DRY-SOIL AGGREGATE STABILITY AS INFLUENCED BY SELECTED SOIL PROPERTIES

Dry aggregate stability is an important soil physical property for evaluating tillage and wind-erosion research. Research in this study was aimed at developing a model for predicting soil aggregate stability as influenced by intrinsic soil properties, with particular application to wind erosion. Aggregates from 10 Kansas soils with a wide textural range were tested periodically for stability during a 3-yr period. The logarithm of aggregate stability was regressed against the intrinsic soil properties (geometric mean diameter of primary particles, specific surface area, water content at -1500 J/kg matric potential, and clay content). Clay content and water content at -1500 J/kg were both good predictors of mean aggregate stability. A resulting empirical model estimates mean aggregate stability from either clay or water content with coefficients of determination of 0.97 and 0.96, respectively. Further testing is planned by running the model with several independent data sets to estimate the probability of aggregate stability within specified limits for particular soils.