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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #392304
Research Project: Managing Agricultural Systems to Improve Agronomic Productivity, Soil, and Water Quality

Location: National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory

Title: Soil energetics: A unifying framework to quantify soil functionality

Author
item Wacha, Kenneth - Ken
item PHILO, ALLEN - Biostar Renewables
item Hatfield, Jerry

Submitted to: Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/14/2022
Publication Date: 11/2/2022
Citation: Wacha, K.M., Philo, A., Hatfield, J.L. 2022. Soil energetics: A unifying framework to quantify soil functionality. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. 5(4). Article e20314. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.20314.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.20314

Interpretive Summary: In agricultural systems, large amounts of energy flow through the soil during a growing season. Improvements in soil functionality have been shown to occur when there is a net positive supply of energy into the soil, used to support soil biology capable of enhancing nutrient cycling and aggregation. This manuscript proposes a conceptual framework that can be used to track inputs and outputs of energy from the soil, by accounting for impacts from different management practices. Net energy fluxes over a growing season were shown to be negative for conventional tilled systems around net zero for no-till and positive for grassland systems. This research can inform producers on implementing certain practices that decrease energy losses and can improve the functionality of the soil by accessing excess supplies of energy in the soil.

Technical Abstract: Massive amounts of energy flow through agricultural soil systems over a growing season. Emerging views on the role of soil microbes in regulating the exchange of nutrients between the soil and atmosphere asserts that microbial dynamics are driven by net energy flows from the decay and stabilization of organic matter (OM) accessing stored energy in residue (detritus) and root exudates captured during photosynthesis. Within intensely managed landscapes, energy transfers (fluxes) can be amplified through tillage and rainfall-induced erosion events. We propose that changes in soil, and eventual increases in functionality, occur when there is a net positive supply of energy into the soil to support biological systems capable of altering the soil structure. In this manuscript, we introduce a conceptual energetic framework, that can be used to quantify energy fluxes entering and leaving a soil control volume within an agricultural system. The framework links energy transfers from the atmosphere to plants and soil, with losses associated with mechanized, biogeochemical and hydrological processes by accounting for the role of management practices and storm event. For application, the framework was applied to a conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) corn-soybean rotation, and a grassland (GRASS) system found in the Midwest. Net energy fluxes over a growing season were shown to be negative for the CT, around net zero for NT, and positive for GRASS. These findings have implications on implementing certain practices that decrease energy losses and can improve the functionality of the soil by accessing excess energy.