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Title: SOIL CHANGE IN SOUTHEASTERN USA ULTISOLS.

Author
item SHAW, J - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item FESHA, I - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item Reeves, Donald
item WOOD, C - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item FENG, Y - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item NORFLEET, M - USDA-NRCS, TEMPLE, TX

Submitted to: World Congress of Soil Science
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/9/2006
Publication Date: 7/9/2006
Citation: Shaw, J.N., Fesha, I.G., Reeves, D.W., Wood, C.W., Feng, Y., Norfleet, M.L. 2006. Soil change in southeastern USA ultisols [abstract]. In: The 18th World Congress of Soil Science, July 9-15, 2006, Philadelphia, PA. CD-ROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Documentation of soil change due to management is needed to improve soil survey map unit interpretations and for population of resource databases. The southeastern US is a vital region for documenting soil change due to intensive cultivation and utilization of soil resources, dynamic land management related to farm policy, and a fragile soil resource with limited inherent resiliency. We evaluated management-dependent physical, chemical, and biological soil property differences due to land use from research sites in the Appalachian Plateau (AP) and the Coastal Plain (CP) physiographic regions of Alabama, USA. Data were collected in relatively long-term (> 10 yr) conventional row crop (CT), conservation row crop (NT), hayland (HL), and woodland (WL) systems. Measured near-surface properties included bulk density, saturated hydraulic conductivity, infiltration rate, soil strength, water stable aggregates, soil water retention, water dispersible clay, extractable bases, P and Al, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, soil microbial biomass C, particulate organic matter, C mineralization, and dehydrogenese activity. Soils under conventional systems were 13 to 40% lower in water stable aggregates, 80 to 274% lower in infiltration rate, and 10 to 80% higher in water dispersible clay compared with the other land use systems. Conventional tillage management also resulted in lower values of soil organic carbon, soil microbial biomass carbon, and particulate organic matter than hayland, woodland, and conservation systems. Principal component analyses indicated that soil organic carbon and it’s related pools were the most sensitive metric related to agronomic land use. Multivariate clustering indicated that land use had more of an effect on management dependent soil properties than inherent soil properties more directly related to genetic soil differences.