Soil and Climatic Limitations for Sprinkler Irrigated Potato Production in Six South Central South Dakota Counties

The soils of Southeastern South Dakota are a vital agricultural resource. Recently, questions about expanding irrigated potato production into Bon Home, Hanson, Hutchinson, Douglas, Charles Mix, and Gregory Counties have been asked by state government officials and business leaders. Soils vary greatly in their suitability for sprinkler irrigated potato production. As a result of this concern, a study was initiated to identify soil limitation and suitability for sprinkler irrigated potato production. The soils in five southeastern counties were evaluated for both dryland and sprinkler irrigated potato production earlier (1984). This bulletin is meant to point out potential areas and not provide detailed site information. It is designed to serve as a guide for county, state, and business officials as they explore the potential for irrigated potato production in Southeast South Dakota

Soil and Climatic Limitations for Sprinkler Irrigated Potato Production in Five Southeastern South Dakota Counties

The soils of Southeastern South Dakota are a vital agricultural resource. Recently, questions about expanding irrigated potato production into Clay, Lincoln, Turner, Union, and Yankton Counties have been asked by state government officials and business leaders. Soils vary greatly in their suitability for sprinkler irrigated potato production. As a result of this concern, a study was initiated to identify soil limitation and suitability for sprinkler irrigated potato production. The soils in Clay and Union Counties were evaluated for both dryland and sprinkler irrigated potato production earlier (1983). This bulletin is meant to point out potential areas and not provide detailed site information. It is designed to serve as a guide for county, state, and business officials as they explore the potential for irrigated potato production in Southeast South Dakota

South Dakota Soybean Production Yield and Land Use Trends 1961-1986

Since 1960 major changes in management practices (row spacing, fertilization, new varieties, herbicides, new crops, fewer general farms, more mechanization, new tillage systems) climatic shifts, economic factors, and government programs have caused dramatic shifts in the acreage planted, yield, market demand, and total production of soybeans. As a result, a study was initiated to identify changes in yield, lan4 use, and total soybean production by county in South Dakota. The objectives of this study were to:1. prepare and develop a data base of country soybean acreage (planted and harvested) and soybean yield information;2. Calculate long term averages for soybean yields, land area harvested, land area planted, and total production; and 3. identify yield and land use trends on a state and county basis.This bulletin emphasizes county average values and does not provide detailed farm specific information. It is a guide for seed dealers, farmers/ranchers, bankers, real estate brokers, state officials, and others who evaluate soil productivity, land values, and land use

Soil landscape evolution due to soil redistribution by tillage: a new conceptual model of soil catena evolution in agricultural landscapes

This paper focuses on analysing tillage as a mechanism for the transformation of soil spatial variability, soil morphology, superficial soil properties and development of soil–landscape relationships in agricultural lands. A new theoretical two-dimensional model of soil catena evolution due to soil redistribution by tillage is presented. Soil profile truncation occurs through loss of soil mass on convexities and in the upper areas of the cultivated hillslopes; while the opposite effect takes place in concavities and the lower areas of the field where the original soil profile becomes buried. At sectors of rectilinear morphology in the hillslope (backslope positions), a null balance of soil translocation takes place, independent of the slope gradient and of the rate of downslope soil translocation. As a result, in those backslope areas, a substitution of soil material in the surface horizon with material coming from upslope areas takes place. This substituted material can produce an inversion of soil horizons in the original soil profile and sometimes, the formation of ‘‘false truncated soil’’. In the Skogstad agricultural field (Cyrus, MN) spatial patterns of soil properties (soil calcium carbonate content) in the surface soil horizons and soil morphology along several slope transects were analyzed. These spatial patterns are compared with those estimated for soil redistribution (areas of erosion and deposition) due to tillage using the Soil Redistribution by Tillage (SORET) model and water erosion using the models Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) and Universal Soil Loss Equation (Usle2D). Results show that tillage was the predominant process of soil redistribution in the studied agricultural field. Finally, some practical implications of the proposed model of soil landscape modification by tillage are discussed. Nomographs to calculated the intensity of the expansion process of the eroded soil units by tillage are proposed for three different patterns of tillage

Forma da paisagem como critério para otimização amostral de latossolos sob cultivo de cana-de-açúcar Landscape form as a criterion for sampling optimization of an oxisol under cultivation of sugar cane

O número de pontos amostrais é fundamental para estabelecer um programa de avaliação da variabilidade espacial dos atributos dos solos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi utilizar a forma da paisagem como critério auxiliar na otimização do esquema amostral na avaliação dos atributos químicos de latossolos, em áreas sob cultivo de cana-de-açúcar. Utilizou-se uma área contínua com duas pedoformas: côncava, que ocorre na posição mais elevada da área; e linear, constituída pelos segmentos escarpa, meia encosta e encosta inferior. Foi utilizado um espaçamento amostral regular de 50x50 m em uma malha de 300x3.000 m numa área total de 94 ha, com 421 pontos amostrados. Coletaram-se amostras de solo nas profundidades 0,0-0,2 m e 0,6-0,8 m, em cada ponto da malha, e determinaram-se as propriedades químicas do solo. Na pedoforma côncava, houve maior variabilidade espacial para os atributos químicos do solo. A aplicação do programa Sanos 0.1 na malha amostral (pedoforma côncava e pedoforma linear) revelou que a pedoforma côncava, em ambas as profundidades, apresenta maior variabilidade espacial dos atributos químicos do que a pedoforma linear.<br>The number of sampling points is essential to establish an evaluation program of the spatial variability of soil atribute. The objective of this work was to use the form of landscape as auxiliary criterion in the optimization of the outline sample for the estimate of chemical attributes of oxisol, in a area under sugarcane cultivation. It was possible to choose a continuous area with two landforms: concave, that occur in higher positions of the area, and linear, comprising steep, stocking leans and inferior leans. A 50x50 m spacing in a mesh of 300x3.000 m (total area 94 ha), with 421 sampling points were used. Soil sample in depths 0.0-0.2 m and 0.6-0.8 m were collected, in each point of the grid, in order to evaluate the soil chemical attributes. In the concave landform, larger space variability was observed for the chemical attributes of the soil. The application of the program Sanos 0.1 in the sampling grid (concave landform and linear landform) allowed to observe that the landform concave in both depths presents larger space variability of the chemical attributes than the linear landform

The Amazing Journey of Cryomyces antarcticus from Antarctica to Space

The cryptoendolithic endemic black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus was first isolated from sandstone collected at Linnaeus Terrace, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, by E.I. Friedmann in 1982, but published as a new species and genus in 2005. The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the coldest hyperarid desert on Earth and one of the best terrestrial analogues for Mars. There, microbes last chance for survival is to find refuge inside the porous rocks. The ability of C. antarcticus to withstand stresses has been widely demonstrated, and its stunning resistance is nowadays regarded as one of the best eukaryotic test organisms for astrobiological researches. Its extreme tolerance has been widely reported in about 10 years of space and ground experiments. It maintained survival, DNA integrity, ultrastructure stability and rapid metabolic activity recovery after 18 months expo- sure to space and Mars-like conditions in low Earth orbit (LEO) in the frame of ESA’s LIFE (LIchens and Fungi Experiment) and ESA-ASI’s BIOMEX (BIOlogy and Mars EXperiment) projects. Further investigations of space simulations on Earth within the STARLIFE project, aimed at characterizing the effect of different kinds of ionizing radiation (gamma radiation and α-particle), have shown its bewildering ability to resist stress radiation beyond all expectations. The resistance of fungal biomol- ecules will be further investigated within the recently approved ESA-ASI BIOSIGN (BIOSIGnature and habitable Niches) project.n