Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
Browse
7 results
Search Results
Item Multi-species cover crops in the northern Great Plains : an ecological persepctive on biodiversity and soil health(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2016) Housman, Megan Leigh; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Catherine A. Zabinski; Susan M. Tallman, Clain A. Jones, Perry R. Miller and Catherine Zabinski were co-authors of the article, 'Soil water, soil nitrate, and residue quanity associated with cover crop mixtures in the northern Great Plains' submitted to the journal 'Agriculture, ecosystems, and environment' which is contained within this thesis.; Susan M. Tallman, Clain A. Jones, Perry R. Miller and Catherine Zabinski were co-authors of the article, 'Multi-species cover crops: effects on soil biology after one and two rotations in the semi-arid northern Great Plains' submitted to the journal 'Soil biology and biochemistry' which is contained within this thesis.As summer fallow is replaced by cover crops, we aim to address how cover crops influence soil properties. Past studies conducted across the Northern Great Plains have investigated the short- and long- term effects of LGMs on water, nitrate, and carbon storage, soil parameters including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN) and enzymatic activity, and wheat yield. Less knowledge exists regarding similar short- and especially long-term effects of CCMs in the NGP. This four-year study replicated at four sites in Montana allows us to investigate how site characteristics and annual weather patterns can influence the performance of cover crop growth and the subsequent effect on soil quality. Our research approach to building cover crop mixtures using functional group composition rather than species composition aims to make the work more broadly applicable to other regions. Other regions may utilize more adapted legume or brassica species and could still use our results to estimate their effects on soil and nitrate use throughout the soil profile or their effects on soil biological parameters.Item The ecology of nutrition : managing soil organic matter to supply soil nutrients, increase soil biotic activity and increase crop nutritive value(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2014) Neff, Karin Stockton; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Catherine A. Zabinski; Bruce D. Maxwell and Catherine A. Zabinski were co-authors of the article, 'Input C:N effects on soil fertility and spinach yields over three years' submitted to the journal 'Agriculture, ecosystems and environment' which is contained within this thesis.; William E. Dyer, Bruce D. Maxwell and Catherine A. Zabinski were co-authors of the article, 'Organic matter effects on spinach antioxidant production' submitted to the journal 'Journal of the science of food and agriculture' which is contained within this thesis.; Karin Neff, Bruce D. Maxwell, Clain Jones, Elizabeth Hummelt and Catherine A. Zabinski were co-authors of the article, 'Estimating plant available nitrogen in organic market garden systems' submitted to the journal 'Soil biology and biochemistry' which is contained within this thesis.; Bruce D. Maxwell, Katie Atkinson and Catherine A. Zabinski were co-authors of the article, 'Thinking like a microbe: the biological mechanisms of fertility in sustainable mixed-vegetable production' submitted to the journal 'Applied soil ecology' which is contained within this thesis.The increasing consumer interest in high quality foods -especially fruits and vegetables with high antioxidant phytochemicals -has led to interest in determining the effects of cropping system practices on phytochemicals over the last decade. Appropriate fertility management is critical to optimize agricultural production, both for yield and crop nutritive value, and minimize losses to the environment. In organic production systems, fertility management generally relies on soil microbial processes to decompose organic matter. To better understand the dynamics of mulch decomposition and the resulting effects on soil fertility and crop yield, a three-year randomized strip-plot experiment was implemented on the Montana State University Horticulture Research Farm. Two mulch inputs with varying carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N), decomposition rates and microbial responses were contrasted with two non-mulched treatments, urea N fertilizer and a no-treatment control. Spinach biomass, yield, total phenolics and antioxidant capacity were measured as plant response variables to changes in soil fertility and biology due to the different inputs over three years. Water-extractable organic matter (WEOM), available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), carbon (C) respiration, N mineralization, soil enzyme activity, microbial biomass and mycorrhizal infectivity potential were measured to assess soil fertility and biology. The hay mulch treatment increased nutrient availability and soil biological responses, and produced high spinach yields. The straw mulched treatment had a delayed effect on N availability and lower spinach yields initially, but in subsequent years both yield and biological parameters increased in the straw mulched treatments. Both mulch treatments produced cumulative spinach yields comparable to or exceeding the N-fertilizer plots. Only slight differences in total phenolic concentration and antioxidant capacity were measured among treatments indicating that other factors likely influence spinach phytochemicals more strongly than SOM. Measuring biological responses can be a sensitive measure of soil function and an important addition to farm management to better estimate how different management practices will affect soil processes, yields and the environment.Item Soil and terrain attributes for predicting soil fertility and winter wheat yield(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1993) McEachern, Kirk LowndesItem A study of the fertility status of Blodgett sandy loam(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1950) Pope, AlexanderItem Phosphorus fertility study on a Michoacan, Mexico soil(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1965) Resler, Luvern LeoItem Flathead County soils in relation to their inherent fertility status(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1963) Graham, Donald R.Item Sustainable cropping systems for the Northern Great Plains : energetic and economic considerations(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2012) Burgess, Macdonald Hugh; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Perry Miller.; Perry R. Miller and Clain A. Jones were co-authors of the article, 'Pulse crops improve energy intensity and productivity of cereal production in Montana, USA' in the journal 'Journal of sustainable agriculture ' which is contained within this thesis.Reliance on non-renewable resources is among the fundamental challenges to agricultural sustainability. Quantification of inputs in units of embodied fossil energy offers insight into sustainable use of these resources. Metrics of intensity, efficiency of non-renewable energy inputs to agriculture have been proposed for optimization in search of sustainability in the face of energy scarcity. Such analyses have found controversial results however, and further theoretical understanding is necessary. The research presented here focuses on approaches to sustainability targeting the semiarid northern Great Plains of North America. The 4 million ha of cropland fallowed in this region every year represent both a challenge to sustainability and an opportunity to address that challenge. Long identified as unsustainable when accomplished by tillage and without fertilizer input, the summerfallow-wheat crop production system is also energy-efficient by definitions that do not account for changes in soil fertility. It is shown here that accounting for lost soil N as an energy input to crop production partially resolves this paradox, but no strategy for energetic valuation of systems that build soil quality is apparent. Alternatives to summerfallow considered here include pulse crops (e.g. pea and lentil) grown for grain, forage, or as cover crops. In research conducted on farms already growing pulses, the largest effect on cropping system energy productivity was due to increased wheat yield rather than a reduction of inputs. In plot-scale research addressing a wider variety of production practices, neither system-level energy intensity nor productivity provided more insight into energy price exposure than basic economic analyses.