Assigning Economic Value to Natural Resources (1994) / Chapter Skim
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8 Soil Quality in Relation to Value and Sustainable Management
8 Soil Quality in Relation to Value and Sustainable Management
Pages 146-164
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From page 146... ...
My assigned task is to address how soils are valued, with specific emphasis on the "weaknesses in conventional measures of crop yields from a soil science perspective." It is my intention in this discussion paper to raise issues related to soil value in terms of the capacity of soil to produce food and fibre tempered by the need to account for impacts of land use on the quality of life, e.g., "green accounting," over the long-term. T am suggesting in this paper that, in order to better reflect the depletion of the soil resource base and environmental damage associates!
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From page 147... ...
Therefore, alternatives to evaluate land and soil productivity have been intensively pursued. Land evaluation systems and soil productivity ratings have been developed in lieu of crop yields as a measure of potential productivity (Huddleston, 1984; Olson, 1974; Riquier, 1974; Nix (1968)
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From page 148... ...
During the period of MY, soil erosion was a major national problem. The resulting nonpoint source pollution and soil productivity decline associated with soil erosion stimulated the enabling legislation for the protection of soil and water .
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From page 150... ...
. The concept of MSY embraces the concerns of green accounting without abandoning the traditional view of soil productivity as a capacity to produce crop yield.
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From page 151... ...
Alley cropping is another more recent example of managing zones within a field by combining ligneous species with field crops arranged spatially and temporally to provide food and fibre while presenting the soil resource base. The third management principle is managing the noncrop period.
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From page 152... ...
152 WIND FRANCIS J PIERCE Tomatoes/Potatoes Last Year Where beetles come from in spring?
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From page 153... ...
Temporally variable soil properties Peclotransfer Functions PTF Simulation Models I Dynamic Soil Quality Control ~ Charts \\ Is land quality or fitness for use changing? `1/ Land Management Design Process control Soil Survey Data Static Soil Properties 153 FIGURE 8-3 A flow diagram illustrating a procedure for evaluating the sustainability of lane]
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From page 154... ...
It is expressed as a function of attributes of soil quality, A, defined as: Q = fit q~...n) While Q is important in land evaluation, sustainable management requires knowledge about changes in soil quality, dQ/dt, defined as: (qua qua)
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From page 155... ...
(1983) to quantify soil productivity and the loss in procluctivity with accelerated soil erosion (Pierce and Larson, 19921.
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From page 156... ...
2 Cation-exchange capacity CEC = A OC + b C 3 Change in organic matter ~C = a + b OR Physical 4 Bulk density Db = bo + b~ OC + b2 Si + b3 M 5 Bulk density Random packing mode! using particle size distribution 6 Bulk density Db = ~OC, cIay)
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From page 157... ...
Using soil survey data contained in the SOILS-5 database and land use and erosion data from the National Resources inventory, the effect of erosion on soil productivity was estimated for the Corn Belt Region of the United States (Pierce et al., 1984~. Both the quality (Pl)
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From page 158... ...
Average or standard value of the quality characteristic Lower Control Limit (LCL) FIGURE 8-4 The basic concept of a Shewhart control chart used for soil quality monitoring.
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From page 159... ...
SOILQUAL17~YIN RELATION TO VALUE AND SUSTAINABl;F MANAGEMENT UCL q l LCL Time 159 FIGURE 8-5 An example of a control chart with variation within the control limits but exhibiting a pattern in the variation of a soil quality parameter. SOURCE: From Pierce and Larson, 1993.
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From page 160... ...
In this system, soil survey data, MDSs, and PTFs provide input to simulation models to design sustainable management systems and establish standards for soil quality. Control charts of various As are monitored with time and used alone, or in combination with models, to detect quality control problems and identify improvement opportunities in the system.
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From page 161... ...
161 FIGURE 8-6 Illustration of a design criteria for sustainable management systems comparing the profitability of MSY management systems to MEY systems.
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From page 162... ...
T have attempted to show that crop yields are important but alone are not sufficient as a measure of soil productivity or soil value. Crop yields by soil type are difficult to obtain en c!
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From page 163... ...
1991. Minimum data sets for use of soil survey information in soil interpretive models.
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From page 164... ...
1985. Assessment of soil erosion and crop productivity with process models (EPIC)
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