Graduate Exit Seminar - Xucheng Hu

Plan to join Xucheng Hu's graduate exit seminar on July 11, 2025, at 1:00 pm in Kottman Hall, Room 333 or via Zoom. Xucheng will present, "Assessing Soil Health Under Different Land Uses and Management Practices Through Comparative Frameworks"

Abstract: Soil health is essential for maintaining or improving crop productivity, supporting ecosystem functions, nutrient cycling and environmental resilience. Assessment of Soil health is crucial for understanding soil conditions and providing guidelines to support sustainable agricultural management practices. Assessing Soil health often utilizes various Soil health frameworks that have been developed to provide interpretations and guidance for researchers and producers in their decision-making management processes. However, differences in Soil health assessment frameworks are evident based on the regional datasets utilized to create such frameworks; framework sensitivity may be evident when applied to sites containing totally different soil inherent properties, thus introducing Soil health interpretation challenges and potentially misleading management. Within this context, this study examined three widely used SH frameworks, 1) the Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF), 2) the Haney Soil Health Test (HSHT), and 3) the Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health (CASH) to compare and evaluate their effectiveness in quantifying SH across diverse agroecosystems and land uses. By comparing these frameworks, this study aimed to reveal the strengths, limitations, and insights of applicability for producers and researchers. Additionally, this study compared soil health outcomes across various land uses and agricultural management practices based on the results from the three soil health assessment frameworks, which further provide practical guidelines to inform and improve agricultural management decisions.

Advisor: Dr. Jim Ippolito