Soil Health and Carbon Relationship
Soil quality refers to the suitability of the soil to provide high quality and high-yield crop production without harming the environment in agricultural use. Today, soil problems arising from various natural or human reasons, especially climate change, and infertility of agricultural lands, This has led to a focus on the concept of soil quality in relation to land use.
Determination of soil quality is important in terms of evaluating changes in soil use and developing environmentally compatible soil management strategies in the use of existing soil resources. Soil quality provides reliable and comparable results in identifying and assessing soil problems and targeted quality assessments, and is accepted as a valid framework for sustainable land use. For this reason, the determination of soil quality is characterized as a comprehensive check-up process that measures the ability of the soil to fulfill its function.
The Relationship between Soil Quality and Agricultural Production
Healthy soils provide the nutrients necessary for plants. Good soil structure formed with the help of organic matter is determined as a suitable environment for water and air to enter the soil, roots to move easily, and microorganisms to multiply in number and variety. It has been observed that the quality of the soil, often low organic matter content, and the inability to form the desired growth environment for plant production. In this case, it is not possible to obtain the desired yield from plant production. In the case where organic matter is sufficient, the soil is more resistant to compaction and root development can be achieved at the desired level. In this case, it is not possible to achieve the desired yield level in plant production.
The Importance of Soil Quality in Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is seen as a long-term goal aimed at overcoming the problems and constraints associated with the economic viability, environmental suitability and social adoption of agricultural production systems. In this context, today, the concept of soil quality is evaluated within the scope of including human and animal health, food safety, food quality and environmental quality. Sustainable soil management can be achieved and improved through the use of practices specific to the local soil and compatible with the land and climate conditions.
What Threatens Soil Quality?
Considering soil threats is of great importance in assessing soil quality. Soil degrading processes such as soil erosion, soil contamination, depletion of soil organic matter, decline in biodiversity, salinization, pH, incrustation, structural deterioration, acidification, alkalinization, soil compaction, soil insufficiency, drainage, runoff, and nutrient losses from seepage and ultimately infertility. and desertification are among the main vital threats faced by soils. Nutrient deficiencies that occur as a result of cultural practices in fertile agricultural lands, changes in soil parameters over time, chronic inefficiency resulting from contamination with agricultural chemicals and metals, and the presence of chemical factors that limit nutrient availability in the soil are important threats that reduce soil quality.
What are Soil Quality Indicators and How is Soil Quality (Check-up) Determined?
The quality indicator of a soil is defined as the property of the soil that can be analyzed according to certain functions. The critical limits of soil quality indicators are the threshold values that must be maintained for the normal functioning of the soil system, and the soil performs its specific functions in natural ecosystems within this critical range. Classical and instrumental analysis methods are used in the analysis (check-up) of original and dynamic soil parameters.
How Should I Take Soil Sample for Soil Quality Determination (Check-up)?
For soil quality analyzes to give accurate and reliable results; Soil samples to be taken from the field, garden, greenhouse, landscape areas or natural ecological areas to be analyzed should be duly taken. No matter how sensitive and accurate the laboratory analyzes of a soil sample are, the values obtained as a result of the analysis are representative of the field and the success of soil quality determination primarily depends on the correct sampling of that sample.
Before taking the sample, the soil and land characteristics of the area to be taken are determined and the topography, soil color, texture, geological structure of the land, stony-gravelousness, drainage etc. It should be determined whether there are significant differences in terms of characteristics such as If the land to be sampled in the soil quality analysis is similar in terms of these characteristics, it is sufficient to take one composite (composite sample taken from different points) soil sample representing approximately 50 decares of area. If there is one or more of these differences in land characteristics, separate sampling should be done from these sections.
Soil and Carbon Relationship
The carbon cycle is the basic requirement of life on earth. Soil Organic Carbon (TOC) can be defined as the amount of carbon stored in the soil as one of the soil organic matter components consisting of animal and plant matter and different stages of decomposition. Organic carbon enters the soil mainly through animal and plant remains, dead and living microorganisms, root seeps and dissolution of soil biota. Soil organic carbon is a heterogeneous structure that differs in particle size, carbon content, overturning time and its rate of dissolution. Soil organic carbon is the main energy source for soil microorganisms. Soil organic matter in soil contains about 58% carbon.
The Amount of Organic Carbon Stored in the Soil can be increased by the following methods;
Some of the processes to increase the amount of soil carbon in the soil can be listed as follows; To promote plant growth that provides organic carbon input to the soil by increasing water use efficiency and ideal nutrition in root, shoot material and root seepage. In addition, growing plants for longer periods each year increases the organic carbon input into the soil. It also helps to recover organic carbon lost by erosion and degradation of organic matter by improving soil structure, which can be achieved by maintaining the surface cover, protecting the remaining roots and reducing compaction.
Soil Carbon and Soil Health
The carbon content in the soil is a fundamental element of the overall health of the soil. Soil carbon improves the physical properties of the soil, such as increasing cation exchange. It also increases the water holding capacity of sandy soils and improves the structural stability of clay soils where carbon helps to attach to aggregates. Soil organic matter, of which carbon makes up most of it, constitutes a large percentage of nutrient cations and trace elements that are of great importance for plant growth. Soil carbon also prevents the leaching of nutrients from the soil and is critical for organic acids, an integral part of the whole, making minerals available for plant uptake.
Loss of Soil Carbon
Carbon exchange between soil and atmosphere has a very important place in the carbon cycle. Major changes in soil carbon and soil organic matter affected by humans and agricultural systems depend on a number of factors. Human activities, such as the use of fire, that cause the sudden and continuous loss of soil organic carbon by removing the soil surface, lead to the loss of soil organic carbon.
Soil tillage and drainage make soil organic carbon vulnerable to both oxygen and oxidation. Decreased soil organic carbon causes a weakened microbial biomass and nutrient mineralization due to scarcity of energy sources. Depleted soil organic carbon leads to a decrease in the diversity of soil biota, resulting in the deterioration of the balance of the food chain, which adversely affects the soil ecology.
Related to this subject Orbiba Robotics;
In accordance with today's technology, by minimizing the desertification of existing agricultural lands resulting from unconscious agricultural practices, preventing the soil food chain, reducing diversity and decreasing the organic carbon of the soil; It is very important to provide a better quality and conscious regenerative agriculture experience, to determine the soil quality and to monitor its change over time, to evaluate the effects of the applications in the field.
Orbiba Robotics attaches importance to soil health in the technologies it deals with and builds its developments on this factor. It will aim to change the perception of how you can evaluate the quality of the soil and the negative perception of quality. In this case, it will be possible to store the desired yield of our valuable parts.
CAO/ Chief Agriculture Officer
BÜŞRA ÖZER
Resources
- Acir, N., Gunal, H., Onen, H., (2015). Gaziosmanpaşa University, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokat Ahi Evran University, Faculty of Agriculture, Kırşehir. TUBITAK Project.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283070969_TOPRAK_KALITESI
- Anonymous. (2018). Soil Organic Carbon Project, Technical Summary. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion (CEM), Ankara, Turkey.
- TÜBİTAK BİLGEM YTE, Soil Organic Carbon Project, Soil Organic Carbon Estimation Model Report Project Code: 100311, Revision No: 1.0.40 Release Date: 04.06.2018
- https://permacultureturkey.org
- https://www.tarimkutuphanesi.com
- https://topraktema.org
- Yilmaz, M., Dengiz, O. (2021). The Effect of Land Use and Land Cover on Soil Organic Carbon Stock in Relation to Some Soil Properties. Turkish Journal of Agricultural Research. Siirt University. 2021, 8(2): 154-167 doi: 10.19159/tuad. 865188
