Monday, 6 October 2008: 2:15 PM

George R. Brown Convention Center, 361AB

Muhammad Abid, Soil Science, University College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan and Rattan Lal, 2021 Coffey Road, Ohio State University - Columbus, Ohio State University, Carbon Management & Sequestration Center, Columbus, OH 43210

ÿþIncreasing carbon (C) retention in soil is important, because SOM is a binding agent for soil structure, reservoir for plant nutrients, and a major repository of organic C (OC) pool to mitigate increase in atmospheric abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2). Application of organic amendments (OA) could increase the SOM pool. Thus, two OA [i.e. wheat straw (WS) d" 2-mm length and cattle manure (CM) each @ zero (control), 4, 8, and 16 Mg ha-1, respectively] and polyacrylamide (PAM) [@ zero (control) and 20 kg ha-1] were mixed thoroughly with a fine, mixed, mesic, Aeric Ochraqualf silt loam soil from Columbus, Ohio. This mixture of soil-OA-PAM was incubated for 80 days to asses impact on tensile strength (TS), soil moisture retention (0 to -333 kPa), aggregate stability (AS), mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), wettability (WA), and kinetic energy (KE) required breaking the aggregates. Both C and N mineralization were also determined. The WS, CM, PAM, and their interactions [(CM x WS), (CM x PAM), and WS x PAM)] significantly (P d" 0.05) influenced AS, MWD, TS, WA and KE, indicating improvement in soil structure. However, the effect of WS x CM x PAM interaction was non-significant on all these soil quality parameters. Organic amendments significantly (P d" 0.05) increased the OC and N contents. However, the impact of PAM on OC and N contents was non-significant. Further, PAM significantly (P d" 0.05) depressed the CO2 evolution. Field experiments are needed to assess the impact of OA on soil quality, agronomic productivity, environment quality and other ecosystem services.

See more of: Emissions of Atmospheric Pollutants and Carbon Sequestration: I (includes Graduate Student Competition)
See more of: S11 Soils & Environmental Quality

2008 Joint Annual Meeting (5-9 Oct. 2008): Short-term Impacts of Organic Amendments and Polyacrylamide on Soil Physical and Biochemical Properties.

606-3 Short-term Impacts of Organic Amendments and Polyacrylamide on Soil Physical and Biochemical Properties.