Agricultural Management Impacts on Soil Health: Methods for Large Spatial Scales

Abstract

Core Ideas Organic matter stratification in soil health–managed soil resembles native soil. Methods are appropriate for the large spatial scale and our chosen indicators. Methods involving immediate sample preprocessing require field modifications. Agriculture in the Southern Great Plains of the United States depends on precipitation and temperature thresholds for productivity. The region's climate and weather are variable, presenting farming challenges that are predicted to increase. Building and conserving healthy, resilient soil is one way farmers manage for future uncertainty. Few studies have compared soil health–managed and conventionally managed farms at the regional scale. To better understand management effects on soil health across the Southern Great Plains, we studied farms at 12 locations. We piloted the study using three of the locations, collecting soils from 10 fields per location and analyzing them for indicators of soil health. Our objective was to test the suitability of our experimental framework and identify additional indicators and analyses of interest. Our framework was generally suitable to the purpose of this study. We also noted that soil health–managed soils had organic matter stratification similar to native soils, which we plan to explore further.

Determining an ideal sampling density for microbial community analyses of farm fields

“…We selected three locations for this study from a set used for two previous studies (Rottler et al, 2017(Rottler et al, , 2019. Specifically, we chose Parsons, KS; Loyal, OK; and Ardmore, OK, based on the availability of fields of different sizes under no-till management at each location (Table 1).…”

Decreased land use intensity improves surface soil quality on marginal lands

“…Topography is another factor affecting the direction and magnitude of soil responses to land use change, highlighting the importance of considering where on the landscape those land use changes occur (Brubaker et al, 1993;Guzman & Al-Kaisi, 2011;Nabiollahi et al, 2018). Finally, soil depth is also a factor that affects soil response to land use in terms of SOC stratification and soil acidification (Reeves & Liebig, 2016;Rottler et al, 2017). Therefore, improving management decisions and optimizing land use can be a strategy to improve soil quality.…”