SOILS 402Soil Nutrient Behavior and Management
Soil Nutrient Behavior and Management is a senior/graduate level course that covers the chemical and biological processes that determine the behavior of essential plant nutrients in soils. As this understanding of basic nutrient behavior is developed in the course, it is applied directly to explain the basis for management of nutrients for optimum plant availability. This same nutrient behavior is linked to the fate of nutrients either applied as sources of plant nutrition or through disposal of nutrient containing materials on soils, which is a major environmental issue. Management practices necessary to minimize environmental impacts from nutrients are also covered. From this background students will be able to understand nutrient behavior and management recommendations and adapt management to a variety of soil-plant systems and situations both for plant growth and environmental protection. Real world examples of developing and adapting management systems are used to illustrate this process. The laboratory exposes the student to common soil testing procedures, methods for studying soil nutrient-plant interactions, and examples of practical application of management practices in the field.