Identification of regional soil quality factors and indicators: a case study on an alluvial plain (central Turkey)

Identification of regional soil quality factors and indicators: a case study on an alluvial plain (central Turkey)

Sustainable agriculture largely depends on soil quality. The evaluation of agricultural soil quality is essential for economic success and environmental stability in rapidly developing regions. In this context, a wide variety of methods using vastly different indicators are currently used to evaluat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Solid earth (Göttingen) Vol. 8; no. 3; pp. 583 - 595
Main Authors: Şeker, Cevdet, Özaytekin, Hasan Hüseyin, Negiş, Hamza, Gümüş, Ä°lknur, Dedeoğlu, Mert, Atmaca, Emel, Karaca, Ümmühan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Gottingen Copernicus GmbH 09-05-2017
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Agriculture
Agronomy
Alluvial plains
Biological effects
Biological properties
Bulk density
Carbon
Case studies
Conductivity
Datasets
Density
Digitization
Earth science
Economic models
Economics
Ecosystems
Electrical conductivity
Electrical resistivity
Environmental monitoring
Enzymatic activity
Enzyme activity
Evaluation
Field capacity
Food safety
Indicators
Manganese
Nitrogen
Organic carbon
Parameters
Phosphorus
Physical properties
Principal components analysis
Productivity
Q factors
Quality
Quality assessment
Respiration
Sediments
Soil
Soil analysis
Soil chemistry
Soil properties
Soil quality
Soil stability
Soils
Stability
Sustainability
Sustainable agriculture
Urease
Wilting
Wilting point
Turkey
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Summary:Sustainable agriculture largely depends on soil quality. The evaluation of agricultural soil quality is essential for economic success and environmental stability in rapidly developing regions. In this context, a wide variety of methods using vastly different indicators are currently used to evaluate soil quality. This study was conducted in one of the most important irrigated agriculture areas of Konya in central Anatolia, Turkey, to analyze the soil quality indicators of Çumra County in combination with an indicator selection method, with the minimum data set using a total of 38 soil parameters. We therefore determined a minimum data set with principle component analysis to assess soil quality in the study area and soil quality was evaluated on the basis of a scoring function. From the broad range of soil properties analyzed, the following parameters were chosen: field capacity, bulk density, aggregate stability, and permanent wilting point (from physical soil properties); electrical conductivity, Mn, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, pH, and NO3-N (from chemical soil properties); and urease enzyme activity, root health value, organic carbon, respiration, and potentially mineralized nitrogen (from biological properties). According to the results, the chosen properties were found as the most sensitive indicators of soil quality and they can be used as indicators for evaluating and monitoring soil quality at a regional scale.
ISSN:1869-9529
1869-9510
1869-9529
DOI:10.5194/se-8-583-2017