Excerpt from Research Progress and Needs Conservation Tillage An in-depth understanding of the influence of tillage and residue manage ment systems on the physical, chemical, and biological components of the plant-soil environment will be an essential component in optimizing conserva tion production systems with crop yield and quality. Unfortunately, because tillage itself is a physical manipulation of the soil, much tillage research has stressed the effects on the physical characteristics of soil; only minor emphasis has been placed upon biological considerations. Tillage alone can have dramatic effects upon biological equilibria and microbial populations in soil (mccalla, Reductions in crop yield, associated with conservation production systems, have emphasized the need for a complete understanding of the biological changes in the soil environment. Research to determine the biological effects of minimum tillage and residue management will be multidisciplinary because of the necessity of studying the microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, and physics of the plant-soil environ 'ment, as well as the physiology and disease and insect-vulnerability of the crop itself. An important component in the study of conservation production systems should be the characterization of the microbiology of the soil This aspect should not only involve the correlation of counts of soil fungi, actinomycetes, and bacteria with the conservation production systems. It also should include the effects of tillage and residue incorporation upon microorganisms that are responsible for such agronomically and environmentally important transforma tions as nitrification and denitrification. In specifically studying theeffects of residue management on production of phytotoxic compounds, the water - soluble and gaseous phytotoxic compounds will have to be identified. In the case where phytotoxic compounds are being produced by microorganisms, the microorganisms responsible for their production will have to be identified. Research relating to production of specific phytotoxins will involve laboratory. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.