6 μg g-1) at the mountain site showed the highest values, suggesting that MT practiced in this topographic condition favours the organic matter accumulation and biological activity. Soil microbial biomass carbon and SOC seem to be the soil properties that were mainly affected by the sites and soil management associated with them. For the three sites, SOC, POlsen, available N, exchangeable Na+ and SMBC were higher at 0-20 cm depth than at 21-40 cm depth within each site. Exchangeable Ca2+ and K+, POlsen and CPR increased with plant age. In contrast, available N decreased. Soil chemical properties were more affected by the age of the plant than physical and biological properties. Results reported here represent a reference of the fertility properties of soils cultivated with A. angustifolia, which could be used in further studies focused on management and tillage systems.
KW - Agave
KW - Minimum tillage
KW - Soil fertility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34948848127&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.still.2007.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.still.2007.08.001
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0167-1987
VL - 96
SP - 342
EP - 349
JO - Soil and Tillage Research
JF - Soil and Tillage Research
IS - 1-2
ER -