Agricultural landscapes, such as cropland, tame pasture, and native grassland provide a variety of ecological goods and services (EG & S). High soil quality (i.e. tilth) has been shown to optimize EG & S, such as carbon storage, soil stability, and runoff quality, in addition to stimulating plant production. Methods of estimating soil quality generally involve an approximation of the soil structure. In this poster, we present two methods for estimating soil quality: an established soil core procedure for macroporosity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity based on an evaporation method after water saturation (HyProp); as well as a novel soil clod method using a 3D laser scanner to derive the fractal dimension of soil aggregation. We sampled adjacent (< 1 km apart) cropland, tame pasture, and grazed native grassland at several sites (n=7) across southern and central Alberta. These sites are distributed across a significant agroclimatic gradient (P:E ratio from 0.3 to >1), allowing us to sample several different crop and tame pasture/hay systems. Using these two methods, we then examined the relationship of soil quality and carbon storage, in addition to ancillary properties (e.g. pH, salinity, texture). Results from this study will serve to better inform the effects of soil quality on plant productivity across contrasting soil conditions and land uses, as well as demonstrating potentially less-expensive soil quality analysis methods.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.