Cs. Farkas, A. Ristolainen, T. Tóth, S. Koós and P. László. 2007. Evaluating the
sustainability of different soil tillage practices using field measured electrical properties.
Cereal Research Communications. 35 (2) 377-381.

Abstract

Sustainable and soil conserving utilization of soils require knowledge of soil physical,
chemical and biological properties affecting soil water, heat and nutrition regime. In
Hungary soil moisture control - prevention, elimination or moderation of extreme
moisture situations - is essential for sustainable land use and site-specific soil
management (Várallyay, 2004). Soil tillage may play an important role in these actions
(Soane & Ouwerkerk, 1994), especially under rainfed conditions, as in Hungary. Soils
under tillage, however, have been found to be generally less stable than those under forest
or grassland (Low, 1972). Soil physical degradation, reflected by changes in the shape of
the soil water retention curve has harmful effects on soil water regime and on aeration
(Štekauerová et al. 2006). When soil is degraded, the value of the soil water content at
saturation becomes smaller and the slope of the retention curve at the inflection point, S
also becomes smaller (Dexter, 2004). S has been found to be a useful measure of soil
physical quality (Birkas et al., 2006).
Soil properties vary strongly in space and time, thus, their determination is costly and
time consuming. The need for more detailed information on spatial and temporal
variation of soil properties (e.g. for precision agricultural utilisation) (Jolánkai & Németh,
2002) lead to increasing interest over indirect methods for mapping soil properties. These
methods allow overcoming the costs of detailed soil mapping based on traditional
sampling. In-situ measurement of bulk soil electrical conductivity (ECa) is a quick and
relatively easy method. The instrument readings show correlation with a number of soil
properties that affect yield potential and environmental factors. This is why ECa
measurements have been seen as one of the most promising methods. Several
investigations have been carried out to study the relationship between the field measured
ECa values (indirect measurements) and soil water, salt and humus contents, pH,
mechanical composition and other soil properties. However, the relationship between
data, obtained by indirect measurement techniques and soil hydraulic properties and soil
quality indicators has not been widely examined yet.
This paper studies the relationship between certain soil hydraulic properties, the soil
quality indicator S and data, obtained from indirect field measurements in a long-term
tillage experiment.