Impact of management systems on some soils qualities in Egypt [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

The current work aims to evaluate the effect of different periods of organic farming on some soils qualities compared with the traditional system. Several farms varied in their soil nature and periods of practicing organic farming system were chosen. The farms are located in Belbes, EI-Manayef, EI-Fayoum and El-Behera areas. Moreover, the study also involved adjacent traditional managed farms. The evaluation was based on the weighted values of the physical, chemical and biological properties of the 0-50 cm and 0-100 cm soil depths. The considered soil properties were soil organic matter (SOM); bulk density; porosity; available water; penetration resistance, mean soil particles weight diameter (MWD), cation exchange capacity and total microbial count. The obtained results indicated that soil biological parameters were less important than the physical or the chemical factors. Principle component1, (PC1) scores indicated that 79.97% and 78.05 % of total variance are attributed to the 0-50 cm soil depth of the organic and conventional managed soils, respectively. In the meantime, 75.72 and 71.94 % are related tothe 0-100 cm soil depth for the two farming systems, (Organic and conventional) in the same sequence. The only significant factor contributing to PC2 was total count; PC2 indicated that (10.29 and 10.87% of the total variance are accounted for 0-50 and 0-100 cm soil depth of organic farming as well as 15.3 and 16.68% of the total variance for 0-50 and 0-100 em soil depth of conventional farming system, respectively.

Summary in arabic.

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