Shujiang Kang, Penn State University, 116 ASI Building, University Park, PA 16802, Hangsheng Lin, Penn State Univ., "116 ASI Bldg.,Dept. of Crop & Soil", "116 ASI Bldg.,Dept. of Crop & Soil", University Park, PA 16802, United States of America, and Xiaobo Zhou, The Pennsylvinia State University, 116 ASI Building, 116 ASI Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States of America.
Understanding soil and landscape variability in watersheds and stream buffer zones can assist in agricultural and environmental management and modeling. Six soil features and three types of landscape characteristics were analyzed for five orders of sub-watersheds and six buffer zones along the stream network of the East Mohantango Creek Watershed in the Ridge and Valley Province of Pennsylvania. Two scales of soils databases (STATGSGO and SSURGO) were compiled for soil analysis. An increasing trend of elevation and slope, and a decreasing trend of agricultural land use percentage as stream order increases were found in different order sub-watersheds, owing to the topographic nature of the Ridge and Valley. Higher soil variability was expected in the SSURGO database compared to that of the STATSGO database, but the difference for the five orders of sub-watersheds was less obvious than expected. In terms of the soil and landscape variability within the six buffer zones of different orders of streams, interesting trends were observed as buffer distance increases from stream channels, including increasing elevation, agricultural land use percentage, soil bulk density and clay content, decreasing depth to bedrock, and a peak slope at around 70 m. These trends shed light on appropriate land use management and water quality protection.
Back to Graduate Student Paper Contest (Oral)
Back to The Northeastern Branch of the ASA-SSSA (July 11, 2006)
