Extensive research has demonstrated that intensive agriculture is contributing to the acceleration of large-scale degradation of soil health in agroecosystems. This reduces the productivity of our food system, as well as making it particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It is therefore important to consider how we might change our agricultural practices to minimize and combat soil degradation.

Two possible strategies include perennialization, i.e., planting perennial crops rather than annual ones, and polyculture, planting multiple types of crops together in the same field. This study seeks to quantify the impact of these practices on soil health by measuring a number of soil traits in samples taken from abandoned agricultural sites over the course of 4 years of perennialization and polyculture. These results will increase our understanding of how useful these strategies may be for future restoration projects.

The REU student will participate in the lab component of this study and gain experience in a number of different soil analyses including nutrient levels and microbial analyses.