ABSTRACT
We thank Patrick Bohlen and the organizers for inviting us to participate in this publication honoring the life and work of Ben Stinner, who was an early alumnus of the Horseshoe Bend project, where he conducted the research leading to his Ph.D. degree in 1984. Ben began his agroecosystem studies at the Horseshoe Bend facility at the University of Georgia (UGA). He was responsible for the initial setup and management of the well-known conventional tillage-no tillage experiment that generated much output. He helped in designing the study, clearing the fields, establishing the
12.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 195 12.2 Materials and Methods ......................................................................................................... 196
12.2.1 The Horseshoe Bend Site .......................................................................................... 196 12.2.2 Sampling and Analytical Procedures ....................................................................... 197 12.2.3 Isotope Analysis ........................................................................................................ 198 12.2.4 Turnover and Net Inputs of Organic Carbon ............................................................ 198 12.2.5 Statistical Analysis ................................................................................................... 198
12.3 Results ................................................................................................................................... 198 12.3.1 Crop Biomass ............................................................................................................ 198 12.3.2 Weed Biomass...........................................................................................................200 12.3.3 Litter Biomass ...........................................................................................................200 12.3.4 Changes in Water-Stable Aggregates ....................................................................... 201 12.3.5 Changes in δ13C in Aggregates .................................................................................202
12.4 Discussion .............................................................................................................................203 12.4.1 Aggregate Distribution .............................................................................................203 12.4.2 Carbon and Nitrogen Concentrations .......................................................................204 12.4.3 Carbon-13 Concentrations and Carbon Turnover .....................................................206
12.5 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................................207 References ......................................................................................................................................207
experimental plots, and getting crops into the ground. Ben was the lead student, with colleagues Andrea Yates and Garfield House under partial direction of Eugene P. Odum, Robert L. Todd, and D. A. Crossley, Jr. In this chapter we report on key findings from the Horseshoe Bend long-term project that Ben helped initiate, which built on the early work in his career on biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology. Ben’s progressive expansion into broader areas of agroecology is summarized beautifully in Chapter 2 by Deb Stinner, another UGA alumnus.
