Translocation of Soil Particles during Secondary Soil Tillage along Contour Lines

Abstract

A high percentage of arable land and erosion risk on agricultural land are typical of current agriculture. While tillage erosion is a less frequently studied issue, it impacts vast areas of agricultural land. Not all relationships between cultivation equipment, the gradient of the plot and other factors have been known until now. Intensive soil tillage can be a crucial erosive factor mainly when the cultivation equipment moves in a fall line direction. Nevertheless, even when the equipment moves along contour lines, soil particles can be translocated perpendicular to the direction of the equipment movement (in a fall line direction). This phenomenon has not yet been adequately studied. For measurements, a field trial with secondary tillage of soil was laid out (a seedbed preparation implement was used). The objective of the trial was to evaluate the effect of the working tools of the cultivation equipment on the crosswise and lengthwise translocation of soil particles during soil tillage. Aluminium cubes, with a side length of 16 mm, were used as tracers. Before the operation, the tracers were inserted in a row perpendicular (at a right angle) to a direction of the equipment passes. After the equipment passes, position of tracers was evaluated within a two-axis grid. The trial was performed at three gradients of the plot (2°, 6° and 11°). For each gradient, the 1-pass, 2-pass and 3-pass treatments were tested. The equipment always moved along the plot contour line. After the equipment passes in all treatments, all tracers were localized on an orthogonal grid. The results of the trial demonstrate the effect of the slope gradient on the crosswise translocation of particles during secondary tillage of soil in the slope direction. The tillage equipment translocated particles in the fall line direction even if it passed along the contour line. With the increasing intensity of passes, the effect of the equipment on crosswise translocation increases. During secondary tillage of soil, the working tools of the equipment have an erosive effect (causing tillage erosion), even though the equipment moves along the contour line