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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379831
Research Project: Sustainable Intensification of Cropping Systems on Spatially Variable Landscapes and Soils

Location: Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research

Title: Using the Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory for cross laboratory comparisons in soil health metrics.

Author
item Wills, Skye
item Veum, Kristen
item UGARTE, CARMEN - University Of Illinois
item HARMS, DEBORAH - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA)
item MURPHY, SCARLETT - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA)

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/4/2020
Publication Date: 11/9/2020
Citation: Wills, S.A., Veum, K.S., Ugarte, C.M., Harms, D.S., Murphy, S. 2020. Using the Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory for cross laboratory comparisons in soil health metrics [abstract]. Proceedings of the ASA-CSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, November 9-30, 2020, virtual. Available: https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2020am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/127387

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The USDA-NRCS Science of Soil Health Initiative sponsored more than a dozen projects across the United States. Each cooperator chose locally relevant soils and management systems to sample, then measured soil health metrics according to a common set of methods. Samples were collected from 0 – 5cm, 5-10cm, and for each genetic horizon. Two subsamples from each A horizon collected were sent to the Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory (KSSL). Air dried and ground samples were analyzed for soil organic carbon, beta-glucosidase activity, and permanganate oxidizable carbon. Undisturbed samples (dried but not crushed) were analyzed for water stable aggregates. All analyses were done according to typical KSSL procedures. Initial results indicate that variability is within typical values reported for cross-laboratory comparisons for physical and chemical properties such as pH and particle-size distribution analysis. For most soil health metrics, trends and rankings of evaluated management systems were maintained despite differences in values reported by the laboratories processing the samples. However, comparisons for beta-glucosidase activity and permanganate oxidizable carbon were less consistent among laboratories and varied by cooperating institution, indicating that sample processing, shipping, and storage may play a role in the reported values. Further work is needed to evaluate the impact of measured differences on the interpretation of reported soil health laboratory values.