Soil resistance and resilience to mechanical stresses for three differently managed sandy loam soils

To improve our understanding of how clay-organic carbon dynamics affect soil aggregate strength and physical resilience, we selected three nearby soils (MFC, Mixed Forage Cropping; MCC, Mixed Cash Cropping; CCC, Cereal Cash Cropping) with identical clay content and increasing contents of organic carbon (CCCMCC>CCC). After wet-dry cycles, the MFC soil showed a significantly greater resilience for all three indicators (k(a), e and epsilon). Resilience (k(a), and e) after freeze-thaw cycles was significantly lower for the CCC soil than the MFC and MCC soils. A significant positive correlation between resistance and resilience was observed for k(a) and e but not for epsilon. Resilience to compaction was found to be independent of the soil properties monitored. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.