By Gunadhish Khanal
Dr. Gunadhish Khanal joined the Kent State and Herbert W. Hoover sponsored project Cover crop impacts on soil carbon inferred by modeling and soil optical properties in September of 2023. His research involves ground-truthing the soil carbon modeling research of Dr. Joseph Ortiz (Kent State University), Dr. Rattan Lal (Ohio State University), Dr. Sarah Eichler (Kent State University), and Dr. Remegio Confesor (The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research - NIBIO).
Collaborative efforts between this project and the Stark Sustainable Soils Initiative meant that during September and October, soil samples were collected for soil aggregate analysis. Understanding wet, stable aggregate from the field can be essential to understanding infiltration, soil erosion, runoff, soil aeration, root growth, etc. Tillage and crop management practices greatly affect the formation, and re-distribution of soil aggregates in the field, and thereby soil organic matter, which plays a major role in aggregate formation. While soil organic matter helps build aggregates, aggregates protect soil organic matter from rapid turnover. Sieving of the aggregate samples is completed, and it will take until mid-January month to analyze the samples and extract the data.