Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 90 (11): 2051–8, November 2020/Review Article

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijas.v90i11.108558

Variation of porosity, pore size distribution and soil physical properties under
conservation agriculture
TRIDIV GHOSH1, PRAGATI PRAMANIK MAITY2*, T K DAS3, PRAMEELA KRISHNAN4, ARTI BHATIA5,
PRIYA BHATTACHARYA6 and D K SHARMA7

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India

Received: 27 February 2020; Accepted: 12 March 2020

ABSTRACT
For sustainable crop production and maintenance of soil health, conservation agriculture (CA) practices provides
an opportunity for improving soil structure and physical health, nutrient and water use efficiency, soil organic carbon
and mitigation of greenhouse gases emission from agriculture. CA is primarily based on four crop management
practices such as minimum soil disturbance or no-tillage; permanent or semi-permanent retention of crop residue;
crop rotation and control traffic. Different CA management practices affect crop yield as well as soil properties. CA
makes necessary modifications in different soil hydro-physical properties, viz. increase in soil water infiltration,
reduction in water runoff and soil loss, and reduction in evaporation loss. No tillage (NT), residue retention and crop
rotation combined effect the soil organic carbon concentration. Different crop rotations and residue retentions and
crops with different rooting depths used in CA practices have proved to reduce the compaction constraints.CA can
help to mitigate GHG emissions, viz methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from agriculture by improving soil C
sequestration, enhancing soil quality, nitrogen and water use efficiencies, and decreasing fuel consumption. But effect
of CA and conventional agricultural practices of porosity and pore size distribution is very much limited. When CA is
practiced for six to ten years there is improvement in soil structure, porosity and pore size distribution, macro-micro
faunal activity, and organic matter content..The soil under ZT has the lowest porosity as compared to conventional
management practices. The highest porosity and the maximum connected pores are frequently seen in conventionally
tilled soil. In this paper, an attempt has been made to review the variation of porosity and pore size distribution and
other soil physical properties under conservation agricultural practices.

Key words: Conservation agriculture, No tillage, Pore size distribution, Porosity, Soil organic carbon

For sustainable crop production and balanced use of “CA is a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop
natural resources, it is essential to maintain optimum soil production technology that aims to achieve acceptable
physical health without hampering their quality. Presently, the profits together with high as well as sustained production
conventional tillage (CT) for crop cultivation which involves levels while simultaneously conserving the environment”
rigorous ploughing and elimination of crop residue after (FAO 2007). Different CA management practices affect
harvesting, increases soil compaction and surface crusting, crop yield as well as soil properties. CA makes necessary
accelerated soil erosion, decline in water infiltration into modifications in different soil hydro-physical properties, viz.
the soil, and eventually leads to overall degradation in soil increase in soil water infiltration, reduction in water runoff
physical health. So, to overcome these antagonistic effects of and soil loss, and reduction in evaporation loss. No tillage
CT on soil health, several agricultural scientists throughout (NT), residue retention and crop rotation combined effect
the world have mentioned conservation agriculture (CA) the soil organic carbon concentration. Balanced application
as an answer. Food and Agricultural Organization of the of inorganic fertilizer and organic amendments greatly
United Nations define conservation agriculture (CA) as: influence the accumulation of organic matter in soil and also
influence the soil physical environment (Hati et al. 2007).
Study conducted by Bhattacharyya et al. (2006) reported
the significant increase in laboratory estimated saturated
1M Sc student (tridiv2012@gmail.com), 2*Senior Scientist hydraulic conductivity under zero-tilled plots (1.13 and 1.07
and corresponding author (pragati.iari@gmail.com), 3Principal cm/hr at 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil layers respectively) after
Scientist (tkdas64@gmail.com), 4Head (prameelakrishnan@ rice harvest. But effect of CA and conventional agricultural
yahoo.com), 5Principal Scientist (abensc@gmail.com), 6Ph D practices of porosity and pore size distribution is very
student (ms.mspriya@gmail.com), 7Principal Scientist (dks_env@ much limited. When CA is practised for six to ten years
rediffmail.com) there is improvement in soil structure, porosity and pore

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2052 GHOSH ET AL. [Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 90 (11)

size distribution, macro-micro faunal activity, and organic and Friedrich (2009) reviewed that CA practices improve
matter content. The soil under ZT has the lowest porosity soil biological activity through minimum tillage along
as compared to conventional management practices. The with residue retention, which helps to form more stable
highest porosity and the maximum connected pores are aggregates with the adequate percentage of various sizes of
frequently seen in conventionally tilled soil. Soil porosity pores, permitting better water infiltration and air movement.
is very important for transport and storage of water and
nutrients in the soil. Hence, it is essential to understand Permanent or semi-permanent retention of crop residue
soil pore characteristics. Water storage and transmission Crop residue act as a protective cover over the soil
depend on the pore geometry and pore size distribution of surface supports to suppress weeds, guards the soil from
soil (Eynard et al. 2004). Pores with diameter of <7.5 μm extreme weather effects, aids to preserve soil moisture, and
are suitable for retaining plant available water, whereas pores evades soil compaction. Ghosh et al. (2010) reported that a
>150 μm can drain water freely with gravity (Azooz et al. permanent soil cover is essential to protect the soil from the
1996). A good soil structure and porosity can be achieved harmful impact of rainfall and sunshine and helps to enhance
by following CA practices (Bhattacharyya et al. 2006). Till the microbial population in the soil with a continuous supply
now the studies on the effects on different management of “food”; and modify the soil microclimate and generates
practices including CA are very limited. an ideal condition for growth and proliferation of soil
organisms as well as plant roots. This leads to better soil
Principles of CA aggregation, enhanced soil biological activity, and better
Conservation agriculture is mainly based on four crop biodiversity and more carbon sequestration.
management practices-
• Minimum soil disturbance or no-tillage Crop rotation
• Permanent or semi-permanent retention of crop residue Crop rotation is not only essential to offer a diverse
• Crop rotation “diet” to the soil microorganisms, but also it helps in
• Control traffic for extracting nutrients from deeper soil layers that have
been percolated to deeper layers. Furthermore, crop
Different components are practices involved in CA diversification leads to an enhancement of soil flora and
practices have been presented in Fig 1. fauna diversity. Cropping sequence and inclusion of legumes
in crop rotations help in minimizing pest instance, through
Minimum soil disturbance or no-tillage disruption of life cycle, biological nitrogen fixation, control
This principle of CA leads to the following effects on the of off-site pollution and enhancing biodiversity (Dumanski
soil. As the soil is never tilled which leads to improvements et al. 2006).
in soil structure and less soil erosion, an increase in organic
matter content, cropping intensities and crop yields. Kassam Control traffic
Controlled traffic farming (CTF) limits any traffic
movement in the field in the same tracks. Though these
paths are heavily compacted, but there is no compaction in
rooting zone which results in better soil structure and greater
Components of CA
yields. The superior plants growth of next to the tracks can
effortlessly compensate the border effects. The border is the
area which is lost in the traffic zones. In CTF, the gross
yields are generally higher as compared to conventional
Cover Alley Managing farming with haphazard traffic (Kerr 2001). ZT can control
ZT, minimum crop, green cropping, bed soil soil compaction as because heavy machinery movement in
tillage and RT manuring and furrow compaction,
and planting, laser
field in the cropping area is entirely avoided. In CTF, there
is lots of fuel savings as the machinery tyres move on the
compacted tracks in the field (RWC-CIMMYT 2003).
Conservation agriculture production systems are used
throughout the world. There are currently over 10 Mha of
Better soil health, improvement in soil hydraulic properties, reduce
arable cropl and under CA system in Asia, – corresponding
mechanical impedance, more biological activity, less GHGs to about 6.5% of the worldwide CA area – mainly located
emission, carbon sequestration, less loss of nutrients, in China (65.4% of the total Asian CA area) followed by
Kazakhstan (19%) and India (around 15%) (FAO 2017).

Crop production and environmental CA and soil physical properties

sustainablity

Fig 1 Different components and practices of CA (Pramanik et al. Bulk density and total porosity under CA lucid
2019). Bulk density is one of the most important soil physical

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November 2020] SOIL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES UNDER CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE 2053

Table 1 Extent of adoption of conservation agriculture worldwide (> 100000 ha)

Country CA area (ha) Country CA area (ha) Country CA area (ha)
USA 26500000 Bolivia 706000 New Zealand 162000
Argentina 25553000 Uruguay 655100 Finland 160000
Brazil 25502000 Spain 650000 U. Kingdom 150000
Australia 17000000 Ukraine 600000 Zimbabwe 139300
Canada 13481000 S. Africa 368000 Mozambique 152000
Russia 4500000 Venezuela 300000 Colombia 127000
China 3100000 France 200000 Others 409440
Paraguay 2400000 Zambia 200000 India 2000000
Kazakhstan 1600000 Chile 180000 Total 112755100
Source: FAO, 2011c, http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/6c.html

parameter which determines soil compactness. The bulk the hydraulic gradient is termed as Hydraulic Conductivity.
density greatly depends on inherent soil qualities as well as The hydraulic conductivity of soils affected by various
with management practices. Gantzer and Blake (1978) have factors such as parent material, topography and climate etc.
reported that zero tillage (ZT) having higher bulk density one of the important role is played by the tillage practices
as compared to CT. Bautista et al. (1996) found that zero- as it automatically effects soil bulk density and porosity.
tillage with residue retention reduced bulk density (BD) Obi and Nnabude (1988) and Celik (2011) showed the
significantly in a semi-arid ecosystem. Several researchers effects of tillage practices on hydraulic conductivity found
(Ehlers 1983; Pikul et al. 1990; Sauer et al. 1990) have various results like either a no major change or a negative
found that, on many soils, converting from a CT to a ZT impact. McGarry et al. (2000) showed that zero tillage
cropping caused an increase in BD and decrease in porosity practices improved the hydraulic conductivity of soils. The
in ZT. Mielke et al.(1986) has done a study for comparing probable reason for the increased hydraulic conductivity of
bulk density between ZT and moldboard plow systems by no tilled soils were improved pore size distribution, pore
taking seven soils at two depths (14 combinations), they diameters and pore continuity and an increased in numbers
have shown that in six instances a greater bulk density for of macropore (Cameira et al. 2003). Logsdon et al.( 1995)
the ZT, in one instance a greater BD for the moldboard plow showed that the increase in hydraulic conductivity was due
system, and no BD differences between these systems in to the greater activity of fungi and buildup of organic matter
seven instances. There appears to be a tendency for greater due to the deposits applied on the field. Soil infiltration is
bulk densities in ZT. Another study by Horne et al. (1992) another soil physical property also affected by CA practices
shown that lower BD at a depth of 3–7 cm in ZT than in and it defined as the downward entry of water from the soil
CT, there was no significant changes in the deeper layer.The surface. The infiltration characteristic of the soil is important
long-term retention of crop residue helps to decrease BD for defining the results of different tillage, conservation,
and increase the effective. The effect of additional residue irrigation, practices of a particular region (Sumathi and
kept on the surface for reducing BD is very prominent in Padmakumari 2000).”
the 0–3 cm and to a lesser range in the 3–10 cm soil depth
(Blanco- Canqui and Lal 2007). Soil carbon, different pools of SOC and sequestration
The physical consolidation of soil particles against an under CA
applied force is called soil compaction. The soil compaction The most important soil quality indicator is the soil
results in reduction in porosity, restriction of air and water organic carbon (SOC) specially the concentration of
movement and depletion of soil structure. The reason SOC at the surface soil. “The soil organic carbon plays a
behind compaction in agriculture is the heavy use of farm great role in nutrients holding, reducing soil erosion and
machinery and the applied pressure of wheels. The tillage improving water infiltration.The distribution of SOC in the
practices under inappropriate moisture leads to increase profile is affected by tillage practices and SOC content.
in compaction. The use of same cropping sequence and The SOC content in the surface layer is higher in case of
equipment year after year in conventional tillage causes the ZT compared to CT (Chakrabarti et al. 2014, Pathak et al.
formation of sub soil compaction. Different crop rotations 2017), whereas a higher SOC content is found in the lower
and residue retentions and crops with different rooting soil layers of tilled fields with residue incorporation (Fig
depths used in CA practices have proved to reduce the 2). Crop residues are forerunners of the SOC pool, and
compaction constraints. maintenance of more crop residues on the soil is linked with
an increase in SOC content (Bhattacharyya et al. 2012a). The
Hydraulic conductivity and infiltration under CA rate of crop residues decomposition is not only dependent
The conduction of water within a soil profile against on the amount retained, but also on soil properties and the

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2054 GHOSH ET AL. [Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 90 (11)

may be due to more soil pH and improved soil aeration

(Cavigelli and Robertson 2001). Plant residues with a low
C: N ratio normally induce relatively high N2O emissions
(Huang et al. 2004) when soils remain aerobic, but soil
N2O production is depressed when soil conditions become
anaerobic (Li et al. 2013). ZT has been found to enhance
SOC and the better soil physical properties have caused to
the reduced N2O emissions as compared to CT in Eastern
Canada (Drury et al. 2006, 2012). Utomo (2014) showed
that long-term CA of corn reduced CO2 emission and
increased carbon sequestration both in biomass and soil.
Release and capture of greenhouse gases are strongly
affected by pore network connectivity (Quigley et al.
2018, Steffens et al. 2017). Mangalassery et al. (2014)
showed that ZT reduces soil porosity by 33%, which led
to 21% reduction in potential CO2 efflux. Although the
processes of GHG production and emission are mainly
biological, soil physical conditions influence biology by
Fig 2 Huge residue addition in CA causes more SOC. their effect on the physical environment (Gregorich et al.
2006). Smith et al. (2003) reviewed the interactions between
soil physical properties and biological processes at the
chemical composition of the residues. Das et al. (2013) Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and subsequently at the
showed that plots under CA had around 33% more labile University of Edinburgh. They emphasized the importance
SOC (Pool II) than CT plots (2.01 g C kg–1) in the 0- to of gas diffusivity for methane (CH4) oxidation rate and the
5-cm soil layer. Conservation agriculture is a system and influence of temperature and water-filled pore space (WFPS)
not a single component. Dou et al. (2008) observed that on nitrous oxide (N2O) production by denitrification and on
CA significantly (P < 0.05) improved SOC content and N2O emission. Conen et al. (2000) subsequently identified
they compared the proportion of all labile SOC pools with the three key factors for N2O emission from agricultural
CT, particularly for 0-15 cm soil layer, after 20 yrs. of CA soils as WFPS, temperature and topsoil mineral N content.
adoption in south-central Texas. They found significantly Others have shown the importance of soil temperature and
higher labile SOC pool in CA and that was possibly owing moisture content for fluxes of the transient greenhouse gas
to greater biomass C. nitric oxide (NO) (Skiba et al. 1997) and of carbon dioxide
(CO2) (Franzluebbers et al. 1995). Bouckaert et al. (2013)
Greenhouse gas emission under CA reported that higher rate of decomposition of plant materials
The different agricultural management practices can were found in 15-60 mm pore neck diameter whereas lower
regulate soil nitrogen and carbon dynamics and thereby, rate of decomposition were found in < 4 mm and 60-300
influencing the greenhouse gases (GHGs) like nitrous mm pore neck diameter classes. Thomsen et al, (1999)
oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (Gu found that water is one of the main factor responsible for
et al. 2013; Vidon et al. 2016). CA can help to mitigate soil organic carbon turnover and they also reported that the
GHG emissions from agriculture by improving soil C effect of texture is indirect, pore size distribution of soil
sequestration, enhancing soil quality, nitrogen and water mainly controlled by soil structure.
use efficiencies, and decreasing fuel consumption (Drury
et al. 2012). Carbonell-Bojollo et al. (2019) reported that Porosity and pore size distribution under CA
CT increased the CO2 emissions compared to CA and There are different sizes and shaped pores are present
established that in CA , where mechanical soil disturbances in the soil, and their characteristics influence greatly on the
through tillage is escaped, could be a feasible alternative to physical, chemical and biological behaviour of the soil. The
mitigate climate change. Dendooven et al. (2012) reported pores of different dimensions are developed due to different
that the cumulative greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission were abiotic (e.g. traffic and tillage, wetting and drying, freezing
similar in CA and CT for both the years, but the net global and thawing, etc) and biotic (e.g. burrowing of macro and
warming potential (GWP) of CA was -7729 kg CO2 ha-1 microfauna, root growth) factors (Kay and VandenBygaart,
y-1 in 2008-2009 and -7892 kg CO2 ha-1 y-1 in 2010-2011, 2002). The alteration of pore characteristics in the spatio-
on the other hand, in CT GWP was 1327 and 1156 kg temporal scale can be done by following different tillage
CO2 ha-1 y-1. They concluded that the contribution of CA practices. The changes of pore characteristic are mainly
to GWP was small as compared to CT. Wang et al. (2011) depending on the magnitude, frequency, and form of stresses
found that when rice husk biochar was applied in the field that have been imposed on the soil, applications of crop
at the rate of 50 t ha−1, N2O emissions was decreased by residue and the population of microorganisms. Many earlier
73.1%. Reduction of N2O emissions on biochar application studies on the effects on different management practices

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November 2020] SOIL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES UNDER CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE 2055

on soil porosity and pore geometry have been done either location, and morphology of pores. They have found out
qualitatively or limited to the bulk analysis of disturbed soil that combines the application of amendments improves soil
samples from the field. X-ray μCT offers a non-destructive pore structure more effectively as compared to individual
way of assessing the structural and pore properties of soil in applications. They have also reported that the application
three-dimensions (3D).This technique has been applied to of both straw mulch and organic manure improving soil
characterize soil hydraulic properties (Périard et al. 2016), porosity and soil structure more effectively as compared
quantify the pore network geometry (Baveye et al. 2002), to other combinations.
assessseed-soil contact (Blunk et al. 2017) and to visualize Recently, X-ray computed tomography gives a novel
undisturbed root architecture in soils (Tracy et al. 2010). way to study soil pore structure. X-ray CT data represented
Different agricultural operations affect pore-size as grayscale images and the proper selection of segments
distribution, pore connectivity and tortuosity. Tillage by to binarized, it has a great influence on the soil structure
heavy machinery reduces the macroporosity, disrupt pore characterization. Torre et al. (2017) used μ-CT for the
continuity and affects biopore formation (Boersma and visualization of soil structure under different tillage
Kooistra 1994). Piccoli et al. (2017) reported that CA treatments namely Chisel plough, Moldboard plough, and
practices clearly influenced the ultramicroporosity class Roller. By comparing μ-CT data for all three treatments, they
(0.1–5 μm) (1·86E01 vs 1·67E01 μm μm−3) which is totally have concluded that moldboard produces a higher complex
linked to SOC content of soil.Vanden Bygaart et al (1999) soil structure as it physically removes the soil. Chisel disrupts
showed that ZT practices decreased 30- to 100-µm pores the soil aggregates and finally, Roller is an intermediate case
number of with a net increase in 100- to 500-µm diameter with a scaling character mainly in the lower gray values of
pores within 4 years of ZT practice. the soil image. Mangalassery et al. (2014) showed that soil
The desirable soil structure is vital for getting good porosity obtained by X-ray CT was considerably higher in
physical characteristics, which make agriculturally CT (13.6%) than ZT soil (9.6%). They also reported that
sustainable. Pires et al. (2019) employed X-ray CT to the porosity was 46.9% higher in 0–10 cm of tilled soils
evaluate the effect of three different tillage systems (i.e ZT; than in ZT soils and pores in CT were twice as large (0.52
RT, reduced tillage; and CT) in an Oxisol with a porous mm2 ) as those in ZT soils (0.27 mm2 ).
structure. They have used 0-10 cm depth undisturbed soil Bouckaert et al. (2013) use X-ray computed tomography
core for scanning through X-ray CT. The results have been for the quantification and distribution of pore in a unit pore
showed that the soil under ZT has the minimum porosity as volume and they tried to develop the relationship between
compared to RT and CT. The maximum porosity and the pore volume and soil carbon mineralization. They have
most connected pores have been seen in CT. established correlation between volume of each pore neck
Yang et al. (2018) used different soil amendments classes and slow pool carbon mineralization rate and found
like straw mulch, superabsorbent polymer (SAP) and out that pore neck size of 150-250, 250-350 and >350 μm
organic fertilizers for improving soil structure and porosity. having positive correlation (r) = 0.572, 0.598 and 0.516,
They have used X-ray CT to determine the number, size, respectively because larger pores enhancing aeration

Table 2 Effect of different CA practices on soil physical properties

Management practices Effect on soil physical properties References
Minimum tillage along with residue retention Improve soil biological activity, form more stable Kassam and friedrich (2009)
aggregates
Permanent soil cover Protect the soil from the harmful impact of rainfall Ghoshet al. (2010)
and sunshine, increase microbial population
Crop rotation with legume Minimizing pest instance, enhance biological nitrogen Dumanski et al. (2006)
fixation and microbial diversity.
Zero tillage (ZT) Higher bulk density Gantzer& Blake (1978)
Zero tillage (ZT) with residue retention Reduce bulk density Bautista et al. (1996)
Zero tillage (ZT) Improve hydraulic cinductivity Mcgarryet al. (2000)
No tillage Improved pore size distribution, increase pore Cameiraet al. (2003)
diameters, pore continuity and numbers of macropore
Zero tillage Increase soil organic carbon in surface layer of soil Chakrabarti et al. (2014)
Plant residues with a low C: N ratio Induce relatively high N2O emissions Huang et al. 2004
Zero tillage Reduce N2O gas emission Drury et al. 2006 (2012)
Zero tillage Decreased the number of micropores, increase in Vanden Bygaart et al. (1999)
macropores within 4 yr of ZT practice
Soil amendments like straw mulch, superabsorbent Improve soil structure and porosity Yang et al. (2018)
polymer (SAP) and organic fertilizers

15
2056 GHOSH ET AL. [Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 90 (11)

whereas <9.44 μm pore neck classes having negative 2012. Conservation tillage impacts on soil aggregation and
correlation due to obstruction of microbial activity and carbon pools in a sandy clay loam soil of the Indian Himalayas.
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