Soil Health Interpretive Centre
The Ontario Crops Research Centre – Elora houses state-of-the-art soil health and function monitoring devices, unique in North America, as well as a meeting place called the Soil Health Interpretive Centre (SHIC).
The monitoring station uses weighing lysimeters that are unique in North America. Lysimeters help researchers quantify the impact of changes in soil management, including the use of crop rotation and cover crops. The facilities are able to compare different soils under the same conditions. Browse the resources below or visit Claudia Wagner-Riddle’s lab website to learn more.
The Ontario Crops Research Centre – Elora is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and managed by the University of Guelph through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.
Book a tour!
If you are interested in a tour of the monitoring station, or a visit to the Soil Health Interpretive Center to learn more about the SoilsAtGuelph research, please contact us at soils@uoguelph.ca.
Videos
These videos give a sneak peak into how we can learn from soil with lysimeters and information about some of the things the Soil Health Interpretive Center can offer.
The Experiment
The experiment at the Soil Health Interpretive Center (SHIC) contrasts two crop-based farming systems: a “simple” system with a corn-soybean-soybean rotation, and a “diverse” system with a corn-soybean-wheat rotation that also incorporates cover crops. Previous research has shown that including wheat and cover crops in the rotation can improve crop yields, but the full extent of ecosystem services provided is not known.
SHIC has 18 weighing lysimeters: 9 have a Guelph Loam soil excavated from the Ontario Crops Research Station – Elora, and the other 9 have a Lisbon Loamy Sand soil native to a site near Cambridge, Ontario. With two soil types, researchers can compare how management practices may affect different Ontario soils. Additionally, 6 of the lysimeters are warmed during the winter with a heat lamp to simulate how global warming will affect crop farming and its effect on the environment.
The Results
Pore water samplers use a vacuum pump to extract soil water through porous ceramic cups. This water is then taken to the lab to be analyzed for nutrients. Previous research using these instruments has shown that including cover crops can reduce nitrate (NO3) leaching out of the root zone by 70%. Including cover crops not only keeps valuable nutrients in the soil but also protects our drinking water.
