606-9 Management Systems Impact on Soil Quality.

See more from this Division: S11 Soils & Environmental Quality
See more from this Session: Emissions of Atmospheric Pollutants and Carbon Sequestration: I (includes Graduate Student Competition)

Monday, 6 October 2008: 4:15 PM
George R. Brown Convention Center, 361AB

Deborah Stinner, Ohio State Univ. - OARDC, Wooster, OH, Alan Sundermeier, Ohio State Univ., OARDC, Bowling Green, OH, Yogendra Raut, Ohio State Univ. South Centers, Piketon, OH, Irfan Aziz, Dept. of Agronomy, University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, J. N. Ahmed, Bahauddin Zakaria Univ., Multan, Pakistan and Khandakar Islam, Soil and Water, Ohio State Univ., OARDC, Piketon, OH
Abstract:
Organic amendments are important to maintain and/or improve soil quality. The impact (2000 to 2007) of organic transition in field crops (conventional vs. organic) on soil quality was evaluated. Soil cores were collected at 0-15 cm depth, composited, 2-mm sieved, analyzed for total microbial biomass (Cmic), Cmic:Corg, basal (BR) and specific maintenance (qCO2) respiration rates, Cmic cell quotient (qD), and mineralizable C as biological indicators; total organic C (Corg), total N (TN), available N (AN), available P (P), glucose, active organic C (Cactive), particulate organic matter (POM), POM-P, POM-N, and POM-C as chemical indicators; and bulk density (rb), mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), macro-aggregates (Mag), microaggregates (Mig), and aggregate ratios (AR) as physical indicators of soil quality. An inductive additive approach, based on normalization, summation, and average of measured properties into biological, chemical, and physical soil quality indices, was used to calculate a simple soil quality index. Results showed that the values of soil quality indicator properties were significantly higher in organic system compared with conventional system. The organic soil had 29% higher biological quality, 36% higher chemical quality, and 16% higher physical quality. Likewise, 26% higher overall soil quality in organic soil than conventional soil. Regression analyses showed that biological, chemical and physical quality accounted 81, 84, and 74% variability in overall soil quality.

See more from this Division: S11 Soils & Environmental Quality
See more from this Session: Emissions of Atmospheric Pollutants and Carbon Sequestration: I (includes Graduate Student Competition)