Traffic and tillage effects on soil health and crop growth

The growing world population demands rise of crop yields, which has resulted in agricultural intensification. This in turn has been accompanied by an increase in machinery size and weight, escalating degrees of soil compaction and has led to soil degradation of an area of 33 million ha in Europe. Compacted soil inhibits root development, water availability, nutrient uptake and causes yield loses. Remedial actions are expensive, and time consuming and require burning additional fossil fuels. Climate change is one of the most urgent problem and requires more sustainable approach to food production. Reducing fossil fuel consumption, whilst maintaining the soil in a good condition to facilitate water infiltration and carbon sequestration resulting from improved root development is of great importance. This thesis reports on a three-year study conducted within a unique long-term 3x3 factorial experiment with four replicates, which started at Harper Adams University (UK) in October 2011. This study quantified the effects of absence of traffic (CTFut) vs traffic with standard and low tyre inflation pressure (STP and LTP respectively), influenced by different tillage depths (deep–250mm, shallow–100mm and zero–tillage) on soil physico-chemical and biological properties, as well as on crop growth and yields. Additionally, it investigated the effect of three common farming traffic systems: Controlled Traffic Farming with 30% of trafficked area (CTF), and two random traffic systems: with standard and low inflation pressure tyres (RSTP and RLTP) subject to three tillage depths (deep, shallow and zero) on plant establishment and combine harvested yields. The analysed soil physico-chemical properties were: soil bulk density, porosity, penetration resistance, moisture content, field saturated hydraulic conductivity and instant infiltration rate, soil microbial carbon, soil organic matter and pH. The soil biological properties included soil fauna feeding activity, Collembola and earthworm abundance. The crop growth indicators included plant establishment, root growth and hand harvested and combine harvested yield. The results from this study demonstrated that agricultural traffic, regardless tyre inflation pressure, had significant negative effects on soil physico-chemical and biological properties in comparison to unwheeled soil. The untrafficked soil (CTFut) featured significantly lower soil bulk density and penetration resistance, at the same time, significantly improved soil porosity, field saturated hydraulic conductivity and instant infiltration rate in comparison to soil trafficked with standard and low inflation pressure tyres (STP and LTP respectively). The absence of traffic also significantly improved soil biological properties namely soil fauna feeding activity, and Collembola abundance in 24 comparison to STP and LTP. The plant establishment and root growth were also significantly enhanced under untrafficked soil (CTFut) vs STP and LTP. All these improvements in soil physico-chemical and biological properties led to the combine harvested yield increase by 4% under CTF system which in the experiment had 30% of trafficked area. This can be recalculated to additional 3% increase for CTF with 15% of trafficked area. Consequently, the adoption of CTF which restricts farming traffic to permanent wheelways covering in farming practice approximately 12-15% of the field area, brings significant improvements in soil physico-chemical and biological properties and as a result, it enhances crop growth and yield in comparison to non-controlled traffic systems (RSTP and RLTP) under which the majority of the field area is covered by at least one wheel pass every year. The main effects of tyre pressures did not have a significant effect on soil physicochemical properties. Nevertheless, LTP significantly improved soil fauna feeding activity (FA) in comparison to standard tyres pressures (STP). Interactions between traffic system and tillage depth revealed that RLTP increased combine harvested yields on deeply tilled soils in comparison to RSTP (104% on average over the 8-year study). The main effect of tillage and the interactions between traffic and tillage were not significant for soil physico-chemical characteristics. Tillage had however significant effects on soil biological properties. Nevertheless, the results do not conclusively indicate one tillage depth which could improve soil biology, as the SOM and similarly earthworms abundance were significantly greater under zero and shallow tillage than under deep tillage, however soil fauna feeding activity in 2019 on zero tillage was significantly lower than on remaining tilled treatments, similarly the Collembola density was significantly lower under zero tillage in comparison to shallow tillage, whereas deep tillage did not differ significantly from the remaining tillage depths. Nevertheless, in 2020 both reduced tillage treatments (zero and shallow tillage) featured significantly greater FA than deep tillage. Interactions between tillage and time revealed that with time, under zero tillage, the crop yields improve and, in the year 7th and 8th yields from zero tillage were significantly greater than from deep tillage (105% and 103% in 2019 and 102% and 112% in 2020 respectively). There was no single aspect of soil physico-chemical and biological properties, as well as crop growth and yields, which would indicate that deep tillage provided better results over 25 shallow tillage, which might suggest that deep tillage is not a recommended practice on sandy loam in West Midlands, UK. This leads to a conclusion that the optimal mechanisation system’s approach (combination of traffic system and tillage depth) consists of CTF with shallow tillage; alternatively, zero tillage system, which is more resilient to agricultural traffic, with the caveat of yields penalties in the first years. The use of low inflation pressure tyres (LTP) is recommended, should deep tillage be required without CTF, as they reduce the impact of compaction and improve the crop yield. This thesis also outlines additional environmental consequences, which in further studies might be developed in a robust environmental economics of traffic and tillage systems

Controlled traffic farming delivers better crop yield of winter bean as a result of improved root development

This paper reports on the continuation of a long–term experiment on the effects of alternative field traffic systems (STP–random traffic with standard tyre inflation pressure, LTP–random traffic with low tyre inflation pressure and CTF–controlled traffic farming) on soil conditions and crop development as influenced by different tillage depths (DEEP–250 mm, SHALLOW–100 mm and ZERO–tillage), in a randomised 3 x 3 factorial design in 4 replicates launched by Harper Adams University in Edgmond, UK, in 2011. The results from season 2017–2018 revealed that CTF delivered 8% higher crop yield of winter field bean (Vicia faba) cv. Tundracomparing to STP (p = 0.005), i.e. 4.13 vs 3.82 tonnes ha-1respectively (at 14% moisture content). The ZERO–tillage plots featured significantly lower plant establishment percentage comparing to shallow and deep tillage: 79% vs 83% and 83% respectively (p = 0.012). The research showed that roots traits differed significantly between contrasting traffic at depths greater than 50mm with p < 0.05of: tap root biomass, number of lateral roots, biomass of lateral roots as well as total root biomass (tap+lateral roots),delivering significantly greater values of those before mentioned parameters on CTF comparing to STP. Tap root length significantly differed between traffic systems (p < 0.001)giving significantly greater results on CTF comparing to LTP and STP (17.7, 13.4 and 12.6 mm respectively). Significant differences in tap root diameter were found only at the depth of 100 mm (p < 0.001) where again CTF delivered significantly higher root diameter than the remaining 2 traffic systems.In the shallow layer of soil (0–50 mm) a significant difference was found only for tap root biomass, for interactions, where STP ZERO gave significantly higher results than STP SHALLOW and CTF SHALLOW (1.430, 0.733 and 0.716 g respectively)

Agricultural traffic management systems and soil health

This chapter examines the relationship between agricultural traffic and soil compaction. It begins by reviewing research on how agricultural traffic affects soil compaction as well as ways of measuring soil compaction and its effects. It then discusses a range of potential techniques to avoid soil compaction. These include: controlled-traffic farming, low ground pressure tyre systems as well as tracks and gantry systems. The chapter also discusses the relationship between different tillage practices and soil compaction. It includes a case study based on research conducted by the authors

The effects of traffic management systems on the yield and economics of crops grown in deep, shallow and zero tilled sandy loam soil over eight years.

This paper reports on a 3 × 3 factorial study to consider the effects of controlled traffic (CTF), low tyre inflation pressure (high flexion) tyres (LTP) and standard tyre inflation pressure (STP) farming systems for deep, shallow and zero tillage practices on the yield of wheat, barley, oats and field beans grown in a sandy loam soil in the UK. The main effect of tillage showed that the zero tillage option significantly (***P < 0.001) reduced crop yields in four out of the five of the first crop years, with no significant effect in years two, six and eight and exceeded the yield of the other tillage treatments in year seven. The specific costs of the alternative tillage systems were estimated, from which the cost saving for zero tillage compared to deep tillage was c. £ 60 ha−1 (US$80 ha−1), which compensated for the overall loss in yield. There were no significant differences between the crop yields from the deep and shallow tillage treatments, with shallow tillage offering savings in operational costs of c. £ 30 ha−1 (US$ 40 ha−1). Overall, the controlled traffic farming system, where 30% of the field was trafficked, produced 4% greater crop yields (*P < 0.05), worth £ 39 ha−1 (US$53 ha−1) than standard tyre inflation pressures (STP). The estimated effect of reducing the trafficked area to 15$ 100 ha−1) compared to the STP system. The beneficial effect of low inflation pressure tyres (70 kPa and 80 kPa) on crop yields, for the deep tillage treatment, was significantly greater (*P < 0.05) than those of the standard tyre pressure system (100 kPa to 150 kPa) returning an average 3.9% additional crop yield over the period of the experiment worth £ 39 ha−1 (US$ 53 ha−1)

Characterization of the Partitioning System of Myxococcus Plasmid pMF1

pMF1 is the only autonomously replicating plasmid that has been recently identified in myxobacteria. This study characterized the partitioning (par) system of this plasmid. The fragment that significantly increased the retaining stability of plasmids in Myxococcus cells in the absence of selective antibiotics contained three open reading frames (ORFs) pMF1.21-pMF1.23 (parCAB). The pMF1.22 ORF (parA) is homologous to members of the parA ATPase family, with the highest similarity (56%) to the Sphingobium japonicum ParA-like protein, while the other two ORFs had no homologs in GenBank. DNase I footprinting and electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that the pMF1.23 (parB) product is a DNA-binding protein of iteron DNA sequences, while the product of pMF1.21 (parC) has no binding activity but is able to enhance the DNA-binding activity of ParB to iterons. The ParB protein autogenously repressed the expression of the par genes, consistent with the type Ib par pattern, while the ParC protein has less repressive activity. The ParB-binding iteron sequences are distributed not only near the partitioning gene loci but also along pMF1. These results indicate that the pMF1 par system has novel structural and functional characteristics

Rapid quantification of underivatized amino acids in plasma by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled with tandem mass-spectrometry

Background: Amino acidopathies are a class of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) that can be diagnosed by analysis of amino acids (AA) in plasma. Current strategies for AA analysis include cation exchange HPLC with post-column ninhydrin derivatization, GC-MS, and LC-MS/MS-related methods. Major drawbacks of the current methods are time-consuming procedures, derivative problems, problems with retention, and MS-sensitivity. The use of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) columns is an ideal separation mode for hydrophilic compounds like AA. Here we report a HILIC-method for analysis of 36 underivatized AA in plasma to detect defects in AA metabolism that overcomes the major drawbacks of other methods. Methods: A rapid, sensitive, and specific method was developed for the analysis of AA in plasma without derivatization using HILIC coupled with tandem mass-spectrometry (Xevo TQ, Waters). Results: Excellent separation of 36 AA (24 quantitative/12 qualitative) in plasma was achieved on an Acquity BEH Amide column (2.1×100 mm, 1.7 μm) in a single MS run of 18 min. Plasma of patients with a known IEM in AA metabolism was analyzed and all patients were correctly identified. Conclusion: The reported method analyzes 36 AA in plasma within 18 min and provides baseline separation of isomeric AA such as leucine and isoleucine. No separation was obtained for isoleucine and allo-isoleucine. The method is applicable to study defects in AA metabolism in plasma

d- and l-amino acids in Antarctic lakes: assessment of a very sensitive HPLC-MS method

Amino acids represent a fraction of organic matter in marine and freshwater ecosystems, and a source of carbon, nitrogen and energy. l-Amino acids are the most common enantiomers in nature because these chiral forms are used during the biosynthesis of proteins and peptide. To the contrary, the occurrence of d-amino acids is usually linked to the presence of bacteria. We investigated the distribution of l- and d-amino acids in the lacustrine environment of Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica, in order to define their natural composition in this area and to individuate a possible relationship with primary production. A simultaneous chromatographic separation of 40 l- and d-amino acids was performed using a chiral stationary phase based on teicoplainin aglycone (chirobiotic tag). The chromatographic separation was coupled to two different mass spectrometers-an LTQ-Orbitrap XL (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and an API 4000 (ABSciex)-in order to investigate their quantitative performance. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry methods were evaluated through the estimation of their linear ranges, repeatability, accuracy and detection and quantification limits. The high-resolution mass spectrometer LTQ-Orbitrap XL presented detection limits between 0.4 and 7 mu g l (-1), while the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer API 4000 achieved the best detection limits reported in the literature for the quantification of amino acids (between 4 and 200 ng l (-1)). The most sensitive method, HPLC-API 4000, was applied to lake water samples

Level of knowledge on food and nutrition among groups of pupils of the last class of secondary schools

Wprowadzenie. Powszechnie popełniane przez Polaków błędy żywieniowe determinują ich stan zdrowia, który jest gorszy niż innych Europejczyków i nie ulega większej poprawie. Niewłaściwe zachowania żywieniowe młodzieży mogą w znacznej części wynikać z małej wiedzy żywieniowej związanej z niedostatecznym poziomem edukacji żywieniowej w kolejnych etapach szkolnego nauczania, nie dość poważnym traktowaniem zajęć z zakresu żywności i żywienia, zbyt niskimi kwalifikacjami nauczycieli oraz za słabym powiązaniem teoretycznej wiedzy żywieniowej z praktycznym jej zastosowaniem. Cel. Celem pracy była analiza szkolnych programów nauczania na różych jego poziomach oraz ocena stanu wiedzy o żywności i żywieniu uczniów ostatnich klas wybranych losowo szkół ponadgimnazjalnych w Warszawie. Materiał i metoda. Badania przeprowadzono w grupie 210 uczniów w listopadzie 2008 roku metodą ankietową za pomocą specjalnie przygotowanego autorskiego kwestionariusza ankiety. Wyniki. Zakres tematyczny dotyczący żywności i żywienia w programach nauczania począwszy od przedszkola, poprzez szkołę podstawową do szkół ponadgimnazjalnych jest szeroki. Nie tworzy jednak wspólnej i spójnej całości prawdopodobnie z powodu zbyt dużego rozproszenia treści w wielu rozmaitych przedmiotach. W badaniu wiedzy żywieniowej żaden z uczniów nie uzyskał powyżej 75% punktów ogółem możliwych do zdobycia, a połowa osiągnęła poniżej 50% punktów. Uczniowie nie orientowali się, jakie jest zapotrzebowanie energetyczne dla młodzieży w ich wieku (odpowiedzi wahały się w granicach od 100 kcal/dobę do 10.000 kcal/dobę). Nie potrafili określić kaloryczności oliwy, w znakomitej większości wartość tę zaniżali (tylko 1/3 uczniów wiedziała, że to najbardziej kaloryczny produkt), a z kolei aż ponad połowa uczniów uznała, że cukier należy do produktów o najwyższej wartości energetycznej. Zawartość witamin i składników mineralnych w produktach spożywczych jest uczniom zupełnie nieznana. Większość badanej młodzieży nie potrafiła poprawnie wskazać po dwa produkty stanowiące źródła: witaminy C (około 60%), witaminy A (prawie 75% ) oraz żelaza (ponad 60%). Większą wiedzą wykazali się uczniowie na temat źródeł białka, przy czym, co ciekawe, łatwiej było im wskazać produkty, które nie są źródłem pełnowartościowego białka, niż te stanowiące dobre jego źródła. Uczniowie nie znali w stopniu wystarczającym zaleceń dotyczących częstotliwości spożywania mleka, ryb, warzyw i olejów roślinnych Wnioski. Wyniki wskazują, że choć podstawa programowa edukacji jest pod względem merytorycznym odpowiednia, to jednak uczniowie reprezentowali niski poziom podstawowej wiedzy żywieniowej. Zdecydowana większość badanych (95%) nie uzyskała nawet połowy możliwych do zdobycia punktów, zarazem też ani jedna osoba nie miała bardzo dobrej wiedzy. Stwierdzono niedostateczną znajomość wartości energetycznej produktów i zapotrzebowania energetycznego dla nastolatków, źródeł składników pokarmowych, a także podstawowych zaleceń żywieniowych.Background. Common nutritional faults affect health of many Poles. Health state of Poles is worse than most of Europeans and is not improving. Nutritional behaviors of young people are caused by limited nutritional knowledge learned during consecutive stages of school education. Nutritional education is considered less important, theoretical knowledge and practice is not correlated and teacher’s knowledge is limited. Objective. The aim of this study was to study different school programs and to assess the level of nutritional knowledge among selected pupils of last classes of secondary school in Warsaw. Materials and methods. The study was conducted in November 2008 on 210 students with the specific author’s questionnaire. Results. There is wide nutritional educational program in schools starting from kindergarten through schools of different levels. The nutritional education program is not consistent likely due to dispersion of material among different subjects. In nutritional knowledge tests none of the pupil reached 75% of maximum points and half of them did not reach 50%. Pupils did not know what is their energetic requirement (answers differ from 100 kcal/day to 10000 kcal/day). They were unable to determine the caloric of oil (only 1/3 knows that it is the most caloric product). More than half of pupils answered that sugar is the most caloric product. The knowledge of vitamin and minerals content is completely not known to pupils. Most of pupils were unable to correctly indicate two products which are the sources of vitamin C (approximately 60%), vitamin A (almost 75%) and iron (over 60%). Pupils have more information on protein sources. Surprisingly it was easier for them to indicate products which are not a good source of valuable proteins than the good source of proteins. Pupils did not know what is recommended frequency of milk, fish, vegetables and plant oil consumption. Conclusions. Results indicate that the core curriculum of education is proper but students had little knowledge of nutrition. The majority of respondents (95%) did not received half of the available points, and nobody scored very good result. It has been found that there is insufficient knowledge of products energy values and energy daily requirements for teenagers, sources of nutrients, as well as basic nutritional guidelines