Authors: Zhen Yu, Chaoqun Lu, David A Hennessy, Hongli Feng, Hanqin Tian
Journal: Environmental Research Letters
Description: Tillage alters the thermal and wetness conditions in soil, which facilitates soil organic matter oxidation and water transportation, leading to rapid depletion of soil carbon (C). Little is known about tillage intensity change (TIC) and its impacts in the US corn-soybean rotation system over the past two decades. Using time-series tillage maps developed from a private survey and a process-based land ecosystem model, here we examined how tillage intensity has changed across the nation and affected soil organic carbon (SOC) storage from 1998 to 2016. Results derived from the combination of tillage survey data and cropland distribution maps show that total corn-soybean area consistently increased from 62.3 Mha in 1998 to 66.8 Mha in 2008 and to 73.1 Mha in 2016, among which the acreage under no-till system increased from 16.9 Mha in 1998 to 28.9 Mha in 2008, while conservation and conventional tillage …