A review of tillage effects on crop residue management, seedbed conditionsand seedling establishment

There is considerable discussion about the influence of soil management tec hniques on soil erosion, water use and conservation, and more recently carb on dioxide sequestration and waste disposal. The soil-atmosphere interface, particularly the seed bed layer is of particular concern to agronomists an d soil scientists because it is the focus of the physical processes affecti ng crop establishment and biological activity. This paper evaluates the cur rent knowledge (1) in modeling seedling emergence and residue decomposition , (2) seedbed structure and its resulting physical conditions, and (3) till age operations affect on seedbed structure and residue distribution. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.