• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.475-480
• /
• 2001

Sensing soil organic matter is crucial for precision farming and environment friendly agriculture. Near infra-red(NIR) was utilized to measure the soil organic matter. Multivariate calibration methods, including stepwise multiple linear regression(MLR), principal components recession(PCR) and partial least squares regression(PLS), were applied to soil spectral reflectance data to predict the organic matter content. The effect of soil particle size and water content was studied. The range of soil organic matter contents was from 0.5 to 11%. Near infrared (NIR) region from 700 to 2,500nm was applied. For uniform soil particle size, result had good correlation (R$\^$2/ = 0.984, standard error of prediction= 0.596). The effect of soil particle size could be eliminated with 1st order derivative of the NIR signal. However. moist soil had a little lower correlation. R$\^$2/ was 0.95 and standard error of prediction was 0.94% using the PLS method. The results showed the possibility of soil organic matter measurement using NIR reflectance on the field.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2007

The alpine agricultural activities are usually performed at higher and steep areas in nature. Thus, significant amounts of soil erosion are occurring compared with those from other areas. Thus, the soil erosion induced environmental impacts in these areas are getting greater. The Doam watershed is located at alpine areas and it has been well known that the agricultural activities in the watershed are causing accelerated soil erosion and water quality degradations. Many modeling approaches were employed to solve soil erosion and water quality issues. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was utilized to simulate the hydrologic and sediment behaviors in the Doam watershed. In many previous modeling studies, the digital soil map and its corresponding soil properties were used without modification to reflect soil conditioning at many agricultural fields of the Doam watershed. Thus, the soil sample was taken at the agricultural field within the Doam watershed and analyzed for its physical properties. In this study, the digital topsoil properties in the agricultural fields within the Doam watershed were replaced with the soil properties for reconditioned soil analyzed in this study to simulate the impacts of using soil properties for reconditioned soil in hydrologic and sediment modeling at the Doam watershed using the SWAT model. The hydrologic component of the SWAT model was calibrated and validated for measured flow data from 2002 to 2003. The $R^2$ value was 0.79 and the EI value was 0.53 for weekly simulated data. The calibrated model parameters were used for hydrologic component validation and the $R^2$ value was 0.86 and the EI value was 0.74 for weekly data. For sediment comparison, the $R^2$ value was 0.67 and the EI value was 0.59. These statistics improved with the use of soil properties of the reconditioned soil in the field compared with the results obtained without considering soil reconditioning. The simulated sediment amounts with and without considering the soil properties of the reconditioned soil were 284,813 ton and 158,369 ton, respectively. This result indicates that there could be approximately 79% of errors in estimated sediment yield at the Doam watershed, although the model comparison with the measured data gave similar satisfactory statistics with and without considering soil properties from the reconditioned soil.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.1220-1225
• /
• 2011

Anaerobic decomposition of organic materials in flooded rice fields produces methane ($CH_4$) gas, which escapes to the atmosphere primarily by transport through organs of the rice plants such as arenchyma etc., Although the annual amount of methane emitted from a given area is influenced by cultivation periods of rice and organic/inorganic amendments etc., soil type also affects methane emission from paddy soil during a rice cultivation. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate effects of soil type on $CH_4$ emission in two paddy soils. One is a red-yellow soil classified as a Hwadong series (fine, mixed, mesic family of Aquic Hapludalfs), and the other is a gley soil classified as a Shinheung series (fine loamy, mixed, nonacid, mesic family of Aeric Fluvaquentic Endoaquepts). During a flooded periods, redox potentials of red-yellow soil were significantly higher than gley soil. $CH_4$ emission in red-yellow soil ($0.21kg\;ha^{-1}\;day^{-1}$) was lower than that in gley soil ($5.25kg\;ha^{-1}\;day^{-1}$). In the condition of different soil types, $CH_4$ emissions were mainly influenced by the content of total free metal oxides in paddy soil. The results strongly imply that iron- or manganese-oxides of well ordered crystalline forms in soil such as goethite and hematite influenced on a $CH_4$ emission, which is crucial role as a $CH_4$ oxidizers in paddy soil during a rice cultivation.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.75-95
• /
• 2012

BACKGROUND: Increase of heavy metals in agricultural ecosystem has become a social issue nationwide as it is related to public health. This review was performed to find out more systematic and integrated future researches on heavy metals using up to date articles published in the Korean journals related to agricultural environment. METHODS AND RESULTS: Researches on heavy metals in agricultural soils and plant uptake were categorized by the establishment of criteria, analytical methods, monitoring, management of source, characteristics and behavior in soil, plant uptake, bioavailability affecting physico -chemical properties in soil, risk assessment and soil remediation. In the early 1990s, the monitoring for heavy metals in soil has been widely performed. Accumulation of heavy metals in contaminated soil and availability to plants has also attracted interests to study the soil remediation using various physico-chemical methods. The phytoavailability and phytotoxicity of heavy metals have been mainly studied to assess the safety of agro-products using risk assessment techniques in the 2000s. CONCLUSION: Future direction of research on heavy metal in agricultural environment must be carried out by ensuring food safety and sustainability. A steady survey and proper management for polluted regions should be continued. Law and regulation must be modified systematically. Furthermore, studies should expand on mitigation of heavy metal uptake by crops and remediation of polluted fields.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.219-224
• /
• 2019

BACKGROUND: Soil bacteria play important roles in organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling during the non-growing season. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of soil management and chemical properties on the utilization of carbon sources by soil bacteria in paddy fields. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Biolog EcoPlate was used for analyzing community-level carbon substrate utilization profiles of soil bacteria. Soils were collected from the following three types of areas: plain, interface and mountain areas, which were tested to investigate the topology effect. The results of canonical correspondence analysis and Kendall rank correlation analysis showed that soil C/N ratio and NH₄⁺ influenced utilization of carbon sources by bacteria. The utilization of carbohydrates and complex carbon sources were positively correlated with NH₄⁺ concentration. Cultivated paddy fields were compared with adjacent abandoned fields to investigate the impact of cultivation cessation. The level of utilization of putrescine was lower in abandoned fields than in cultivated fields. Monoculture fields were compared with double cropping fields cultivated with barley to investigate the impact of winter crop cultivation. Cropping system altered bacterial use of carbon sources, as reflected by the enhanced utilization of 2-hydroxy benzoic acid under monoculture conditions. CONCLUSION: These results show that soil use intensity and topological characteristics have a minimal impact on soil bacterial functioning in relation to carbon substrate utilization. Moreover, soil chemical properties were found to be important factors determining the physiological profile of the soil bacterial community in paddy fields.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.335-340
• /
• 2016

Soil organic carbon plays an important role on soil physico-chemical properties and crop yields in paddy soil. However, there is little information on the soil organic carbon under different forage cultivation during winter season in rice paddy. In this study, we investigated the soil organic carbon and physico-chemical properties in 87 fields of paddy soil cultivated with Barley, rye, and Italian ryegrass (IRG) as animal feedstock during winter season. Organic carbon was 12.9, 14.3, and $16.9g\;C\;kg^{-1}$ in soil with barley, rye, and IRG cultivation, respectively. Among rice-forage cultivation systems, the rice+IRG cropping system was 19.5% higher than in the mono-rice cultivation. Bulk density ranged from 1.17 to $1.28g\;cm^{-3}$ irrespective of cropping systems, and had strongly negative correlation with the soil organic carbon in the rice+IRG cropping system. Carbon storage in rice+IRG cropping systems was average $29.6Mg\;ha^{-1}$ at 15 cm of soil depth, which was 20.4 and 10.3% higher than those of barley and rye cultivation. Increasing carbon storage in paddy soil contributed to the fertility for following rice cultivation. This results indicated that IRG cultivation during winter season could be an alternative and promising way to enhance soil organic carbon content and fertility of paddy soil.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.48 no.6
• /
• pp.628-633
• /
• 2015

It is necessary to assess soil physical properties and crop growth treated by compaction to establish the soil management standard. This study evaluated the bulk density, strength and crop growth after subsoil compaction for sandy loam and loam on the field in Suwon, Korea. The treatments were compaction and deep tillage. Sandy loam and loam were classified to coarse soil and fine soil, respectively, depending on clay contents. In coarse soil, bulk density of compacted plot was 8~17% greater than control and deep tilled plot. The root growth was worse in compacted plot compared with control. In fine soil, plow pan was not observed in deep tilled plot with 5~19% smaller bulk density than compacted plot and control. Deep tillage improved the crop growth. The soil physical properties by compaction were dependent on clay content and crop growth limit depended on the traffic driving.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.423-429
• /
• 2015

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of reduced nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) fertigation as additional fertilizer on tomato yield and nutrient contents in excessively nutrients-accumulated soil. Shoot and root dry weights (DW), dry matter rate for shoot, root and fruit and number of fruit in both AF50 and AF100 (50 and 100% levels of additional fertilizer) treatments were increased in comparison with those in AF0 (0% level of additional fertilizer) treatment. In case of nutrient uptake by tomato, nitrogen, phosphorous (P) and potassium contents in all tomato parts (leaf, stem, root and fruit) in AF50 and AF100 treatment were lower than those in AF0 treatment. On the contrary, soluble sugar and starch contents in all tomato parts in AF50 and AF100 were higher than those in AF0 treatment. There were differences between AF0 and AF50 or AF100 in tomato growth, yield, nutrient level and contents of soluble sugar and starch. In contrast, the level and initiation point of fertigation did not significantly affect the parameters. Based on our results, the application of properly reduced level of additional fertilizer is possible to maintain the productivity of tomato and alleviate the nutrient accumulation in plastic film house soils.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.944-958
• /
• 2011

Soil hydraulic properties such as hydraulic conductivity or water retention which are costly to measure can be indirectly generated by soil pedotransfer function (PTF) using easily obtainable soil data. The field soil structure description which is routinely recorded could also be used in PTF as an input to reduce the uncertainty. The purposes of this study were to use qualitative morphological soil structure descriptions and soil structural index into PTF and to evaluate their contribution in the prediction of soil hydraulic properties. We transformed categorical morphological descriptions of soil structure into quantitative values using categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA). This approach was tested with a large data set from the US National Pedon Characterization database with the aid of a categorical regression tree analysis. Six different PTFs were used to predict the saturated hydraulic conductivity and those results were averaged to quantify the uncertainty. Quantified morphological description was successively used in multiple linear regression approach to predict the averaged ensemble saturated conductivity. The selected stepwise regression model with only the transformed morphological variables and structural index as predictors predicted the $K_{sat}$ with $r^2$ = 0.48 (p = 0.018), indicating the feasibility of CATPCA approach. In a regression tree analysis, soil structure index and soil texture turned out to be important factors in the prediction of the hydraulic properties. Among structural descriptions size class turned out to be an important grouping parameter in the regression tree. Bulk density, clay content, W33 and structural index explained clusters selected by a two step clustering technique, implying the morphologically described soil structural features are closely related to soil physical as well as hydraulic properties. Although this study provided relatively new method which related soil structure description to soil structure index, the same approach should be tested using a datasets containing the actual measurement of hydraulic properties. More insight on the predictive power of soil structure index to estimate hydraulic properties would be achieved by considering measured the saturated hydraulic conductivity and the soil water retention.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.46 no.5
• /
• pp.308-312
• /
• 2013

The monitoring of chemical dynamic changes in controlled horticultural lands is very important for agricultural sustainability. Field monitoring was performed to evaluate the soil chemical properties of 200 controlled horticultural soil samples in Gyeongnam province every 4 years from 2000 to 2012. Soil chemical properties such as pH, amount of organic matter, available phosphate, nitrate nitrogen, and exchangeable potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium were analyzed. The amount of exchangeable calcium and soil pH were significantly higher in 2012 than in 2000. In 2012, the frequency distribution for values of pH, organic matter, available phosphate, and exchangeable potassium, calcium, and magnesium that were within the optimum range was 16.0%, 22.5%, 11.5%, 3.5%, 2.5%, and 5.0%, respectively. Especially, available phosphate and exchangeable calcium were excess level with portions of 76.0% and 96.5%, respectively. These results indicated that a balanced management of soil chemical properties can reduce the amount of fertilizer applied for sustainable agriculture in controlled horticultural lands.