Soil is polluted with plastic waste from macro to submicron level. Our understanding of macroplastics (> 5 mm) occurrence and behavior has remained comparatively elusive, mainly due to a lack of a tracing mechanism. This study set up a methodology to trace macroplastic displacement, which combined magnetic iron oxide-tagged soil and macroplastic pieces tagged by an adhesive passive radiofrequency identification transponder. By utilizing these techniques, a field study was carried out to analyze the effect of tillage implement and plastic sizes on plastic displacement, to understand the fate of macroplastics in arable land. Results indicated that the displacement of macroplastics did not depend upon plastic sizes but did depend upon the tillage implement used. The mean macroplastics displacement per tillage pass was 0.36 ± 0.25 m with non-inversion chisel tillage and 0.15 ± 0.13 m with inversion disk tillage, which was similar to bulk soil displacement. However, only inversion disk tillage caused fragmentation (41 %) of macroplastics and generated microplastics (< 5 mm). In contrast, both tillage implements drove to similar burial of surface macroplastics into the tilled layer (74 % on average). These results highlight that tillage is a major process for macroplastics fate in arable soils, being one of the first studies to investigate it.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135318 | DOI Listing |
Photosynthetica
January 2025
College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018 Shandong, China.
This study aims to determine the changes in the photosynthetic performance of leaves at different leaf positions and their correlation and to screen out the basic tillage methods suitable for improving the yield. The decrease in soil salt content significantly improved the PSII performance index and quantum yield for electron transport of the bottom leaf group, synergistically enhanced the photosynthetic performance of summer maize leaves (especially the bottom leaf group), and enhanced the correlation between the bottom, middle (including the ear leaf), and upper leaf groups. Under subsoiling tillage conditions, the bottom leaves could produce more carbohydrates to meet the normal growth of the root system, promote the photosynthesis of the middle leaf group at the ear position, and increase the nutrient output of the upper leaf group to the female ear in the middle and later stages of maize aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFData Brief
February 2025
CREA - Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, I-40128 Bologna, Italy.
Farming practices such as soil tillage, organic/mineral fertilization, irrigation, crop selection and residues management influence multiple ecosystem services provided by agricultural systems. These practices exhibit complex, non-linear interrelationships that affect crop productivity, water quality, and non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, possibly offsetting their benefits regarding soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. Current methodologies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for assessing the impacts of alternative farming practices on GHG emissions rely on global or country-specific coefficients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcotoxicol Environ Saf
January 2025
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China.
Understanding the complex interactions of plants and soils in the face of global food security and environmental degradation challenges is critical to the future of sustainable agriculture. This review discusses the important link between soil health and crop productivity by providing and comprehensive assessment of soil properties and management methods. By examining the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil, it uncovers the key limitations posed by the soil environment on crop growth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeliyon
January 2025
ICAR-IIRR, Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, 500 030, India.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) are essential in agriculture and are often inter-linked with glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) production which supports binding of aggregates, enhanced SOC and biological attributes. However, conservation agricultural practices in agroecosystem may have significant impact on AMF diversity, GRSP and soil quality-related parameters (SQRPs). This current experiment was implemented to gauge AMF conization percentage (AMF-CP), GSRP and significant changes on critical SQRPs, and to investigate the linkages between AMF-CP, GRSP and SQRPs as influenced by synergistic tillage and weed management in CA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States of America.
Because the use of synthetic agrochemicals is generally not allowed in organic crop production systems, growers rely on natural substances and processes, such as microbial control, to suppress insect pests. Reduced tillage practices are associated with beneficial soil organisms, such as entomopathogenic fungi, that can contribute to the natural control of insect pests. The impacts of management, such as tillage, in a cropping system can affect soil biota in the current season and can also persist over time as legacy effects.
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