1088 Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), July-October 2011 www.world-food.net Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.9 (3&4): 1088-1095. 2011 WFL Publisher Science and Technology Meri-Rastilantie 3 B, FI-00980 Helsinki, Finland e-mail: info@world-food.net Soil state in the 11 th year of three tillage systems application on a cambisol Virginijus Feiza 1 *, Dalia Feiziene 2 , Grazina Kadziene 3 , Sigitas Lazauskas 4 , Irena Deveikyte 5 , Alvyra Slepetiene 6 and Vytautas Seibutis 7 1, 3, 5, 7 Department of Crop and Soil Management, 2, 4 Department of Plant Nutrition and Agroecology, 6 Chemical Research Laboratory, Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Instituto al. 1, LT-58344 Akademija, Kedainiai distr., Lithuania. e-mail: virgis@lzi.lt, daliaf@lzi.lt, grazina@lzi.lt, sigislaz@lzi.lt, irenad@lzi.lt, alvyra@lzi.lt, vytautas@lzi.lt Received 9 July 2011, accepted 8 October 2011. Abstract Soil quality is widely used within discussions on sustainable agriculture. Two field experiments, one on loam and the other on sandy loam were established in 1999 according to the same trial design. Three tillage systems were investigated: conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and no- tillage (NT). The study goals were: 1) to assess the quality of arable soil layer of endocalcari-epihypogleyic cambisol in the 11 th year of successive conventional, reduced and no-tillage application, and 2) to use a soil quality indexing to assess the soil state under long-term different tillage. Soil physical and chemical properties depended on soil depth and tillage intensity. The best soil agrochemical quality (SQI chem ) in the 11 th year of field experiments within the 0-20 cm layer was registered in RT system on loam and in CT system on sandy loam. Long-term NT application increased soil agrochemical quality in the upper soil layer compared to CT or RT on both loam and sandy loam. In the 10-20 cm layer, the best SQI chem was recorded in RT on loam, while there were no differences among tillage treatments on sandy loam. The SQI chem remained high on loam and moderate on sandy loam. The best soil agrophysical quality (SQI physic ) on loam was recorded under conventional (CT) and reduced (RT) tillage. On sandy loam, the CT had an advantage over RT and NT to sustain SQI physic . The highest total SQI (SQI chem + SQI physic ) on loam in both the 0-10 and 10-20 cm layers was under RT (SQI = 20; SQI = 17, respectively). On sandy loam, the reduction of soil disturbance intensity (CT→RT→NT) consistently and significantly reduced SQI in both soil layers. The increase in available P and K, organic N, organic C and total C contents in the 0-10 cm soil layer over 11 years of the experiments did not prevent deterioration of total SQI in NT. The main reason for total SQI reduction on NT background was unfavorable soil agrophysical conditions for crop growth. Key words: Agrochemical properties, physical properties, soil quality indexing, long-term tillage, loam, sandy loam. Introduction The optimization of soil resources use towards maximization of use-efficiency and minimization of environmental degradation risk is a main challenge to European policies 1 . Soil quality and sustainability evaluation is a fundamental concept bridging the gap between the utilization and protection aspects of soil-use planning 2 . Selecting indicators for soil quality evaluation is a potentially onerous task. The indicators need to be meaningful and easy to interpret with respect to the state of soil under potential pressures. Unfortunately, no single indicator of soil quality is suitable for all purposes and contexts 3 . Soil quality cannot be measured directly, but individual soil properties that are sensitive to changes in management can be used as indicators 4-6 . Soil quality is widely used within discussions on sustainable agriculture. It is based on estimation of soil condition using a set of independent indicators of specific soil physical, chemical and biological properties 7 . Detailed evaluation of soil properties is useful for the validation of soil quality indices. Typically, for assessing the impact of agricultural practices on soil environment, the individual physical and chemical properties of agricultural soils are investigated. Therefore, soil properties are site specific and associated with each other. It is always a complicated question for a researcher to identify which soil property is the most important and has to be considered. To combine measured soil physical and chemical properties into a single parameter the Soil Quality Index (SQI) has been suggested by Amacher et al. 8 for assessing forest soil health. Little is known about implementation of SQI to assess soil conditions of managed agricultural land. A simplified methodological guide must be developed to identify and classify local indicators of soil quality and relate them to technical soil parameters, and thus develop a common language between farmers, advisors and scientists 9 . The aim of the study was: (i) to assess the quality of arable soil layer of endocalcari-epihypogleyic cambisol in the 11 th year of successive conventional, reduced and no-tillage application, (ii) to use a soil quality indexing to assess the soil state under long- term different tillage. We hypothesize that long-term NT management differentiates arable soil layer into more fertile (0-10 cm) and less fertile (10-20 cm) layers with corresponding physico- chemical soil properties.