2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium
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Location
Ballroom, Maucker Student Union, University of Northern Iowa
Presentation Type
Open Access Poster Presentation
Document Type
poster
Keywords
Humus--Iowa; Soil ecology--Iowa; Prairie plants--Iowa;
Abstract
With the recent focus on the causes and effects of climate change, the relationship between agriculture and climate change has become an important concern. Conventional farming maximizes crop production at the expense of ecosystem services like soil carbon storage. As the human population grows, it is vital to develop practices that balance crop production and ecosystem services.
We investigated organic carbon accumulation in restored prairie soil over the course of a decade. Our goal was to determine how organic carbon levels and soil bulk density changed over time, and how that change was influenced by species diversity and soil depth. We hypothesized that more organic carbon would be stored in soil over time, and bulk density would decrease, both of which we found to be true. We also hypothesized that the amount of organic carbon stored would increase with greater species diversity (1-species, and 5-, 16-, and 32-species mixes) and it would decrease with soil depth. Our results showed us that species diversity has no noticeable effect on organic carbon levels, with the 5-species mix being the exception, as it stored very low levels of organic carbon. In both soil depths (0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm), bulk density increased the first 5 years, then decreased drastically over the next 6 years, but when we compared 0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm depths with each other, we found an overall decrease. We concluded that organic carbon accumulation increases over time in restored prairie soil regardless of species diversity or soil depth.
Start Date
30-7-2021 11:30 AM
End Date
30-7-2021 1:15 PM
Event Host
Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Northern Iowa
Faculty Advisor
Kenneth J. Elgersma
Department
Department of Biology
Department
Tallgrass Prairie Center
Copyright
©2021 Samrin Shahnaz and Kenneth J. Elgersma
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Shahnaz, Samrin and Elgersma, Kenneth J. Ph.D., "Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Restored Native Prairies Over Time [Poster]" (2021). Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium. 11.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/surp/2021/all/11
Included in
Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Restored Native Prairies Over Time [Poster]
Ballroom, Maucker Student Union, University of Northern Iowa
With the recent focus on the causes and effects of climate change, the relationship between agriculture and climate change has become an important concern. Conventional farming maximizes crop production at the expense of ecosystem services like soil carbon storage. As the human population grows, it is vital to develop practices that balance crop production and ecosystem services.
We investigated organic carbon accumulation in restored prairie soil over the course of a decade. Our goal was to determine how organic carbon levels and soil bulk density changed over time, and how that change was influenced by species diversity and soil depth. We hypothesized that more organic carbon would be stored in soil over time, and bulk density would decrease, both of which we found to be true. We also hypothesized that the amount of organic carbon stored would increase with greater species diversity (1-species, and 5-, 16-, and 32-species mixes) and it would decrease with soil depth. Our results showed us that species diversity has no noticeable effect on organic carbon levels, with the 5-species mix being the exception, as it stored very low levels of organic carbon. In both soil depths (0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm), bulk density increased the first 5 years, then decreased drastically over the next 6 years, but when we compared 0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm depths with each other, we found an overall decrease. We concluded that organic carbon accumulation increases over time in restored prairie soil regardless of species diversity or soil depth.
