Date of Award

2018

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Awarded

Master of Science (MS)

Program

Soil Science

Department

School of Natural Resource Sciences

College

Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources

Faculty Advisor

Hopkins, David

Description

The benchmark Barnes soil series is an extensive northern Great Plains upland Hapludoll that is vital to the region. Accelerated erosion has degraded Barnes agricultural soil quality, but with unknown extent or severity. Samples from three extensive Barnes soil map units, stratified by evapotranspiration values, were collected to 50 cm and analyzed for chemical, morphologic, and physical properties germane to edaphic function. Multi-scale terrain attributes and remote-sensed soil proxies, and geologic covariates were implemented with Cubist to model soil properties. Best models included SOC, EC, pH, SOC-IC, and sand content. Pedons were classified with a clustering algorithm into six classes. Linear discriminant analysis of covariates and subsequent prediction of landscape grouped classes had moderate to nearly substantial agreement with field observations; only fair agreement was attained for all classes. Detailed morphologic observations confirmed extensive topsoil erosion for some landscape positions that merit investigation of soil function and potential state change.

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

Rights Link

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-0044-7959

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28726

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