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Title: COMPARISON OF FIRST ORDER SOIL SURVEYS TO ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES FOR CHARACTERIZING COTTON PRODUCTIVITY ON ALABAMA ULTISOLS

Author
item SHAW, J - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item OWEN, J - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item BURMESTER, C - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item Reeves, Donald

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/9/2005
Publication Date: 11/6/2005
Citation: Shaw, J.N., Owen, J., Burmester, C., Reeves, D.W. 2005. Comparison of first order soil surveys to alternative approaches for characterizing cotton productivity on Alabama ultisols [abstract]. American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting, November 6-10, 2005, Salt Lake City, Utah. CD-ROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: We hypothesized that first order soil surveys are equal or superior to other techniques for characterizing cotton productivity over multiple growing seasons. The experiment was conducted during 2001-2003 in northern AL on 5-ha site where soils ranged from Oxyaquic to Typic Paleudults. An Order 1 soil survey (1:2500) was created, terrain attributes (e.g. slope, CTI) were developed from high resolution DEMs (RTK-GPS), and satellite remote sensing data were collected. Fuzzy k-means clustering of terrain, remote sensing, field-scale electrical conductivity, and yield data were used to develop zones. Eighteen random sampling sites were established, and soil properties (nutrients, volumetric water content), crop properties (leaf temperature, tissue nutrients, node counts), and cotton productivity (yield, fiber quality) were measured at each site. Significant (p<0.05) differences in cotton yield were observed between all delineation techniques, however, fiber length and strength were only different in zones developed using remote sensing data (NDVI). Factor analyses reduced multivariate data into five factors representing 80% of the data variability, and the first three factors represented soil moisture, leaf tissue nutrients, and soil nutrients, respectively. These three factors described 50, 52 and 78% of yield, fiber length, and strength, respectively. Soil moisture and tissue nutrient factor scores were significantly affected by all zones, but soil nutrients were only different among soil survey delineations. The aggregate of data suggests that first order soil surveys and remote sensing data are the most effective tools for creating cotton management zones in this region.