A 2-year field study was conducted in the southern High Plains region of Texas to evaluate the effect of tillage system and cotton planting date window on seasonal abundance and activity patterns of predacious ground beetles. The experiment was deployed in a split-plot randomized block design with tillage as the main-plot factor and planting date as the subplot factor. There were two levels for...

Simplified cultivation technologies for rice have become increasingly attractive in recent years in China because of their social, economical and environmental benefits. To date, several simplified cultivation technologies, such as conventional tillage and seedling throwing (CTST), conventional tillage and direct seeding (CTDS), no-tillage and seedling throwing (NTST), no-tillage and direct see...

The sugarbeet industry in the Pacific Northwest is interested in strip tillage (ST) primarily due to the potential savings in tillage costs. This study was conducted to evaluate the use of ST in the Pacific Northwest compared to conventional tillage (CT) practices and to evaluate N requirements of sugarbeet under ST and CT. The effect of tillage method (ST, moldboard plow [MP] system, and chise...

Conservation tillage has been promoted as a solution to counteract constraints caused by intensive agriculture. In this work the effects of two conservation tillage systems, reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) were compared to the traditional tillage (TT) in a long(15 years, RT) and short-term experiment (3 years, NT). Both experiments were carried out under semi-arid, rainfed agriculture ...

Conservation tillage combined with cover crops or mulching may enhance natural enemy activity in agroecosystems by reducing soil disturbance and increasing habitat structural complexity. In particular, weed seed predation can increase with vegetation cover and reduced tillage, indicating that mulches may improve the quality of the habitat for weed seed foraging. The purpose of this study was to...

The effects of conservation-tillage practices on the root environment of corn (Zea mays L.) may differ with varying amounts of irrigation. Dryland, 50% irrigation, and 100% irrigation treatments were applied in combination with disc, no-tillage, and a postemergence chisel treatment designed to allow rapid infiltration of irrigation water. The study was conducted during the 1980 growing season a...

Two field experiments were conducted for two years with the aim of studying the effects of deep tillage and straw returning on soil microorganism and enzyme activity in clay and loam soil. Three treatments, (1) conventional tillage (CT), shallow tillage and straw returning; (2) deep tillage (DT), deep tillage and straw returning; and (3) deep tillage with no straw returning (DNT), were carried ...

Management of crop residues and soil organic matter is of primary importance in maintaining soil fertility and productivity and in minimizing agricultural impact on the environment. Our objective was to determine the effects of traf®c and tillage on short-term carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) ̄uxes from a representative soil in the southeastern Coastal Plain (USA). The study was conducted o...

The effect of tillage intensity on nematode community trophic structure and the role of nematodes in the regulation of decomposition rates in agroecosystems were examined. Conventional (CT) and no-tillage (NT) agroecosystems were sampled monthly for 1 year. Tillage affected nematode trophic structure and total abundance. Monthly mean densities of bacterivorous, fungivorous, and total nematodes ...