Soil
Global Soil Survey Update
Global Soil Survey for Sustainable Turf: October, 2014 Update
The Global Soil Survey was launched in August, 2013 to enlist turf managers from around the globe to collaborate in the development of new, more sustainable turf nutrient guidelines. After just over one year, we have several important advances to report:
- The First Annual Report on the Global Soil Survey was issued September, 2014.
- We have incorporated the data from the Global Soil Survey into our database of thousands of soil samples from good performing turf. As a result, the Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition guidelines that were developed from the database have been updated. These updated MLSN Guidelines are shown here.
- We have designed a repository of all of the Global Soil Survey data. This will allow anyone who is interested to access the annual report, study or analyze the Survey data, or review our analytical approach.
- Information and results of the Global Soil Survey have been shared with researchers and turf managers in the following presentations and articles:
- A presentation, Only what the turf needs: Updating the Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition Guidelines on the results of the Global Soil Survey. To be presented to turf scientists at the upcoming (November, 2014) Crop Science Society of America meetings, in Long Beach, CA.
- Getting there first: Global Soil Survey for Sustainable Turf guides superintendents to reduce nutrient inputs. Golf Course Industry, August 5, 2014.
- Global Soil Survey results challenge conventional guidelines. Golfdom, April 22, 2014.
- Sustainable fertilizer use, by superintendent Jason Haines, Pender Harbor Golf Club, January, 2014.
- Just what the grass requires: using minimum levels for sustainable nutrition. by Micah Woods, Larry Stowell and Wendy Gelernter. January, 2014 Golf Course Management article.
- A Golf Course Industry podcast from Dr. Micah Woods, Share your soil, on the Global Soil Survey.
Sign up for the Global Soil Survey!!. Sign up by mail or sign up online, and become part of history!!
More information on the Global Soil Survey for Sustainable Turf:
Global Soil Survey : 2014 Report
The Global Soil Survey was launched in August, 2013 to enlist turf managers from around the globe in the development of new, more sustainable turf nutrient guidelines, and we have just issued our first report on the Global Soil Survey. A summary of the report appears below:
- We received 84 soil samples from four different countries (Canada, Japan, Thailand and U.S.A.) and one Crown dependency (Isle of Man) (Figure 1). All samples came from good performing areas of turf, with fourteen different turf types represented.
- A complete nutrient analysis of each soil sample was conducted by Brookside Laboratories. The results were added to the existing MLSN (Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition) dataset, which is comprised of thousands of soil samples from good performing turf. The Survey data was also analyzed separately, so it could be compared with the already existing MLSN dataset.
- The Global Soil Survey data showed what we have seen in the past — that good performing turf can be produced at nutrient levels that are much lower than conventional guidelines suggest.
- As more Global Soil Survey data becomes available, we will continue to evaluate and re-analyze soil nutrient information, to incorporate the data into the MLSN database, and to make any adjustments in the MLSN Guidelines that the data indicate are necessary. All reports will continue to be made publicly available in a variety of public locations, including the websites of the Asian Turfgrass Center and of PACE Turf.
Thanks to the Global Soil Survey participants, the MLSN guidelines are now more robust and more broadly applicable than ever before. You can join the growing number of turf managers who have participated in the Global Soil Survey, by signing up here. You'll find out how rewarding and interesting it is to compare your own nutrient programs with the MLSN Guidelines, as well as to contribute to the development of the new, more sustainable MLSN Guidelines that will be used by turf managers everywhere.
MLSN Guidelines: The scientific basis
The MLSN (Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition Guidelines were introduced in 2012, and since then, have helped turf managers reduce fertilizer inputs without a loss in turf quality. Superintendents and academic who have evaluated the guidelines are profiled in these articles.
The scientific basis for the MLSN guidelines has just been published in the journal, Applied Turfgrass Science in the article, "Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition" by Drs. Larry Stowell and Micah Woods. The full text of the article can be seen here.
A 15 minute presentation by Dr. Stowell at the Crop Science Society of America annual meeting in 2014, entitled "Only What the Turf Needs: Updating the Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN) Guidelines" can be heard here.
If you want to put the MLSN guidelines into place at your facility, consider taking part in the Global Soil Survey, a citizen science project sponsored by PACE Turf and the Asian Turfgrass Center that provides customizes MLSN guidelines for site specific conditions.
