Wednesday, November 7, 2007
328-6
Relationships between Total Soil Carbon and Landform Elements under Different Management Systems.
Senthil Kumar Subramanian1, Alexandra Kravchenko1, and G. Philip Robertson2. (1) Michigan State University, Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences, PSSB, East Lansing, MI 48824, (2) Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University, Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI 49060
Topography or local relief is one of the major factors that attribute to the spatial heterogeneity in soil carbon distribution at field/landscape level. Further the tillage and management practices, such as chemical inputs, cover cropping, might interact with topographical features and influence the spatial variability pattern and soil carbon dynamics. In the present study, we categorized similar class of terrain attributes into a specific landform elements namely summit, sideslope and valley using discriminant analysis. We studied the interaction between landform elements and soil carbon to demonstrate how the sequestration potential of the landform elements varies across three different tillage and management system. Treatments used in the study were namely; chisel-plowed with conventional chemical inputs (CT), no-till with conventional chemical inputs (NT), and certified organic chisel plowed system with a winter leguminous cover crop and zero chemical inputs (CT+cover). The study was conducted at the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, at Kellogg Biological Station, in southwest Michigan . The detailed results will be presented and discussed.