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Manganese Geochemistry And Plant Availability In Response To Agricultural Practices, Ashleigh R. Montgomery
Manganese Geochemistry And Plant Availability In Response To Agricultural Practices, Ashleigh R. Montgomery
Masters Theses
Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for all organisms. In soils, Mn forms determine availability to plants. Most Mn research has been conducted in forest ecosystems and Mn cycling in agricultural systems is understudied. Therefore, the objective of the experiment is to understand the effect of different agricultural management strategies on Mn cycling and plant availability. First, a greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different application rates of two Mn fertilizers (MnSO4 and MnEDTA) on soil geochemical properties and growth of corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max). The fertilizers were applied to …
Pre-Agricultural Soil Erosion Rates In The Midwestern U.S., Caroline Lauth Quarrier
Pre-Agricultural Soil Erosion Rates In The Midwestern U.S., Caroline Lauth Quarrier
Masters Theses
Soil erosion undermines agricultural productivity, limiting the lifespan of civilizations. For agriculture to be sustainable, soil erosion rates must be low enough to maintain fertile soil, as was present in many agricultural landscapes prior to the initiation of farming. However, there have been few measurements of long-term pre-agricultural erosion rates in major agricultural landscapes. We quantified geological erosion rates in the Midwestern U.S., one of the world’s most productive agricultural areas. We sampled soil profiles from 14 native prairies and measured concentrations of the cosmogenic nuclide 10Be and chemically immobile elements to calculate physical erosion rates. We used the erosion …
Long-Term Impacts Of Conservation Management Practices On Soil Carbon Storage, Stability, And Utilization Under Cotton Production In West Tennessee, Candace Brooke Wilson
Long-Term Impacts Of Conservation Management Practices On Soil Carbon Storage, Stability, And Utilization Under Cotton Production In West Tennessee, Candace Brooke Wilson
Masters Theses
Biogeochemical cycling of soil carbon (C) is heavily influenced by conservation agricultural (CA) practices. This study examined SOC stability under three CA practices: reduced nitrogen (N) fertilizer application rate, cover cropping, and zero-tillage implemented for 31 years. Respiration rates measured from a 602-day incubation period were fitted to a double-pool first order exponential model of SOC decomposition. The active [respired] SOC pool showed distinct differences between applications of reduced (34N kg ha-1 [-1]) and high fertilization rates (101N kg ha-1) combined with tillage, and suggest that high fertilizer applications with conventional tillage allocated more C into a …