• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.262-266
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• 2003

The present study was carried out to investigate the relationships among intertillage and muddying by free-ranging ducks (Chinese native ducks) and pH, dissolved oxygen of irrigation water, and physicochemical properties of soil. Two paddy fields comprised of the muddying (muddy water without physical stimulation to a rice plant by the ducks) and the control plots (no ducks) were used for this study. As a muddying plot, 50 hills were randomly selected and each hill was fenced with a wire net in order to prevent from stimulating physically by the ducks. The variation in irrigation pH was smaller in the muddying plot than the control plot, and the pH was around 7.4. Dissolved oxygen was significantly higher (P＜0.01) in the muddying plot than the control plot during the first half period after the ducks were introduced. Then it decreased rapidly as the rice plants grew in all plots. The contents of the suspended soil and turbidity in irrigation water were not changed over the free-ranging period, but $\textrm{NH}_3\textrm{-N}$ and $\textrm{P}_2\textrm{O}_5$ were decreased by intertillage and muddying by the ducks. There were no differences in both the soil physics and chemistry between the muddying plot and the control plot during and after finishing of the free-ranging period. These results indicate that intertillage and muddying by the ducks resulted in a small variation in stagnant water pH, and reduced the dissolved oxygen and $\textrm{P}_2\textrm{O}_5$, although the physiochemical properties of soil were not changed.