Effect of Farming Systems Trial Management Practices On Soil Organic Carbon.

Mapping Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) quantity, temporal change, and spatial distribution in various farming practices over time is critical in understanding the effect of these practices, and in developing practice recommendations to enhance carbon sequestration.  The objective of this research was to create an efficient and portable measurement system that provides rapid, on-site SOC data, via hand-held spectroscopy that is calibrated by laboratory analysis. The study design included sampling from a 30-year-old Farming Systems Trial (FST), which includes 6 combinations of farm systems and tillage.  This poster will compare SOC content and change by system and tillage, using laboratory data dating back to 1981, as well as the newly derived spectroscopic data for 2010.