Effect of long term no-till and conventional tillage practices on soil quality

• Tillage and crop rotation had significant impact on Cmic, total carbon, active carbon.
• Tillage practices also show some influence on Basal respiration rates and specific maintenance respiration rates.
• We found significant changes total nitrogen, Aggregate stability and Sand free particulate organic matter.

Management systems influence soil quality over time. A randomized block design in 2 (tillage system) × 3 (crop rotation) factorial arrangement was laid-out to evaluate the impact of tillage and crop rotation (2002–2007) on soil quality. Conventional tillage and No-till were factored into continuous corn, corn–soybean, and corn–soybean–wheat–Cowpea systems. Ten soil cores were collected at 0–7.5, 7.5–15, 15–22.5 and 22.5–30 cm depths and analyzed for biological, chemical and physical parameters. The inductive additive approach was used to calculate biological, chemical, physical and composite soil quality indices. A significant impact of no tillage on different physical chemical and biological parameters was observed. The estimated soil quality index was significantly higher in soil under No-till than conventional tillage. Soil biological quality is a sensitive and consistent indicator of soil quality in response to management practices.