Potential of adapted tillage and seeding operations for sustainable spring wheat cultivation under climate change in Western Siberia

Western Siberia is of global significance in terms of agricultural production, carbon sequestration and biodiversity preservation. Land use intensities in Tyumen province in Western Siberia are relatively low but increasing on cropland since the dissolution of Soviet Union and the following collapse of the state farm system. Climate change modelling predict an increase of drought risk for this region. Together, these changing conditions lead to upcoming challenges for sustainable crop production. The German-Russian interdisciplinary research project "SASCHA" aims to provide sustainable management practices to cope with these far-reaching changes for Tyumen province. In particular, on farm scale strategies to improve efficiencies in crop production systems are being developed. Therefore, a factorial field trial (completely randomized block design, 3 replications) with different tillage and seeding operations was installed in 2013, growing the regional most dominant crop spring wheat on 10 ha under practical conditions. Even if optimal seed rate and seed depth have been identified since decades, changing climate conditions as well as advancement in technology and breeding require a look on these details again. A main goal of the project is ability of implementation, thus all tested trial parameters are easily applicable with standard equipment on ordinary farms. After 2 years, results indicate significant impacts of reduced tillage on soil water storage, nitrogen mineralization and plant development. Depending on yearly weather conditions, effects of seeding adjustments vary. In conjunction with progressing climate change there seems to be high potential for enhanced production efficiency by no-till systems for the study region in Western Siberia. Under these environmental conditions, an optimized soil water storage management means an enhanced resource use efficiency at all. This way of sustainable intensification of agricultural production will also preserve carbon stocks and biodiversity, as there is no need for expanding arable land into currently unused areas. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.