Calibrated SoilOptix ® estimates of soil pH and exchangeable cations in three agricultural fields in western Canada - implications for managing spatially variable soil acidity.

Autor: Enesi RO; Department of Agriculture, Food & Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada., Dyck MF; Department of Renewable Resource, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada., Thilakarathna MS; Department of Agriculture, Food & Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada., Strelkov SE; Department of Agriculture, Food & Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada., Gorim LY; Department of Agriculture, Food & Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Heliyon [Heliyon] 2024 Aug 28; Vol. 10 (17), pp. e37106. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 28 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37106
Abstrakt: Spatial variability in soil pH is a major contributor to within-field variations in soil fertility and crop productivity. An improved understanding of the spatial variability of soil pH within agricultural fields is required to determine liming requirements for precision farming. This study with the use of proximal sensors, firstly assessed the spatial pattern of soil pH and how it can be used to determine site-specific, spatially variable lime requirements. Secondly, the effects of soil pH on soil concentrations of nitrate nitrogen (N0 3 -N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur (SO 4 -S), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), soil organic matter (SOM), aluminum (Al), and manganese (Mn) were assessed in three study fields in central Alberta, Canada. Soil pH varied between 4.5 and 7.5 across all field sites. The field-scale coefficient of variation (CV %) for soil pH, Al and Mn ranged between 4.39 and 7.50 %, 7.33-13.72 %, and 7.33-13.72 % across the three sites. The other soil properties showed low, moderate, and high variability, with field-scale CVs ranging between 6.39 and 17.70 % for SOM and 24.33-91.39 % for SO 4 -S. Soil pH exhibited positive correlations with both Ca and Mg, across all fields. Negative correlations were observed between soil pH and Al across all fields. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed for all soil parameters and two principal components accounted for 50 %, 54.9 %, and 76.8 % of the total variance in field 1, field 2, and field 3, respectively. Geostatistical semivariance indicated a strong spatial dependence of all chemical parameters across fields. Large regions within a field were strongly acidic (pH < 5.5) and required lime applications ranging from 0 to 6 t ha -1 . We conclude that proximal soil sensors can be calibrated to soil properties, enabling variable rate lime recommendations on spatially variable fields for the management of soil acidity.
Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Rebecca Enesi reports financial support and article publishing charges were provided by 10.13039/501100000190University of Alberta. Rebecca Enesi reports a relationship with University of Alberta that includes: employment. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Acknowledgment This research was financially supported by: Canadian Agricultural Partnership- Project #: 2022N109RC / RES0059577, Results Driven Agriculture Research- Project #: 2022N109R / RES0059010 and Mitacs (Mitacs Accelerate program- Funding request ref. FR94945, FR94946, FR94947, FR94948, FR94951, FR94954). Many thanks to Norstar Industries and SoilOptix®. Many thanks go to the Western Grains Research Foundation (Project # RES0043917) for funding the position of the LG and making it possible for this manuscript to be published. Thank you to Dr. Nasim Kheirkhah Ghehi for GIS support.
(© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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