The influence of rotation, tillage and row spacing on near-surface soil temperature for winter wheat in southern Alberta

Abstract

Soil and crop management practices and their effects on surface residue levels can modify soil temperature. Our study investigated the effect of rotation, tillage and row spacing on near-surface (0.025 m) soil temperature under winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in 1993-1994 and 1994-1995. The main treatment was winter wheat rotation: continuous winter wheat (WW); winter wheat-canola (Brassica campestris L.) (WC) or winter wheat-fallow (WF)] with tillage sub-treatments of conventional tillage (CT) vs. zero tillage (ZT) and row spacing treatments of uniform row (UR) vs. paired row (PR) spacing. From fall 1993 to spring 1994, ZT was cooler than CT by 1.2°C on the WC rotation, 1.1°C on WW and 0.4°C on the WF rotation. From fall 1994 to spring 1995, the magnitude of tillage differences was lower on all three rotations with ZT being cooler than CT by 0.1–0.9°C. The magnitude of the row spacing effect on soil temperature was less than that of the tillage effect. Extreme differences in soil temperature due to tillage were generally higher (1.0–4.9°C) on the WW and WC than the WF rotation (0.6–2.5°C) due to the presence of more crop residue. Results demonstrate that while ZT promotes overall cooler soils under winter wheat from fall to late spring, especially on continuously cropped (WW, WC) rotations, it also allows moderation of soil temperatures during extremely cold periods. Key words: Soil temperature, winter wheat, rotation, tillage, row spacing