Soil compaction reduces soil quality and crop productivity. To mitigate the problem, many farmers have used occasional tillage; however, without an adequate diagnosis, soil tillage may not provide benefits. Machine learning is an effective tool in helping to diagnose soil compaction and make decisions about the use of occasional tillage.

Management and recycling of crop residues could serve as the potential source of soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N). Understanding the effects of organic farming system on carbon and N pools is important for assessing acceptable organic sources for a particular region. Sensitivity indices can be used to detect management-induced changes in SOC and N fractions.

Crop models are widely used to evaluate management options and support decision making for farmers and policy makers. However, the performance of these models is highly dependent on a generally large number of input parameters, including soil characteristics. Measurements of these is time consuming and not possible at the larger scale. Instead, general information from databases can be used. But are these good enough? To answer this, we carried out a sensitivity analysis.

Nitrification inhibitors (NIs) reduce nitrogen (N) losses from agricultural soils. The threshold concentrations of NIs required to reduce N losses from urine in pasture soils are unknown, so this study aimed to fill this knowledge gap. The three NIs examined had different threshold concentrations, and the longer the NIs persisted in the soil, the more effective they were at reducing N loss from the soil.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important C pool that can be lost with cultivation and warming. In mountains, SOC can be high due to cooler temperatures and slower microbial decomposition, but it is not known how it would respond to cultivation. We measured SOC at elevations 940 and 1260 m, under native forest and coffee (Coffea arabica L.) crops in Brazil. Altitude had no effect on SOC under forests, but large SOC sequestration occurred under coffee crops at 1260 m.