TITLE:
Near-Surface Soil Nutrient Changes over Time under Native Prairie and Managed Agriculture in Arkansas
AUTHORS:
Kristofor R. Brye, Faith Cordes, Marya McKee
KEYWORDS:
Long-Term Study, Soil Properties, Ozark Highlands, Grand Prairie
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.11 No.6,
June
3,
2020
ABSTRACT: Landuse change from native prairie to managed
agriculture can have substantial impacts on soil nutrient properties. Nutrient
release from soil organic matter decomposition is the soil’s inherent source of
long-term fertility; thus it is imperative to understand the effects of
continued landuse over time to avoid mistaking actual soil property changes
with simple inter-annual variability from one
year to the next. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of
landuse (i.e. managed agriculture and
native prairie) in two contrasting physiographic regions (i.e. the Ozark Highlands region of northwest Arkansas and the Grand
Prairie region of east-central Arkansas) on the change in extractable soil
nutrients over a 15-yr period from 2001 to 2016. Extractable soil Ca, Mg, and
Zn increased at least two times more over time (P Averaged
across landuse, extractable soil S increased
nine times more over time (P P Averaged across region, extractable soil Mn increased 2.5 times more over
time (P