One of the more challenging aspects of organic farming is the development of an appropriate fertility plan, which may include crop rotation, cover crops, and/or soil amendments. When fertility is maintained by applying manure and/or compost, a pressing question is how much should be used. A framework was developed to address this question based on the idea of a decay series, which is a sequence of numbers quantifying the effects of compost on crop yield over a multi-year period. Prior research has focused on decay series expressed in nitrogen fertilizer equivalents. Given this information, I show how to calculate what manure/compost rates are needed to meet the nitrogen targets in a multi-crop rotation. Analogous results are presented for when the objective is profit rather than yield maximization. The planning framework is then generalized to include decay series where the carryover effects of manure/compost are measured, not against nitrogen fertilizer, but against new applications of the amendment. This change of basis, from nitrogen fertilizer equivalents to manure/compost equivalents, allows for field research on organically certified land and quantifies non-nutritive effects in a more meaningful way. Two case studies are presented to illustrate how this new type of decay series may be estimated and used to optimize crop production. By using data from a continuous corn (Zea mays L.) system amended with cattle manure slurry, the case study in estimation explores the methodological challenges that arise when the yield response to nitrogen fertilizer is not available as a benchmark. The case study in optimization looks at profit-maximizing compost rates for dryland, organic wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in northern Utah.

L’analyse de sédiments totaux et de fractions granulométriques de la rivière Gandak (Himalaya) a montré que la variabilité des séries de l’uranium observée pour les sédiments himalayens est contrôlée par leur évolution minéralogique et granulométrique plutôt que par le mécanisme d’altération. Cette conclusion questionne les travaux antérieurs et souligne la nécessité d’étudier la mobilité des radionucléides à échelle minérale. A cette fin, une approche sur fractions minérales a mis en évidence des processus d’échange entre les minéraux, avec une mobilité significative de 230Th, fortement appauvri dans les zircons, et 226Ra, enrichis en particulier dans la fraction argileuse. Les déséquilibres observés semblent induits par un processus d’altération récent, de quelque ka.Ces résultats sont confirmés par l’analyse des déséquilibres 238U-234U-230Th dans des minéraux par SIMS, qui montre un enrichissement en 230Th à la surface des monazites et une perte de Th (232, 230) dans les zircons. / The analysis of total sediments and grain-size fractions from the Gandak river (Himalaya) showed that the Uranium series variability observed for the Himalayan sediments is controlled by their mineralogical and grain-size evolution, rather than by the weathering process.This conclusion called into question the transfer timescale in Himalayan plains estimated by previous works and highlighted the need to explore radionuclide mobility at the mineral scale. For this purpose, an approach on pure mineral fractions pointed out exchange processes between the mineral phases, with a significant mobility of 230Th, strongly depleted in zircon, and 226Ra, particularly enriched in the clay fraction. The observed disequilibria are attributed to a recent weathering process of a few ky. Those observations are confirmed by the SIMS analysis of 238U-234U-230Th disequilibria on mineral grains, which show a 230Th enrichment at the grain surface in monazites and a loss of Th, 230 and 232, in zircons.