A Decision Support System to Determine Management Effects on Dynamic Soil Properties.

Soil is a foundational resource which provides food, filters contaminates for clean water, cycles nutrients and stores carbon to mitigate climate change, among a few of its beneficial ecosystem services.  Soils have many properties (biological, chemical, and physical) that vary with time and space. These variations are related to changes in climate and human disturbances. To capture changes in soil properties, mining data from primary literature on human management effects on dynamic soil properties (DSPs) such as carbon and bulk density will assist in the development of a decision support system.  The objective of this project is to develop a DSP database of mined data to include soil properties, climatic factors and management which will then be used to evaluate the impact of land use and management practices through the use of machine learning techniques. The outcome of this decision support tool will help managers make better decisions about conserving soil.