Conservation Agriculture Improves Soil Resilience by Integrating Physical, Chemical, and Biological Pathways

ABSTRACT Conventional tillage in tropical and semiarid regions accelerates the degradation of soil functions, yet the cumulative impacts of Conservation agriculture on the physical, chemical, and biological dimensions of soil quality remain insufficiently integrated within unified analytical frameworks. We applied meta‐analytic structural equation modeling to 230 paired comparisons from field studies published between 2015 and 2025 across tropical, subtropical, and semiarid agroecosystems. Conservation practices, particularly no‐tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, and organic residue management, were associated with increases in soil organic carbon (+15.5%), water‐stable aggregates (+26.0%), and macroporosity (+20.6%). The physical dimension exerted the strongest direct association with the composite soil quality construct ( = 0.701; p < 0.001), followed by the chemical ( = 0.438; p = 0.004) and biological ( = 0.200; p = 0.036) dimensions, with a positive physical–chemical interaction. The aggregate biological response was marginally non‐significant ( p = 0.059) and is reported as a positive trend rather than a confirmed effect. Because the analysis relies on observational meta‐analytic synthesis, the reported pathways are interpreted as directional associations consistent with the hypothesized model rather than as causal mechanisms, providing quantitative support for the integrated management of soil quality in tropical and semiarid agroecosystems.