| Carbon Sink – Chisel Plow – Conservation Tillage – Cover Crops – Crop Residues – Crop Rotation – Erosion – Fertilizer – Glyphosate – Herbicides – Irrigation – Intensive Tillage – No-Till Farming – Organic Matter – Plow – Reduced Tillage – Seedbed – Soil Aggregate – Soil Compaction – Soil Layer – Sustainable Agriculture – Tillage – Topsoil – Weed – Weed Control | |
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| Carbon Sink | A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration, which is a mean against global warming. |
| Chisel Plow | The chisel plow is a common tool to get deep tillage (prepared land) with limited soil disruption. The main function of this plow is to loosen the soils while leaving crop residue at the top of the soil. |
| Cover Crops | Cover crops are crops planted primarily to manage soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, and biodiversity on fields. Cover crops are of interest in sustainable agriculture as many of them improve the sustainability of agroecosystems. |
| Crop Residues | Crop residues are vegetal materials left in an agricultural field after the crop has been harvested. A good management of crop residues can increase efficiency of irrigation and control of erosion. |
| Crop Rotation | Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons. This practice confers various benefits to the soil such as mitigating the build-up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped. It can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. |
| Erosion | Erosion is the process by which soil and rock are removed from the Earth’s surface by natural processes such as wind or water flow, and then transported and deposited in other locations. While erosion is a natural process, human activities such as tillage have dramatically increased the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. Excessive erosion causes problems such as desertification, decreases in agricultural productivity due to land degradation, sedimentation of waterways, and ecological collapse due to loss of the nutrient rich upper soil layers. |
| Fertilizer | Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. |
| Glyphosate | Glyphosate is a herbicide trademarked by Monsanto under the name of Roundup, used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses known to compete with commercial crops. Farmers implementing conservation tillage are making use of glyphosate in order to get rid of weeds without tilling too deeply. |
| Herbicides | Herbicides are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Herbicides are widely used in agriculture. |
| Irrigation | Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. |
| Organic Matter | Organic matter is broken down organic matter that comes from plants and animals in the environment. Organic matter is a collective term, assigned to the realm of all of this broken down organic matter. It is very important in the movement of nutrients in the environment and plays a role in water retention on the surface of the planet. |
| Plow | The plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds, the remains of previous crops, and both crop and weed seeds, allowing them to break down. This tool is not implemented in conservation tillage. |
| Seedbed | A seedbed is the local soil environment in which seeds are planted with the goal to increase the germination. In traditionnal agriculture, the preparation of a seedbed implies the use of plows. No-till farming methods avoid tillage for seedbed preparation as well as later weed control. |
| Soil Aggregate | A soil aggregate is made of individual particles of soil stuck together, and determines soil texture . Thus, for example, a soil with a granular structure is composed of relatively small, rounded aggregates, and a soil with a blocky structure is made up of aggregates with sharp corners and irregular shapes. |
| Soil Compaction | It is the reduction of soil volume as a result of applied load, vibration, or pressure, which leads to an increase in soil density and a decrease in soil porosity. |
| Soil Layer | A soil layer (soil horizon) is a layer parallel to the soil surface, whose physical characteristics differ from the layers above and beneath. Each soil type has at least one, usually three or four horizons. Horizons are defined in most cases by obvious physical features, chiefly colour and texture. |
| Sustainable Agriculture | Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. It has been defined as “an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term”. |
| Tillage | Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Intensive tillage systems leave less than 15% crop residue cover or less than 500 pounds per acre (560 kg/ha) of small grain residue. These types of tillage systems are often referred to as conventional tillage systems. Reduced tillage systems leave between 15 and 30% residue cover on the soil or 500 to 1000 pounds per acre (560 to 1100 kg/ha) of small grain residue during the critical erosion period. This may involve the use of a chisel plow, field cultivators, or other implements. Conservation tillage systems are methods of soil tillage which leave a minimum of 30% of crop residue on the soil surface or at least 1,000 lb/ac (1,100 kg/ha) of small grain residue on the surface during the critical soil erosion period. This slows water movement, which reduces the amount of soil erosion. |
| No-Till Farming | No-till farming is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till is an agricultural technique which increases the amount of water and organic matter in the soil and decreases erosion. |
| Topsoil | Topsoil (upper soil layer) is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top 5.1 cm to 20 cm. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth’s biological soil activity occurs. |
| Weed | A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance especially because of its aggressive reproduction. Weed control is the botanical component of pest control, using physical and chemical methods to stop weeds from reaching a mature stage of growth. In order to reduce weed growth, many “weed control” strategies have been developed in order to contain the growth and spread of weeds through different techniques such as the use of herbicides. |
| The definitions are Based on The free Encyclopédia Wikipédia, A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation by Chris Park (Oxford University Press, 2007), as well as on the papers cited in the sources section. | |
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