1 2 3 4 5 6 7 When people talk about soil health, they commonly - PDF document

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When people talk about soil health, they commonly think about only soil biological properties, but soil health is like the metaphor of a 3 ‐ legged stool. If one of the legs breaks, the whole stool will fall over. This metaphor tells us soil health is consisted of three major properties: physical, chemical and biological. 8

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Aggregation affects erosion, movement of water and plant root growth 10

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The older no till contains elevated co2 glomalin, TN and TC in the 0 ‐ 5 depth What is interesting that the 3 year NT contains significantly higher TN and numerically higher TC, and CO2 in the 5 ‐ 10 cm indicating that the 9 yr NT is more stratified with respect to organic matter. The pH alos appears to be more stratified in the 9yr NT However, the Glomalin content is elevated with all depths sampled in the 9yr NT, but only significantly at the surface. There is also not a significant interaction for the glomalin. This data suggests that sampling depth is an important consideration as would be expected for variables closely tied to organic matter accumulation. 22

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