Micro and macroscopic investigation to quantify tillage impact on soil hydrodynamic behaviour

Nowadays, tillage simplification is an increasing practice. Many advantages are cited in the literature, such as energy saving, soil conservation etc. Agricultural management practices influence soil structure, but consequent changes in soil hydrodynamic behaviour at the field scale are still not well understood. Many studies focus only on macroscopic measurements which do not provide mechanistic explanations. Moreover, research shows divergent conclusions over structure modification. The aim of this work is to fill this gap by quantifying soil structure modification depending on tillage intensity through both macroscopic and microscopic measurements, the latter improving our comprehension of the fundamental mechanisms involved.