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Title: A PILOT STUDY FOR ASSESSING SOIL QUALITY WITHIN THE NATURAL RESOURCE INVENTORY SAMPLING FRAME OF NRCS

Author
item SEYBOLD, CATHY - NRCS
item Burkart, Michael
item MUCKEL, GARY - NRCS
item DAYTON, ROBERT - NRCS
item GOEBEL, JEFFREY - NRCS

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/8/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: To maintain or improve the quality of our nation's soil, a national program to assess and monitor soil quality is needed. This paper presents a pilot project plan for testing the feasibility of assessing soil quality, on a regional scale, within the historical framework of the Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) of the USDA, NRCS. Four Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) are involved in the pilot study. Sampling sites are randomly selected from established NRI points within primary sampling units; from 100 to 200 points will be sampled in each MLRA. At each point, a minimum data set of soil quality indictors are measured, and a "near-surface" soil quality evaluation procedure tested. An approach for assessing soil quality and evaluating indicators on a soil series and MLRA bases will be discussed.