No-till is recognized globally as an ideal means of conserving soil and water while also storing soil carbon, but the agricultural practice may not be applicable under all environmental conditions.
Ohio State University soil scientists measured carbon levels in no-till fields throughout seven states and found soil texture, moisture, temperature and terrain parameters affected the amount of carbon stored on the soil surface.
“The message here is that no-till is not applicable everywhere as a means of practicing carbon sequestration. There are situations where other carbon sequestration methods would be more effective,” said Rattan Lal, a soil scientist with Ohio State’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Basically, those soils that are well-drained, are silt/silt-loam in texture, warm quickly and have some sloping characteristics prone to erosion are excellent candidates for no-till,” said Lal, director of Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center.
“Clay soils or other heavy soils that drain poorly are prone to compaction and are in areas where the ground stays cooler may not always increase carbon storage through no-till.”
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