Research question

This study examined the effects of long-term cover cropping and reduced-disturbance tillage on soil structure and water storage.

Methods

During my doctoral research, I worked with Teamrat Ghezzehei and Jeff Mitchell on an 18-year conservation-agriculture experiment at UC’s West Side Research and Extension Center in California.

We measured soil water conductivity and retention in the laboratory, examined pore-size distributions, and used HYDRUS simulations to investigate water storage over an irrigated tomato-growing season.

Cover-crop and comparison plots at the research site

Findings

The laboratory measurements and seasonal simulations gave different results for water availability. Static water-retention measurements did not fully describe the simulated changes in water storage over the growing season.

Pore-size distributions and relative pore-size abundances for four tillage and cover-crop treatments, at depths of 0–5 and 20–25 cm.
Pore-size distributions and relative abundances at two depths. ST: standard tillage; NT: no-till; CC: cover crop; NO: no cover crop. Araya et al. (2022), Fig. 5, CC BY 4.0. Click the figure to view full size.

Publication

Read the 2022 paper in SOIL.