Understanding and Managing the Causes of Soil Variability.

Considerable effort has gone into developing and applying technologies to manage crop variability within fields.  The purpose of this paper is to bring attention to soil erosion as a major cause of soil-landscape variability and the potential to affect crop variability by managing soil erosion.  Tillage erosion is shown to be the dominant form of soil erosion within prairie landscapes and the major cause of soil-landscape variability.  The ability of conservation tillage to effectively manage soil-landscape variability is brought into question with data from recent tillage erosion research.  The practice of soil-landscape restoration is introduced, and the available biophysical and economic data suggest that this practice may be an effectively manage soil-landscape variability.