Abstract

The effects of tree crops on the soil physical properties of former agricultural land were compared with those of ley in a rotation with cereals on adjacent sites. Five sites in southern Sweden were investigated focussing on soil water retention characteristics, dry bulk density, macroporosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity. Three of the sites were on light textured soils and two on clay soils. The tree crops were 30 to 35-year-old hybrid aspen, Populus deltoides, and silver birch, Betula pendula, and the ley crops were one to five years old.The light-textured soils under tree crops showed bimodal pore size distributions in the macropore region, whereas under ley crops they showed unimodal distributions. Dry bulk densities were generally smaller and the macroporosities larger under tree crops compared with ley/cereal crops. Saturated hydraulic conductivities tended to be larger under tree crops. Slopes of the linear regression lines between saturated hydraulic conductivity and each of the parameters dry bulk density, porosity and macroporosity were steeper in the soil under agricultural crops than under tree crops.Observed differences in physical properties were considered to be an effect of land use, which had brought about changes in aggregate stability, pore size distribution and pore continuity.

Keywords

soil physical properties; soil structure; pore size distribution; macropores; hydraulic conductivity; arable land; afforestation; Sweden

Published in

Soil Use and Management
1997, Volume: 13, number: 4, pages: 209-217

SLU Authors

• Messing, Ingmar

  • Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Johansson, Waldemar

  • Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Soil Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-2743.1997.tb00588.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/128570