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Accurate field-scale maps of soil properties including features such as texture, soil organic matter (SOM) content, and hydraulic conductivity are essential for proper placement of conservation practices that utilize anoxic soil environments for denitrification. However, in many cases, soil maps inaccurately represent subsoil properties and can mislead managers about where to install new practices. Non-invasive methods of subsoil property analysis including electromagnetic induction techniques are a potentially efficient method for improving existing field-scale soil maps. In this study, we quantified the accuracy of existing soil maps in an agricultural field in north-central Iowa. Of 60 soil cores collected and reclassified, 19 were identified as taxadjunct at the soil series level primarily due to hydrologic indicators and soil particle size. We assessed the correlation among physical and chemical soil properties measured in-lab and geophysical responses measured in-field. We identified significant correlation of SOM and sand to electrical conductivity for individual core and mean soil series data. From this analysis, we developed a conservation practice suitability map and evaluated the potential for field-scale geophysical investigations to serve as a new tool for agricultural conservation planning and placement of site-specific denitrifying conservation practices. Study results suggest that incorporating a geophysical conductivity investigation into conservation planning may improve understanding of critical soil properties beyond those ascertained with limited soil borings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a large body of scientific research that shows that soils change on relatively short time scales under different management regimes, classical pedological theory states that we should expect these changes to occur only in the surface few centimeters and that they are not of adequate magnitude to suggest fundamental changes in pedon character over short periods of time. In fact, rarely, do the scientists that make these comparisons report on any properties deeper than 30 to 45 cm in the soil profile. With this study, we evaluate soil transformation to a depth of 150 cm after 50 yr of intensive row-crop agricultural land use in a temperate, humid, continental climate (Iowa, United States), by resampling sites that were initially described by the United States soil survey between 1943 and 1963. We find that, through agricultural land use, humans are accelerating soil formation and transformation to a depth of 100 cm or more by accelerating erosion, sedimentation, acidification, and mineral weathering, and degrading soil structure, while deepening dark-colored, organic-matter rich surface horizons, translocating and accumulating organic matter deeper in the soil proile and lowering the water table. Some of these changes can be considered positive improvements, but many of these changes may have negative effects on the soils' future productive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]