2004 UC Proceedings Abstract

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Assessing Spatial Variability in Soil Mineralizable Nitrogen Levels
Track: Agriculture
Author(s): Tim Smith

Nitrogen has been widely studied as a plant nutrient and as an environmental pollutant. The amount of nitrogen that is mineralized in the soil is important for plant growth and therefore important when determining proper nitrogen additions to the soil for optimum crop production. Being able to predict soil mineralization could also help to minimize nitrogen loss to the environment. The Illinois Soil N Test has been shown to be a good indicator of nitrogen mineralization and has related directly to crop responses to fertilizer nitrogen. In order to use this test to determine nitrogen use rates, analysis of the spatial variability that exists in producer's fields needs to be studied. This paper looks at the spatial variability of soil mineralizable nitrogen levels as determined by the Illinois Soil N Test using ArcView to map and analyze a number of data sets.

Tim Smith
University of Illinois
NRES
S-213 Turner Hall
1102 S Goodwin Ave
Urbana , IL 61801
US
Phone: 2172447537
E-mail: smith16@uiuc.edu