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Som Loss And Soil Quality In The Clear Creek, Ia, A. N. Thanos Papanicolaou, Christopher G. Wilson, Ozan Abaci, Mohamed Elhakeem, Mary Skopec

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The Clear Creek, IA Experimental Watershed (CCEW), which drains to the Iowa River, experiences severe surface erosion due to a combination of high slopes, erodible soils, and extensive agriculture. Concurrent with soil loss is the removal of Soil Organic Matter (SOM). High values of SOM have been related to soil quality; therefore, excessive SOM loss corresponds to degrading soil health. Soil quality assessments are important tools for evaluating management practices in agricultural systems; however, it is difficult to measure soil quality directly at the watershed scale because it varies with a number of site-specific soil characteristics. The coupling of soil …