Managing the pore system: Regenerating the functional pore spaces of natural soils by soil-health oriented farming systems

作者：Gernot Bodner, Anna Zeiser, Katharina Keiblinger, Christoph Rosinger, Samuel Konrad Winkler, Christine Stumpp, Thomas Weninger · 发表于：Soil and Tillage Research · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.still.2023.105862 · 被引用次数：37 · 研究领域：Clay minerals and soil interactions、Soil and Unsaturated Flow、Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

Transition towards soil-health sustaining crop production is at the core of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in agriculture. Improving soil conditions for resilience to variable and extreme weather conditions are among the main expectations of farmers implementing sustainable management practices. In this study, we evaluate whether the transition from conventional arable towards soil-health oriented farming systems restores soil pore characteristics towards non-arable natural soils and identify factors predominantly shaping different pore domains. Pore size distributions (PSD) at 20 sites with diverse soil types from adjacent fields of (1) standard arable, (2) soil health-oriented pioneer farming and (3) non-arable natural reference soils were measured. Based on parametric PSD descriptors, management-responsive functional pore classes and the role of textural, biochemical and structural drivers in different pore domains were analysed by a novel data-driven evaluation method. Parametric descriptors indicate an evolution from non-disturbed natural to intensively disturbed standard arable soils towards larger structural pores within a less heterogeneous structural domain. These shifts go along with less medium-sized storage pores, which overall was the most management sensitive pore fraction. Our novel data-driven approach confirmed a partial regeneration of natural pore characteristics with soil-health oriented practices. The most responsive pore domain was foun...