Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Agriculture

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Brye, Kristofor

Committee Member/Reader

Richardson, Mike

Committee Member/Second Reader

Wood, Lisa

Abstract

One climate-change mitigation pathway is soil carbon (C) sequestration, which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores C in various forms in the soil. Native prairie soils have long been known for their soil C sequestration abilities, but the full extent of their sequestration capacity is not completely understood. This study evaluated the effect of soil depth and soil map unit/prairie combination on changes in various soil properties over time from 2018 to 2022 in the top 20 cm of two native tallgrass prairie soils in the Arkansas River Valley in west-central Arkansas. Soil samples were collected from the 0-10 and 10-20 cm depths in six soil map units across Cherokee and Flanagan Prairies and were evaluated for soil bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, total C (TC), soil organic matter (SOM), and Mehlich-3 extractable soil nutrients. Results indicated that soil pH increased (P < 0.05) over time in all six soil map unit-prairie combinations, but remained acidic, averaging 5.1 in the top 10 cm. Soil OM decreased over time in all soil depth-prairie combinations, ranging from -11.3 to 11.3 Mg ha-1 in the 0-10 cm of one combination to 3.3 Mg ha-1 in the 10-20 cm depth of a different combination. Averaged across soil map unit/prairie combination, soil TC decreased over time in both soil depths. Results showed that soil C sequestration did not occur during the 4-year study period, potentially meaning that the prairies have already reached an equilibrium soil C content and will not continue to sequester soil C indefinitely.

Keywords

soil, prairie, arkansas

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