Greenhouse gas emissions are directly associated with climate change issues. Part of the emissions originates from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil used as an energy source for the performance of agricultural machinery's internal combustion engines. However, discussions relevant to the topic are under development in Brazil, and there is a lack of research in the academic field on the intellectual property of agricultural technologies.
The ploughing-induced compaction of the interface between topsoil and subsoil negatively affects the connectivity and continuity of the complex pore system through plough pans as artificial boundary resulting in water-logged conditions. The conversion of arable land into hayfield is an opportunity for breaking up plough pans and recovering pore networks in the long-term. The basic idea of the current study was to investigate the potential pore structure recovery effect by growing either deep-rooting alfalfa or shallow-rooting grass on former conventionally-tilled cropland.
