Cost-Effective, Efficient Soil Health Assessment for Large-Scale Use
Cost-Effective, Efficient Soil Health Assessment for Large-Scale Use. Describing the significance of soil as essential would be an understatement. It plays a crucial role as the medium for food production, carbon sequestration, reducing atmospheric CO2, and hosting vast biodiversity, including antibiotic-producing bacteria. Soil is fundamental for life on Earth.
Cost-Effective, Efficient Soil Health Assessment for Large-Scale Use: New method about cost-effective Soil
Researchers at UConn are developing a cost-effective method to assess soil health on a large scale. This project aims to quantify soil functions and measure the success of conservation practices, especially for climate-resilient agriculture.
The goal is to understand a soil’s ability to support food production and other vital ecosystem functions while ensuring carbon storage and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The findings will aid in the development of sustainable agricultural practices in the face of climate change.
Soil organic matter
Soil organic matter acts as a sponge, affecting water movement and microbial decomposition, making soil health assessment complex. Common methods involve CO2 burst testing, but Gan’s team simplified the process using CO2 monitors.
They built a high-throughput platform to measure multiple samples simultaneously. This innovative approach allows for a better understanding of soil dynamics and resilience to drought. The team found that more disturbed soils had lower CO2 bursts and less water retention compared to less disturbed soils, highlighting the importance of soil management practices.
Gan’s research shows that least-disturbed areas have higher microbial respiration and better water retention. Although they have more total carbon, a higher proportion is stable, which is beneficial for long-term ecosystem functions.
The new platform proves reliable and allows for low-cost soil health assessments, helping to understand soil interventions’ implications and manage nitrogen fertilizer applications for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Managing soil effectively can significantly impact climate change, as even a small change in soil carbon content can lead to substantial CO2 emissions.
Cost-Effective, Efficient Soil Health Assessment for Large-Scale Use: The Soil cultivation
Soil cultivation in agriculture has released over 100 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, exacerbating carbon loss from soil. Conservation practices like using cover crops and reduced tillage can help restore soil organic matter and carbon.
However, soil carbon sequestration has limitations, and even full restoration would offset only one decade of current CO2 emissions from the fossil fuel industry. Despite this, building soil organic matter remains crucial for soil functions like nutrient cycling, water regulation, and biodiversity.
By developing cost-effective methods to quantify these functions, researchers aim to raise awareness of soil health and promote soil health-promoting practices. The fate of soil as a renewable resource depends on human actions.
Read the original article on phys.
Read more: Technological Innovation and Investment: The Key to Achieving Net-Zero Agriculture.
