SOIL MINERALOGY AND N SYNCHRONY: QUANTIFYING CONTEXTUAL LINKAGES BETWEEN SOIL HEALTH AND CROP N AVAILABILITY

The overall objective of this project is to determine the extent to which soil mineral composition influences soil N availability and soil health measurement outcomes.Our specific objectives are to: 1) Quantify distribution of N pools across differing dominant soil mineral composition; 2) Quantify changes in N mineralization due to hypothesized physical and biochemical pathways in contrasting tillage systems (long-term no-till and conventional tillage), and 3) Determine the influence of dominant soil mineral composition on the partitioning of N inputs and subsequent crop N uptake. This project will also: 4) Improve the interpretation of current USDA-NRCS-recommended soil health metrics to manage N across differing soil mineral compositions.