Effects of tillage and management practices on soil crust morphology under a Mediterranean environment

Soil crust formation can be affected by soil tillage. Alternative soil conservation practices consisting of reduced tillage were tested against traditional tillage, which involves mechanical weeding by frequent ploughing in rainfed vineyard soils in Catalonia, Spain. After 2 years of the experiment (1994–1996), thin sections of the surface crusts were studied to evaluate the effects of the soil management treatments on crust morphology and genesis, using micromorphological observations and pore characterisation with image analysis. Reduced tillage caused thicker and more complex crusts consisting of layers with different degrees of sorting and pore types, compared to traditional tillage. Total porosity of crusts did not differ from that of non-crusted areas, but pores in crusts were less interconnected, more horizontally distributed and more elongated than in the underlying non-crusted material. The soil type, especially structure and texture, affected crust morphology and played an important role in the process of crusting. The results show that reduced tillage may be limited as an alternative management practice when used to reduce crust formation in Mediterranean conditions, due to the difficulty to establish an effective groundcover.