Exploring Soil Hydro-Physical Improvements Under No-Tillage: A Sustainable Approach for Soil Health

Gabriel-Dumitru Mihu, Tudor George Aostăcioaei, Cosmin Ghelbere, Anca-Elena Calistru (), Denis Constantin Țopa and Gerard Jităreanu
Additional contact information
Gabriel-Dumitru Mihu: Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 3, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Tudor George Aostăcioaei: Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 3, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Cosmin Ghelbere: Research Institute for Agriculture and Environment, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 9, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Anca-Elena Calistru: Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 3, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Denis Constantin Țopa: Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 3, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Gerard Jităreanu: Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, 3, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: No-tillage (NT) is a key practice in conservation agriculture that minimizes soil disturbance, thereby enhancing soil structure, porosity, and overall quality. However, its long-term effects on soil pore networks and hydro-physical functions remain underexplored. This study evaluated the impacts of NT and conventional tillage (CT) on soil hydro-physical properties using undisturbed soil columns, X-ray computed tomography, and standard physical measurements. A field experiment was conducted under an eight-year continuous cropping system, with a four-year rotation [winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)—maize ( Zea mays L.)—sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.)—peas ( Pisum sativum L.)], comparing NT and CT treatments with three replications. Soil parameters including bulk density (BD), moisture content, total porosity (SP), water-stable aggregates (WSA), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) were measured. Results showed that NT increased BD (1.45 g/cm 3 ) compared to CT (1.19 g/cm 3 ), likely due to reduced soil disturbance. Moisture content under NT was up to 78% higher than CT. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was also higher in NT, with 17% and 43% increases observed at harvest in 2022 and 2023, respectively, except in the 0–30 cm layer immediately after sowing. Micro-CT analysis revealed a 34–115% increase in macropores (>1025 μm) under NT at 10–40 cm depth. These findings demonstrate that long-term NT improves key soil hydro-physical properties, supporting its integration into sustainable farming systems to balance productivity and environmental stewardship.

Keywords: no-tillage; maize; pore size; soil hydro-physical properties; bulk density; saturated hydraulic conductivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/9/981/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/9/981/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:981-:d:1647163

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().