Abstract:
Objective Cover crops play an active role in the soil ecosystem by providing continuous surface cover and abundant underground root system. Clarifying the effect of cover crops on soil infiltration performance can provide a theoretical basis for research on enhancing the ecosystem service function of black soil farmland through cover crops.
Method Taking the winter fallow land (bare land) as a control, based on the double-cutting ring method and Win-RHIZO Pro LA2004 analysis system, the soil infiltration performance and root characteristics of the surface layer of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and Hair Vetch (Vicia villosa Roth.) were compared by one-way ANOVA, stepwise regression and path analysis.
Result ① Winter cover crops could decrease soil bulk density and increase soil moisture content and organic matter content to some degree. ② There was no significant difference of infiltration between winter cover crops and CK, but the trend was more stable and more clustered with the increase of infiltration time. ③ The initial infiltration rate, stabilized infiltration rate and average infiltration rate were significantly correlated with soil bulk density and porosity, and the root biomass affected soil infiltration performance by affecting soil non-capillary porosity and non-capillary /capillary porosity ratio.
Conclusion Although planting winter cover crops in the black soil region of Northeast China did not significantly increase the soil infiltration performance in the short term, it showed the potential to positively affect soil water infiltration by accumulating underground root biomass and improving the physical structure, of which the overwintering advantage of winter wheat with fibrous root system is more obvious, and the results of the study can provide a reference for the basic research on winter cover crops in the black soil region and the technical promotion research.
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