Kristopher Osterloh

Dr. Kristopher Osterloh is Assistant Professor in the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science at South Dakota State University, specializing in pedology and precision agriculture.

Research foci include:

• Soil formation processes and spatial property distribution
• Proximal sensor technology for rapid soil characterization
• Machine learning applications in soil mapping and management
• Carbon dynamics and land management impacts
• Salinity/sodicity assessment and reclamation

His publication portfolio features advanced applications of deep learning for soil sampling optimization, innovative sensor-based salinity detection, and management zone delineation. Recent work demonstrates strong emphasis on machine learning integration with traditional pedology, particularly for precision agriculture and degraded land restoration.

Educational contributions include transformative research on soil judging pedagogy and virtual field training methodologies.