Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9110-8118

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Dhillon, Jagmandeep

Committee Member

Gholson, Drew

Committee Member

Czarnecki, Joby M.

Committee Member

Kaur, Gurpreet

Committee Member

Gurbir, Singh

Date of Degree

12-8-2023

Original embargo terms

Embargo 2 Years

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Agronomy

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Plant and Soil Sciences

Abstract

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.

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