How Soil Management Can Affect Soil Quality
READING UNIVERSITY
NAME: Joe Curtis
MODULE: Agro- Environ. Systems
Submission date: 22/10/2010
Semester: Fall 2010
Title: How soil management can affect soil quality
Introduction
Three Labs 1, 2 & 3, compared three agricultural fields with different soil management histories, trying to find out how these different soil managements affected the measured soil parameters. The three different soil management histories are given below: a. Corn field: tilled every year after corn harvest and left bare all winter. In the spring, it is tilled and cultivated and then planted with corn. It is irrigated all summer and in the fall, if needed. Herbicides are used to control weeds and pesticides for pest control. b. Agrocenter, tilled field: tilled every year after the end of summer and planted with winter crops. In the spring, it is tilled again and cultivated and planted with summer crops. It is irrigated only during the summer. In the fall, there was no irrigation. Weeds were managed manually during the summer, and were left without management in the fall. The field had been tilled and plant residue was incorporated in the soil two weeks before soil sampling. It was managed organically, without pesticide applications. c. Agrocenter, non-tilled field: Same management as b, but it was still covered with dense plant growth when we sampled it.
Materials & Methods needed
Materials
* 18 Cylindrical core samplers, of 5-cm diameter and 5-cm height * Knife or spatula * 18 Soil samples ( 3 x 2 samples from 3 different field and 3 different depths ( 5, 10 and 15 cm) * Top loading balance * PH tester instrument (glass electrodes). * EC tester instrument (Electrical Conductivity). * Oven to dry the core samples at 105 0C
Methods
Laboratory methods have been employed to measure soil parameters such as:
Bulk density (g/cm3): The dry weight of soil divided by its volume, working an indicator of soil
NAME: Joe Curtis
MODULE: Agro- Environ. Systems
Submission date: 22/10/2010
Semester: Fall 2010
Title: How soil management can affect soil quality
Introduction
Three Labs 1, 2 & 3, compared three agricultural fields with different soil management histories, trying to find out how these different soil managements affected the measured soil parameters. The three different soil management histories are given below: a. Corn field: tilled every year after corn harvest and left bare all winter. In the spring, it is tilled and cultivated and then planted with corn. It is irrigated all summer and in the fall, if needed. Herbicides are used to control weeds and pesticides for pest control. b. Agrocenter, tilled field: tilled every year after the end of summer and planted with winter crops. In the spring, it is tilled again and cultivated and planted with summer crops. It is irrigated only during the summer. In the fall, there was no irrigation. Weeds were managed manually during the summer, and were left without management in the fall. The field had been tilled and plant residue was incorporated in the soil two weeks before soil sampling. It was managed organically, without pesticide applications. c. Agrocenter, non-tilled field: Same management as b, but it was still covered with dense plant growth when we sampled it.
Materials & Methods needed
Materials
* 18 Cylindrical core samplers, of 5-cm diameter and 5-cm height * Knife or spatula * 18 Soil samples ( 3 x 2 samples from 3 different field and 3 different depths ( 5, 10 and 15 cm) * Top loading balance * PH tester instrument (glass electrodes). * EC tester instrument (Electrical Conductivity). * Oven to dry the core samples at 105 0C
Methods
Laboratory methods have been employed to measure soil parameters such as:
Bulk density (g/cm3): The dry weight of soil divided by its volume, working an indicator of soil
References: 1. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, June 2008 “Soil Quality Indicators” http://soils.usda.gov/sqi 2. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, January 1998, “Soil Quality Resource Concerns: Salinization” http://soils.usda.gov 3. House, G. J., B. R. Stinner, and D. A. Crossley Jr. p. 109 –139. In D. C. Coleman and D. A. Crossley, Jr. 1996., (eds.). Fundamentals of soil ecology. 4. USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Rasmussen et al.,1989, “Effects of Residue Management and No-Till on Soil Quality” http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/management/managem 5. USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Technical Note No.3, Oct., 1996 6. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service April 1996, “Soil Quality Indicators: Aggregate Stability” http://soils.usda.gov 7. United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Qualit Institute, January 2001, “Guidelines for Soil Quality Assessment in Conservation Planning” http://soils.usda.gov/sqi 8. USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Quality Institute Staff. 1996. “Soil quality is critical factor in management of natural Resources”, Soil Quality - Agronomy Technical Note No. 1.