Impact of Soil Management Practices on Physical and Chemical Properties of Soils Formed in Marls, Conglomerates or Schists in Sloping Olive Groves

In west Crete, Greece we studied the effect of land management practices, tillage and no tillage, on physical and chemical properties of autochthonous soils that were formed in marls, conglomerates or schists in slopes higher than 10%. Soil organic matter content was higher in the case of no tillage in soils formed on conglomerates. The conglomerates soil content in available P was 8.27 mg kg(-1) in the case of no-tillage and 2.87 mg kg(-1) in tillage while in soils formed on marls it was 26.65 and 16.83 mg kg(-1), respectively. No statistically significant differences were recorded between the treatments in exchangeable K, pH, equivalent CaCO3 and CEC. The effects of alternative land management practices such as conservation tillage or no tillage on soil properties, natural resources conservation and the productivity of olive groves are discussed in the light of the presented results.