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Soil & Water Management & Conservation

Strength Properties and Organic Carbon of Soils in the North Appalachian Region

^a Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH 43210-1085
^b USDA-ARS, North Appalachian Experimental Watersheds, P.O. Box 488, Coshocton, OH 43812
^c Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Lab., Oak Ridge, TN 37831
^d Joint Global Change Research Institute, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740

^* Corresponding author (blanco.16{at}osu.edu)

Soil strength influenced by management and soil properties controls plant growth, root development, and soil-moisture relations. The impact of textural and structural parameters on soil strength is moderated by soil organic C (SOC) concentration. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess differences in soil strength and SOC concentration in watersheds under long-term (>15 yr) management practices in the North Appalachian region on a predominantly Typic Hapludults on undulating slopes (>6% slope). Seven watersheds without field replication under moldboard plow (MP), chisel plow, disk with beef cattle manure (DiskM), no-till with beef cattle manure (NTm), no-till with no beef cattle manure (NTnm), pasture, and forest were studied. Cone index (CI), shear strength, bulk density (_b), volumetric moisture content (_v), and SOC concentration were determined at the summit, backslope, and footslope landscape positions at the 0- to 10-, 10- to 20-, and 20- to 30-cm depths. The SOC concentration was slightly higher at the footslope than at the summit position in the cultivated watersheds. The _b was lower at the footslope than at the summit in NTm (1.22 vs. 1.42 Mg m^–3) and chisel (1.34 vs. 1.47 Mg m^–3) treatments. Forest had the lowest CI (0.19 MPa), shear strength (6.11 kPa), and _b (0.93 Mg m^–3) and the highest SOC concentration (62.7 g kg^–1), whereas MP had the highest CI (0.67 MPa), shear strength (25.5 kPa), _b (1.44 Mg m^–3), and the lowest SOC concentration (13.6 g kg^–1) in the 0- to 10-cm depth (P < 0.01). The SOC concentration in NTm was 1.7 times higher than that in NTnm, and both no-till treatments had lower _b (<1.21 Mg m^–3) than MP (1.44 Mg m^–3) at 0- to 10-cm depth (P < 0.01). Manuring decreased both CI and shear strength, but increased SOC concentration. The _b, _v, and SOC concentration were potential predictors of CI; whereas _b and SOC concentration were of shear strength (r² > 0.42; P < 0.01). Results show that landscape positions had small effect, but management, particularly manuring, had large and significant effects on soil strength and SOC concentration.

Abbreviations: CI, cone index • DiskM, disk with beef cattle manure • MP, moldboard plow • NAEW, North Appalachian Experimental Watershed • NTm, no-till with beef cattle manure • NTnm, no-till with no beef cattle manure • PTFs, pedotransfer functions • _b, bulk density • SOC, soil organic carbon • _v, volumetric moisture content

This article has been cited by other articles:

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