Soil compaction caused by heavy agricultural machinery poses a significant challenge to sustainable farming by degrading soil health, reducing crop productivity, and disrupting environmental dynamics. Field traffic optimization can help abate compaction, yet conventional algorithms have mostly focused on minimizing route length while overlooking soil compaction dynamics in their cost function. This study introduces Soil2Cover, an approach that combines controlled traffic farming principles with the SoilFlex model to minimize soil compaction by optimizing machinery paths. Soil2Cover prioritizes the frequency of machinery passes over specific areas, while integrating soil mechanical properties to quantify compaction impacts. Results from tests on 1000 fields demonstrate that our approach achieves a reduction in route length of up to 4-6% while reducing the soil compaction on headlands by up to 30% in both single-crop and intercropping scenarios. The optimized routes improve crop yields whilst reducing operational costs, lowering fuel consumption and decreasing the overall environmental footprint of agricultural production. The implementation code will be released with the third version of Fields2Cover, an open-source library for the coverage path planning problem in agricultural settings.

Quantification and evaluation ofthe spatiotemporal changes in soil quality is importantto understand soil degradation mechanisms and restore the damaged land productivity. However, the effects of coal mining subsidence on the spatial and temporal characteristics of soil quality are not well understood. We investigated the contents of pH, organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), nitrate nitrogen (NN), ammonia nitrogen (AN), total phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), total potassium (TK), cation exchange capacity (CEC), sucrase activity (SA), urease activity (UA), phosphatase activity (PA), catalase activity (CA) and dehydrogenase activity (DA) in the coal mining subsided area. The results showed that the contents of TN, NN, AN, TP, AK, TK, SA, UA, PA, CA and DA exhibited significant (P < 0.05) differences among the four seasons. Compared with the upper layer (0-20 cm), the lower layer (20-40 cm) contained higher contents of AN, NN, TN, TP and TK but lower contents of SA, UA, PA, CA and DA. The NN, AP, TP, AK and UA were identified as key indicators in the minimum dataset using principal component analysis. The seasonal changes of soil quality index (SQI) were in the following order: winter (0.707), spring (0.681), summer (0.616), and autumn (0.563). The spatial changes of SQI were highest for middle slope position 3 (0.508), followed by lower slope position 4 (0.507), top slope position 1 (0.446), upper slope position 2 (0.442), and bottom slope position 5 (0.437). Based on these spatiotemporal changes in soil quality, it was suggested that the application of multiple land use types may be a useful method for land reclamation and the interest of local farmers in the coal mining subsided area.

Organic mulching is a promising technique for sustainable weed control and soil management, as it enhances crop growth, soil quality, water retention, and erosion control. This research evaluated the effects of organic mulches-wheat straw, wood chips, spray cellulose pulp, compost, and a cover crop mixture-on the physical-mechanical properties of organic garden soil transitioning to natural farming. The controlled soil received no mulch. The soil was fertilized with mature bovine manure prior to a three-year crop rotation of tomato, lettuce, and savoy cabbage. Mulching occurred after the second harrowing and before transplanting. Soil analyses were conducted to assess changes after three years. Soil organic carbon levels increased significantly in soils treated with compost, cover crops, or chipped wood mulching (6.81, 3.17, and 2.07%, respectively) compared to other treatments (1.24% in the control plot). Different kinds of mulch had a significant impact on soil's physical-mechanical parameters. Compost, compared to the control, decreased the bulk density (from 1.22 to 0.89 Mg m-3), increased the infiltration rate (from 8.53 to 21.07 L m-2), and reduced compressive deformation (from 37.08 to 18.23%). The composition of mulch materials, specifically their nitrogen and carbon concentrations, C/N ratio, and moisture content, plays a significant role in influencing changes in soil properties.