Intensive tillage practices in the Mississippi Delta degrade soil health, impacting downstream water quality. To address this, two experiments were conducted from 2019 to 2021 and 2020 to 2022 to evaluate the impact of sugarcane biochar and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum on nutrient leaching losses and soil properties in cotton and soybean cropping systems. Study I applied four biochar rates (0, 10, 20, and 40 Mg ha-1) to cotton and found improvements in soil properties and subsurface quality, with reduced nutrient leaching losses, except for sulfate and sodium ions. Study II evaluated biochar (10 and 25 Mg ha-1) and FGD gypsum (2.24 and 6.72 Mg ha-1) application rates in soybean, resulting in reduced nitrate leaching losses and soil property improvements, mostly observed in the second year. These findings suggest that reevaluating management practices with biochar and gypsum can improve soil health and water quality, but may require a lag time to realize benefits.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-7033 |
| Date | 08 December 2023 |
| Creators | Jakhar, Amrinder |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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