Assessing Soil Health Differences Between Organic Production Systems

Seth C. Fields, Eugenia M. Pena-Yewtukhiw
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources & Design 4100 Agricultural Sciences Building | PO Box 6108 Morgantown, WV 26506-6108

Presentation Category: Biological Sciences (Poster Presentation)

Student’s Major: Agroecology

Soil health is a new focus in the realm of agriculture that is hard to assess. This study was conducted to determine whether soil health indicators (hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, penetration resistance, and dry aggregation) could be used to assess soil health differences between organic production systems. The effect of grassland systems (hay, pasture), fallow, and vegetable production systems on the previously listed soil health indicators were investigated. The experiment was performed at West Virginia University’s Organic Farm. The results for grassland systems indicated a strong correlation between penetration resistance and hydraulic conductivity in (r=-0.95) and between aggregation and bulk density (r=0.93). Tillage affected the correlation of hydraulic conductivity and penetration resistance in the vegetable production systems (r=0.89), and it was also seen that there was an inverse relationship between bulk density and hydraulic conductivity. Soil differences strongly affected our measurements in-between production systems. The different production systems cannot be characterized by the same values of a soil health indicator, and soil health is affected by management and production system.

Funding: SURE

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: a West Virginia SURE program