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School of Environment and Natural Resources

CFAES

Yang Ding's Graduate Exit Seminar

Yang Ding will present Oxidation-Reduction Enzyme Assays as SoilQuality Indicators and Relationships to Crop Productivity on Wednesday, July 11th, 2018 at 9am in Kottman 333C.

Abstract:

There is growing recognition for the need to develop sensitive soil quality indicator that reflects land management on soil and assist land managers in promoting long-term sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. While most soil quality indicators are limited by sensitivity, stability and accessibility, enzyme activity is an efficient soil quality indicator compared to other soil chemical, physical and microbial properties, and it is simple and practical to be adopted by commercial soil testing laboratories. In order to be effective, soil quality indicators need to be integrated with other biophysical and socio-economic indicators, and crop yield is one of the most important economic indicators. Various soil quality indicators have been proposed, but few studies have investigated their relationship to crop yield. Landscape position and drainage is a major controller of crop yields, and therefore oxidation-reduction enzymes hold potential to be related to drainage. Paired fields of no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) management were sampled with most of fields under a corn-soybean rotation. Soil samples were taken in 2017 September from fields in Ohio, Illinois and Iowa. Crop yields were taken in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Soil drainage class information was determined by searching sampling site coordinates in the Web Soil Survey. This study will determine effects of drainage class and management on crop yields and enzymes, as well as correlation of redox enzyme activities with crop yields.