Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Fruits: apples, general tree fruits
Practices
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity
- Pest Management: biorational pesticides, botanical pesticides, field monitoring/scouting, integrated pest management
- Production Systems: general crop production
- Sustainable Communities: sustainability measures
Proposal abstract:
From an agricultural perspective, soil productivity depends on the ability of the microbial and invertebrate communities to break down organic matter, cycle plant nutrients, facilitate chemical transformations, and affect disease in crops. Microorganisms and soil invertebrates are sensitive to changes in soil biophysiochemical properties which result from agricultural management decisions. Some studies have suggested that microbial and microinvertebrate community structure might serve as an excellent indicator of sustainable soil productivity. Until recently, however, adequate technology has not been available to study such communities at the ecological and taxonomic levels required to determine whether biological structure differs significantly as the result of different agricultural management systems. With the capability to identify microorganisms to the genera level using FAME technology, along with traditional biomass, activity, and nutrient transformation methods, it is possible to investigate more fully the differences between microbial communities and their functions in different agricultural systems. The agricultural treatments in this study are: Conventional tillage vs. conservation tillage; Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides vs. organic inputs; Vegetable rotation vs. continuous tomatoes The objectives of the proposed field and laboratory studies are to: To accurately estimate microbial and invertebrate populations and community structure using a range of enumeration and community evaluation techniques Assess the effect of microbial communities on the following soil physical properties: aggregate stability, bulk density, porosity, and pore size distribution To aid in the assessment of soil degradation by identifying possible soil biological indicators of high soil productivity potential for agricultural soils
Project objectives from proposal:
To evaluate the biological diversity of soils under different agricultural management strategies, recognizing that a highly productive agricultural soil is considered to be one with a high degree of biological activity and containing a stable cross section of microorganisms and invertebrates (Turco et al., 1994; Magdoff and van Es, 2000)
To make the best possible estimations of microbial and invertebrate populations and community structure using a range of direct enumeration and community evaluation techniques
To assess the effect of microbial and invertebrate communities on the following soil physical properties: aggregate stability, bulk density, porosity, and pore size distribution
To aid in the assessment of soil degradation by identifying soil biological indicators of high soil productivity potential for agricultural soils