NCERA_old59: Soil Organic Matter: Formation, Function and Management

(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)

Status: Inactive/Terminating

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Annual/Termination Reports:

[09/26/2017] [09/12/2018] [09/12/2019] [09/24/2020]

Date of Annual Report: 09/26/2017

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/20/2017 - 06/21/2017
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2016 - 09/30/2017

Participants

Members Present:
Larry Cihacek, ND
Sandeep Kumar, SD
Thea Whitman, WI
Ron Turco, IN
Michelle Wander, IL
Matt Ruark, WI
Dan Olk, USDA-ARS
Sindhu Jagadamma, TN
William Horwath, CA
Rhae Drjiber, NE

Members Absent:
Siglinde Snapp, MI
Lisa Tiemann, MI
Jessica Gutknecth, MN
Julie Grossman, MN
Michael Castellano, IA
Peter Motavalli, MO
Mark Coyne, KY
Ray Weil, MD
Meagen Schipanski, CO
Stephen Machado, OR
Paul Verberg, NV
Neal Eash, KY

Guest:
AnnMarie Fortuna ,WA

Brief Summary of Minutes

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Officers:

Chair: Matt Ruark, University of Wisconsin

Acting Secretary: Larry Cihacek, North Dakota State University

Matt Ruark (WI) opened the meeting at 8:45 AM at the Union South. The first order of business was introduction of the attendees. This was followed by election of the 2018 Chair and Secretary. Julie Grossman (MN) was elected Chair for 2018 and Sindhu Jagadamma (TN) was elected Secretary for 2018.

Ron Turco (IN) presented the advisors report. The mid-term review for this committee will be in 2019 so we need to keep that in mind. The USDA budget has not yet been approved but significant cuts were presented in the President’s version of the proposed budget. With little information to go on at this time, it is likely that there will be some changes in the final budget. Be cautiously optimistic!

The annual report is due in 60 days. Turco will send out the format for the state reports. The format has changes slightly so that each states written report should follow the new format.

He also reported on a recent national AFRI survey on granting efforts.

New Business:

A discussion was held about how we can relate to the Soil Health Institute (SHI). Much of the committee members’ work relates to the SHI’s objectives and goals. Some of the suggestions discussed were:

Write a white paper or journal paper on who we (NCERA 59) are, and what we do.

How do we, or how can we relate to the SHI?

Suggestion that Michelle outlines white paper and tries to link it to the Soil Health Institute Meeting in July.

In a related discussion that can help link us to the SHI, can we update the “old” soil quality indicators (or, soil health indicators)? And, how do we update them? Michelle Wander (IL) presented the “old” matrix and discussed possible ways to redo it. From that, an interface with soil health cam be made. Michelle will send out a spread sheet to the committee members to allow them to make changes and/or additions, compile the comments and then forward the compilation back to the members for their review.

The group broke for lunch at 12:00.

At 1:00 PM, the group left to tour the Arlington Field Station and visited the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial, and Biofuels Research Plots hosted by Gregg Stanford.

Following the research tour, the group traveled to Cedar Grove Cheese to see the “Living Machine” wastewater treatment system and cheese tasting. The group returned back to Madiso by 5:00 PM.

Wednesday June 21, 2017:

The meeting resumed at 8:30. Tuesday’s discussion war reviewed and state reports were presented. Reports were presented by Wisconsin, California, South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee and USDA-ARS.

A teleconference is planned sometime later this summer or fall to continue work on the paper and updating soil health indicators.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon by Matt Ruark.

Accomplishments

CA:     Potential soil tests for the commercial testing industry were evaluated to assess soil nitrogen availability to crops. A number of standard tests were compared, including total soil carbon and nitrogen, water-extractable organic carbon and nitrogen, salt–extractable carbon and nitrogen, mineralizable carbon on rewetting, and permanganate-oxidizable carbon to a new proposed test of  soil respiration to estimate nitrogen mineralization across a variety of soils from cover-cropped and non-cover-cropped fields.  We found the soil respiration test was variable and not better than existing tests used by commercial labs. IL:       Work on our multifunctional polyculture project has expanded to include studies of the effects of alley cropping and tree spacing on water and nutrient capture and carbon sequestration. Using information gained from on- farm studies of soil management systems we are learning how to design conservation measurement tools by delineation of farming types.  We have successfully added N2O emission factors to Argonne National Lab’s CLUB tool that is used by their GREET LCA by adapting and validating DayCent’s N and hydrology submodels. KY:     Preliminary studies indicate labile C and microbial enzyme activity strongly stratify beneath cover crop systems. In conventional maize production this appears to benefit yield and N use efficiency. Carbon stratification also occurs in mixed cover crops after a single season of growth. NE:     Research confirms arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are abundant and functional in P and N uptake during the reproductive stages of growth of high yielding maize. Nitrogen fertilization at agronomic rates had minimal impact on overall AM fungal diversity and colonization of maize roots; however, the frequency and distribution of AM fungal phylotypes varied with N fertilization level and may have important implications for agroecosystem management. Although N fertilization level did not impact AM colonization and P metabolism in the roots of maize, the development and biomass of the external mycelium (i.e. ERM) was highly reduced by the application of N fertilizer. Current focus is on expression of plant P and N transporters important for nutrient use efficiency in crops as well as crop rotational impacts on AM function and diversity. These findings may impact how we manage these systems, particularly tillage, fertilizer and crop rotation decisions, given the importance of the ERM to nutrient capture and tolerance to water stress. ND:     Completed a NIFA-AFRI project entitled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Soil Quality in Long-term Integrated and Transitional Reduced Tillage Organic Systems”.  NV:     Conversion of native rangelands to irrigated agriculture in semi-arid environments will result in potentially large C losses from soils. The remaining C present in the agricultural soils tends to be more recalcitrant and resistant against decomposition.  Fluxes of CO2 from the soil were much higher in the agricultural field than in the native rangelands despite the organic matter in the agricultural field being more resistant against decomposition. Higher soil CO2 efflux rates were most likely due to a combination of more favorable moisture conditions in the soil for decomposition and potentially higher production of CO2 by roots present in the soil. OR:     SOM in winter wheat-summer fallow systems (WW-SF) continues to decline, particularly where there was a residue burning treatment, compared to grassland. SOM continues to decline because growing one crop in two years under WW-SF is not producing enough residues to build up SOM. Furthermore, tillage operations that are still practiced by many farmers accelerate SOM depletion. Our studies indicated that biochar increased SOC and soil pH. The optimum rate for wheat production under WW-SF on Walla Walla silt loam soil (coarse-silty, mixed, mesic Typic Haploxeroll) was 22 Mg ha-1. This rate also raised soil pH by 0.2 to 0.4 units. This is particularly important given that soil pH in the top 10 to 15 cm has dropped <5.0 which below 5.2, the critical pH for wheat due to continuous use of ammoniacal N fertilizers. Different cover crops to improve soil health are also being evaluated. TN:     1) The role cover crops play in maintaining the health of TN soils is currently being determined. We use an existing field trial that was started in 2013 in a corn-soybean system at the University of Tennessee’s Research and Education Center (REC) in Milan, TN. This experiment includes several single and multi-species cover crop treatments, such as wheat, cereal rye, cereal rye plus hairy vetch, cereal rye plus crimson clover, and the USDA-NRCS recommended soil health mixture (combination of cereal rye, whole oats, purple top turnips, daikon radish, and crimson clover) as well as a no CC control. NRCS’s soil health mixture outperformed other treatments on soybean yield after 3 years of study. Several soil properties, including soil moisture content and soil inorganic N, are being influenced by cover crop treatments. No significant differences in total as well as easily decomposable fractions of organic carbon were observed across the cover crop treatments. 2) Another study was conducted to understand the implications of growing transgenic switchgrass on soil quality. Transgenic switchgrass plants with lower levels of lignin in cell wall aid better conversion of biomass to biofuel. However, lignin is an important component of soil organic matter (SOM). Residue of plants with lower lignin might alter SOM and nutrient cycling and overall soil quality. We hypothesized that soils planted with transgenic switchgrass would affect SOM cycling differently than soils planted with non-transgenic switchgrass. Soil samples were collected from two transgenic switchgrass plots at the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Knoxville. Active organic carbon, total organic carbon, and microbial respiration results provided little evidence that switchgrass plants with downgraded lignin have a negative effect on soil properties important for ecosystem sustainability. WI:     Our lab is starting its second year, and have been making progress on infrastructure for SOM experiments, including building a 64-jar multiplexed CH4 and CO2 stable C isotope gas analyzer allowing us to conduct fundamental research into SOM interactions in soil and soil microbial community functioning. We are also building a 13CO2 plant growth labelling chamber to allow us to produce biomass that we can track through soil as it decomposes. In addition, we are installing a “charcoalator”, which will allow us to produce highly-replicable pyrogenic organic matter under controlled conditions, improving our ability to study its cycling in soils as well as its effect on non-pyrogenic soil organic matter. We are also working on a number of projects studying the effects of fire on SOM and soil microbial communities, including a collaboration with the Canadian Forest Service, where we are investigating the effects of fire severity on soil microbial communities in boreal forests across a wide range of sites.

Publications

Publications: CA: Wade, J., W. R. Horwath, M. B. Burger. 2016.  Integrating Soil Biological and Chemical Indices to Predict Net Nitrogen Mineralization across California Agricultural Systems. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 80: 1675-1687. Hurisso, T. T., S. W. Culman, W. R. Horwath, J. Wade, D. Cass, J. W. Beniston, T. M. Bowles, A. S. Grandy, A. J. Franzluebbers, M. E. Schipanski, S. T. Lucas and C. M. Ugarte. 2016. Comparison of Permanganate-Oxidizable Carbon and Mineralizable Carbon for Assessment of Organic Matter Stabilization and Mineralization. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 80: 1352-1364. KY: Mubiru, D.N., J. Namakula, J. Lwasa, G. A. Otim, J. Kashagama, M. Nakafeero, W. Nanyeenya, and M. S. Coyne. 2017. Conservation farming tillage methods are more beneficial than conventional methods on degraded Ugandan soils. Sustainability. (In press.) Kreba*, S., O. Wendroth, M.S. Coyne, and J. Walton. 2016. Soil gas diffusivity, air-filled porosity, and pore continuity: Land use and spatial patterns. Soil Science Society of America (Manuscript S-2016-10-0344-OR).(In Press). IL: Wolz, K., DeLucia, E., Branham, B. Eddy, W., Revord, R., Wander, M., Yang, W., and S. Lovell, S. In review. Production agroforestry: a transformative solution for temperate agriculture. Frontiers in Ecology. Ugarte, C., Kwon, H., and M. Wander, In press. Conservation Management and Ecosystem Services in Midwest Agricultural Systems. Journal Soil and Water Conservation. Qin , Z., Canter CE., Dunn, J.B., Mueller, S. Kwon, H-Y, Han, J., Wander, M.M. and M. Wang. In review. Land management change greatly impacts biofuels’ greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment. Kwon, H-Y., Ugarte, C.M., Ogle, S.M., Williams, S.A., and M.M. Wander.  2017. Use of inverse modeling to evaluate CENTURY-predictions for soil carbon sequestration in US row crop systems. PLoS ONE. 2017;12(2):e0172861 Soman, C., Li, D., Wander, M.M. and A.D. Kent. 2016. Long-term fertilizer and crop-rotation treatments differentially affect soil bacterial community structure. Plant and Soil. doi:10.1007/s11104-016-3083-y Lazicki, P.A., Liebman, M., M.M Wander. 2016.   Root parameters show how management alters resource distribution and soil quality in conventional and low-input cropping systems in central Iowa.  PlosOne. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0164209 Qin, Z., Dunn, J.B., Kwon, H-Y, Mueller, S. and M.M. Wander. 2016. Influence of spatially-dependent, modeled soil carbon emission factors on life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of corn and cellulosic ethanol. Global Change Biol. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.1233. NE: Joseph, M., T. Awada, N. Bryan, W. Schacht, R. Drijber, Y. Li, X. Zhou, J. Okalebo, D. Wedin, J. Brandle, J. Hiller. 2016. Ecophysiological responses of native invasive woody Juniperus virginiana L. to resource availability and stand characteristics in the semi-arid grasslands of the Nebraska Sandhills. (Accepted by Photosynthetica). Rakkar, M.K. et al. Impacts of cattle grazing of corn residues on soil properties after 16 years. Accepted by SSSAJ. Snell, L.K., J.A. Guretzky, V.L. Jin, R.A. Drijber, M. Mamo. Ruminant urine increases uptake but decreases relative recovery of nitrogen by smooth bromegrass. (Accepted by Crop, Forage and Turfgrass Management). Segal, L.M., D.N. Miller, R.P. McGhee, T.D. Loecke, K.L. Cook, C.A. Shapiro, R.A. Drijber. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance more responsive to management than ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in a long term continuous maize site. (Accepted by Soils and Tillage Research). Liang, Z., R.A. Drijber*, D.J. Lee,  D.A. Wedin, G.Y. Yuen, I.M.Dweikat. 2016. Molecular diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in roots of Juniperus virginiana invasive to grasslands. (Accepted by SSSAJ). ND: Olson, K. R., M. Al-Kaisi, R. Lal, and L. Cihacek.  2016. Soil organic carbon dynamics in eroding and depositional landscapes.  Open J. Soil Sci. 6:121-134.  Bhowmik, A, A.M. Fortuna, L. J. Cihacek, A. I. Bary, and C. G. Cogger. 2016.  Use of biological indicators of soil health to estimate reactive nitrogen dynamics in long-term organic vegetable and pasture systems. Soil Biol. & Biochem. 103:308-319. Aher, G., L. J. Cihacek and K. Cooper.  2017. An evaluation of C and N of fresh and aged crop residue from mixed long-term no-till cropping systems.  J. Plant Nutr. 40:177-186. Bhowmik, A., A. M.  Fortuna, L. Cihacek, A. I. Bary, P. Carr, and C. G. Cogger.  2017. Potential carbon sequestration and nitrogen cycling in long-term organic management systems.  Renew. Agric. Food Sys. doi:10.1017/S1742170516000429. Bhowmik, A., A.-M. Fortuna, L.J. Cihacek, and P.M. Carr. 2017.  Use of laboratory incubation techniques to estimate GHG footprints from clean and no-tillage organic agroecosystems. Soil Biol. Biochem. 112:2014-215. OR: Awale, R., S. Machado, R. Ghimire, P. Bista. Soil Health. In Georgine Yorgey and Chad Kruger (eds) Advances in Dryland Farming in the Inland Pacific Northwest. Washington State University, pp 47-98. Bista, P., S. Machado, R. Ghimire, G. Yorgey, D. Wysocki. 2017. Conservation Tillage Systems. In Georgine Yorgey and Chad Kruger (eds) Advances in Dryland Farming in the Inland Pacific Northwest. Washington State University, pp 98-124. Yorgey, G., W. Pan, R. Awale, S. Machado, A. Bary. 2017. In Georgine Yorgey and Chad Kruger (eds) Advances in Dryland Farming in the Inland Pacific Northwest. Washington State University, pp 283-318. Maaz, T.M., W. F. Schillinger, S. Machado, E. Brooks, J. L. Johnson-Maynard, L. E. Young, F. L. Young, I. Leslie, A. Glover, I. J Madsen, A. Esser, H. P. Collins, W. L. Pan. 2017. Impact of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies on Winter Wheat and Cropping System Performance across Precipitation Gradients in the Inland Pacific Northwest, USA Hansen, N.C., B.L. Allen, S. Anapalli, R.E. Blackshaw, D.J. Lyon, and S. Machado (2017) Dryland agriculture in North America. In: Farooq M, Siddique KHM (eds) Innovations in dryland agriculture. Cham, Springer, pp 415–441. Ghimire, R., S. Machado, and P. Bista. 2017. Soil pH, soil organic matter, and Crop Yield in Wheat-Fallow Systems. Agron J. 109:1–12. doi:10.2134/agronj2016.08.0462. Bista, P., S. Machado, R. Ghimire, S. J. Del Grosso, and M. Reyes-Fox. 2016. Simulating soil organic carbon in a wheat-fallow system using the Daycent Model. Agron J. 108:2554-2565. WI: Cates, A.M. and M.D. Ruark. 2017. Soil aggregate and particulate C and N under corn rotations: responses to management and correlations with yield. Plant and Soil 415:521-533. Collier, S.M., M.D. Ruark, M.R. Naber, T.W. Andraski, and M.D. Casler. 2017. Apparent stability and subtle change in surface and subsurface soil carbon and nitrogen under a long-term fertilizer gradient. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 81:310-321. Willis, A., Bunge, J., and Whitman, T. 2016. Improved detection of changes in species richness in high-diversity microbial communities. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 10.1111/rssc.1220. Woolf, D., J. Lehmann, A. Cowie, M.L. Cayuela, T. Whitman, and S. Sohi. 2017. Biochar for climate change mitigation. In R. La. (editor) Advances in soil science: Soil and climate. Lajtha, K., V. Bailey, et al. 2017. Chapter 12 – Soils. In State of the Carbon Cycle Report 2. U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program. USDA-ARS: Castellano, M., K.E. Mueller, D.C. Olk, J. Sawyer,  and J. Six. 2016. Integrating plant litter quality, soil organic matter stablilization, and the carbon saturation concept. Glob. Change Biol. 21:3200-3209. Mao, J., X. Cao, D.C. Olk, W. Chu, and K. Schmidt-Rohr, K. 2017. Advanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy of natural organic matter. Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 100: 17-51. Abdelrahman, H., C. Cocozza, D.C. Olk, D. Ventrella, and T. Miano, T. 2017. Carbohydrates and amino compounds as short-term indicators of soil management.  Clean – Soil Air Water 45 (1): 1600076.  Poffenbarger, H.J., D.W. Barker, M.J. Helmers, F.E. Miguez, D.C. Olk, J.E. Sawyer, J. Six, and M.J. Castellano, M.J.  2017.  Maximum soil organic carbon storage in Midwest U.S. cropping systems when crops are optimally nitrogen-fertilized.   PLOS One: DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0172293. Xu, J, B. Zhao, W. Chu, J. Mao, D.C. Olk, X. Xin,  and J. Zhang. 2017.  Altered humin compositions under organic and inorganic fertilization on an intensively cultivated sandy loam soil.  Sci. Total Environ. 601-602: 356-364. Xu, J.S., B.Z. Zhao, W.Y. Chu, J.D. Mao, D.C. Olk,  J.B. Zhang, and W.X. Wei. 2017. Evidence from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the processes of soil organic carbon accumulation under long-term fertilizer management. Eur. J. Soil Sci. :  DOI: Theses: NV:     Trimble, B.R. The effects of land management on organic matter dynamics in a semi-arid Nevada soil. 2017. M.S. Thesis. University of Nevada, Reno. TN:     Chu, M. 2017.  Effect of different cover crop species on crop production and soil health. MS Thesis. The University of Tennessee. Activities (Outreach and Presentations): KY: Alvarado-Raya, H., J. Taraba, and M.S. Coyne. 2017. Factors regulatorios para las emisiones de metano y dioxide de carbano a partir de compostas. 2017. V Congreso Internacional y XIX Congreso Nacional de Ciencias Agronomicas, Universidad Autonoma Chapingo. p. 459-460. Coyne, M.S.  2017. “Soil Quality and How to Measure It”Ag Biotech Day, 22 July 2017. Lexington KY. Coyne, M.S. 2017. “Soil Quality and How to Measure It.” Grain Crops Field Day. 07/27/20017, Princeton KY. Coyne, M.S. 2017. “CIG Project.” Field Day - Manure & Cover Crops in Small Scale Farming. 06/14/2017, Logan Co. KY. Gibbs, L., M.S. Coyne, and J. Grove. 2017 “Potential Nitrogen Benefits from Cover Crops.” Kentucky No-Till and Cover Crop Soil Health Forum, 03/23/2017, Princeton KY. IL: Wander, M., Ugarte, C. and B. Davison. Co-organized with Extension and Illinois Organic Growers Association: “Local Grains and Local Markets”, to explore challenges & opportunities for high value organic grain crops in Illinois. Champaign, IL. September 2016. Wander, M.M. Presented the W.A. Albrecht Lecture: Valuing Soil Health, Ecological Intensification and the Oeconomy, April University of Mo.  2016. Wander.  M.M.  Presented ‘Assessing and Accessing Progress in Soil Health’.  Campaign, IL. Land Connection Conference’ Beyond Production, Growing the Organic Grain Industry Feb 17, 2017.  Audience about 100. Wander, M.M.  Presented ‘Increase Soil Organic Matter to Increase Row-Crop Resiliency: The Living Soil’ as part of the Extension Crop Management Conference Winter Series 2017.  Presented in Mt Vernon, Jan 18, Springfield, Jan 25, Champaign, Feb 1. and Malta Feb 15. Audience 100-150. NE: Ramirez II, S., J.L. Lindquist, R.A. Drijber, V.L. Jin, E.S. Jeske, H. Blanco. The Impact of Organic Crop Rotations and Ecological Weed Management Strategies on Soil Quality. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, Nov. 6-9, 2016. Phoenix AZ. (Nov 9, poster) Ramirez II, S., R.A. Drijber, V.L. Jin, E.S. Jeske, H. Blanco. Impact of Corn Stover Removal on Soil Microbial Communities in No-till and Convential till Continuous Corn. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, Nov. 6-9, 2016. Phoenix AZ. (Nov 7, oral) Ramirez II, S., R.A. Drijber, V.L. Jin, E.S. Jeske, H. Blanco. The Impact of Increasing Diversity of Crop Rotations on Soil Microbial Communities Under Variable Rates of Nitrogen Fertilization. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, Nov. 6-9, 2016. Phoenix AZ. (Nov 8, oral) Rakkar, M.K., H. Blanco, M. Drewnoski, J. MacDonald, R.A. Drijber, T.J. Klopfenstein. Impacts of Cattle Grazing of Corn Residues on Soil Properties after 16 Years. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, Nov. 6-9, 2016. Phoenix AZ. (Nov 7, oral) Ramirez II, S., R.A. Drijber, V.L. Jin, E.S. Jeske, H. Blanco. The Impact of Increasing Diversity of Crop Rotations on Soil Microbial Communities Under Variable Rates of Nitrogen Fertilization. UNL Plant Science Retreat, October 14, 2016, Nebraska City, NE. Stengel, A., R.A. Drijber, J.R. Herr. Microbes, Management, and Maize, Oh My! A Meta-Analysis of the Maize Microbiome. UNL Plant Science Retreat, October 14, 2016, Nebraska City, NE. ND: Cihacek, L. J.  2016.  Building soil organic matter for increased nutrient cycling and crop production. August 25, 2016. Building for the Future: Beef and Forage Field Day, Dickinson Research Extension Center Ranch Headquarters, Manning, ND. (Oral, invited). Landblom, D. G., S. Senturklu, L. Cihacek and E. Brevik.  2016.  Effect of a 5-year multi-crop rotation on mineral N and hard red spring wheat yield, protein, test weight and economics in western North Dakota, USA.  Abst. No.  EGU2016-17807.  Abst. of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Meetings, April 17-22, 2016, Vienna, Austria. Landblom, D., S. Senturklu, L. Cihacek, and E. Brevik.  2017.  Integrated systems mitigate land degradation and improve agricultural system stability.  Abst. No. EGU2017-11591.. Abst of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Meetings, April 23-28, 2017, Vienna, Austria. Cihacek, L. J.  2016.  Building soil organic matter for increased nutrient cycling and crop production. August 25, 2016. Building for the Future: Beef and Forage Field Day, Dickinson Research Extension Center Ranch Headquarters, Manning, ND. (Oral, invited). NV: Verburg, P.S.J., Ketchian, E., Trimble, B.R., and S.R. Poulson. 2016. Assessment of two methods for determination of quantity and isotopic composition of soil C in arid soils. Annual Meeting Soil Science Society of America, Academic, Phoenix AZ. Trimble, B.R., Verburg, P.S.J., and S.R. Poulson. 2016. Effects of Land Use Change on the Organic C Fractions in a Semi-Arid Soil. Annual Meeting Soil Science Society of America, Phoenix, AZ. TN: Chu, M., S. Jagadamma, M. Buschermohle, and F. Walker. 2017. Effects of different cover crop species on soil and water quality. 26th Tennessee Water Resources Symposium, April 5-7, Burns, TN (oral presentation). Jagadamma, S.  2017. Conservation Management Practices for Agroecosystem Sustainability. 26th Tennessee Water Resources Symposium, April 5-7, Burns, TN (oral presentation). Ottinger, S., and S. Jagadamma. 2017. Effects of genetically modified switchgrass cultivation on soil carbon dynamics. Posters at the Capitol, March 1, Nashville, TN (poster presentation) Jagadamma, S. 2016. Organic matter sequestration and cycling in managed ecosystems. China-US Joint Symposium of Environmental Health and Ecological Safety with main theme of “International Nexus of Food, Energy, Water and Soil”. Oct 26-28. Yixin, China (oral presentation) Jagadamma, S. 2016. Moderator for a half-day session on Soil Health organized by the Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition Division of SSSA at the 2016 ASA-SSSA-CSSA Annual Meeting WI: Diederich, K., K. Krishnan, E. Silva, and M.D. Ruark. 2017. Increasing labile C and N pools in agricultural soils requires a change in system, rather than practice. Ecology of Soil Health Summit, Fort Collins CO, 5-9 June. Richardson, G., M. Ruark, M. Chawner, E. Olson, and A. Radatz. 2017. Comparison of labile nitrogen and carbon measurements to assess soil health in Wisconsin. Soil Health Conference, Ames, IA, 16-17 Feb. Diederich, K., K. Krishnan, E. Silva, and M.D. Ruark. 2017. Wisconsin dairy vs. grain rotations: how big are the differences in soil health? Soil Health Conference, Ames, IA, 16-17 Feb. <a href="https://register.extension.iastate.edu/images/events/2017Soilhealth/Diedrich---Wisconsin-Daity-vs-Grain-Rotation.pdf">https://register.extension.iastate.edu/images/events/2017Soilhealth/Diedrich---Wisconsin-Daity-vs-Grain-Rotation.pdf</a> Krishnan, K., M.D. Ruark, and J.R. West. 2017. Examining the effect of cover crop treatments on potentially mineralizable nitrogen. Soil Health Conference, Ames, IA, 16-17 Feb. <a href="https://register.extension.iastate.edu/images/events/2017Soilhealth/Krishnan_-_Examining_the_Effect_of_Cover_Crop_Treatments_of_Potentially_Mineralizable_Nitrogen.pdf">https://register.extension.iastate.edu/images/events/2017Soilhealth/Krishnan_-_Examining_the_Effect_of_Cover_Crop_Treatments_of_Potentially_Mineralizable_Nitrogen.pdf</a> Krishnan, K., M.D. Ruark, and J.R. West. 2016. Examining the effect of cover crop treatments on potentially mineralizable nitrogen. ASA-SSSA-CSA, Phoenix, AZ, 6-9 Nov. Ivancic, K, and M.D. Ruark. 2016. How quantifiable are in-situ mineralization columns in sandy soils? ASA-SSSA-CSA, Phoenix, AZ, 6-9 Nov. Whitman, T., M. Traxler, I. Grigoriev, and T.D. Bruns. 2017. Determination of the roles of Pyrophilous microbes in the breakdown and sequestration of pyrolyzed forms of SOM. Dept. of Energy Genomics Mtg., Washington, DC. (poster presentation) Whitman, T. 2017. Life inside the black box: Soil microbes, climate change, and fire. Chaos and Complex Systems Seminar, UW-Madison, Madison, WI. (oral presentation). Whitman, T. 2016. C association and bacterial and fungal colonization of fresh soil minerals in the rhizosphere. Plant Pathology, UW-Madison. (oral presentation). Whitman, T. 2016. Life in the charosphere: pyrogenic organic matter cycling in natural and managed ecosystems. Environmental Chemistry, UW-Madison. (oral presentation). Public outreach at Science Expeditions Day: Designed and ran “Soil safari and critter quest” booth for public including children and parents. (April 2017).

Impact Statements

WI: 1) Twenty-five bacteria strains that are able to grow on media with pyrogenic organic matter as their only C source have been identified and are in the process of being characterized; 2) fire severity likely structures the soil microbial community in boreal soils across a wide range of soil types and vegetation in the first year post-fire; 3) research has identified how soil aggregation is affected by management; large shifts in agroecosystems (from grain-based, to forage-based, to pasture-based) are required to see subtle shifts in aggregation on Mollisols. In addition, there is a positive relationship between mineral-associated C and N with corn yield, suggesting that N stored in aggregates may not be beneficial to overall plant available N supply.

Date of Annual Report: 09/12/2018

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/17/2018 - 07/19/2018
Period the Report Covers: 06/22/2017 - 07/16/2018

Participants

Horwath, William (wrhorwath@ucdavis.edu) – University of California, Davis; Wander, Michelle (mwander@illinois.edu) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Coyne, Mark (mark.coyne@uky.edu) – University of Kentucky; Tiemann, Lisa (ltiemann@msu.edu) - University of Michigan; Gutknecht, Jessica (jgut@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Grossman, Julie (jgross@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Cihacek, Larry (larry.cihacek@ndsu.edu) – North Dakota State University; Turco, Ronald (rturco@purdue.edu) – Purdue University; Jagadamma, Sindhu (sjagada1@utk.edu) – University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Ruark, Matthew (mdruark@wisc.edu) - University of Wisconsin; Whitman, Thea (twhitman@wisc.edu) – University of Wisconsin

Brief Summary of Minutes

The meeting was conducted at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus on July 17-18, 2018. The officers selected for 2018 at the 2017 meeting are Julie Grossman (Chair), University of Minnesota and Sindhu Jagadamma (Secretary), University of Tennessee.

Julie Grossman opened the meeting on July 17, 2018 at 9 am at the Coffee Hall, Room 120. The first order of business was the introduction of the attendees. After that, Ron Turco gave a general overview and history of the committee by the request of a few new members. He then presented the advisor’s report. He alerted everyone that the mid-term review for this committee is due in 2019. He talked about the farm bill and summarized the current NIFA funding situation, which sounded promising. Ron’s talk was followed by the election of the 2019 Chair and Secretary. Sindhu Jagadamma (TN) was elected as Chair for 2019 and Mark Coyne (KY) was elected as Secretary for 2019. This was followed by the presentation of the state reports for the rest of the day, which included reports from CA, ND, MN, WI, MI, KY, IL, IN, KY and TN with one hour lunch break and one hour tour of the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus’s experimental plots and facilities.

On July 18, 2018 the meeting started at 9 am at the Coffee Hall, Room 120. A detailed discussion was held about how to advance current soil health research in items of standardizing indicators, selection of representative soils from each state/geographic region and standardizing soil health assessment. The group identified a few tasks for the members to work together including a submission of a position paper to Agricultural and Environmental Letters on soil health, contributing to a soil health meta-data and datasets commentary initiated by Michelle Wander’s group, completing the methods book started in 2013, and co-organizing a workshop or symposium with Soil Health Institute (SHI). Ron Turco was assigned the task of interacting with SHI members as he was planning to attend the SHI meeting later that month in New Mexico. So, next year’s annual meeting could be a special topics meeting in Tennessee chaired by Sindhu Jagadamma and inviting members of SHI, or it could be at a location where SHI meeting will be held next year. We decided to conduct monthly conference calls to discuss these matters in detail. After lunch, we depart to visit the Hmong American Farmers Association. The meeting was adjourned at 3 pm by Julie Grossman.

Accomplishments

CA:     Potential soil tests for the commercial testing industry were continued to be evaluated to assess soil health and soil nitrogen availability to crops. A number of standard tests were compared, including total soil carbon and nitrogen, water-extractable organic carbon and nitrogen, salt–extractable carbon and nitrogen, mineralizable carbon on rewetting, and permanganate-oxidizable carbon to a new proposed test of soil respiration to estimate nitrogen mineralization across a variety of soils from cover-cropped and non-cover-cropped fields.  We found the soil respiration test was variable and not better than existing tests used by commercial labs. However, site-specific data showed that tests were able to differentiate the influence of management practices such as cover cropping and compost additions.  The findings suggest that within site these soil tests can be useful to determine short-term changes in soil outcomes. IL:       On-campus and on-farm studies of plant-soil health interactions embedded within a study of participatory maize variety testing and breeding in the Midwest. Field studies of Woody Perennial Polycultures that include a large replicated trial in Urbana and a recovered mature trial in Dixon Springs IL will provide needed opportunities to study agroecological function of agroforestry systems focused on food production. Data archives of soil health metrics (primary research and meta-analytic studies) are being compiled using standardized methodologies. Based on a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature reporting results for three ‘Tier 2’ indicators (β-glucosidase (BG), fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis, and permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC)) that considers how well each can contributes to interpretive frameworks. We found that while all three SQIs are measures of biologically active carbon that are known to respond to management, they differ in their rates of change, the degree to which methods are standardized, and the level of agreement about their functional relevance. The BG indicator is the best developed in terms of shared understanding of its link to soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, established analytical methods and the existence of a SMAF curve. Soil FDA, which is the most dynamic of the three SQIs considered, is the least developed and has the greatest variability in analysis methods. The POXC indicator, which is defined by an analytical method and produced the most records, is associated with changes in SOM stocks but it is the least dynamic indicator and thus most duplicative of total SOM. The abundance of all SQIs considered was increased by use of soil health promoting practices in more than 80% of the cases and changes in abundance were statistically significant (p < 0.1) in the majority (BG: 63.6%, FDA: 69.7%, and POXC: 63.8%) of the comparisons. Both POXC and FDA were generally more responsive to use of conservation or no-tillage or grass cover than to use of practices increasing organic matter return (cover crops, organic fertilizers or residue return); the reverse was true for BG. Standardization of sample timing and analysis will facilitate development of interpretive frameworks for these SQIs. Committee members are working together under the leadership of Michelle Wander on a presentation for the SSSA meeting in San Diego “NCERA 59's Reflections on Soil Health and Soil Quality” that is based on content being developed for a jointly authored paper that is in draft form.  The draft title for the paper is ‘Reflections on the Dynamic Field of Soil Quality and Health: Regional Research Committee on Soil Organic Matter Management”.  A subset of members are contributing to a paper led by Carmen Ugarte on “Building Robust Datasets and Databases for Soil Health Assessment”. We hope to expand collaboration with other committee members on studies of plant-soil interactions influencing plant health. IN:      Work at Purdue University is concentrated on the application of soil health principles to the improvement of water quality.  They are engaged in two large scale field project looking at the interaction of soils and water supply as related to the Great Lakes.  Project 1 is in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and takes place at 14 edge of field (EoF) monitoring sites across the Midwest. Project 2 takes place in the St. Marys watershed in Northeast Indiana. Project 1 focused on creating a robust dataset of soil health at EoF sites and to connect field-scale soil health parameters with the water quality leaving these fields.  We are working across 14 EoF monitoring sites located in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and New York.  Baseline soil sampling took place in 2016 and 2017. Second round sampling was completed in May 2018.   Our study includes nearly all of the SHI endorsed Tier 1 soil health measurements and many of the potential Tier 2 measurements.  We have begun investigating relationships among microbial properties (e.g. soil microbial biomass, diversity, and activity), general soil structure (e.g. bulk density, aggregate structure, water holding capacity, texture, and infiltration rates), soil resources (e.g. organic matter, reactive carbon, C, N, WEP, and Bray P), and exported resources (e.g. water-exported soil, total P, soluble P, total N, and total C). We will use changes in soil biology, biochemical responses, and key soil physical qualities as early predictors of critical changes needed within field systems, and to demonstrate to producers why these are important. Project 2 is concentrated in Indiana and deals with water inputs to Lake Erie. This project is focused on watersheds in Adams County where the impact of management changes on water quality in two critical area watersheds of equal size will be assessed. The project will first focus on current conditions (2 years) and follow the role out (3 years) of management changes on one of the watersheds.  KY:     Several active projects related to the objectives of NCERA59 have been undergoing at the University of Kentucky. The findings from very relevant projects are summarized below: (i) Fescue for Enhancing Soil Quality: Growing annual ryegrass on fragipan soils as a cover crop or a forage for 5 to 6 years increases soil depth 15 to 18 cm by degrading the top of the fragipan.  This, in turn, increases maize and soybean yield about 10% and soil organic matter. A field that had annual rye grass as a cover crop for 15 consecutive years increased yields by over 30 %. (ii) Cover Crops and Biological Stratification: The biological activity in all plots was highly stratified with a short distance with depths from 7.5-15 cm increasingly similar to depths > 15 cm. Stratification with cover crops was more pronounce than without, but the influence of legumes was not yet apparent. With time during the season the absolute amount of biological activity decreased without any trend in terms of stratification. Labile C (POxC) was one of the best indicators of short term stratification. (iii) Cover Crops, Manure, and Soil Health: The combination of no-tillage, manure, and cover crops incrementally improved N mineralization rates in a corn-soybean rotation (Collaboration with Kentucky State University). Two full years of a two-year corn/soybean rotation were completed. (iv) Geospatial Analysis of C and N Banding in a Sinkhole: Geospatial analysis revealed that higher but not lower clover seeding rates smoothed the distribution of soil N in a renovated fescue pasture. Year to year C distribution was not the same, but could simply reflect more uniform management of the site. (v) Potential Nitrogen Benefits from Cover Crops: To demonstrate that when specific cover crops and/or cover crop mixtures are used in specific crop rotations, the results can be a change in crop response to nitrogen fertilizer, we showed that cover crop resulted in lower N availability when no fertilizer N was applied. There was some indication that N nutrition ‘leveled off’ more with the cover crop at a lower fertilizer N rate. (vi) Increasing Endophyte Intensity Alters Soil Properties: After a one-year establishment period the intensity (i.e. number) of endophytes in tall fescue appeared to have significant effects on some measures of extracellular enzyme activity in the rhizosphere. (vii) Crop Diversity Influences Soil Microbial Communities and Soil Health Parameters in Long Term Managed  Agroecosystems: In a 26-year-long rotation study (corn-wheat-double crop soybean) there were apparent seasonal changes in microbial community as distinguished by PFLA Analysis that were linked to the rotation existing at the time. (viii) Cover crop grazing effects on soil quality: Project just initiated. We observed higher potentially mineralizable N but also greater compaction in grazed vs. ungrazed cover crop plots. (ix) Effects of long-term tillage management on corn response to late-season nitrogen application: Project just initiated. We installed in situ N mineralization tubes in a long-term tillage experiment (>40 years) and our results thus far indicate greater rates of N mineralization in the no-till treatment. MD:    While it is commonly assumed that very little mineral nitrogen is left after a good corn crop, we found in a survey of 29 crop fields in the Mid-Atlantic that an average of more than 250 kg per hectare of mineral nitrogen remained in the upper 2 meters of the soil profile at the end of the crop growth season. The fact that more residual nitrogen was found after soybeans than after corn suggests that much of this nitrogen results from organic matter mineralization. We produced 5 peer-reviewed publication and made 17 oral or poster outreach or scientific presentations. We leveraged approximately $275,000 in grants to study ways to enhance soil organic matter and health. MI:     New field experiments have been established at multiple research centers across Michigan to promote understanding of SOM dynamics and related issues of soil health. At Montcalm Research Center, we have a new cover crop diversity experiment in a seed-corn potato rotation system. At Saginaw Valley Research and Education Center and the campus Agronomy Research Farm we have established multiple experiments focused on effects of early (V6) interseeding of cover crops into corn. In the cover crop diversity experiment, we have seen dramatic increases in SOM in plots with a 2 species legume-grass mixture compared to no cover crop, single cover crop or a 4 species mix. Additionally, we find very high potential enzyme activity rates between harvest and planting, especially in cover crop mixture plots. After two years of interseeding annual ryegrass, crimson clover or a mix of the two cover crops into V6 corn, we have found significant changes in N-cycling dynamics related to existing SOM stocks. At sites with relatively high SOM we find no significant changes with early interseeding, but in low SOM soils, we observed reduced peptidase enzyme activities, as well as nitrification and denitrification rates with cover crops, regardless of species. We also found evidence for N scavenging by annual ryegrass after the first year of cover crop interseeding. MN:    Our research goal is to manage plant-soil-microbe relationships in managed ecosystems in order to enhance soil fertility and functionality, with the ultimate goal of developing sustainable food production and other managed ecosystems. Some of the major studies and accomplishments are summarized below: (i) High tunnels on research stations and farms provide an environment to evaluate cover crop legumes for their potential to improve the soil health of intensively-managed season extension systems.  We found that Winter legume cover crops increased soil mineral N at 2 and 4 weeks after cover crop termination in two states across the multi-state study (Kansas and Kentucky), but did not affect pools of N that could become available in the future via decomposition (potentially mineralizable N and microbial biomass N).  Microbial biomass C was also not affected. Cover crops were able to replace 26%-32% of nitrogen fertilizer, with no decrease in tomato yield. (ii) Summer cover crops in Minnesota organic farms results from year 1 show that summer cover crops, especially during shorter planting windows as tested in this project (30 or 50 days of growth), may not be immediately sufficient to replace fertilizer N or increase soil organic matter metrics in a significant way. However, cover crops did take up available N that may be prone to leach and negatively impact the environment, compared to plots with no cover crops. (iii) On-farm research with support from EQIP program showed that reduced tillage and cover cropping reduce soil nitrate levels and improve soil structure and earthworm presence. Impacts are also highly variable between soil types and specific farms, suggesting that any metric of soil improvement be specific to site-specific characteristics. NE:    Overall goal of the research is to quantify microbial community structure and function using newer biochemical (i.e. lipids) and molecular approaches in both natural and agroecosystems.  Ecosystems under study include intensively managed cropping systems, organic agriculture and rangelands. Some of the major findings are: (i) examined the impact of maize stover grazing vs. baling on soil microbial biomass (SMB) and community structure in two short-term studies. In one study where samples were taken in spring, no differences were found, while the second study showed significant losses in SMB with baling, but not grazing. (ii) uncovered a methodology issue important to separating the extracted lipids into neutral and glycolipid classes that arose from the stabilizing agent used in the chloroform solvent. It has significant potential to impact the quantification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi biomass in the soil as measured using the biomarker C16:1c11 from the neutral lipid pool. (iii) quantified soil quality using the Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) on plots planted with several cover crop mixtures and found out no significant changes in soil quality among cover crop treatments in two years, (iv) explored the performance and degradation of a new polylactic acid (PLA)-based biomulch fabric. Conventional vegetable production with peppers was conducted over the summer months, with our biomulch incorporation treatments initiated post fall harvest. Spaded fabric from the field was collected late fall to assess early changes in the biomulch fabric by surface area measurement and PLA analysis was used to measure changes in polymer molecular weight over time. We also installed litterbags containing biomulch fabric squares and soil from each site to better assess biomulch degradation and to measure shifts in soil microbial communities and soil properties over a two-year period. ND:     Long-term (20 weeks) incubation studies using three soils and seven individual crop residues from a long-term no-till cropping systems study were conducted to evaluate N mineralization rates under controlled conditions. N mineralization by soils alone reflected their textural (fine sandy loam, clay loam, silty clay) and SOM differences (4, 5, 6%).  With the exception of winter pea and forage radish, all other residues (corn, soybean, spring and winter wheat and flax) showed very little N mineralization across the incubation period resulting in net immobilization.  Only winter pea and forage radish showed neutral or net mineralization.  The driving factor in this mineralization study appears to be the C:N ratios of the residue materials.  Another short-term incubation (7-day anaerobic incubations) from an integrated crop-grazing system was conducted across three growing seasons show net N mineralization of 6 to 13 kg N/% SOM across all treatments. Treatments included continuous spring wheat as a control treatment and a 5-year rotation of spring wheat, winter triticale/hairy vetch/cover crop, corn (grazed), field pea/barley, and sunflower.  Soils were sampled to a depth of 15 cm from 3 to seven times across the growing season each year. Mineralization tends to be higher for early season sampling dates than for later season sampling dates.  As the crop-grazing system matures, a reduced need for additional fertilizer N based on soil tests and yield goals has declined likely due to the occurrence of legumes at three points in the rotation. NV:     We measured soil organic C fractions in an alfalfa field that had been under cultivation for more than five decades and in an adjacent undisturbed shrubland. In addition, we assessed chemical properties and decomposability of organic matter in a buried A horizon located at 1 m depth in the soil profile. Our design allowed us to assess long-term, multi-decadal, impacts of irrigated agriculture. Given the close proximity and geomorphic characteristics, soils were assumed to have been similar prior to conversion to irrigated agriculture. We also tested two methods (loss on ignition and acid dissolution) for measuring organic C (OC) and inorganic C (IC) content as well as their respective C-isotopic composition as a function of the relative amounts of OC vs. IC present in the soil. For our study, we created soils having different ratios of OC/IC by mixing a high pH, carbonate-free soil with powder originating from a ground-up marble tile. This approach allowed us to assess the accuracy of both methods given that both C content and isotopic composition of the soil mixtures were known. SD:      We investigated the impacts of cover crops and grazing on microbial community structure (MCS) under different cropping systems using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. In this study, cover crop treatments and no cover crop controls with and without grazing were compared.  The results showed that cover crops with grazing (Total biomass, 5854.46 ng g-1; Actinomycetes biomass, 622.31 ng g-1) had a higher PLFA content in soil than no cover crops (control). Soil biological activity varied with the treatment and significantly recorded higher PLFAs under cover crops with grazing. This study provides a clear link between cover crops, grazing, soil microbial communities, and soil health. This may pave the way for better management of the soil biodiversity (soil microbiome) to enhance sustainable soil health by incorporating cover crops and grazing in the cropping system. TN:     1) The role cover crops play in maintaining the health of TN soils is determined. We use an existing field trial that was started in 2013 in a corn-soybean system at the University of Tennessee’s Research and Education Center (REC) in Milan, TN. This experiment includes several single and multi-species cover crop treatments, such as wheat, cereal rye, cereal rye plus hairy vetch, cereal rye plus crimson clover, and the USDA-NRCS recommended soil health mixture (combination of cereal rye, whole oats, purple top turnips, daikon radish, and crimson clover) as well as a no cover control. Several soil properties, including soil moisture content and soil inorganic N, are being influenced by cover crop treatments. No significant differences in total, as well as easily decomposable fractions of organic carbon, were observed across the cover crop treatments. We conducted another field study to evaluate the performance of biochar made from hardwood trees as a soil amendment. We found that some soil properties, e.g., soil ammonium content, decreased significantly with increased rates of biochar application within two months of biochar application. Most other soil properties did not change with biochar application. WI:     Whitman lab is in its third year, and have made substantial progress on infrastructure for SOM experiments, including building a 64-jar multiplexed CH4 and CO2 stable C isotope gas analyzer. With this instrumentation, we will now conduct fundamental research into SOM interactions in soil and soil microbial community functioning. We have also built a 13CO2 plant growth labeling chamber, in which we have begun producing biomass that we can track through the soil as it decomposes. In addition, we have installed a “charcoalator”, which allows us to produce highly-replicable pyrogenic organic matter under controlled conditions, improving our ability to study its cycling in soils as well as its effect on non-pyrogenic soil organic matter. In addition, we are working on a number of projects studying the effects of fire on SOM and soil microbial communities. We found that a prescribed burn in jack pine barrens in WI did not significantly change soil properties immediately post-fire or soil microbial community composition after three weeks. Ruark lab continues to build a soil health database in Wisconsin in order to assess how management practices affect soil health and soil organic matter. This database also serves to benchmark SOM and soil health regionally.

Publications

Peer-reviewed Publications: CA: Lu-Jun Li, Xia Zhu-Barker, Rongzhong Ye, Timothy A. Doane, William R. Horwath. 2018. Soil microbial biomass size and soil carbon influence the priming effect from carbon inputs depending on nitrogen availability. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 119: 41-49. Wolf, Kristina M., Emma E. Torbert, Dennis Bryant, Martin Burger, R. Ford Denison, Israel Herrera, Jan Hopmans, Will Horwath, Stephen Kaffka, Angela Y. Y. Kong, R. F. Norris, Johan Six, Thomas P. Tomich, Kate M. Scow. 2018. The century experiment: the first twenty years of UC Davis' Mediterranean agroecological experiment. Ecology. 99:503-503. Wade, Jordon, Hannah Waterhouse, Leslie M Roche, William R Horwath. 2018. Structural equation modeling reveals iron (hydr) oxides as a strong mediator of N mineralization in California agricultural soils. Geoderma, 315: 120-129. Salamanca-Jimenez, Alveiro, Timothy A Doane, William R Horwath. "Coffee response to nitrogen and soil water content during the early growth stage" Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 180(5): 614-623. Verhoeven, Elizabeth, Engil Pereira, Charlotte Decock, Gina Garland, Taryn Kennedy, Emma Suddick, William R. Horwath, Johan Six. 2017. N2O emissions from California farmlands: A review. 2017. California Agriculture. 71: 148-159.       Ye, Rongzhong and William R Horwath. 2017. Influence of rice straw on priming of soil C for dissolved organic C and CH4 production. Plant and Soil. 417: 231-241. Wade, J., S. W. Culman, T. T. Hurisso, R. O. Miller, L. Baker, W. R. Horwath. 2108. Sources of Variability that Compromise Mineralizable Carbon as a Soil Health Indicator. Soil Science Society of America Journal. doi:10.2136/sssaj2017.03.0105 Hartman, W. H., R. Ye, W. R. Horwath, S. G. Tringe. 2017. A genomic perspective on stoichiometric regulation of soil carbon cycling. The ISME Journal. doi:10.1038/ismej.2017.115. Zhu-Barker, X., S. K Bailey, M. Burger, W. R Horwath. 2017. Greenhouse gas emissions from green waste composting windrow. Journal Waste Management. 59: 70-79. Horwath, W. R 2017. The Role of the Soil Microbial Biomass in Cycling Nutrients. In: Microbial Biomass: A Paradigm Shift in Terrestrial Biogeochemistry. Ed. K. R. Tate. World Scientific. Pp. 41-66. Burger, Martin, Matthew R Dumlao, Juan Wang, Barzin A Moradi, William R Horwath, Wendy K Silk. 2017. Cover Crop Development Related to Nitrate Uptake and Cumulative Temperature. Crop Science doi:10.2135/cropsci2016.09.0741. IL: Kwon, H-Y., Ugarte, C.M., Ogle, S.M., Williams, S.A., and M. M. Wander.  2017. Use of inverse modeling to evaluate CENTURY-predictions for soil carbon sequestration in US row crop systems. PlosOne. 12(3): e0173729. Wolz, K., DeLucia, E., Branham, B. Eddy, W., Revord, R., Wander, M., Yang, W., and S. Lovell, S. 2017. Production agroforestry: a transformative solution for temperate agriculture. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13986 Dorak, S.J., Green, M.L., Wander, M. M., Ruiz, M.O., Buhnerkempe, M.G.,  Tian, T.,  Novakofski J.E., and  N. E. Mateus-Pinilla. 2017. Clay content and pH: soil characteristic associations with the persistent presence of chronic wasting disease in northern Illinois. Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 18062. Qin, Z., Canter, C. E., Dunn, J. B., Mueller, S., Kwon, H., Han, J., Wander, M. M. and M. Wang, M. 2018. Land management change greatly impacts biofuels’ greenhouse gas emissions. GCB Bioenergy. doi:10.1111/gcbb.12500. Bakker, E. Hubert, F., Wander, M. M., and B. Lanson.  2018. Soil development under continuous agriculture at the Morrow Plots experimental fields from X-ray diffraction profile modelling. Soil Syst.  2(3), 46 Ugarte, C.M., Kwon, H-Y., and M. M. Wander. 2018. Conservation management and ecosystem services in Midwest agricultural systems.  J. Soil Water Cons. 73(4): 422-433. Xia, Y., Ugarte C.U., Guan, K. Pentrak, M. and M. M. Wander. 2018. Developing near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy analysis methods for rapid assessment of soil quality in Illinois.  Soil Science Society of America. In press. IN: S Yang, Z Xu, R Wang, Y Zhang, F Yao, Y Zhang, RF Turco, Y Jiang. 2017. Variations in soil microbial community composition and enzymatic activities in response to increased N deposition and precipitation in Inner Mongolian grassland. Applied Soil Ecology 119, 275-285 TD Berry, TR Filley, AP Clavijo, M Bischoff Gray, R Turco. 2017. Degradation and Microbial Uptake of C60 Fullerols in Contrasting Agricultural Soils. Environmental Science & Technology 51 (3), 1387-1394 QD Law, JM Trappe, Y Jiang, RF Turco, AJ Patton. 2017. Turfgrass selection and grass clippings management influence soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics. Agronomy Journal 109 (4), 1719-1725 MD: Rahmani, A., and R. Weil. 2018. Rocks, radishes, and restoration: On the relationships between clean water and healthy soil. In A. Toland, Noller, J., Wessolek, G, ed. Field to palette – the soil art dialogues. CRC Press (Taylor and Francis), Boca Raton. 703 p.   Wang, F., R.R. Weil, and X. Nan. 2017. Total and permanganate-oxidizable organic carbon in the corn rooting zone of US coastal plain soils as affected by forage radish cover crops and N fertilizer. Soil and Tillage Research 165:247-257. Chen, G., L. Kolb, M. Cavigelli, R. Weil, C. Hooks. 2018. Can conservation tillage reduce N2O emissions on cropland transitioning to organic vegetable production? Science of the Total Environment.  Wang, F., and R.R. Weil. 2018. The form and vertical distribution of soil nitrogen as affected by forage radish cover crop and residual side-dressed N fertilizer. Soil Science 183:22-33. Wang, Fang, Ray R. Weil, Lei Han, Mingxin Zhang, Zhaojun Sun and Xiongxiong Nan. 2019. Subsequent nitrogen utilization and soil water distribution as affected by forage radish cover crop and nitrogen fertilizer in a corn silage production system. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B — Soil & Plant Science. MI: Bowsher, A.W., Evans, S., Tiemann, L.K. and Friesen, M.L., 2018. Effects of soil nitrogen availability on rhizodeposition in plants: a review. Plant and Soil, 423(1-2), pp.59-85. Jilling, A., Keiluweit, M., Contosta, A.R., Frey, S., Schimel, J., Schnecker, J., Smith, R.G., Tiemann, L. and Grandy, A.S., 2018. Minerals in the rhizosphere: overlooked mediators of soil nitrogen availability to plants and microbes. Biogeochemistry, 139(2), pp.103-122. Ouyang, Y., Evans, S. A., Friesen, M. L. & Tiemann, L. K. (in press). Effect of nitrogen fertilization on the abundance of nitrogen cycling genes in agricultural soils: A meta-analysis of field studies. Soil Biology and Biochemistry MN: Ginakes, P. Grossman, J., Sooksa-nguan, T., Dobbratz, M., Baker, J. 2018. Soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics under zone tillage of varying intensities in a kura clover living mulch system. Soil and Tillage Research, In Press. Liebman, A., Grossman, J., Brown, M., Wells, M.S., Reberg-Horton, S.C. Shi, W. 2018. Legume Cover Crops and Tillage Impact Nitrogen Dynamics in Organic Corn Production. Agronomy Journal, 110(2), In press. Raskin, D., Wells, M. S., Grossman, J. M., Coulter, J. A., & Sheaffer, C. C. 2017. Yield and economic potential of spring-planted, pea-barley forage in short-season corn double-crop systems. Agronomy Journal, 109(6), 2486–2498. NE: Jeske, E.S., H. Tian, K. Hanford, D.T. Walters, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Long-term nitrogen fertilization reduces extraradical biomass of arbuscular mycorrhizae in a maize (Zea mays L.) cropping system. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 255:111-118. Ruis, S., H. Blanco, C. Burr, B. Olson, M. Reiman, D. Rudnick, R. Drijber, T. Shaver. 2017. Corn residue baling and grazing impacts on soil carbon stocks and other properties on a Haplustoll. Soil Science Society of America Journal 82:202-213 Cadenas, M., L.M. Durso, D.N. Miller, H. Waldrip, B.L. Castleberry, R.A. Drijber, and C. Wortman.  2018.  Tetracycline and Sulfonamide Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Soils from Nebraska Organic Farming Operations.  Accepted by Frontiers Microbiology special topic “Surveying Antimicrobial Resistance: The New complexity of the Problem” in Frontiers in Microbiology, section Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy. Akinrinlola, R.J., G.Y. Yuen, R.A. Drijber, A.O. Adesemoye. 2018. Evaluation of bacillus strains for plant growth promotion and predictability of efficacy by in vitro physiological traits. Accepted by International Journal of Microbiology ND: Kaur, J., L. J. Cihacek, and A. Chatterjee. 2018.  Estimation of nitrogen and sulfur mineralization in soils amended with crop residues contributing to nitrogen and sulfur nutrition of crops in the North Central U. S.  Comm. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.1499761) NE: Trimble, B., Calderon, F., Poulson, S.R., Verburg, P.S.J. 2018. Conversion of a Semi-arid Nevada soil to irrigated agriculture preferentially removes labile carbon. Soil Systems. 2(3), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems2030038 Ketchian, E., Trimble, B., Poulson, S.R., Verburg, P.S.J. 2018. Direct determination of quantity and isotopic composition of soil C in arid soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 82, 231-234. SD: Alhameid A., Ibrahim M., Kumar S., Sexton P., Schumacher T. (2017) Soil Organic Carbon Changes Impacted by Crop Rotational Diversity under No-Till Farming in South Dakota, USA. Soil Science Society of America Journal 81:868-877. TN: Wegner, B., Subedi, K., Singh, S., Lai, L., Abagandua, G., Kumar, S., Osborne, S., Lehman, M., and Jagadamma, S. 2018. Response of Soil Surface Greenhouse Gas Fluxes to Crop Residue Removal and Cover Crops Under a Corn-Soybean Rotation. Journal of Environmental Quality. doi: 10.2134/jeq2018.03.0093 Anapalli, S., Reddy, K., and Jagadamma, S. 2018. Conservation Tillage Impacts and Adaptations in Irrigated Corn in a Humid Climate. Agronomy Journal. doi: 10.2134/agronj2018.03.0195 Chu, M., Jagadamma, S., Walker, F. R., Eash, N. S., and Buschermohle, M. J. 2017. Effect of Multispecies Cover Crop Mixture on Soil Properties and Crop Yield. Agricultural and Environmental Letters 2, 170030 USDA-ARS (Iowa): Linh, T.B., Guong, V.T., Tran, V.T.T., Khoa,,L.V., Olk, D.C., and Cornelis, W.M. 2017. Effects of crop rotation on properties of a Vietnam clay soil under rice-based cropping systems in small-scale farmers’ fields. Soil Res. 55:162-171. Li Z., Zhao, B., Olk, D.C., Jia, Z., Mao, J., Cai, Y., and Zhang, J. 2018. Contributions of residue-C and –N to plant growth and soil organic matter pools under planted and unplanted conditions. Soil Biol. Biochem. 120:91-104. Olk D.C., Dinnes, D.L., Scoresby, J.R., Callaway, C.R., and Darlington, J.W. 2018. Humic products in agriculture: Potential benefits and research challenges. J. Soils Sed. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-018-1916-4. Zhang, Y.-L., Yao, S.-H., Cao, X.-Y., Schmidt-Rohr, K., Olk, D.C.  Mao, J.-D., and Zhang. B. 2018. Structural evidence for soil organic matter turnover following glucose addition and microbial controls over soil carbon change at different horizons of a Mollisol. Soil Biol. Biochem. 119:63-73. 2018. Zhang, Y.-L., Li, L.-J., Yao, S.-H., Mao, J.-D., Schmidt-Rohr, K., Olk, D.C., Cao, X.-Y., Cui, J.-F., and Zhang, B. 2018. Changes in composition of soil organic matter with length of cropping time in subsoils of a Phaeozem and Chernozem. Eur. J. Soil Sci (In Press) Cordova, S.C., Olk, D.C., Dietzel, R., Mueller, K., Six, J. Archontouilis, S., and Castellano, M.J. 2018. Plant litter quality affects the accumulation rate, composition, and stability of mineral-associated soil organic matter. Soil Biol. Biochem.125:115-124. Poffenbarger, H.J. Sawyer, J.E., Barker, D., Olk, D.C., Six. J., and Castellano, M.J. 2018. Legacy effects of long-term nitrogen fertilizer application on the fate of nitrogen fertilizer inputs in continuous maize. Agric., Ecosyst. & Envir. 265:544-555. Olk, D.C., Bloom, P.R., Perdue, E.M., Chen, Y., McKnight, D.M., De Nobili, M., Farenhorst, A., Wells, M.J.M., Senesi, N., Weber, J., Schmitt-Koplin, P., Hertkorn, N., and Harir, M. Environmental and agricultural relevance of organic matter fractions extracted by alkali from soils and natural waters.  J. Environ. Qual. Invited manuscript (in press). WI: Whitman, T., Neurath, R., Perera, A., Chu‐Jacoby, I., Ning, D., Zhou, J., Nico, P., Pett‐Ridge, J., and Firestone, M. (2018) Microbial community assembly differs across minerals in a rhizosphere microcosm. Environmental Microbiology, doi: 10.1111/1462‐2920.14366 DeCiucies, S., Whitman, T., Woolf, D., Enders, A., and Lehmann, J. (2018) Priming mechanisms with additions of pyrogenic organic matter to soil. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 238, 329-342. Braus, M., Graham, L., and Whitman, T. (2017) Spatiotemporal dynamics of the bacterial microbiota on lacustrine Cladophora glomerata (Chlorophyta). Journal of Phycology, 63, 1255-1262.   Activities (Outreach and Presentations): CA: Horwath, W. R. 2017. Soil Carbon Sequestration and Redefining Soil Health. Soil Science Society Annual Meeting, October 22-25, Tampa, FL. Horwath, W. R. 2018. How much can soil organic matter realistically be increased with cropping management in California? California Plant and Soil Conference, February 7th, Fresno, CA. IL: Wander, M. M.  2017. Assessing and Accessing Progress in Soil Health. Land Connection Conference. Beyond Production, Growing the Organic Grain Industry Feb 17, 2017. Wander, M. M.  2017. Increase Soil Organic Matter to Increase Row-Crop Resiliency: The Living Soil’ as part of the Extension Crop Management Conference Winter Series 2017.  Presented in Mt Vernon, Jan 18, Springfield, Jan 25, Champaign, Feb 1. and Malta Feb 15. Audience 100-150. Wander, M. M. 2017. Soil Health: From an Organic to an ISO Standard.  Keynote speaker, Scientific Challenges to Operationalizing Payments for Agro-Ecosystem Services (PAgES) meeting convened in Indianapolis, Indiana November 14-15. Hunter, D., and Wander, M.M. 2017. Applying Functional Niche Framework to Agroecosystems. Annual ASA/SSSA/CSA Meeting, Tampa, FL, October 2017. Xia, Y., Kwon, H. and M. Wander, 2017. Use of Rapid Assessment of U.S. Soil Carbon Dataset to Calibrate a Surrogate Century Model. Annual ASA/SSSA/CSA Meeting, Tampa, FL, October 2017. Wander, M. M. 2017. Organic Agriculture's Ongoing Contribution to Soil Health and the economy. Annual ASA/SSSA/CSA Meeting, Tampa, FL, October 2017. Wander, M. M. 2018. Soil Organic Matter as a Proxy for Soil Health; Indicators and Standards, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, UNL.  Feb. 16. Wander, M. M. 2018. The Holey Trinity (Tillage, Fertility and Rotation) and Soil Health on Your Farm, Organic Grain Conference, Land Connection.  Champaign, IL. KY: Murdock, L. 2017. Fragipan-Ryegrass Cover Crop. Corn, Soybean, and Tobacco Field Day Talk, Princeton, KY. Coyne, K.S. 2017. Soil Health and How to Measure It. Corn, Soybean, and Tobacco Field Day Talk, Princeton, KY.   Gibbs, L. T. Keene, and M.S. Coyne. 2017. Cover Crops and Hemp: A Microbial Perspective. UK Hemp Field Day, Lexington KY 09/09/2017. Coyne, M.S. 2018. CIG Project – Part II. Field Day – Soil Health Assessment: Use of Manure & Cover Crop in Small-Scale Farming.” Madison Co. KY. Coyne, M.S. 2017. CIG Project - Field Day - Manure & Cover Crops in Small Scale Farming. Logan Co. KY. Grove, J. 2017. The Impact of Cover Crops on N Rate For Corn. Corn, Soybean, and Tobacco Field Day Talk, Princeton, KY. Gibbs, L., M.S. Coyne, and J. Grove. 2017. Potential Nitrogen Benefits from Cover Crops. Kentucky No-Till and Cover Crop Soil Health Forum, Princeton KY, 03/23/2017  MD: Weil, R. 2017. Digging deeper into cover crop benefits. National No Till Conference - Quarter Century of No Till Learning. St. Louis, MO. Weil, R. 2017. Soil Carbon: Major Player in Maryland’s Greenhouse Gas Balance. Maryland Commission on Climate Change Mitigation Work Group, Baltimore, MD. Weil, Ray and Sarah Hirsh. 2017. Organized and spoke at field day on “Getting the most from your cover crops”, Central Maryland Research & Educ. Center. 1 November 2017. Weil, Ray. 2017. Building Soil Organic Matter: What, Why, How? Soil Health Track in National Cover Crops Conference, Indianapolis, IN. Dec 8-9, 2017. Weil, R. 2017. Digging deeper into cover crop benefits. National No Till Conference - Quarter Century of NoTill Learning. St. Louis, MO. Weil, Ray. 2018. Soil Fertility 101: Interactions between Soils, Crops and Nutrients. Keynote address for Nutrient-Smart Conference. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) and the Ontario Agriculture College (OAC) of the University of Guelph. Guelph, ON, Canada. 19 January 2018. Weil, Ray. 2018. Managing Soil Organic Matter- Key to Soil Health and Productivity. Farm-Smart Conference. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) and the Ontario Agriculture College (OAC) of the University of Guelph. Guelph, ON, Canada. 20 January 2018. Weil, R. 2018. Keynote address: Roots run deep in cover crop science. Midwest Cover Crops Council Annual Meeting. Fargo, ND. 13 March 2018. Weil, R. 2018. Soil Health in Responsible Farming. Bayer Forward Farm Field Day at Harborview Farms, Rock Hall, Md. 19 April 2018. Weil, R. 2018. Getting the Most from Cover Crops. Bayer Forward Farm Field Day at Harborview Farms, Rock Hall, Md.  16 May 2018.  Weil, R. S. Hirsh and N. Sedghi. 2018. Plant early, kill late-getting the most from your cover crops. Oral presentation and poster at Commodity Classic. Queenstown, Md. 26 July 2018. Hirsh, S. and R. Weil. 2017. Using Cover Crops to Capture and Recycle Deep Soil N: On-Farm Experiments. Soil Science Society of America International Meetings, Tampa, Florida. 23 October. Hirsh, S. and R. Weil. 2017. How Much Nitrogen Is Left in the Soil Profile after Summer Annual Crops? A Deep N Survey on Mid-Atlantic Farms. Poster Number 1251. Soil Science Society of America International Meetings, Tampa, Florida. 23 October. Hirsh, S. and R. Weil. 2017. Tracking Deep Soil Nitrogen in Cover Crop Systems: A N-15 Isotope Study. Soil Science Society of America International Meetings, Tampa, Florida.  23 October 2017. Juma, Stan and R. Weil. 2017. Effects of Maize-Forage Legumes Intercropping on ACTIVE Carbon Dynamics and Maize YIELD in Southern Malawi.  American Society of Agronomy International Meetings, Tampa, Florida. 23 October. Weil, Ray. 2017. The “Birch Effect” – Understanding Soil Organic Matter Mineralization in Dry Regions. Soil Science Society of America International Meetings, Tampa, Florida. 23 October. MI: Tiemann, L. K. Biological Systems: Current Issues in Soil Biology. Michigan Agri-business Association winter conference, January 10, 2018. Smercina, D., Tiemann, L. K., Evans, S. E. and M. L. Free-living Nitrogen-Fixation Rates Driven by Nitrogen-Fixer Diversity Over Nitrogen Availability. Goldschmidt Conference, Boston, MA, August 13-17, 2018. Tiemann, L. K., Smercina, D., Evans, S. E. and M. L. Free-living N-fixation: Optimizing 15N methods and reassessing importance in soils. Goldschmidt Conference, Boston, MA, August 13-17, 2018. Curtright, A. J., Renner, K., Sprague, C. and L. K. Tiemann. Improving Soil Health and Nitrogen Use Efficiency through Early Inter-seeded Cover Crops. Soil Health Institute Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, August 1-3, 2018. Brooker, A., Tiemann, L. K., Renner, K., and C. Sprague. Early Interseeding of Cover Crops in Corn Alters Subsequent Year's Nitrogen Dynamics. America Society of Agronomy Annual Meeting, November 4-7, Baltimore, MD. MN: Gutknecht, J. 2017. Soil health as a win-win for sustainable management and adaption to changing weather. Feburary 14th. Invited webinar, University of Minnesota Extension annual “Local Foods College” webinar series. Grossman, J. 2017. Agroecologia y abonos verdes para suelos sustentables. XVI Encuentro Nacional de Estudiantes de Ingeniería Sanitaria, Ambiental y Áreas afines – ENEISA, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, November 8. Grossman, J. 2017. Biología del Suelo para una Agricultura Sustentable y Saludable. Semanario Departmento de Biologia, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, October 30. Grossman, J. 2017. Biología del Suelo para una Agricultura Sustentable y Saludable. XIV Semana de Ingeniería, October 19. Grossman, J. 2017. Managing Cover Crop Legumes for Improved Soil Health and Nutrient Cycling. March 8. University of Wisconsin Women in Science seminar series. Grossman, J. Ginakes, P. and Dobbratz, M. 2017. Zone tillage for Organic Vegetables. Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Association Annual Conference, Hershey, PA, Jan 30 - Feb 1. Grossman, J. and Perkus, L. 2017. Overcoming Tunnel Vision - Using Cover Crops in High Tunnels. Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Association Annual Conference, Hershey, PA, Jan 30 – Feb 1. Perkus, L., Pfeiffer, A., and Grossman, J. 2017. Soil management & cover crops in high tunnel production, Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association annual conference, St Cloud, MN, January 19. Gutknecht, J. 2017. Is your farm ready for the next storm? Soil health as a win-win for sustainability and resiliency to climate change. Oral presentation, Soil Ecological Society, Fort Collins, CO, June 5-9. Perkus, L., Grossman, J., Rogers, M., and Poppe, S. 2017. Legume cover crop management in high tunnels for soil health and fertility, ASA/CSSA/SSSA annual meeting, Tampa, FL, October 25-27, Tampa, Florida. Thurston, C., Perkus, E.A., Watkins, E., Heineck, G., Grossman, J.  2017. Freezing tolerance of two legume cover crops for upper midwest high tunnel conditions. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting, October 23-25, Tampa, Florida. Perrone, S., Liebman, A., Sooksa-nguan, T., Gutknecht, J., Grossman, J. 2017. Nitrogen contributions from winter annual cover crops in the Upper Midwest. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting, Oct 23-25, Tampa, FL. Liebman, A., S. Perrone, T. Sooksa-Nguan, J. Grossman. 2017. Linked Crop Production and Soil Organic Matter Impacts of Winter Annual Legumes in Upper Midwest Organic Agroecosystems, Agronomy Society of America Annual Meeting, Soil Health for Agroecosystems session, October 23-25, Tampa, FL. Grossman, J., Liebman, A., Perrone, S., Sooksa-nguan, J. 2017. Nitrogen dynamics of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) and red clover (Trifolium pretense L.) legume cover crops in organically-managed agroecosystems in the northern United States. Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology, (SOCLA), Brasilia, Brazil. Sept 10-15. Perkus, L., Grossman, J., Rogers, M., and Poppe, S. 2017. Managing Cover Crops in High Tunnels for Fertility and Soil Health, CIG Showcase – SWAC annual meeting, Madison, WI, July 31. Perkus, L., Grossman, J., Rogers, M., and Poppe, S.2017. Overcoming tunnel vision: Incorporating cover crops into high tunnel rotations to improve soil health, MOSES Organic Farming Conference, La Crosse, WI, February 25-27. Perkus, L. Grossman, J., Rogers, M., Poppe, S. 2017. Overcoming tunnel vision: Incorporating cover crops into high tunnel rotations to improve soil health. Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) Conference, Jan 25-28. Perrone, S. Grossman, J., Liebman, A., Pfeiffer, A., Sooksa-nguan, T.  2017. Nitrogen contributions from winter annual cover crops in the upper Midwest. Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) Conference, Jan 25-28. NE: Stengel, A., J.R. Herr, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Big Data, Micro-organisms: the maize-associated microbiome. UNL Complex Biosystems Seminar, February 9, 2017, Lincoln, NE. Stengel, A., J.R. Herr, R.A. Drijber. 2017. The Maize-Associated Soil Microbiome: a meta-analysis. EPSCoR Genome to Phenome Symposium, April 6-7, Lincoln, NE. Stengel, A., J.R. Herr, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Microbiomes Beneath Our Feet: soil microbes at a long-term field site. UNL Gut Group Meeting, September 8, Lincoln, NE. Stengel, A., S. Ramirez II, J.R. Herr, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Microbe Detectives – Who is Who in the Soil? UNL-EPSCoR, Sunday with a Scientist: Outreach at Morrill Hall, September 17. Stengel, A., J.R. Herr, R.A. Drijber. 2017. The Maize-Associated Soil Microbiome: a meta-analysis. EPSCoR Grant Review, September 18, Lincoln, NE. Stengel, A., J. R. Herr, S. Ramirez II, E. S. Jeske, S. Everhart, V. Jin, R. A. Drijber.  2017. Nitrogen and Crop Rotation as Drivers of the Maize-Associated Soil Microbiome. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, October 24, Tampa FL. Stengel, A., J.R. Herr, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Soil Microbial Diversity Across Maize Agroecosystems. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, October 24, Tampa FL. Stengel, A., J. R. Herr, S. Ramirez II, E. S. Jeske, S. Everhart, V. Jin, R. A. Drijber. 2017.  Nitrogen and Crop Roation as Drivers of the Maize-Associated Soil Microbiome. Argonne Soil Metagenomics Meeting, November 1, Lemont, IL. Alserae, H., V. L. Jin, H. Blanco-Canqui, M. R. Schmer, R. A. Drijber. 2017. Conservation Tillage Impacts Soil Microbial Community Structure and Function in a Long-Term Maize-Soybean Cropping System. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, October 24, Tampa FL. Ramirez II, S., R.A. Drijber, J.L. Lindquist, V.L. Jin, H. Blanco-Canqui, E.S. Jeske. 2017. The impact of organic crop rotations and ecological weed management strategies on soil quality. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, October 24, Tampa FL. Rakkar, M.K., H. Blanco-Canqui, R.J. Rasby, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Impact of residue grazing and baling on soil gas fluxes and microbial biomass in irrigated corn.  ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, October 24, Tampa FL Ramirez II, S., R.A. Drijber, V.L. Jin, H. Blanco-Canqui, E.S. Jeske. 2017. The impact of increasing diversity of crop rotations on soil microbial communities under variable rates of nitrogen fertilization. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, October 24, 2017, Tampa FL. Drijber, R.A. 2017. Microbial ecology of maize agroecosystems. Naiman Desertification Research Station, September 9, Tongliao, China. Drijber, R.A. 2017. Microbial ecology of maize agroecosystems. Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, September 14, Lanzhou, China. Ramirez II, S. V.L. Jin, E.S. Jeske, H. Blanco-Canqui, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Crop rotation alters maize rhizosphere community structure. NC1195. March 7, Kansas City, KS. Ramirez II, S. V.L. Jin, E.S. Jeske, H. Blanco-Canqui, R.A. Drijber. 2017. Crop rotation alters maize rhizosphere community structure. NCERA59. June 21, Madison, WI. Drijber, R.A. 2017. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi and their role in modern agriculture. North Central Soil Fertility Conference, November 16, 2017, Des Moines, IA. ND: Cihacek, L. J., E. Lovering, C. Race, and J. Ransom.  2017.  Mineral nitrogen availability from ethanol distiller’s by-products.  2017 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meetings.  Tampa, FL. Cihacek, L. J., J. M. Teboh, J. Ransom, P. J. Flores, and S Zilhai-Sebess.  2017.  Plant available phosphorus from distiller’s by-products.  2017 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meetings.  Tampa, FL. De, M., M. Lawerinko, R. Baldwin-Kordick, S. Hall, L. J. Cihacek, and M. D. McDaniel.  2017.  Impacts of Conservation Reserve Program on soil health. 2017 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meetings.  Tampa, FL. Kaur, J., L. Cihacek, and A. Chatterjee.  2017.  Estimation of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) mineralization in soils amended with crop residues. 2017 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meetings.  Tampa, FL. Cihacek, L. J.  2017.  Benefits of integrated crop-livestock systems on soil health. 2017 ND Chapter Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Workshop.  Bismarck, ND. Cihacek, L.  2018.  N mineralization in differing cropping and grazing systems.  ND Ag Experiment Station Spring Workshop.  Fargo, ND. Cihacek, L.  2018.  Soil erosion, soil productivity and soil health.  Cover Crops for Soil Health Workshop.  Langdon, ND. Cihacek, L. J., D. L. Landblom, and S. Senturklu.  2018.  A place for cover crops in and integrated crop-grazing system.  2018 Midwest Cover Crops Council Workshop. Fargo, ND. Cihacek, L., S. Senturklu, and D. Landblom. 2018. Enhancing soil sustainability and soil health in and integrated crop-grazing system.  73rd SWCS International Annual Conference.  Albuquerque, NM. Alghamdi, R. and L. Cihacek.  2018. Nitrogen mineralization from selected no-till crop residues. .  73rd SWCS International Annual Conference.  Albuquerque, NM. NV: Verburg, P.S.J., Ketchian, E., Trimble, B.R., and S.R. Poulson. 2016. Assessment of two methods for determination of quantity and isotopic composition of soil C in arid soils. Annual Meeting Soil Science Society of America, Academic, Phoenix AZ. Trimble, B.R., Verburg, P.S.J., and S.R. Poulson. 2016. Effects of Land Use Change on the Organic C Fractions in a Semi-Arid Soil. Annual Meeting Soil Science Society of America, Phoenix, AZ. SD Singh J., and S. Kumar. 2017 Impacts of Diverse Crop Rotations and Cover Crops under different tillage systems on Soil Health in South Dakota, US. Poster Presentation at the MANAGING GLOBAL RESOURCES FOR A SECURE FUTURE CSA/ASSA Annual Meeting | October 22-25 | Tampa, FL Alhameid A., J. Singh, E. Ozlu and S. Kumar. 2017. SOC Changes and Other Soil Properties as Impacted by Crop Rotational Diversity under No-Till Farming in NGP. Oral Presentation at the 72nd Soil Water Conservation Society; International Annual Conference, Wisconsin-Madison July 30 – August 02, 2017. TN: Jagadamma, S., M. Chu, F. R. Walker, M. J. Buschermohle, and L. A. Duncan.  2017.  Multi-species cover crop mixture improved soil properties and crop yield.  ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting. Oct 22-25. Tampa, FL. Ottinger, S. L.*, and S. Jagadamma.  2017.  Effects of genetically modified switchgrass cultivation on soil carbon dynamics.  8th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium Jagadamma, S. 2018. Soil organic matter sequestration and cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. USDA Grazing lands Research Center, El Reno, OK. February 12 (invited). Jagadamma, S and Manuel Sabbagh. 2018. Cover crop mixtures and soil properties. Biannual no-till field day, Milan, Tennessee. July 26. Singh, S., and Jagadamma, S. 2018. Long-term effect of tillage intensities on soil carbon dynamics under soybean production systems of west Tennessee. American Society of Agronomy’s Southern Branch Meeting. February 4-6. Jacksonville, FL. Li, X., Jagadamma, S., and Walker, F. 2018. Soil and crop responses to biochar amendment for the forage systems of middle Tennessee. American Society of Agronomy’s Southern Branch Meeting. February 4-6. Jacksonville, FL. Singh, S., Yan, S., Jagadamma, S., Sorochan, J., Stier, J., and Zhuang, J. 2018. Comparative evaluation of turfgrass and row crop management on soil carbon dynamics and nutrient availability. American Society of Agronomy’s Southern Branch Meeting. February 4-6. Jacksonville, FL. Sabbagh, M., Jagadamma, S., and Walker, F. 2018. Cover crops to mitigate water quality impairment in the Mississippi River. 27th Tennessee Water Resources Symposium, April 11-13, Burns, TN. USDA-ARS (Iowa): Improved soil physical properties with long-term application of humic product in corn-soybean rotations, and co-led a session on humic products at the annual meeting of the Soil Science Society of America, Tampa, FL. October, 2017. Advancing nutrient use efficiency with humic fertilizer technologies at the “4R Nutrient Stewardship Summit”, The Fertilizer Institute. Des Moines, IA.  June, 2018. WI: Whitman, T. 2018. Fire effects on soil microbes: burn severity in the boreal forest. North American Forest Soil Conference, Quebec City, QC, June 2018 Whitman, T. 2018. The role of microbes in the soil. Madison Microbiome Meeting, Madison, WI, April 2018 Whitman, T. 2018. The soil microbiome from a soil biologist’s perspective. Turfgrass Phytobiome Researchers Meeting, UW-Madison, April 2018 Whitman, T. 2018. Fire effects on soil microbes: burn severity in the boreal forest. Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, February 2018 Whitman, T. 2018. Pyrogenic Organic Matter Effects on Soil Carbon Stocks and Soil Microbial Communities - from Biochar to Fires. Climate, People and the Environment Program seminar series, UW-Madison, February 2018 Whitman, T. 2017. Fire effects on soil microbes: burn severity in the boreal forest. qBio seminar, UW-Madison, November 2017 Whitman, T.  2017.  Fire effects on soil microbial communities. Kenneth B. Raper Symposium, Dept. of Bacteriology, UW-Madison, September 2017   Whitman, T.  2017.  Microbial response to organic matter additions to soils:  What do we know and why do we care?  North American Manure Expo, Madison, WI, August 2017 Whitman, T.  2017.  Soil microbial communities – Fire effects and mineral colonization. Computational Biology, Ecology and Evolution, UW-Madison, May 2017 Richardson, G, M.D. Ruark, et al. 2017. The effect of agricultural management practices on labile soil carbon and nitrogen in Wisconsin. 2017 North Central Extension and Industry Soil Fertility Conference, Des Moines, IA. Diederich, K.M., M.D. Ruark, et al. 2017. Increasing labile carbon and nitrogen pools in agricultural soils requires a change in system, rather than practice. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Conference, Tampa, FL. Khrishnan, K., M.D. Ruark et al. 2017. Short-term benefits of cover crop on labile carbon and nitrogen pools. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Conference, Tampa, FL. Diederich, K.M., M.D. Ruark, et al. 2017. Short-term benefits of cover crops on labile carbon and nitrogen pools in soil. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Conference, Tampa, FL. Richardson, G., M.D. Ruark et al. 2017. The effect of agricultural management practices on labile soil carbon and nitrogen in Wisconsin. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Conference, Tampa, FL. Ruark, M.D. 2018. Do cover crops improve soil health? Presentation at 2017 Arlington Agronomy/Soils Field Day (~250 attendees) Ruark, M.D. 2018. Cover crops and soil health. Presentation at the 2018 Wisconsin Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Conference. Ruark, M.D. 2018. Reviewing the benefits of soil biological additives. Presentation at the 2018 Wisconsin Corn-Soy Expo. Ruark, M.D. 2018. Cover crops and soil health. Webinar, UW-Extension Cover Crops Team.) Ruark, M.D. 2018. Cropping systems and soil health. 2018 GrazingWorks Conference.   Reports: Dunn, J.B., Qin, Z., Mueller, S. Kwon, H-K., Wander, M. M. and M. Wang. 2017. Carbon Calculator for Land Use Change from Biofuels Production (CCLUB): Users’ Manual and Technical Documentation.  Argonne National Lab. ANL/ESD/12-5. Xia, X., Kwon, H-Y., and M. Wander. 2017. Adding US Domestic N2O Emission Factors to the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) Model.  Final Report for ARGONNE National Lab. Xia, X. and M. Wander. 2018.  Review of Novel Soil Indicators and Environmental Impacts of Soil Health Promoting Management Practices. Soil Health Institute.   Funding: CA: The assessment of certified organic fertilizers to supply nitrogen to crops. California Department of Food and Agriculture, Fertilizer Research and Education Program. 01-Jan-17 - 31-Dec-19, $210,290.00. IL: Wander, M. and Y. Xia (Grant manager for Grad Student PI). 2017. Soil Health Partnership. Review Novel Soil Indicators and Environmental Impacts of Soil Health Promoting Management Practices. $8000. *Synergistic with group efforts- ideas contributing to joint manuscript. Ugarte, C.U et al. Science of Soil Health Methods Comparison, $299,980, NRCS. 2019-2020. This will have data ties to parallel grants between NRCS and other committee members in several other states. KY: One-year funding obtained from the small grains commodity board to investigate the long term soil health benefits to having wheat in Kentucky farmers’ crop rotation. MD: Grant on “Innovative Practices to Enhance Soil Quality for Vacant Urban Lot Afforestation” from The Tree Fund. $99, 931. 10/16/2016 - 01/15/2020. Grant on “Raising the Bar: A Comprehensive Approach to Nutrient Management on Farms” from Shore Rivers Association. $249,273. 07/01/2017-06/30/2020. Grant on Planting Green - Getting More Payback from Cover Crops from Maryland Soybean Growers Assoc. $24,452. From 04/10/2017 - 03/31/2018. NE: Cahoon, E. (PI) et al., Project ID 41161. “RII Track-1: Center for Root and Rhizobiome Innovation (CRRI)”. NSF EPSCoR, Awarded. $1,924,313. Drijber, R. (PI), Project ID 29247, "Soil Microbial Community Structure and Function in High Production Corn-Soybean Systems", Dept of Agriculture-ARS, Federal, Research, Awarded. 08/01/2014-07-31/2019. $100,000. Drijber, R. (PI), Lindquist, J., Blanco-Canqui, H. Project ID 29381. "Cover Crop Strategies to Build Soil Organic Matter, Thereby Enhancing Soil Biology, Water Retention and Weed Control in Organic Cropping Systems of the Western Corn Belt", Ceres Trust, Associations/Foundations, Research, Awarded. $180,000. Wortman, S. and Drijber, R. (PI’s). Project ID 42720, “Leveraging Management to Speed Degradation of Bio-based Mulches in Soil”. USDA-NIFA-ICGP. Awarded 09/01/2016 - 08/31/2019. $491,718. TN: Jagadamma, S. 2018. Establishing Cover Crops for Sustainable Soybean Production. Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board. $17,500. 01/01/18 to 12/31/2018 (PI) Oakes, R., Jagadamma, S., and Rius, Agustin. 2018. Demonstrating the Soil Health Benefits of the White Clover Living Mulch Production System among Different Soil Classes and Geographical Landscapes. NRCS-CIG grant (Sub-award from the University of Georgia). 09/01/2018 to 08/31/2021. $85,000 to Jagadamma.

Impact Statements

CA: Biological soil tests such as short-term soil respiration to assess soil health and potential N mineralization show promise at the site or farm level to assess changes in management such as cover cropping and compost application, however, as a general soil test for the soil testing industry these tests prove to be to variable and currently not suitable for adoption IL: While we have long known that soil organic matter and associated indicators can be related to health and ecosystem integrity we have yet to develop trusted relationships between indicator status (abundance and proportion) that are site specific, meaningfully related to outcomes of interest, and logically tied to actionable steps. Our SHI report outlines an approach to indicator review for soil health metrics that overlays management, measurement and outcomes in a simple way that meshes well with factors used by soil inventories and modeling efforts. Formalization of this approach for publications and database can accelerate progress. IN: Improved soil health represents a strategic goal as we develop management scenarios for agriculture. It is critical to link soil health to practical applications like improve water quality and nutrient availability. KY: (i) Fescue Enhancing Soil Quality: There are about 50 million acres of fragipan soils in the US and about 3 million in Kentucky. If the crop yields were increased by 25% on half of the soils in Kentucky, this would result in an estimated $500,000,000 increased income per year on these 1.5 million acres, (ii) Cover Crops and Biological Stratification: Significant management effects below 15 cm are not likely to occur in short term studies, but biological properties can very quickly reveal changes by using cover crop mixes, (iii) Cover Crops, Manure, and Soil Health: The extent to which conservation practices have been adopted and implemented at a scale commensurate with the magnitude of soil quality loss has not been satisfactory. The number of farmers, particularly minority farmers, using cover crops and manure is still relatively small despite efforts by research institutions and relevant government agencies to promote their use as soil management practices, (iv) Increasing Endophyte Intensity Alters Soil Properties: Several million acres of forage land exist in the transition zone in the U.S. Southeast where fescue dominates. An ecologically based strategy to diminish the effects if endophyte toxicosis by employing multiple novel endophytes would have significant economic benefit to producers and land managers. MD: The majority of Maryland farmers use cover crops on most of their fields as a result of generous State subsidies. However the typical cover crop is planted late in the fall and killed early in the spring so contributes little to soil organic matter and soil health. Power Research highlights the importance of early planting for fall nitrogen uptake and representation of legume and brassicas in cover crop mixes. We also showed the benefits of allowing cover crops to grow longer in Spring, right up to cash crop planting time, to produce large biomass that contributes to soil organic matter in nutrient cycling. As a result, Maryland farmers are planting earlier cover crops, more often in mixed species, and cover crops are now allowed to grow until cash crops are "planted green" on thousands of hectares. MI: Soil ecology and biogeochemistry research to promote understanding of SOM dynamics and related issues of soil health in order to help farmers manage soils for productivity, resiliency and sustainability. MN: Soil organic matter is coupled with available pools of nutrients that can be a valuable source of fertility for crops, especially organic crops that rely on the decomposition of organic materials to largely support their growth and productivity. Our work has shown that release of nutrients from freshly added organic materials is driven by biomass production of the cover crop and interactions with climate and environment (soil type, etc). ND: In long-term no-till production systems of the northern Great Plains, high accumulations of residues may be contributing to N immobilization in cropping systems, thus resulting in higher fertilizer applications to maintain yields. In integrated crop-grazing systems, crop rotations with use of several legumes and livestock manure spreading appear to be enhancing the sustainability of the production system and soils. NV: Conversion of native shrublands to irrigated agriculture in semi-arid regions most likely cause losses of soil Cover multiple decades but remaining C is more stable compared to unmanaged shrublands indicating that C losses will not be sustained indefinitely. In addition, the best method for measuring amount and isotopic composition of OC and IC depends on the relative amounts of OC vs. IC present in the soil. SD: (i) Inclusion of cover crops and grazing help in enhancing the microbial activity. (ii) Long-term diverse crops rotations increase the soil organic carbon. TN: By comparing different cover crop species, we found that soil inorganic nitrogen levels were higher when a leguminous cover crop was included in the mixture and soil moisture content was higher from plots with multispecies cover crops than no cover crops. We also found no difference in soil organic carbon and cash crop yields across the cover crop treatments. We also found that Haney’s soil health test was not sensitive to differentiate soil health changes from different management practices in Tennessee’s agricultural soils. These research findings are expected to help producers in the southern US to choose locally-adaptable cover crop species to obtain maximum economic and environmental benefits. WI: (i) Our research into fire effects on soils and microbes will allow us to better predict the long-term impacts of changing fire regimes on ecosystems and SOM within these ecosystems. (ii) our research on benchmarking soil organic matter pools allowed farmers in Wisconsin to better understand how their management practices affect their soil organic matter.

Date of Annual Report: 09/12/2019

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/08/2019 - 07/11/2019
Period the Report Covers: 07/01/2018 - 09/30/2019

Participants

Participants

Members Present: Castellano, Michael (castelmj@iastate.edu) – Iowa State University; Cihacek, Larry (larry.cihacek@ndsu.edu) – North Dakota State University; Coyne, Mark (mark.coyne@uky.edu) – University of Kentucky; Gutknecht, Jessica (jgut@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Jagadamma, Sindhu (sjagada1@utk.edu) – University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Olk, Dan (dan.olk@ars.usda.gov) - USDA-ARS, Iowa; Poffenbarger, Hanna (hanna.poffenbarger@uky.edu) – University of Kentucky; Ruark, Matthew (mdruark@wisc.edu) - University of Wisconsin; Tiemann, Lisa (ltiemann@msu.edu) – Michigan State University; Ugarte, Carmen – University of Illinois; Whitman, Thea (twhitman@wisc.edu) – University of Wisconsin

Members Absent: Drijber, Rhae (rdrijber1@unl.edu) – University of Nebraska; Eash, Neal - (eash@utk.edu) – University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Grossman, Julie (jgross@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Horwath, William (wrhorwath@ucdavis.edu) – University of California, Davis; : jango@ufl.edu – University of Florida; Kumar, Sandeep (Sandeep.kumar@sdstate.edu) - South Dakota State University; Machado, Stephen (stephen.machado@oregonstate.edu) – Oregon State University; Motavalli, Peter (motavallip@missouri.edu) – University of Missouri; Schipanski, Meagan (Meagan.Schipanski@colostate.edu) – Colorado State University; Snapp, Siglinde (snapp@msu.edu) – Michigan State University: Turco, Ronald (rturco@purdue.edu) – Purdue University; Verberg, Paul (pverburg@cabnr.unr.edu) – University of Nevada, Reno; Wander, Michelle (mwander@illinois.edu) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Weil, Ray (rweil@umd.edu) – University of Maryland

Participants Attachment:

Appendix 3 - State Reports.doc

Brief Summary of Minutes

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The officers selected for 2019 at the 2018 meeting were Sindhu Jagadamma (Chair), University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Mark Coyne (Secretary) University of Kentucky. The 2019 meeting was conducted at the University of Tennessee Plant Biotechnology Building (Room 410) 2505 E J Chapman Dr., Knoxville, TN 37996 on July 9-10, 2019. Sindhu Jagadamma opened the meeting on July 9, 2019 at 9:00 am. The first order of business was introduction of the attendees. Subsequently, state reports were presented for TN (Jagadamma), WI (Ruark), MI (Tiemann), and MN (Gutknecht) followed by lunch. In the afternoon state reports from KY (Coyne and Poffenbarger) and IL (Ugarte on behalf of Wander) were presented, after which there was a tour of the UTK Gardens.

On July 10, 2019 the meeting started at 9 am at University of Tennessee Plant Biotechnology Building (Room 410). The remaining state reports for ND (Cihacek), IA (Castellano) and the Iowa USDA-ARS (Olk) were presented. Olk led a detailed discussion about the status, organization, design, and completion of a new publication on soil organic matter microbiological and biochemical analyses with much debate on the merits of a strictly on-line work vs. a more formal book publication. New officers were elected for 2020: Mark Coyne (Chair) University of Kentucky and XX YY (secretary) University of XX. The 2020 meeting will be held in Lexington Kentucky in July while the 2021 meeting place was left indeterminate. The meeting was adjourned at 12 pm by Sindhu Jagadamma.

See Appendix 1 for full meeting minutes

Minutes Attachment:

Appendix 1 NCERA 59 TN Meeting minutes.docx

Accomplishments

Accomplishments (including shot-term outcomes, outputs, activities and milestones):   A committee effort recently reported ‘Changes in our nation’s research landscape are shifting responsibility for soil stewardship from national and state government backed entities to public-private partnerships. As a result, it is critical to ensure that the data needed to assess soil health are generated by reproducible methods selected through a transparent process, and that data are readily available for public and private sector use. Appropriate methods for engagement need to be applied by public-private research partnerships as they establish and expand coordinated research enterprises that can deliver fact-based interpretation of soil quality indicators within the type of normative soil health framework conceived by USDA over 20 years ago. We look to existing examples as we consider how to put soil health information into the hands of practitioners in a manner that protects soils’ services’ (Wander et al. 2019.)   Committee members worked together under the leadership of Michelle Wander for a presentation at the SSSA meeting in San Diego “NCERA 59's Reflections on Soil Health and Soil Quality” that was based on content being developed for a jointly authored paper that was published in 2019. The title of the paper is “Developments in Soil Quality and Health: Reflections by the Research Committee on Soil Organic Matter Management” published in Frontiers in Environmental Science.   Other Accomplishments by State         KY:       Current projects related to soil organic matter   Effects of long-term no-till on optimal nitrogen fertilization practices for corn (2018-2019)   Hanna Poffenbarger and John Grove   No-tillage can increase soil organic matter content, which is an important source of nitrogen for corn (Zea mays L.). However, higher soil organic matter content may not necessarily lead to lower nitrogen fertilizer requirements in no-till soils due to cooler, wetter conditions that can slow nitrogen mineralization during early corn growth. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of long-term no-till on the optimal timing and rate of nitrogen fertilizer for corn. We investigated nitrogen dynamics over two growing seasons within a 48-year field study that comprises a factorial of two tillage treatments (no-tillage and conventional tillage) and four nitrogen rates (0, 84, 168, and 336 kg N ha-1). In 2018 and 2019, we established two nitrogen fertilization timing treatments within each nitrogen rate: 1) an early application in which all nitrogen was applied at the V3 stage of corn, and 2) a split application in which 56 kg N ha-1 was applied at V12 and the remaining was applied at V3. Our results suggest that long-term no-till increases nitrogen mineralization, but has minor effect on the yield-maximizing nitrogen rate or on optimal timing of nitrogen fertilization.       Getting to the root of the matter: Linking root traits to soil health (2019-2024)   Hanna Poffenbarger and David McNear   Soil organic matter (SOM) contains large stocks of C and N, represents a major source and sink of atmospheric greenhouse gases, and plays a key role in soil health and fertility. Because SOM content is positively associated with crop yield and yield stability, increasing SOM can benefit farmer income, food security, and resource use efficiency while providing ecosystem services like C sequestration. Most of the organic matter in soil is derived from roots, yet it is unclear how root traits regulate the formation and stability of SOM. This project will advance our understanding of crop root system impacts on SOM. Our objectives are to: 1) quantify variation in root traits among a diverse panel of maize cultivars, 2) determine the effect of root phenotype on SOM dynamics, and 3) determine the interactive effects of specific root characteristics and soil properties on the formation and stability of SOM. Using a diverse panel of 18 open-pollinated varieties and hybrids grown in the greenhouse, we propose to measure changes in exudate production, root architectural traits, and root litter quality due to breeding over the last ~100 years. We will select four hybrids with distinct root systems from this panel for a field study that will test the effects of hybrid, plant density, and aboveground residue removal on SOM storage using natural abundance 13C tracing. Lastly, we will perform a laboratory incubation study to investigate the effects of root litter quality on the efficiency of SOM stabilization in different soil types. Through this research, we expect to identify root traits that promote the formation and stability of SOM.   Assessing soil organic carbon responses to synergistic effects of no-tillage and cover crops under climate change (1970-2099): Integration of long-term field trials and agroecosystem modeling   Wei Ren   Climate-smart agriculture management like no-tillage (NT) with cover crop offers multiple benefits (e.g., increase soil carbon stocks) that can help reduce the impacts of climate change on crop production. Through applying agroecosystem modeling in combination with a long-term field experiment (1970-2018), we firstly examined the synergic effect of NT and cover crop on the soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics over the past fifty years. Both field observations and simulation results show that NT leads to greater carbon gains (0.22 Mg C ha-1 yr-1) in the topsoil compared with conventional tillage. Model attribution analysis further explores that 1) soil carbon sequestration was highly correlated to biomass carbon inputs from both winter rye cover crop and corn cropping; 2) elevated CO2 and warming effects are main contributors to benefiting SOC gains mainly through promoting cover crop growth. We also conducted model projections and the results show that SOC levels under NT-cover crop management would be enhanced with an increasing rate of 0.089 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 under high-emissions scenarios (RCP8.5) from 2019 to 2099, largely due to enhanced biomass production of cover crop. Our study indicates that cover crop is of vital importance for soil carbon sequestration; and a combination of NT and cover crop would be an effective management strategy for climate change mitigation.   Also see Appendix 2.   ND:       N mineralization from long-term no-till crop residues. A sequence of 5 (5) 12-14 week incubations (Stanford and Smith method) to simulate N mineralization for the 5 “cropping seasons” were conducted with residues applied to the soil surface rather than incorporated.  Residues included corn, soybean, spring wheat, winter wheat, winter pea, and forage radish.  After each incubation cycle, the soils were frozen for three weeks to simulate a winter season.  At the beginning of the next incubation cycle, crop residue was added to the incubation tubes and the incubation was repeated.  During the first three cycles, N mineralization mirrored previous studies where crop residues of high C:N ratio residues (>40) showed N immobilization and low C:N ratio residues (<20) showed net mineralization.  During the fourth and fifth incubation cycles, untreated soil (control soil) N mineralization increased indicating that changes occurred within the soil microbiological community that increased decomposition of inherent organic matter in the absence for added residue.  However, even though base-line N mineralization increased, the N mineralization or immobilization relationships of the residue materials did not change.  (See attached Figures 1 through 6). N mineralization from farmer soil samples.  Sixty one (61) farmer samples from across the state of North Dakota with a range of organic matter values obtained by the NDSU Soil Testing Laboratory were subject to 7-day anaerobic incubations to determine potentially mineralizable N (PMN).  Regression analysis of the data indicated that about 7.4 ug N/g soil was mineralized per percent of SOM.  This indicated that as soil health potentially improves by using management practices enhancing soil health, soil test based N fertilizer recommendations may need to be adjusted for PMN availability as soil organic matter increases. (See attached Figure 7).     N mineralization from long-term no-till crop residues. Several iterations of N mineralizaton have been conducted including characterization of N mineralization rates from selected drop residues, N mineralization characterization from mixed residues and effects of repeated residue applications over simulated growing seasons. Current studies include incubating residues of corn soybean and wheat in simulated common crop rotations over three simulated “growing seasons” with or without cover crop residues in the wheat or soybean phases of the crop rotations.   N mineralization from farmer soil samples.   PMN evaluations have been completed and the soil samples are being characterized for textural analysis to attempt to relate soil physical property effects on PMN of north Dakota soils.   N mineralization in integrated crop-grazing systems. No data is being reported for this reporting cycle.  However, data continues to be collected for the ninth and tenth (2019) cropping seasons.   NE:     My research program addresses the functional significance of soil microbial communities to the management and performance of agricultural and natural ecosystems. A key component is identifying drivers of microbial community composition and processes linked to crop/rangeland productivity and soil health/ecosystem services in maize and grassland systems subjected to intensification, diversification/invasion and climate change. Current projects related to the goals of NCERA59 include:   UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI IN MANAGED ECOSYSTEMS AND APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE TO IMPROVE PLANT PRODUCTIVITY AND SOIL SUSTAINABILITY Our recent work demonstrated an inverse relationship between N fertilizer addition and extra-radical AMF biomass (i.e. in the soil) that was most strongly expressed at maize reproduction.  This led to the hypothesis that N-stressed plants allocate more C to the AMF partner to promote extra-radical mycelial (ERM) growth in the soil and thereby N uptake. To verify that this increase in soil AMF biomass under low N conditions was driven by increased ERM, a study was conducted in eastern NE where long-term continuous maize had received 0, 90, or 180 kg N ha-1. Root exclusion bags were filled with soil from each plot and placed in the maize root zone at the midpoint of vegetative growth (V10) and removed seven weeks later (R3). Lipids were extracted from the soil and the AMF specific fatty acid biomarker C16:1c11 was quantified in neutral, glycol- and phospholipid fractions.  The AMF biomarker only increased in the mesh bags where no N fertilizer had been applied. Hyphal length measurements supported this trend but were not significant.  This data verifies increased ERM growth under conditions of N deficiency and indicates that neutral lipids containing C16:1c11 were transported in the ERM to promote hyphal growth and possibly N uptake. This work was presented at the 2019 SSSA meetings in San Diego.   UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF NITROGEN FERTILIZATION AND CROP ROTATION ON SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN MANAGED ECOSYSTEMS AND APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY Our group is currently exploring how long-term practices of crop rotation and nitrogen fertilization at the USDA-ARS long-term crop rotation field site (CRS) shape distinct soil microbial communities and contribute to aboveground and below-ground ecological processes in dryland no-till maize agroecosystems. Using both fatty acid data and bacterial 16S DNA sequencing, Ashley Stengel found that bacterial communities in continuous corn (CC) plots were distinctly separated by nitrogen fertilization rate, whereas communities in corn following soybean (CSB) did not differ. This pattern suggests that soybean is providing a buffer to nitrogen stress, which is in turn influencing the microbial community composition and could be contributing to the enhanced yields seen in CSB plots over CC plots. A similar pattern has been uncovered in our high yield irrigated systems at maize reproduction, but is accompanied by reduced bacterial and fungal biomass in corn following soybean compared to continuous corn. This work was presented at the 2019 SSSA meetings in San Diego. Understanding the maize-associated soil microbiome under variable and diverse nutrient conditions is important for ascertaining how microbial resiliency and redundancy may promote healthy soils and hardy crops.   IDENTIFY CROP RESIDUE AND/OR COVERCROP MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES WITH POSITIVE IMPACTS ON SOIL HEALTH AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES VIA ALTERATIONS IN SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION How we manage crop residues, either via tillage, stover removal and/or grazing may have significant impacts on soil health and function. In collaboration with USDA-ARS we are investigating soil microbial community structure and function in two long-term cropping systems: (1) Corn Stover Removal Study (REAP) and (2) Roger’s Memorial Farm Tillage Crop Rotation Experiment (RMF). Salvador Ramirez has completed a first draft of his REAP manuscript entitled ‘Impact of Corn Stover Removal on Soil Microbial Communities in No-till and Conventional till Continuous Corn’ for submission to Agronomy Journal. Baling and grazing of maize residues are common practices in irrigated systems to meet increasing demands for forage. In collaboration with Humberto Blanco and his PhD student Manbir Rakkar and Post doc Sabrina Ruis, we examined the impact of maize stover grazing vs. baling on soil microbial biomass (SMB) and community structure in two short-term studies. The second paper by Manbir Rakkar entitled ‘Grazing crop residues has less impact in the short-term on soil properties than baling in the Central Great Plains’ has now been published in Agronomy Journal.   SD:        Unique project findings - Inclusion of cover crops and grazing with no-till enhanced the soil health parameters.   Cover crops, diverse rotations, and no-till systems are the key components of conservation agricultural systems and improve soil biodiversity, soil organic matter, and nutrient cycling. It is well documented in the literature the benefits of cover crops and grazing on soil health, however, research evaluating how soil health improved through the influence of soil microbial communities remains limited and need attention. Integrating livestock into cropping systems to graze cover crops may enhance soil health through improved soil biodiversity. A study was conducted in South Dakota at three different locations. We investigated the impacts of cover crops and grazing on microbial community structure under different cropping systems using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. Cover crop treatments and no cover crop controls with and without grazing were compared. Cover crops with grazing (Total biomass, 5854.46 ng g-1; Actinomycetes biomass, 622.31 ng g-1) had a higher PLFA content than no cover crops (control). Soil biological activity varied with the treatment and significantly recorded higher PLFAs under cover crops with grazing. This study provides a clear link between cover crops, grazing, soil microbial communities, and soil health. This may pave the way for better management of the soil biodiversity (soil microbiome) to enhance sustainable soil health through incorporating cover crops and grazing in the cropping system.   TN:   <ol> <li>Published 6 peer-reviewed scientific articles in the area of SOC and soil health</li> <li>Delivered 13 conference presentations with a published abstract</li> </ol> <ul> <li>Trained 1 postdoc, 2 Ph.D. students, 2 MS students and 2 undergraduate students in the area of SOC and soil health</li> </ul> <ol> <li>Received two grants in related areas</li> <li>Co-authored a publication with other NCERA59 participants</li> <li>Hosted NCERA-59 meeting at the University of Tennessee</li> </ol>

Publications

Peer-reviewed Publications:   Collectively, the committee had one peer-reviewed publication:   Wander, M.M., L. J. Cihacek, M. Coyne, R. A. Drijber, J. M. Grossman, J. Gutknecht, W. R. Horwath, S. Jagadamma, D. C. Olk, L. K. Tiemann, M. Ruark, S. S. Snapp, R. Weil, and R. F. Turco. 2019. Developments in soil quality and health: Reflections by the research committee on soil organic matter management. Frontiers in Environmental Science 7:1-9. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2019.00109.   There were 21 other published or accepted peer-reviewed publications in which one or more committee members were co-authors:   Bai, X., Y. Huang, W. Ren, M. Coyne,  P.-A. Jacinthe,  B. Tao,  D. Hui,  J. Yang, and C. Matocha. 2019. Responses of soil carbon sequestration to climate smart agriculture practices: A meta-analysis" Global Change Biology DOI:10.1111/gcb.14658.   Bakker, E. Findling, B. Lanson, Wander, M.M., and N E. Hubert 2019. Mineralogical differences in a temperate cultivated soil arising from different agronomic processes and plant K-uptake. Geoderma. 347 (2019) 210–219   Baveye, P.C., and M. Wander. 2019. The (bio)chemistry of soil humus and humic substances: Why is the “new view” still considered novel after more than 80 years?  Frontiers in Environmental Science, 06 March 2019  <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00027">https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00027</a>.   Chen, X., M., Jin, Y. Xu, W. Chu, D.C. Olk, J. Hu, Y. Jiang, J. Mao, H. Gao, and M.L. Thompson. 2019.  Potential alterations in the chemical structure of soil organic matter components during sodium hydroxide extraction.  Journal of Environmental Quality 48: (in press).   Chu, M., Singh, S., Walker, F.R., Eash, N.S., Buschermohle, M.J., Duncan, L.A., and Jagadamma, S. 2019. Soil health and soil fertility assessment by the Haney Soil Health Test in an agricultural soil in west Tennessee. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 50(9): 1123-1131.   Drijber, R.A., E.S. Jeske. Polarity of chloroform eluent critical to quantification of arbuscular mycorrhizal biomass using the neutral lipid fatty acid biomarker C16:1cis11. Accepted by Soil Biology & Biochemistry.   Florence, A.M., L.G. Higley, R.A. Drijber, C.A. Francis, J.L. Lindquist. 2019. Cover crop mixture diversity, biomass productivity, weed suppression, and stability. Accepted by PLoS One   Jagadamma, S., Essington, M.E., Xu, S., and Yin, X. 2019. Total and active organic carbon from long-term agricultural management practices in West Tennessee. Agricultural and Environmental Letters 4:180062   Kaur, J., A. Chatterjee, D Franzen, and L. J. Cihacek.  2019.  Corn Response to Sulfur Fertilizer in the Red River Valley. Agron. J. doi:10.2134/agronj2018.05.0313.   Lenssen, A.W., D.C. Olk, and D.L. Dinnes.  2019.  Application of a formulated humic product can increase soybean yield. Crop, Forage, & Turfgrass Management: (in press).https://doi.org/10.2134/cftm2018.07.0053   Mahal, N.K., W.R. Osterholz, F.E. Miguez, H.J. Poffenbarger, J.E. Sawyer, D.C. Olk, S. Archontoulis, and M.J. Castellano. 2019. Nitrogen fertilizer suppresses mineralization of soil organic matter in maize agroecosystems.  Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7:59.  <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00059">https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00059</a>   Maiga, A., Alhameid, A., Singh, S., Polat, A., Singh, J., Kumar, S. and Osborne, S. 2019. Responses of soil organic carbon, aggregate stability, carbon and nitrogen fractions to 15 and 24 years of no-till diversified crop rotations. Soil Research (In Press).   Miao, F., Li, Y., Cui, S., Jagadamma, S., Yang, G., and Zhang, Q.  2019. Soil extracellular enzyme activities under long-term fertilization management in the croplands of China: A meta-analysis. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 114(2): 125-138.   Olk, D.C., P.R. Bloom, M. De Nobili, Y. Chen, D. McKnight, M.JM. Wells, J. Weber. 2019. Using humic fractions to understand natural organic matter processes in soil and water: Selected studies and applications. Journal of Environmental Quality 48: (in press).  Doi https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2019.03.0100   Olk, D.C., D.L. Dinnes, J.R. Scoresby, C.R. Callaway, and J.W. Darlington. 2019. Can humic products substantially improve ecosystem quality and economic yield?  Silva Balcanica: 20(2): 95-110.   Ozlu, E., S. Singh., Kumar, S., and Arriaga, F. J. 2019. Soil health indicators impacted by long-term manure and inorganic fertilizer of corn-soybean rotation in South Dakota. Scientific Reports (In Press).   Rakkar, M.K., H. Blanco-Canqui, R.J. Rasby, K. Ulmer, J. Cox-O’Neill, M.E. Drewnoski, R.A. Drijber, K. Jenkins, J.C. MacDonald. 2018. Grazing crop residues has less impact in the short-term on soil properties than baling in the Central Great Plains. Agronomy Journal, doi:10.2134/agronj2018.03.0224   Sarr* S., M. Gebremedhin, M. Coyne, A. Topè, K. Sistani, and S. Lucas. 2019. Do conservation practices bring quick changes to key soil properties for resource-limited farmers? Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences. (In press 8/29/2019).   Sekaran, U., C. McCoy, S. Kumar, and S. Subramanian. 2019. Soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activity responses to nitrogen management and landscape positions in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). GCB Bioenergy:1-16.   Singh, S., Yan, S., Sorochan, J., Stier, J., Mayes, M.A., Zhuang, J., and Jagadamma, S. 2019. Soil carbon accumulation and nutrient availability in managed and unmanaged ecosystems of East Tennessee. Soil Science Society of America Journal 83:458-465.    Zou, C., J. H. Grove, R. C. Pearce, and M.S.  Coyne. 2019. What happens to in situ net soil nitrogen mineralization when nitrogen fertility changes? Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Sciences. 182:296-306. doi:10.1002/jpln.201800551.   In addition, committee members published 6 manuscripts in 2018 after the submission of the annual report. Dandan, L., L, Chen, J. Xu, L. Ma, D.C. Olk, B. Zhao, J. Zhang, and X. Xin. 2018. Chemical nature of soil organic carbon under different long-term fertilization regimes is coupled with changes in the bacterial community composition in a Calcaric Fluvisol.  Biology and Fertility of Soils 54:999-1012.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-018-1319-0   Kuar, J., L. Cihacek, and A. Chatterjee.  2018.  Estimation of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) mineralization in soils amended with crop residues contributing to N and S nutrition of corn in the north Central U.S. Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. 49(18):2256-2266.    Rakkar, M.K., H. Blanco-Canqui, R.J. Rasby, K. Ulmer, J. Cox-O’Neill, M.E. Drewnoski, R.A. Drijber, K. Jenkins, J.C. MacDonald. 2018. Grazing crop residues has less impact in the short-term on soil properties than baling in the Central Great Plains. Agronomy Journal, doi:10.2134/agronj2018.03.0224   Ugarte, C.M., H. Kwon, and M.M. Wander. 2018. Conservation management and ecosystem services in Midwest agricultural systems. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. doi: 10.2489/jswc.73.4.422   Xia, Y., C.M. Ugarte, K. Guan, M. Pentrak, and M.M. Wander. 2018. Developing near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy analysis methods for rapid estimation of soil quality Indicators in Illinois. Soil Science Society of America Journal. doi:10.2136/sssaj2018.05.0175 Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., and Rowntree, J. 2018. Response of grazing land soil health to management strategies: A summary review. Sustainability 10: 4769.

Impact Statements

TN: Conduct research to help producers understand the best ways to manage cropping systems for increased productivity and soil health i. Long-term tillage study: We found that 40 years of no-tillage in combination with winter cover cropping increased soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and aggregation than no-till alone in soybean monoculture systems. ii. Long-term crop rotation study: We found that SOC accumulation was favored by continuous corn and cotton and by corn in rotation with cotton systems than by soybean included systems under NT management after 17 years. iii. Texture x moisture study: We found that different textured soils (sandy, loamy, clayey) have different moisture optima for maximum microbial respiration of SOC. iv. Cover crop study: We found no difference in SOC after 5 years of cover cropping compared to no cover cropping in corn-soybean systems. Cover crop species also had no effect on SOC in Tennessee croplands which experience hot and humid climatic conditions.

Date of Annual Report: 09/24/2020

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/14/2020 - 07/15/2020
Period the Report Covers: 07/01/2019 - 07/15/2020

Participants

Castellano, Michael (castelmj@iastate.edu) – Iowa State University; Cihacek, Larry (larry.cihacek@ndsu.edu) – North Dakota State University; Coyne, Mark (mark.coyne@uky.edu) – University of Kentucky; Drijber, Rhae (rdrijber1@unl.edu) – University of Nebraska; Fortuna, Ann-Marie (Ann-Marie.fortuna@ usda.gov; Grossman, Julie (jgross@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Gutknecht, Jessica (jgut@umn.edu) - University of Minnesota; Horwath, William (wrhorwath@ucdavis.edu) – University of California, Davis; Bhadha, Jehangir jango@ufl.edu – University of Florida; Kumar, Sandeep (Sandeep.kumar@sdstate.edu) - South Dakota State University; Olk, Dan (dan.olk@ars.usda.gov) - USDA-ARS, Iowa; Poffenbarger, Hanna (hanna.poffenbarger@uky.edu) – University of Kentucky; Ruark, Matthew (mdruark@wisc.edu) - University of Wisconsin; Tiemann, Lisa (ltiemann@msu.edu) – Michigan State University; Turco, Ronald (rturco@purdue.edu) – Purdue University; Ugarte, Carmen – University of Illinois; Wander, Michelle (mwander@illinois.edu) – University of Illinois; Whitman, Thea (twhitman@wisc.edu) – University of Wisconsin

Brief Summary of Minutes

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The officers selected for 2020 at the 2019 meeting were M.S. Coyne (Chair), University of Kentucky with the secretary position was not filled during the meetings. Due to travel restrictions imposed by the on-going COVID pandemic a virtual meeting was hosted by the University of Kentucky on July 14-15, 2020. M.S. Coyne opened the meeting on July 14, 2020 at 10:00 am. The first order of business was a virtual preview of agriculture in Kentucky and the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment. Subsequently, state reports were presented for KY (Poffenbarger), WI (Ruark/Whitman), FL (Bhadha), and SD (Kumar) followed by lunch. In the afternoon state reports from MN (Grossman), ND (Cihacek), IL (Ugarte), and an ARS report from Olk. The formal meeting was followed by an extended meet-and-greet with graduate students and post docs who were invited to sit in on the virtual meeting. The meet and greet was host by Travis Banet (UK)

On Wednesday July 15, the meeting started at 10 am EST. The remaining state reports for NE (Drijber), IA (Castellano), CA (Horwath), and MI (Tiemann) were given along with a second ARS presentation about the El Reno Research Station (Fortuna). Ron Turco (Purdue University) provided a powerpoint and brief talk about the procedures for renewing the multi-state project. Following this presentation there was an extend discussion of the proposal renewal and a committee consisting of Coyne, Bhadha, Cihacek, and Tiemann was appointed to prepare a working draft.

New officers were elected for 2020: Cihacek (Chair), University of North Dakota and Ugarte (Secretary) University of IL. The 2021 meeting will be held in Lincoln Nebraska at the University of Nebraska and hosted by Rhae Drijber at a date to be determined. The meeting was adjourned at 4 pm by M.S. Coyne.

Minutes Attachment:

Appendix 1 - Minutes.pdf

Accomplishments

“NCERA 59's Reflections on Soil Health and Soil Quality” was based on content being developed for a jointly authored paper that was published in 2019. The title of the paper is “Developments in Soil Quality and Health: Reflections by the Research Committee on Soil Organic Matter Management” published in Frontiers in Environmental Science.   Other Accomplishments by State         FL: Bhadha et al. recently completed a two-year Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) project related to on-farm study (OS18-114) “Assisting Vegetable Growers in Florida with Soil Health Evaluation Associated with Cover Cropping/Green Manure Practice During Summer.” Results showed that cover crops provide a myriad of soil health benefits, such as: increasing soil organic matter; increasing water holding capacity; decreasing soil pH, thereby improving nutrient efficiency and microbial activity; increasing soil protein content, thereby storing more nitrogen and making it available to plants through mineralization. In some cases increasing phosphorus, one of the most important nutrients for plants next to nitrogen. Bhadha was recently funded by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Specialty crop Block Grant to continue this effort with multiple collaborative growers.   KY:       Short-term economic benefits of conservation agriculture can compensate for lack of soil quality improvement   Conservation agriculture has been marketed to farmers as a sustainable way to increase soil productivity and buffer the effects of anticipated fluctuations in both climate and fuel and fertilizer prices. Despite US Farm Bill financial incentives promoting the use of conservation practices such as no-tillage (NT) and cover crops (CC) among farmers, widescale adoption of CC in the US, in particular, remains low due to the lack of information that quantifies not only soil improvements but also the associated management costs to the farming operation. These practices may take years of consistent management to show measurable soil quality improvement. Conversely, costs associated with CC planting and management must be incurred immediately before the accrual of any benefits. Current research has largely focused on the soil quality benefits of CC without considering short-term implementation costs. To help fill this knowledge gap, soil properties, cash crop yield, and annual production costs were evaluated in a three-year maize/soybean study comparing a conservation system to a conventional production system. The control system included frequent tillage and control of winter weeds with a residual soil herbicide. We compared five different conservation systems including no-tillage and cover crops to the conventional system. We found a lack of consistent improvement in soil properties or crop yield in the conservation systems over the three-year period. We determined that the economic benefits of substituting NT and CC for expensive conventional inputs were much greater than the modest soil property improvements observed.  We also found that the greatest resource benefit was reduction in estimated soil erosion rates. These results demonstrate that conservation agriculture has the potential to decrease overall production cost while decreasing the risk of accelerated soil erosion during expected weather extremes associated with climate change, potentially making both farming operations and agroecosystems more resilient. Breeding Effects on Root Phenology in Maize Hybrids. Of four hybrids tested in a preliminary study, two were era hybrids (years of commercialization 1936 and 2014), and the other two were a brown midrib hybrid and its non-mutated counterpart (bm and nbm, respectively). As compared to the recent hybrid, the earlier hybrid was taller, had both greater above and belowground mass, more nodal roots, more total root length, and shallower crown root angles. The root system of the early hybrid was about 60% larger than that of the recent hybrid, as measured by root length and root biomass. The consistency of the relationship between the era hybrids across multiple growth stages, particularly with respect to root mass and crown root angle, does suggest a difference in both total carbon deposition via the roots and the distribution of that carbon in the soil profile.   MN: Cover crops are feasible in high tunnel environments across multiple climates and regions and soils that include cover crops show measurable improvements in nitrogen cycling and microbial activity Grossman contributed to  a database of recommended NRCS Soil Health Indicators and Associated Laboratory Procedures (NRCS Soil Health Technical Note No. 450-03), one of 18 institutions involved in the national effort. This work collected data gathered via sampling from long-term systems differing in management on a single soil type in our upper Midwest region. The work will continue to sample sites to determine temporal variation related to the recommended measures. Grossman also led a large multi-regional (MN, KY, and KS) project investigating the effect of cover crops on soil biological activity, nutrient pools (especially N) and organic matter pools (Gutknecht also a collaborator). New projects have been funded to determine the effect of summer cover crops on soil N pools and beneficial insect habitat. Cates’ MN Office for Soil Health has developed farmer outreach materials on organic matter and water-holding capacity, and spoke about the importance of organic matter and soil health at ~40 events in the region. The Gutknecht laboratory has led soil health and soil carbon storage/processing research components of understanding the environmental benefits of a perennial grain crop, Intermediate Wheatgrass. This research included demonstrating soil health benefits of this perennial grain crop, as well as research underway on tracking carbon through those systems and root decomposition and turnover experiments being completed in summer 2020. Gutknecht has recently joined the central management team of a USDA SAS CAP project on intermediate wheatgrass where a central component is synthesizing carbon cycling and carbon storage in this perennial crop.   ND:     N mineralization from long-term no-till crop residues. Several iterations of N mineralization have been conducted including characterization of N mineralization rates from selected drop residues, N mineralization characterization from mixed residues and effects of repeated residue applications over simulated growing seasons. Current studies include incubating residues of corn soybean and wheat in simulated common crop rotations over three simulated “growing seasons” with or without cover crop (15 % radish) residues in the wheat or soybean phases of the crop rotations. This work is generally complete and the data is being summarized and analyzed.  In future work, the focus will be on N mineralization of soybean residue and components of that residue (leaves, petioles, stems, pods). N mineralization from farmer soil samples. PMN evaluations have been completed and the soil samples are being characterized for textural analysis to attempt to relate soil physical property effects on PMN of North Dakota soils. N mineralization in integrated crop-grazing systems. No data is being reported for this reporting cycle. However, data continues to be collected for the ninth and tenth (2019) cropping seasons and previously collected is being summarized.   SD:       Inclusion of cover crops and grazing with no-till enhanced the soil health parameters. Cover crops, diverse rotations, and no-till systems are the key components of conservation agricultural systems and improve soil biodiversity, soil organic matter, and nutrient cycling. It is well documented in the literature the benefits of cover crops and grazing on soil health, however, research evaluating how soil health improved through the influence of soil microbial communities remains limited and need attention. Integrating livestock into cropping systems to grazed cover crops may enhance soil health through improved soil biodiversity. The present study was conducted in South Dakota at three different locations. We investigated the impacts of cover crops and grazing on microbial community structure (MCS) under different cropping systems using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. Cover crop treatments and no cover crop controls with and without grazing were compared.  The results showed that cover crops with grazing (total biomass, 5855 ng g-1; Actinomycetes biomass, 622  ng g-1) had a higher PLFA content in soil than no cover crops (control). Soil biological activity varied with the treatment and significantly recorded higher PLFAs under cover crops with grazing. This study provides a clear link between cover crops, grazing, soil microbial communities, and soil health. This may pave the way for better management of the soil biodiversity (soil microbiome) to enhance sustainable soil health through incorporating cover crops and grazing in the cropping system.   TN: Soil health comparison: We found that Haney and Cornell soil health tests did not differentiate long-term management effects on soil properties in southeast region. Texture x moisture study: We found that different textured soils (sandy, loamy, clayey) have different moisture optima for maximum microbial respiration of SOC and these soils accumulate osmolytes under drought conditions. Cover crop study: We found no difference in SOC after 5 years of cover cropping compared to no cover cropping in corn-soybean systems. Cover crop species also had no effect on SOC in Tennessee croplands which experience hot and humid climatic conditions.   WI: We found that winter rye does not increase microbial necromass contributions to soil organic carbon in continuous corn silage in North Central USA – with both Ruark and Whitman as co-authors, and just accepted in the Soil Biology and Biochemistry journal. We have made strong progress on understanding wildfire effects on soil C cycling, including working on prescribed fires in WI, as well as simulating wildfires in intact cores from the boreal forest of northern Canada, tracking CO2 fluxes and microbial community changes. Whitman was also awarded the Soil Ecology Society Early Career award.   Funding and facilities:   FL: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. $154,452. “Examining Regenerative Farming Practices to Benefit Specialty Crop Growers”. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. $10,000. “Application of horse bedding as a soil amendment: Leachability and soil-health assessment on mineral soils”. USDA-Southern SARE. $15,000. “Assisting vegetable growers in Florida with soil health evaluation associated with cover cropping/green manure practice during summer”. Dr. Bhadha’s research and outreach program is based out of the University of Florida-Everglades Research and Education Center (EREC), located in Belle Glade, Florida. The research center houses several full time faculty, postdocs, and graduate students working on a myriad of topics related to agronomy, plant breeding, soil science, water quality, crop nutrition and entomology. The Soil, Water, and nutrient Management Laboratory in located at the EREC and is one which focusses on addressing soil sustainability issues within the region. The lab is equipped with an inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES, Agilent-5110) used for elemental analyses; a Carbon/Nitrogen analyzer (Shimadzu TOC-L) used to analyze total organic carbon and total nitrogen analyses; a discrete analyzer (SEAL AQ400 Multi-Chemistry Analyzer) capable of analyzing over 200 analytes. In addition, the lab is also equipped with full wet chemistry capabilities to conduct benchtop preparation, and analyses.   KY:       Funding for the corn root project was provided by USDA-NIFA grant number 2019-67019-29401. We constructed a large-format imaging platform that consists of a ~2' wide x 5' long clear box backlit with LED lights and a camera mounted above. The system enables us to float entire corn root systems in the box and image from above. This imaging system is a major improvement over traditional small-format (~8.5" x 11") root scanning protocols, which require taking individual scans of portions of root systems. MN: New Facilities and Equipment: Grossman’s lab has constructed an aggregate stability instrument capable of analyzing multiple samples. Gutknecht’s lab has acquired a LiCOR 6800 for assessing photosynthetic carbon inputs into agricultural systems, and has built three large field scale (1m3) isotope labeling chambers for tracing soil carbon through plant-soil systems. Cates’ Soil Health Lab has also built capacity to test soil aggregation, potentially mineralizable carbon, and water-extractable carbon and nitrogen. Two new grants were secured in 2020: Award: USDA Nat'l Inst. of Food & Agriculture, "2019 North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program". Project: ($200,000) Grossman, J. M. (Principal), Pfeiffer, A. C. (Co-Investigator), "Grossman: Summer Cover Crop System Management", (November 1, 2019 - October 31, 2022). Award: USDA NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SVC, "Maximizing Summer Cover Crop Conservation Benefits for Improved Vegetable Production". PI: Julie Grossman. Research. Project: ($987,226) Grossman, J. M. (Principal), Rogers, M. A. (Co-Investigator), "Maximizing Summer Cover Crop Conservation Benefits for Improved Vegetable Production", (April 10, 2020 - February 28, 2023). Gutknecht lab efforts were driven by multiple recently funded grants: Award: USDA Nat'l Inst. of Food & Agriculture Sustainable Agricultural Systems Coordinated Agricultural Project program “Developing and deploying a perennial grain crop enterprise to improve environmental quality and rural prosperity.” Project: ($10,000,000) Jungers, J.M (Principal) with 47 collaborating investigators of whom J. Gutknecht is in the core management team (August 2020-July 2025) Award: Forever Green Initiative: Production Scale Deployment of Forever Green Cropping Systems: Agronomic, Economic, and Environmental Aspects. Project ($301,000) Gamble, J (Principal) with co-PIs Jungers J., Gutknecht, J., Sheaffer, C., and Gesch, R., (January 2020-December 2024) Award: USDA Nat'l Inst. of Food & Agriculture. Perennial crops to improve soil health and sustain yields for climate extremes. Project ($500,000) Gutknecht J.L.M (Principal), with co-PIs Jacob Jungers, Craig Sheaffer, Mitch Hunter, and Chris Fernandez. (March 2019-February, 2024) Award: USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Program. Measuring Soil Health in the Upper Midwest to Improve Water Quality. Project ($907,106) Lewandowski, A. (Principal) with Co-PIs Dean Current, Holly Dolliver, Joe Magner, Matt Drewitz, Jessica Gutknecht, Nicholas Jelinski, and Lucy Levers. (August 2018-July 2021) ND:     Funding for research has been obtained from the North Dakota State Board of Agricultural Research and Extension (SBARE) corn, soybean and wheat commodity committees as well as the ND Corn Council, ND Soybean Council, and ND wheat Commission. SD:      New facilities include a MIDI to analyze phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) TN: Optimizing plant-soil-microbial interactions through crop diversification to enhance sustainability in southeastern croplands. PI: Jagadamma, S; Co-PIs: Lee, J., Duncan, L.A., McClure, A., Raper, T.B., Kivlin, S. USDA-NIFA Foundational Program, 09-2020 to 08-2024 ($500,000). Demonstrating the impacts of cover crops for soil health and farm profitability in Tennessee. PI: Jagadamma, S; Co-PIs: Walker, F., Singh, S., Duncan, L., McClure, M., Upendram, S. Tennessee Department of Agriculture, 10-2019 to 09-2023 ($341,493). Evaluation of cover crop species and planting dates on cotton productivity and soil health. PI: Jagadamma, S; Co-PI: Walker, F., Duncan, L., and Raper, T. Cotton Incorporated, 01-2020 to 12-2020 ($11,129). Row crop production under climate change – assessment of sustainable management practices and soil additives in sand deposited fields. PI: Lee, J; Co-PI: Jagadamma, S. USDA-Agricultural Research Service, 09-2019 to 08-2020 ($103,704).  WI:  The Whitman lab purchased a Mac Pro for high-performance computing with microbial genomics analyses  Activities (Outreach and Presentations):   FL: South Florida Legislative Delegation tour. “Best management practices in the Everglades Agricultural Area”. Field tour of subsidence post. December 13, 2019. (26 attendees) Farm City Luncheon, Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce. “Sustainable Agriculture in the EAA”. Demonstration/Display. November 20, 2019. (110 attendees) Everglades Research and Education Center, Open House. “Growing with Nature”. Demonstration/Display. November 7, 2019. (162 attendees) Third Annual Florida Rice Growers’ Training “Benefits of cultivating flooded rice in South Florida”. August 21, 2019. (52 attendees) South Florida Fair. ‘Discover the Outdoors’. January 18-February 3, 2019. (5000 attendees) International Society of Sugar Cane Technologist Entomology Workshop 2018 Field Tour. “Soil Health and Sustainability”. December 5, 2018 (26 attendees) Agricultural Retailers Association Conference & Expo 2018 Field Tour. “Farming in the EAA”. November 29, 2018. (40 attendees) KY:     Presentation at ASA Southern Section meeting (Jan 31). Title: Are Cover Crops Worth It? Assessing Soil Benefits and Production Costs in a Corn/Soybean Rotation in Northwestern Mississippi. Author list: Jacobs, A.A., R. Stout-Evans, J. Allison, E. Ramona Garner, and R.L. McCulley. Poffenbarger, H.J., and J.H. Grove. Effects of long-term no-till on optimal nitrogen fertilization practices for corn. American Society of Agronomy Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, November 2019. MN: Rakkar, M. K., Sheaffer, C., Jungers, J., Gutknecht, J., Grossman, J. M. , Bergquist, G., Li, F., ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, "Impact of Perennial and Annual Organic Transition Systems on Profitability and Soil Health Indicators," San Antonio, Texas. (November 13, 2019). Blair, H., A. Cates, J. Gutknecht, N. Jelinski, A. Lewandowski, M. Kocher, and M. Lafferty. Assessing Regional Variability In Soil Health Indicators: A Meta-Analysis. Poster presentation, Minnesota Water Resources annual Conference, Saint Paul, Minnesota, October 15-16, 2019. Gutknecht, J., G. Bergquist, D. Wyse, C. Sheaffer, T. Crews, G. de Oliveira, N. Brunsell, J. Jungers. The carbon budget, sustainability, and viability of a novel perennial agroecosystem. Oral presentation, Ecological Society of America annual meetings, Louisville, KY, August 12-16, 2019. Wills, S., Grossman, J. M. , ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, "Incorporating Soil Biological Indicators into Soil Survey: Microbial Community Structure and Enzymatic Activity," San Antonio, Texas. (November 12, 2019). And 21 additional authors Wauters, V. , Grossman, J. M. , Paulo, P., Anne, P., ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, "Summer Cover Crop Growth and Effect on Soil Quality in Upper Midwest Vegetable Rotations," San Antonio, Texas. (November 12, 2019). Grossman, J. M. , Small Grains Conference, "Growing Your Own Nitrogen through Cover Crops," Practical Farmers of Iowa, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. (August 16, 2019). Poster Gieske, M. F., Grossman, J. M. , Pfeiffer, A., Shrestha, D., Al-Zubad, A., Li, F., Rivard, C. L., Jacobsen, K., Gutknecht, J. L., ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, "Cover Crop Effects on Soil Health in Organic High Tunnels," San Antonio, Texas. (November 12, 2019). Grossman has developed new relationships with Tribal land grant colleges in Minnesota in both research and outreach capacities related to soil health. ND:     Cihacek, L. J. and R. Alghamdi. 2020. N mineralization dynamics in no-till crop residues in the Northern Plains.  Great Plains Soil Fertility Conference Proceedings. March 10-11, 2020. Denver, CO. Alghamdi, R. and L. J. Cihacek.  2019. Mixed crop residue contribution to soil N dynamics in long-term no-till systems. Abst. No. 225-8. ASA-SSSA-CSSA International Meetings, November 10-13, 2019.  San Antonio, TX. Alghamdi, R. S. Datta, L. J. Cihacek, and S. Day.  2019.  Changes in Crop and Soil Mangement Patterns on High Erosion Risk Soils over 2 Decades. Abst. No. 187-1232. ASA-SSSA-CSSA International Meetings, November 10-13, 2019.  San Antonio, TX. Cihacek, L. J., S. Mathews, and R. Alghamdi.  2019.  Will Improving Soil Health Require Estimation of N Mineralization a Part of Soil Testing for Fertilizer Recommendations?  Abst. No. 368-1025.  ASA-SSSA-CSSA International Meetings, November 10-13, 2019.  San Antonio, TX. Landblom, D. G., S. Senturklu, L. Cihacek, R. L. Maddock, and S. I. Paisley.  2019.  Integrated Systems Synergy and Regenerative Agriculture in the Semi-Arid Region of Western North Dakota.  Abstracts of the 74th SWCS International Annual Conference. July 28-31, 2019. Pittsburg, PA SD: Kumar, S. 2019. Impacts of integrated crop livetsock system on soils and environmental quality. Oral Presentation at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA. International Annual Meeting at San Diego, CA, January 6-9, 2019. Abagandura, G., Şentürklü, S., Singh, N., Kumar, S., Landblom, D. and Ringwall, K. 2019. Impacts of crop rotation and grazing under integrated crop-livestock system on soil surface greenhouse gas fluxes. Oral Presentation at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA. International Annual Meeting at San Diego, CA, January 6-9, 2019. Polat, A., Abagandura, G., Singh, J., Kumar, S., Osborne, S. and Snyders, S. 2019.  On-farm assessment of soil quality under integrated crop-livestock system in South Dakota. Oral Presentation at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA. International Annual Meeting at San Diego, CA, January 6-9, 2019. Abagandura., G., Sekaran, U., Sagar, K., Bly, A., Singh, J., Dhaliwal, J., Wang, T., Kumar, S. and Farmaha, B. 2019. Response of soil biological health to short and long-term no-till systems in South Dakota. Oral Presentation at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA. International Annual Meeting at San Diego, CA, January 6-9, 2019. TN: Singh, S., Jagadamma, S., Walker, F., Yin, F., and Yoder, D.C. 2019. Evaluating soil health assessment approaches for the diverse agroecosystems of Tennessee. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Poster). November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., Ashworth, A., Singh, S•., Owens, P., and Moore, P. 2019. Soil organic carbon accumulation in response to different grazing management practices. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Oral). November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Ceylan, S., Nouri, A., Jahromi, N.B, Lee, J., Walker, F.R., Jagadamma, S., Yoder, D.C., and Arelli, P.R. 2019. Effect of biochar application on hydro-physical properties of fluvial deposits. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Poster), November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Yin, X., Bansal, S., Sykes, V.R., Jagadamma, S., Lee, J., and Boyer, C. 2019. Carbon footprint and sustainability index of major cropping sequence and bio-cover systems under no-tillage. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Oral), November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Bansal, S., Yin, X., Savoy, H.J., Jagadamma, S., Lee, J., and Sykes, V.R. 2019. Long-term influence of phosphorus fertilization and soil aggregation on soil organic carbon and nitrogen under no-tillage production systems. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Poster), November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Bansal, S., Yin, X., Sykes, V.R., Jagadamma, S., and Lee, J. 2019. Long-term influence of crop sequences, bio-covers and aggregate sizes on organic carbon and nitrogen in soil profile under no-tillage. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Poster), November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Jahromi, N.B., Lee, J., Johnsen, M., Fulcher, A., Nouri, A., Walker, F.R., Jagadamma, S., and Arelli, P.R. 2019. Biochar as soil amendment to improve flooded sandy soil for corn production. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Poster), November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. Bansal, S., Yin, X., Singh, S., Jagadamma, S., Sykes, V.R., and Lee, J. 2019. Crop sequence diversity and bio-covers under no-tillage affect greenhouse gas emissions. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting (Poster), November 10-13, San Antonio, TX. WI: Whitman, T. (June 2020). TBD. Canadian Soil Science Society annual meeting, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. Invited keynote. Whitman, T. (February 2020). TBD. Ecology and evolutionary biology seminar, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. Invited talk. *Berry, T. and Whitman, T. (January 2020). Using R to Analyze Large Datasets from Analytical Instruments. Data Science Research Bazaar, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI. Poster presentation. *Price, J., Willis, A. and Whitman, T. (January 2020). Accounting for uncertainty in the read-to-OTU classification problem improves the quality of microbiome analysis. Data Science Research Bazaar, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI. Poster presentation. *Zeba, N., *Berry, T., and Whitman, T. (December 2019). Long term effects of pyrogenic carbon ageing on carbon mineralization by soil microbes. American Geophysical Union annual meeting, San Francisco, CA. Poster presentation. Whitman, T. (December 2019). Soil microbes and wildfires. Biogeochemistry, environmental science, and sustainability seminar, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Invited talk. *Woolet, J., Unzicker, C., McWhirter, H., Tanck, S., Helwig, J., Johnson, Y., Baxter, C., Venkateshwaran, M., and Whitman, T. (November 2019). Belowground drivers of prescribed fire impacts on vegetation in restored prairies. Association for Fire Ecology conference, Tucson, AZ. Poster presentation. Whitman, T. (November 2019). Effects of fresh and pyrogenic organic matter additions on soil carbon fluxes: Bacterial and fungal responses. Soil Science Society of America Meeting, San Antonio, TX. Invited talk. Whitman, T. (May 2019). Dark matter. Soil Ecology Society meeting, Toledo, OH. Invited talk – Early Career Award. Whitman, T. (May 2019). Next Frontiers in Soil Ecology panel. Soil Ecology Society meeting, Toledo, OH. Panelist. *West, J., A.M. Cates, Y. Rui, L. Deiss, M.D. Ruark, and T. Whitman. (May 2019). Microbial contributions to soil carbon under winter rye cover crop in continuous silage corn. Soil Ecology Society meeting, Toledo, OH. Oral presentation. Whitman, T. (May 2019). Analyzing soil microbial community sequencing data with the CHTC. HTCondor Week Conference, Madison, WI. Invited talk. Whitman, T. (May 2019) Notes from the underground. Milwaukee Microbiology Society. University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Milwaukee, WI. Invited talk. Zegler, C. and M.D. Ruark (Feb 2020). Quantifying soil health. 2020 Wisconsin Cover Crops Conference, 20 Feb. 2020. Ruark, M.D. and G. Richardson. 2019. Biological indicators of soil health in Wisconsin. Discovery Farms Workshop, 2 April 2019. Public outreach at Wis. Science Festival: Designed and ran “What lives in the soil?” booth for public including children and parents, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison (October 2019).

Publications

There were 31 published or accepted peer-reviewed publications in which one or more committee members were co-authors (See Appendix 2 for details).   FL: 6 KY: 6 MN: 5 ND: 2 SD: 3 TN: 5 WI: 4   The publications occurred in the following journals:   Agricultural Systems Agriculture Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment Agronomy Journal Applied Soil Ecology Communications in Soil and Plant Analysis Ecosphere European Journal of Soil Science Forests Forest Ecology and Management Geoderma Journal of Plant Nutrition Land Degradation and Development New Forests Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Peer J. PLOS One Science of the Total Environment Scientific Reports Soil Biology & Biochemistry Soil Science Society of America Journal Soil & Tillage Research Soil Systems Sustainable Agriculture Research   FL Joaquin S. Alvarado, Mabry J. McCray, John E. Erickson, Hardev S. Sandhu, and Jehangir H. Bhadha. 2019. Sugarcane biomass yield response to phosphorus fertilizer on four mineral soils as related to extractable soil phosphorus. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 50: 2960-2970. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2019.1689260">https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2019.1689260</a> Nan Xu, Jehangir H. Bhadha, Abul Rabbany, and Stewart Swanson. 2019. Soil health assessment of two regenerative farming practices on sandy soils. Sustainable Agriculture Research. 8: 61-71. <a href="https://doi:10.5539">https://doi:10.5539/sar.v8n4p61</a> Zhongsheng Zhang, Jian Jim Wang, Xianguo Lyu, Ming Jiang, Jehangir H. Bhadha, and Alan Wright.  2019. Impacts of land use change on soil organic matter chemistry in the Everglades, Florida - a characterization with pyrolysis-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.  Geoderma.  338: 393-400. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.12.041">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.12.041</a> Odiney Alvarez, Timothy A. Lang, Jehangir H. Bhadha, Mabry J. McCray, Barry Glaz, and Samira H. Daroub.  2018. Biochar and mill ash improve yields of sugarcane on a sand soil in Florida.  Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.  253: 112-130. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.11.006">http://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.11.006</a> Susanna G. Orndorff, Timothy A. Lang, Jehangir H. Bhadha, Mabry J. McCray, and Samira H. Daroub.  2018. Sugarcane by-products used as soil amendments on a sandy soil: Effects on sugarcane crop nutrition and yield.  Journal of Plant Nutrition.  41: 928-942. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2018.1428750">https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2018.1428750</a> Jehangir H. Bhadha, Raju Khatiwada, Salvador Galindo, Nan Xu, and Jay Capasso. 2018. Evidence of soil health benefits of flooded rice compared to fallow practice.  Sustainable Agriculture Research.  7: 31-41. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5539/sar.v7n4p31">https://doi.org/10.5539/sar.v7n4p31</a> Jehangir H. Bhadha, Jay Capasso, Raju Khatiwada(P), Stewart Swanson, and Christopher LaBorde.  2017. Raising soil organic matter content to improve water holding capacity.  University of Florida IFAS EDIS Publication. SL447. Jehangir H. Bhadha, Jay Capasso, Robert Schindelbeck, and Allan Bacon. 2017. Tools for Evaluating Soil Health.  University of Florida IFAS EDIS Publication.  SL443. KY Poffenbarger, H.J., Olk, D.C., Cambardella, C., Kersey, J., Liebman, M., Mallarino, A., Six, J. and Castellano, M.J., 2020. Whole-profile soil organic matter content, composition, and stability under cropping systems that differ in belowground inputs. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 291, p.106810. Wade, J., Culman, S.W., Logan, J.A., Poffenbarger, H., Demyan, M.S., Grove, J.H., Mallarino, A.P., McGrath, J.M., Ruark, M. and West, J.R., 2020. Improved soil biological health increases corn grain yield in N fertilized systems across the Corn Belt. Scientific reports, 10(1), pp.1-9. Dement, W.T., Z.J. Hackworth, J.M. Lhotka and C.D. Barton. 2020. Plantation development and colonization of woody species in response to post-mining spoil preparation methods: A 19-year evaluation. New Forests doi:10.1007/s11056-019-09769-y Fritz, Ken M., Greg J. Pond, Brent R. Johnson and Chris D. Barton. 2019. Coarse particulate organic matter dynamics in ephemeral tributaries of a Central Appalachian stream network. Ecosphere: 10(3):e02654. 10.1002/ecs2.2654. <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1002%2Fecs2.2654&data=02%7C01%7Cmark.coyne%40uky.edu%7C8a95b1872f01421de65208d80e109a4e%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637274811748946217&sdata=cRASWX5Ic7m8%2FltJhwdXE2ueCs7u8zqgYNDIaLzurqs%3D&reserved=0">https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2654</a> Sena, Kenton, Jian Yang, Alysia Kohlbrand, Tyler Dreaden and Christopher Barton. 2019. Landscape variables influence Phytophthora cinnamomi distribution within a forested Kentucky watershed. Forest Ecology and Management: 436 39-44. <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1016%2Fj.foreco.2019.01.008&data=02%7C01%7Cmark.coyne%40uky.edu%7C8a95b1872f01421de65208d80e109a4e%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637274811748956168&sdata=YJDpFtGLSZlTz%2BGwwLIFJN7oxYkDotxlgajuCra1m0s%3D&reserved=0">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.01.008</a> Sena, Kenton, Carmen Agouridis, Jarrod Miller and Chris Barton. 2018. Spoil type influences soil genesis and forest development on Appalachian surface coal mine ten years after placement. Forests, 9, 730: doi:10.3390/f9120780   MN Ginakes, P., *Grossman, J., Baker, J., & Sooka-sanguan, T. (2020). Living mulch management spatially localizes nutrient cycling in organic corn production. Agriculture, 10(6), 243. Perrone, S., *Grossman, J., Liebman, A., Sooksa-ngua, T., & Gutknecht, J. (2020). Nitrogen fixation and productivity of winter annual legume cover crops in Upper Midwest organic cropping systems Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 117, 61–76. Roper, W., Duckworth, O., Grossman, J., & Israel, D. (2020). Rhizobium leguminosarum strain combination effects on nodulation and biological nitrogen fixation with Vicia villosa. Applied Soil Ecology, 103703. Ginakes, P., *Grossman, J., Baker, J., & Sooksa-nguan, T. (2020). Tillage intensity influences nitrogen cycling in organic kura clover living mulch. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 116(1), 71-82. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/https:/doi.org/10.1007/s10705-019-10025-0">doi: </a><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-019-10025-0">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-019-10025-0</a> Rusch, H., Coulter, J. A., Grossman, J., Johnson, G., Porter, P., & Garcia y Garcia, A. (2020). Towards sustainable maize production in the US upper Midwest with interseeded cover crops. PLOS One, 15(4), e0231032. Wander, M., Cihacek, L., Coyne, M., Drijber, R., Grossman, J., Gutknecht, J., L., Horwath, W., Jagadamma, S., Olk, D., Snapp, S., Tiemann, L., & Turco, R. (2019). Developments in Agricultural Soil Quality and Health: Reflections by the Research Committee on Soil Organic Matter Management. Frontiers in Environmental Science, section Soil Processes. ND Yellajosula, G., L. Cihacek, T. Faller, and C. Schauer. 2020. Soil carbon change due to land conversion to grassland in a semi-arid environment.  Soil Sys. 4, 43; doi:10.3390/soilsystems4030043. De, M., J. A. Riopel, L. J. Cihacek, M. Lawrenko, R. Baldwin-Kordick, S. J. Hall, and M. D. McDaniel. 2020. Soil health recovery after grassland restoration. Evidence from a 40-year chronotoposequence.  Soil Sci.  Soc. Am. J. 84:568-586. doi:10.1002/saj2.200037. Wander, M. M., L. Cihacek, M Coyne, R. Drijber, J. Grossman, J. L. Gutknecth, W. Horwath, S. Jagadamma, D. Olk, S. Snapp, L. Tiemann, and R. Turco. 2019. Developments in agricultural soil quality and health: Reflections by the Research Committee on Soil Organic Matter Management. Frontiers Environ. Sci. 7:109.  doi:10.3389/fenvs.2019.00109. Cihacek, L. J. and R. Alghamdi. 2020. N mineralization dynamics in no-till crop residues in the Northern Plains.  Great Plains Soil Fertility Conference Proceedings. March 10-11, 2020. Denver, CO. SD Singh, J., and S. Kumar. 2020. Seasonal changes of soil carbon fractions and enzyme activities in response to winter cover crops under long-term rotation and tillage systems. European Journal of Soil Science. (In Press). Lai, L., and S. Kumar. 2020. A global meta-analysis of livestock grazing impacts on soil properties. PLOS One (In Press). Sekaran, U., S. Sandhu, Y. Qiu, S. Kumar, and J. Gonzalez. 2020. Biochar and manure addition influenced soil microbial community structure and enzymatic activities at eroded and depositional landscape positions. Land Degradation and Development. 31:894-908. TN Singh, S., Nouri, A., Singh, S., Anapalli, S., Lee, J., Arelli, P., and Jagadamma, S. 2020. Soil organic carbon and aggregation in response to thirty-nine years of tillage management in the southeastern US.Soil & Tillage Research 197: 104523. Bansal, S., Yin, X., Savoy, H.J., Jagadamma, S., Lee, J., and Sykes, V. 2020. Long-term influence of phosphorus fertilization on organic carbon and nitrogen in soil aggregates under no-till corn-wheat-soybean rotations. Agronomy Journal DOI: 10.1002/agj2.20200 Li, Y., Li, Z., Chang, S.X., Cui, S., Jagadamma, S., Zhang, Q., and Cai, Y. 2020. Residue retention promotes soil carbon accumulation in minimum tillage systems: Implications for conservation agriculture. Science of The Total Environment DOI: 0.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140147 Xu, S., Ottinger, S.L., Schaeffer, S., DeBruyn, J.M., Stewart, Jr, C.N., Mazarei, M., and Jagadamma, S. 2019. Effects of field-grown transgenic switchgrass carbon inputs on soil organic carbon cycling. Peer J 7: e7887. Li, Y, Li, Z., Cui, S., Jagadamma, S., and Zhang, Q. 2019. Residue retention and minimum tillage improve physical environment of the soil in croplands: A global meta-analysis. Soil & Tillage Research 194: 104292.    WI *Woolet, J. and T. Whitman. (2020) Pyrogenic organic matter effects on soil bacterial community composition. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 141, 107678. Whitman, T., Whitman, E., *Woolet, J., Flannigan, M.D., Thompson, D.K., Parisien, M.-A. (2019) Soil Bacterial and Fungal Response to Wildfires in the Canadian Boreal Forest Across a Burn Severity Gradient. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 138, 107571. Zegler, C.H., M.J. Renz, G.E. Brink, and M.D. Ruark. 2020. Assessing the importance of plant, soil, and management factor affecting organic pastures using regression tree analysis. Agricultural Systems 180, 102776. Diederich, K.M., M.D. Ruark, K. Krishnan, F.J. Arriaga, and E.M. Silva. 2019. Increasing labile soil carbon and nitrogen fractions require a change in system, rather than practice. SSSAJ 83:1733-1745.

Impact Statements

Dr. Ruark’s lab focused on building large databases to understand the connection between SOM and crop yield.