Set Of Soil Parameters Research Articles

Creation of Management Zones for the Purposes of Land Development at the Implementation of Precision Farming in Belarus

Improving the methodology of on-farm land management in the direction of transition from the formation of work sites to the formation of management zones for the specific requirements of the agricultural producer upon implementation of precision farming is extremely important for the agricultural sector of the Belarusian economy. The article presents the results of applying the methods of geostatistical and multifactor geoinformation analysis for the formation of management zones within the limits of land use of RUE “Uchkhoz BGSHA” (Republic of Belarus, Mogilev region, Gorky district). The total area of the surveyed territory is 83420.1 hectares. The nature of the spatial distribution of data on the content of humus, mobile phosphorus and potassium in the soil as well as pH level was estimated using the tools of the Spatial Statistics module of ArcGIS version 10.5. The presence of reliable clustering of data on soil parameters was established, since the value of the global Moran index I ranged from 0.197827 to 0.360388, and the z-score in all cases exceeded 2.58. The universal kriging method turned out to be the most suitable for modeling the spatial distribution of soil pH data, while the empirical Bayesian kriging method is the most acceptable when modeling the spatial distribution of the content of humus, phosphorus, and potassium in the soil. The method of principal components and the simple summation of rasters using a calculator proved to be suitable for identifying management zones by a set of soil parameters (the discrepancy with the actual area was 16.56 and 16.24 ha, respectively).

Labile and stable soil organic carbon and physical improvements using groundcovers in vineyards from central Spain

Mediterranean vineyards are usually managed with continuous tillage to maintain bare soils leading to low organic matter stocks and soil degradation. Vineyards are part of the Mediterranean culture, their management can be sustainable. We propose the setup of two types of groundcovers with the aim to assess their potential influence to improve soil properties. A field trial was performed to compare the effects of a seeded (Brachypodium distachyon) and spontaneous groundcovers, on a set of soil parameters, in comparison with the traditional tillage in four vineyards located in the center of Spain. Three years after the groundcovers establishment soil organic carbon stocks increased up to 1.62 and 3.18Mgha−1 for the seeded and the spontaneous groundcovers, respectively, compared to conventional tillage. Both labile and stable fractions improved their soil organic carbon content with the use of groundcovers, particularly the labile fraction. Moreover, soil structure and functional soil properties improved through better aggregate stability, pore connectivity and infiltration rates. The higher root biomass input of the spontaneous groundcovers derived in higher soil organic carbon increases and soil quality improvement. Consequently, under low rainfall conditions (<400mmperyear) spontaneous vegetation, properly managed according to site conditions, is an effective soil management strategy to revert soil degradation and increase soil quality in Mediterranean vineyards.

An approach to assess the potential of agroecosystems in providing environmental services

Abstract The objective of this work was to present an approach to evaluate soil functions in agroecosystems and their impact on environmental services (ES). An approach with case studies was proposed to assess the relationship between the establishment and management of agroecosystems, in three Brazilian biomes (Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Caatinga), and their environmental services provision, considering the specificities of each area. A set of soil parameters that can be used as indicators to monitor changes in the agroecosystem was also proposed. The environmental services types most affected by the establishment and management of the agroecosystems were the supporting and provisioning services, showing the potential of agricultural management in providing multiple services, besides food, fiber, and energy. "No fire use" and "agricultural consortium" were the criteria for the establishment and management of agroecosystems with greater potential to increase environmental services provision, whereas biomass stock in soil and litter was the most appropriate soil parameter to be used as an indicator to monitor the impact of agroecosystems in environmental services provision.

Experimental Validation of a Volumetric Planetary Rover Wheel/Soil Interaction Model

For the multibody simulation of planetary rover operations, a wheel–soil contact model is necessary to represent the forces and moments between the tire and the soft soil. A novel nonlinear contact modeling approach based on the properties of the hypervolume of interpenetration is validated in this paper. This normal contact force model is based on the Winkler foundation model with nonlinear spring properties. To fully define the proposed normal contact force model for this application, seven parameters are required. Besides the geometry parameters that can be easily measured, three soil parameters representing the hyperelastic and plastic properties of the soil have to be identified. Since it is very difficult to directly measure the latter set of soil parameters, they are identified by comparing computer simulations with experimental results of drawbar pull tests performed under different slip conditions on the Juno rover of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). A multibody dynamics model of the Juno rover including the new wheel/soil interaction model was developed and simulated in maplesim. To identify the wheel/soil contact model parameters, the cost function of the model residuals of the kinematic data is minimized. The volumetric contact model is then tested by using the identified contact model parameters in a forward dynamics simulation of the rover on an irregular three-dimensional terrain and compared against experiments.

Use of Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) for Predicting Soil Fertility and Historical Management

This study tests the potential of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) for predicting soil fertility and management history from topsoil (0–10 cm deep) spectra. Soil fertility was assessed by measuring the growth of a test plant, and soil management history was determined through inquiries with farmers. Moreover, NIRS predictive value was compared with that of a group of topsoil parameters: total carbon and nitrogen, nitrate, potential respiration and denitrification, and microbial biomass. Modelling used partial and modified partial least square regressions to ensure comparisons between predictions by NIRS versus by soil parameters. Soil fertility and management history were well predicted by NIRS (Q2 = 0.78 and R2 = 0.89 both; Q2 and R2 are cross-validation and calibration coefficients of determination, respectively), as were the soil parameters (Q2 = 0.79–0.92 and R2 = 0.86–0.98). Soil fertility and management history were more accurately predicted by NIRS than by the set of soil parameters.

Effective scaling factor for transient infiltration in heterogeneous soils

Effective hydraulic properties at large grid resolution are viable alternatives to heterogeneous soil medium in large-scale hydrologic and global circulation models. In this study, we investigate the effective hydraulic parameters for transient infiltration under ponding conditions in terms of the optimal averaging schemes for the input hydraulic and environmental parameter fields. The main idea of effective parameters is whether the interested process behavior in heterogeneous soils can be captured by a process that assumes only one set of soil parameters, such that the heterogeneous system is replaced by an equivalent homogeneous system. The ‘effective’ hydraulic parameters of the heterogeneous soil formation are derived by conceptualizing that the ‘effective’ homogeneous soil will approximately discharge the ensemble-mean surface flux and cumulative infiltration. The derived optimal effective powers for the random (input) parameters define an optimal averaging scheme for the random input fields, which can be used in large-scale hydrologic and global circulation models. Specifically, we discuss the effects of microtopography (as reflected in surface ponding depth), and hydraulic parameter correlation on the ensemble-mean behavior as well as on the optimal effective powers. For a large range of hydraulic properties from silty clay to sand with large uncertainties in the Miller–Miller scaling factor, the saturated water content, and the surface ponding depth, relatively small range of optimal effective power values has been found. Among the three, variability of the Miller–Miller scaling factor has the most significant effect on the ensemble flux behavior. The correlation among the Miller–Miller scaling factor, the saturated water content and the surface ponding depth increases the effects of soil heterogeneity. However, the ensemble-mean flux behavior can be more precisely mimicked through the idea of optimal effective powers when the random fields are better correlated.