Wayne Roper
PhD Student, Soil Science, NCSU, will present an exit seminar titled:

“Evaluating Soil Health in North Carolina Soils“
(under the direction of Dr. Deanna Osmond and Dr. Josh Heitman)

Abstract
Soil health is the capacity for soils to function while sustaining life in ecosystems. This functional capacity may be maintained by stimulating chemical, physical, and biological soil properties, but land management practices that possibly improve soil health have not been evaluated in all environments. To evaluate how land management practices affect soil health in North Carolina (NC), we measured the properties of soils from long-term agronomic trials in the coastal plain (19 yr), piedmont (31 yr), and mountain (25 yr) regions of NC. Trials included various combinations of tillage (no-till, shank, chisel, disc, and moldboard) and management (conventional and organic). Our results showed that soil health tests were not consistently differentiating the effects of agronomic practices on overall soil health for any chemical or physical indicators, but differences were observed for biological indicators. Because soil organic carbon (SOC), is a major factor regulating soil biology, we measured SOC using four methods. Results from one method were not predictive of results from another method based on correlations, and agronomic practices did not have similar effects on SOC when comparing different methodologies. Cover cropping was added to the piedmont trial to improve soil physical resilience, but with the exception of aggregate stability, physical conditions of the piedmont soil were similar between winter-fallow and continuously covered soil after two years. Our study shows that agronomic practices have variable effects on soils in NC and that soil health evaluations should be interpreted with greater consideration of the intrinsic limitations of soils in different environments.