Elsevier, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 1(144), p. 382-389, 2011
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2011.07.005
Full text: Unavailable
The objective of this study was to compare the effects of repeated field applications of three urban compost amendments and one farmyard manure amendment over a 9-year period on aggregate stability in a silty loam soil initially characterized by low clay and initial organic matter contents and poor aggregate stability. Three different aggregate stability tests with increasing disruptive intensities (fast wetting > mechanical breakdown > slow wetting tests) and different disaggregation mechanisms, were used. All of the amendments, which were applied at approximately 4 Mg C ha(-1) every other year, increased the organic carbon content and improved the stability of the aggregates against the disruptive action of water, as determined by each of the stability tests. However, the year-to-year variations in the aggregate stability that related to factors other than the organic inputs were greater than the cumulative increase in aggregate stability relative to the control. The positive effects of the tested amendments on aggregate stability were linked to their contribution to soil organic C contents (r=0.54 for the fast wetting test and r = 0.41-0.42 for the mechanical breakdown and slow wetting tests; p