Soil Organic Matter and Aggregation in Relation to Various Agricultural Systems.

Soil organic matter and aggregation in relation to various agricultural systems Hannah Robbins and Iin Handayani Murray State University Soil quality is a primary factor in the success of sustainable agricultural production. Two important indicators of soil quality are soil organic matter and aggregation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes of soil organic matter and soil aggregates under different typical agricultural systems. Soil samples were taken from selected counties in Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Each collected from two different depths of 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm. Agricultural management systems utilized for this experiment were conventional tillage, no tillage, organic farming, livestock pasture, and forests. Soil organic matter was determined using the method of loss on ignition (LOI). Soil aggregates were measured using a wet sieving procedure. The overview of the result will be presented in the poster. Keywords: Aggregation, agricultural practices, LOI, soil organic matter, wet sieving