The Application Of Micro-Relief Meter For Soil Tillage Studies

Measuring the physical properties of soil provides a good opportunity for careful study of processes such as evaporation from the soil surface, formation of water runoff, sediments and erosion. In this research, the change of some soil hydrological properties was studied in four kinds of primary soil cultivation activities by using a mechanical micro-relief meter. This study was conducted in a randomized complete block design. Data was collected in frames with 9025 cm 2 area and 400 data height were collected for every frame. Measured soil properties were: Root Mean Square (RMS) of height data, superficial Profile Length Ratio (RZ) of soil roughness, Infiltration Recession Factor (RECS), plough depth, the volume of displaced soil, comparison of the area change in relation to superficial evaporation of soil. The RMS of height data was higher (p<0.05) with moldboard plow and modified disk plow than chisel and traditional ploughshares. The analysis of height data collected from plots showed that surface evaporation of soil moisture didn't differ by plowing with moldboard plow or traditional ploughshares, compared with two other ploughshares. This statistic was less than the recorded value of developed dish-like ploughshare (p<0.01). Also displaced soil mass by these two ploughshares was much more than chisel and traditional ones (p<0.01). The developed ploughshare prevents more evaporation. Therefore, plowing surface with this instrument provides high pot-hole store and penetration coefficient compared with other ploughshares. (Journal of American Science. 2010;6(11):85-89). (ISSN: 1545-1003).