How to measure soil health. Caley Gasch NDSU Soil Health Research

Transcription

1 How to measure soil health Caley Gasch NDSU Soil Health Research

2 Ecosystem Soil Health Time Soil Function Biology Physics Chemistry

3 What is soil health? Contamination Natural & industrial Conservation Wind & water erosion Productivity Cash crops & forage

4 How to measure soil health Commercial services CO 2 Burst Test solvita.com Water Soluble C & N Haney Test H3A extracted N & P Approx. $50

5 How to measure soil health Commercial services Woods End Soil Health test woodsend.org/soil-health-test $30-60

6 How to measure soil health Commercial services Ward Laboratories Phospholipid fatty acid analysis producers.wardlab.com $60

7 How to measure soil health Commercial services Cornell soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu $ ($20 a la carte)

8 Soil Health Tests 42 samples, east side Silty clay Cover crop & nocover crop Tiled & non-tiled

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10 Very high High Medium Low Very low

11 Cornell test scoring organic matter Very high High Medium Low Very low

12 Cornell test scoring regional scope

13 Cornell test focus on the values, not the scores Available Water Capacity Aggregate Stability 58 % 0.27 g water/g soil Organic Matter 5.06 % 50,600 ppm Soil Protein Index (0-20) Soil Respiration 0.42 mg C/g soil/4 day 420 ppm/4d Active Carbon 518 ppm 518 ppm ph 6.2 Phosphorous Potassium Minor elements Mg Fe Mn Zn 2.6 ppm 417 ppm 1303 ppm 1.3 ppm 6.06 ppm 0.3 ppm

14 How to measure soil health Temporal considerations

15 How to measure soil health Biological indicators Pathogens Mineralization & Decomposition Rates Food Webs Roots Enzyme Activity Fauna Biomass Respiration & Gas Fluxes Symbionts Organic Matter

16 How to measure soil health Biological indicators Pathogens Mineralization & Decomposition Rates Food Webs Roots Enzyme Activity Fauna Biomass Respiration & Gas Fluxes Symbionts Organic Matter Nutrient Availability & Cycling

17 From: Shmoop Biology

18 From: Shmoop Biology

19 How to measure soil health Biological indicators Pathogens Mineralization & Decomposition Rates Food Webs Roots Enzyme Activity Fauna Biomass Respiration & Gas Fluxes Symbionts Organic Matter Community Composition & Biomass

20 A Soil Food Web Plants Fungi Mesofauna Macrofauna Microfauna Bacteria & Actinomycetes Megafauna Earthworms Protozoa Detritus Primary producers Decomposers Grazers Predators Photos: Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas

21 How to measure soil health Biological indicators Pathogens Mineralization & Decomposition Rates Food Webs Roots Enzyme Activity Fauna Biomass Respiration & Gas Fluxes Symbionts Organic Matter Structural Significance

22 Sa: Sand C: Clay Si: Silt My: Mycorrhizal fungi R: Root H: Saprotrophic fungal hyphae M: Mite W: Water CP: Ciliate protozoa FP: Flagellate protozoa N: Nematode Adapted from: Principles and Applications of Soil Microbiology

23 Mineralization & Decomposition Rates Pathogens Fauna Roots Enzyme Activity Biomass Respiration & Gas Fluxes Food Webs Organic Matter Symbionts Water Holding Capacity Biology Exchange Capacity Compaction & Bulk Density ph Nutrients Aggregation Porosity Physics Chemistry Minerology Texture Thermal Properties Salinity Oxidation- Reduction Sodicity Aeration Hydraulic Conductivity Erosion Infiltration Toxins & Contaminants Heavy Metals

24 Mineralization & Decomposition Rates Pathogens Fauna Roots Enzyme Activity Biomass Respiration & Gas Fluxes Food Webs Organic Matter Symbionts Water Holding Capacity Biology Exchange Capacity Compaction & Bulk Density ph Nutrients Aggregation Porosity Physics Chemistry Minerology Texture Thermal Properties Salinity Oxidation- Reduction Sodicity Aeration Hydraulic Conductivity Erosion Infiltration Toxins & Contaminants Heavy Metals

25 How to measure soil health Criteria for indicators Not redundant with standard soil tests Not highly variable, but responsive to management Affordable Interpretable and relevant to management goals Representative in space and time

26 How to measure soil health Some recommendations In-field spade test Aggregate stability (integrates many properties) Decomposition & mineralization rates Soil tests for a specific concern (salinity, symbionts, etc.) Patience

27 How to measure soil health One scientist s take A major conundrum in soil science is how to measure soil health. Soil scientists have come up with many ways of doing this, such as measuring plant-available nutrients, the physical structure of soil, or the activity of soil life. But a problem with all of these is that no single measure defines soil health; rather it depends on a rich web of physical, chemical, and biological factors that together operate to give a soil good health

28 How to measure soil health One scientist s take An experienced soil scientist can tell much about a soil from its look, smell, and feel: fertile soil will break away easily from your fingers into wellformed aggregates, it will be rich in color and smell, indicating well-oxygenated conditions and good drainage, and its organic matter will be intermixed with underlying mineral soil due to high biological activity. --Prof. Richard Bardgett, Earth Matters

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30 What is soil health? The continued capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans. --NRCS

31 Soil habitat = ƒ(organic carbon, Nitrogen, Water, Air, ph, Salinity, etc.) Response Predictor(s) R 2 Citation Potential denitrification SOC, WFPS, NO + 3 > 0.8 Attard et al., 2011 Nitrification & denitrification IN, GWC, ph Graham et al., 2014 Bacterial & fungal biomass GWC, SOC, N Baldrain et al., 2010 Microbial biomass carbon Climate, ph, TN, CEC, C:N 0.5 Serna-Chavez et al., 2013 Microbial community composition Microbial clade spatial distribution ph Fierer & Jackson, 2006 Enzymes, GWC, snow, MBN, ph, vegetation, ph, WHC, DOC, texture King et al., 2010