| Soil pore size affects soil air and water dynamics, and thus influence crop productivity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of reduced-tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) systems on soil pore distribution under animal grazing. The soil was sampled at 0-5, 5-10, 10-15 and 15-20 cm depths before and after animal grazing. Bulk density, total porosity and the volume of three pore sizes (macropores, mesopores and micropores) were determined. Differences in total porosity between both tillage systems were statistically significant (P<0.01) in the top 10 cm layer before grazing. Lower total porosity in NT could be related to the effect of previous years’grazing. In RT, disk operations before planting the oat (Avena sativa) crop increased... |
