69th SWCS International Annual Conference “Making Waves in Conservation: Our Life on Land and Its Impact on Water” July 27-30, 2014 Lombard, IL
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1. Soil Health Ross Wilson and Mari Veliz Ausable Bayfield
Conservation Authority Soil and Water Conservation Society 2014
Annual Conference July 28 2014
2. Towards a watershed scale development of a simple, rapid,
reliable, scale neutral, field ready methodology for the evaluation
of .... Soil Health
3. Investigating the Link between Soil health Water quality
Crop yield
4. Importance of soil health Drives a productive agriculture
Primary contributor to water quality
5. Challenges with soil health Symptoms acute vs chronic Scale
field vs township Scale within field variability Scale 2D Area (3D
really) GIS
7. Highjump example potential soil quality soil health
8. Highjump example potential leg broken soil quality soil
health
9. Highjump example potential leg broken sore back soil quality
soil health
10. Highjump example potential leg broken sore back got flu
soil quality soil health
11. Highjump example potential leg broken sore back got flu big
lunch soil quality soil health
12. what soil health tests are important ?? Human health Soil
health Skeletal Soil air, water, minerals Respiratory - breathing
Soil porosity Circulatory - blood movement Nutrient, water movement
Digestive Soil fertility
13. what do we measure ?? Soil health Soil test Soil air,
water, minerals Density, proportions of each Soil porosity Total
pore space Nutrient, water movement Infiltration, pore sizes Soil
fertility Organic matter, NPK, pH Overall Crop yielddisease,
drought best, worst
14. Side-by-Side trial same soil, slope, rainfall, current
management May 2013 corn Poor health Good health
19. Organic matter (%) 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Good Poor Upr
Shr Mid Toe Lwr Good health Poor health
20. Aggregate Stability (%) 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 GoodPoor
Upr Shr Mid Toe Lwr Good health Poor health
21. Porosity (%) 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Good Poor Upr Shr Mid Toe
Lwr Good health Poor health
22. Density (g/cm3) 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 GoodPoor
Upr Shr Mid Toe Lwr Good health Poor health
23. Yield (dry bu/ac) 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190 210 230
GoodPoor Upr Shr Mid Toe Lwr Good health Poor health
24. Other tests ?? Drainage , infiltration Resistance to
penetration Compaction at depths Pore size distribution
25. What have we learned ? Complex, no magic bullet Organic
matter - critical Porosity - critical
26. Where do we need to go? Priority Stage 1 Identify
appropriate field soil measurements Stage 2 Identify GIS methods
watershed scale Stage 3 Verify GIS methods with field testing Stage
4 Adopt stages 1-3 for all soil types