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On-Farm Assessment of Soil Properties under Different Management Practices in West-Central Ohio

Johnson, Reed M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461092609

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Environmental Science.
The west-central region of Ohio is one of the most productive agricultural regions of the state and has notable economic importance. Past and projected climatic changes bring a significant amount of variability into the future productivity of this specific region and place an importance on protecting soil resources. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of common management practices, including Best Management Practices (BMPs), in West-Central Ohio on key soil properties supporting overall soil quality, the productivity of soils under such practices, and the feasibility of using the Soil Management and Assessment Framework (SMAF) to evaluate soil quality in the region. On-farm study sites were established representing examples of conventional tillage (CT), no-till (NT), no-till with manure application (NT-M), and no-till with cover crops (NT-CC) common to the region. Significant differences were found among all measured soil properties, except available water capacity (AWC), steady state infiltration, and water stable aggregation (WSA). Despite this, evidence was found to support improved aggregate stability under cover crops. The NT and NT-CC sites were shown to have increased large pore formation, mean weight diameter (MWD), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) even though they possessed higher bulk density in the upper soil profile. The distribution and concentration of soil organic carbon (SOC) were both affected under the BMPs studied. Particularly at the NT site, an increase in the SOC concentration and stock was seen in the 0-10 cm depth but below this point the CT site had equal to greater SOC concentrations and stock when compared to the no-till sites. The NT-CC site was found to have the lowest overall SOC stock but conclusions concerning the results from the lower soil depths were limited due to variability within the subsoil or past management at the NT-CC site. Differences were found in yield and calculated harvest index (HI) for both corn and soybean crops. Corn production and HI were found to be significantly higher at the NT-CC site when compared to all other sites and the NT and NT-M sites were found to produce the highest soybean yields and HI. Significant differences were found among SOC, MBC, and pH indicator scores but not among the total SQI scores. No significant correlation was found between yield and total SQI scores, but the bulk density indicator was found to be most highly correlated with total SQI and relative yields. In addition, un-scored bulk density data were positively correlated with relative yields, suggesting that the SMAF unfairly penalized sites with elevated bulk density. The improvements in soil properties observed within the upper soil profile, at the NT-CC and NT sites, are suspected to play an important role in maintaining soil quality under variable and changing climate conditions. It was concluded, due to the inaccurate evaluation of bulk density and the fact that no correlation between total SQI scores and relative yields was produced, the broadly designed SMAF was not able to applicably evaluate soil quality in the specific region of West-Central Ohio.
Rattan Lal (Advisor)
Dick Warren (Committee Member)
Phausey Norman (Committee Member)
163 p.
Agriculture; Agronomy; Natural Resource Management; Soil Sciences
soil quality; on-farm research; best management practices

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Johnson, R. M. (2016). On-Farm Assessment of Soil Properties under Different Management Practices in West-Central Ohio [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461092609

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Johnson, Reed. On-Farm Assessment of Soil Properties under Different Management Practices in West-Central Ohio. 2016. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461092609.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Johnson, Reed. "On-Farm Assessment of Soil Properties under Different Management Practices in West-Central Ohio." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461092609

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1461092609
595
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.