Methods
Data collection
The data used in this project contain Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Total Nitrogen (TN), Soil Texture (silt/clay), Soil pH, and Soil Bulk Density (BD). All the data is designated for four soil depths (0-60 cm). Three agricultural management used in this site are as follows: annual cropping (CROP), rotationally grazed (RG), and adaptive multi-paddock grazing (AMP), all types of conventional, transitional, and regenerative agriculture, respectively.
Predictor variables: management, soil layers, soil bulk density, soil texture, and soil pH.
Response variables: total organic carbon and total nitrogen in the soil.
Experimental Design
Alberta is one of Canada’s provinces that falls within the Interior Plains region in Southern Canada (Figure 3). It coordinates 54° 59′ 30″ N, 114° 22′ 36″ W (Natural Resources Canada, 2016). It is divided into prairie grassland, parkland, and boreal forest. Most agricultural farms are in the prairie portion of southern Alberta. Most of the farming in Alberta is rainfed agriculture (“Geography of Alberta | The Canadian Encyclopedia,” n.d.). The province has cold winters and short, cool summers (“Geography of Alberta | The Canadian Encyclopedia,” n.d.). Breton Soil is the main type of soil in Alberta. It is grey and is widely used to grow canola, forage, and other crops suited to the cool, moist climate (Canadian Soil Information Service, https://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/index.html).
Figure 5: Sampling Cores in Taber Site
Figure 6: location of the study area in Alberta, Canada