| Type of Document |
Dissertation |
| Author |
Spargo, John T
|
| Author's Email Address |
jspargo@vt.edu |
| URN |
etd-02102008-174038 |
| Title |
Continuous No-till Management: Implications for Soil Quality, Carbon Sequestration, and Nitrogen Conservation
|
| Degree |
PhD |
| Department |
Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences |
| Advisory Committee |
| Advisor Name |
Title |
| Alley, Marcus M. |
Committee Chair |
| Evanylo, Gregory K. |
Committee Member |
| Follett, Ronald F. |
Committee Member |
| Phillips, Steven B. |
Committee Member |
| Zelazny, Lucian W. |
Committee Member |
|
| Keywords |
- Nitrogen use efficiency
- carbon trading
- nutrient trading
- soil organic matter
|
| Date of Defense |
2008-02-01 |
| Availability |
unrestricted |
Abstract
No-till management for agronomic crop production is recognized as an effective practice to regain a portion of soil organic matter lost following decades of cultivation. Increasing soil organic matter sequesters C, conserves organic N and concomitantly improves soil quality. Objectives of this research were to: i) quantify C sequestration rate and N conservation with duration of continuous no-till; ii) measure C stratification with continuous no-till as an indicator of soil quality; and iii) evaluate the Illinois soil N test (ISNT) for its value to predict fertilizer N needs of corn in Virginia.
Objectives i and ii were achieved by collecting soil samples from 63 production fields in the Virginia Coastal Plain that were managed using continuous no-till from 0 to 14 yrs. No-till management resulted in sequestration of 0.308 ± 0.280 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 and conservation of 22.2 ± 21.2 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (0-15 cm). The C stratification ratio (0-2.5 cm: 7.5-15 cm) increased with increasing duration of continuous no-till (0.133 ± 0.056 yr-1) due to the accumulation of organic matter at the soil surface indicating improved soil quality with continuous no-till management.
Objective iii was addressed by conducting 29 on-farm fertilizer N response trials in major corn producing areas of Virginia with the duration of continuous no-till management ranging from 0 to 25 yrs. The ISNT values were significantly related to yield without fertilizer N (r2 = 0.57; p<0.001) and relative yield (r2 = 0.64; p<0.0001). We also found that the ISNT extracted a relatively consistent percentage of total soil N (16.3 ± 0.73 %) suggesting it is a poor indicator of labile N. Total soil N values did almost as well as the ISNT in predicting yield without fertilizer N (r2 = 0.53; p = 0.0002), and equally well predicting relative yield (r2 = 0.64; p<0.0001). Results do not suggest the ISNT is useful for measuring mineralizalbe N or improving fertilizer N recommendations in Virginia cropping systems.
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