Soil Carbon Inventory and Aggregate Stability of Conventional Tillage and Orchard with Continuous Living Cover

Presenter Information

Madison Sweet, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

12-4-2022 2:00 PM

End Date

12-4-2022 3:30 PM

Student's Major

Chemistry and Geology

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Beth Fisher

Mentor's Department

Chemistry and Geology

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Description

We sampled soil cores on four soil types in a field that has been under conventional corn and soybean rotation with tillage for decades. As a study control, we sampled the same four soil types from a neighboring field that has had continuous grass cover and orchard crop for more than 20 years. We used the Slakes application to measure the aggregate stability of A horizon soils. We measured organic carbon and nitrogen and using bulk density we calculated carbon inventory to at least 50cm deep. We hypothesize that the carbon inventory of the orchard plot will be greater and that the aggregates will be more stable than the conventional tillage plot. This comparison study will serve as a baseline of soil properties to measure the annual impacts of conversion from conventional tillage to poultry silviculture.