OLD SERA17: Organization to Minimize Phosphorus Losses from Agriculture
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
OLD SERA17: Organization to Minimize Phosphorus Losses from Agriculture
Duration: 10/01/2008 to 09/30/2013
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
We are requesting renewal of an existing SERA-IGA. Since it's inception in 1993, SERA 17 has had significant accomplishments:
I. SERA-17 played a significant role in determining the policy for phosphorus (P) management set forth by USDA and USEPA.
II. In 1999 SERA-17 helped the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) develop the Code 590 Nutrient Management Standard, which guides manure and fertilizer management for optimization of crop production and minimization of environmental losses from farmer fields.
III. The original members of SERA-17 developed the concept of the Phosphorus Index (PI) and helped lead the nation in the development and implementation of the PI as a risk management tool, which is currently used in 47 states for writing and implementation of nutrient management plans.
IV. SERA-17 has fostered communication between scientists both in the U.S. and internationally on controlling environmental degradation due to excessive P. We have met for the past fifteen years at the following locations: Cincinnati, Ohio (1993), Newark, Delaware (1994), Fayetteville, Arkansas (1995), West Palm Beach, Florida (1996), Portland, Oregon (1997), Fort Worth, Texas (1998), Quebec City, Quebec (1999), Madison, Wisconsin (2000), State College, Pennsylvania (2001), Ft. Collins, Colorado (2002), Twin Falls, Idaho (2003), New Bern, North Carolina (2004), Banff, Alberta (2005), Ithaca, New York (2006) and Fayetteville Arkansas (2007). This years meeting will be held at Kent Island, Maryland.
V. The website for SERA-17 can be found at http://sera17.ext.vt.edu .
VI. In 2006 a one day P modeling conference was added to the annual SERA-17 meeting to highlight modeling interests of model users, developers, and research scientists. An outcome of this conference was the publishing of a book Modeling Phosphorus in the Environment Radcliffe, D.E., and M.L. Cabrera (eds). 2006. CRC Press, Boca Ratone, FL. This book reviews basic approaches to modeling, and reviews field and watershed models.
VII. A number of publications (9), factsheets (32) and policy papers (6) have been produced by the SERA-17 group: http://www.sera17.ext.vt.edu/SERA_17_Publications.htm
http://www.sera17.ext.vt.edu/SERA_17_Workgroups_Policy.htm
Phosphorus is the nutrient limiting aquatic plant growth in most of the nation's surface freshwaters. Runoff from agricultural operations can contain quantities of P that will stimulate aquatic plant growth and have negative impact on water quality. Nutrient pollution from P has consistently ranked as one of the top causes of degradation in some US waters for more than a decade and can lead to significant water quality problems including harmful algal blooms, hypoxia and declines in wildlife and wildlife habitat. This issue is national in scope, especially in regions with sensitive water resources located near concentrated livestock feeding operations (broiler operations, dairies, beef-feedlots and swine facilities), pasture or rangeland and cropland.
In the past, it was assumed that the results from small research plots could be extrapolated to the field, farm or sub-watershed scale. Results from long-term watershed monitoring efforts suggest that this is a rather simplistic approach and that a much more holistic approach is needed to understanding P dynamics at a watershed scale and developing strategies that will lead to improvements in water quality. These approaches will require multi-disciplinary teams of scientists and other stakeholders working towards the common goal of maintaining or improving the nations water quality. More and more emphasis is being given to understanding P dynamics at a watershed rather than only the farm or field scales. In addition, it has become clear that management decisions that improve P retention might enhance N loss and visa versa. Thus, more emphasis needs to be given to understanding the impact of various management decisions on both P and N loss reduction over space and time.
SERA-17 is a group of research and extension scientists focused on Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (SAAESD) Priority Areas 4A (air, soil, and water resources conservation and enhancement) and 4E (nutrient management in agricultural systems). There are many individual scientists working on P runoff, but is the only SERA group focused on this issue. It is a nationally and internationally recognized group that includes many of the top P and nutrient management scientists in the country, as well as scientists from Canada and Europe. It provides invaluable technical guidance to national agencies, such as USDA and EPA, on nutrient management.
The key stakeholders of SERA-17 are personnel from state and federal agencies (USDA/NRCS and EPA), scientists from many Land Grant Universities as well as landowners, farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers across the United States.
Objectives
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Gather, assimilate, interpret, and disseminate information to increase the knowledge base on P linkages and dynamics within and between the land-water continuum and the environment.
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Develop practical and cost effective BMPs that limit P in the runoff while also reducing N losses to the environment.
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Improve national efforts on assessment and modeling of P movement in the environment.
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Identify emerging nutrient-related issues and inform policy makers and other stakeholders.
Procedures and Activities
The SERA group will meet annually at an appropriate location to discuss ongoing and new developments in the science linking P dynamics and linkages within and between the land water continuum and the environment. It is important for our participants to examine firsthand the processes and functions affecting phosphorus loss from agriculture under a variety of soil, climatic, management, and socio-political conditions, and to understand how these conditions affect BMP development, delivery, and implementation. These factors may be used in determining the most appropriate meeting location. Annual meetings will be developed by the Executive leadership (Chair, Chair-elect, Past-Chair) working with a local host and the Administrative Advisors, and will include a mixture of local information, topics of regional, national, and international interest, and work sessions for topic-specific workgroups within SERA17. The focus will be on research, education, and extension aspects of phosphorus loss from agriculture. Participation in meetings is open to a reasonable wide audience to include university and federal agency scientists, graduate students, representatives of national, regional, and state level agencies and interest groups, and appropriate local interests. Minutes of the meetings will be distributed by the Chair-Elect and posted on the SERA-17 web site.
Self-selected, self-directed, and function-oriented workgroups will be used as the primary mechanism to ensure activity and to ensure delivery of outcomes. All workgroup products will be peer reviewed before release. Final release will occur via list serve (sera17@listserv.vt.edu, 273 current members), website (http://www.sera17.ext.vt.edu), and hardcopy publications as appropriate and as funding is available. We anticipate 2008 workgroups will initially focus on 1) advancing the development of spatial and temporal assessment and prediction, with emphasis on trans-boundary tools that cross state-lines , 2) identification and standardization of measures, methods, procedures, and indicators for use in assessment indices and models, 3) synthesis and interpretation of science for decision makers, and 4) trans-disciplinary efforts in the science of phosphorus (and related nutrients) loss, with additional workgroups being formed and/or existing ones retired as new research findings and policy needs emerge. Workgroups will report during the annual business meeting.
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Update SERA-17 publications and develop position papers on emerging issues of environmental concern.
- Expand the series of fact-sheets on best management practices (BMPs) to reduce P losses from agriculture. To date 32 have been developed with 6 or 7 more in draft form. Target date for publication is December 2008.
- Integration or modification of some of the materials into a format consistent with eXtension
- Continuation of annual meetings in collaboration with federal, state and local interest groups and land grant universities.
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
Outputs from SERA 17 are available to stakeholders and the general public via the existing SERA-17 website (http://sera17.ext.vt.edu) .
Outreach will be conducted by working directly with agencies such as USDA/NRCS and EPA on issues, as we have done in the past (i.e. CAFO rule, Standard 590, P-Index tools). Outreach will also be conducted through our website.
Additionally SERA 17 is working with eXtension to broaden the availability of our materials and outputs to a larger audience.
Participating scientists in each state are also involved in transfer of information to clientèle (nutrient management planners, certified crop advisors, licensed soil scientists, etc.) through a wide variety of certification and continuing education programs, in addition to local and regional conferences directed to farmers, agency personnel, and environmental, and other interest groups.
Organization/Governance
Standard governance. Officers are elected for one year term.
Chair: Forbes Walker, University of Tennessee
Chair-elect: Quirine Ketterings, Cornell University (and recorder)
Past-Chair: April Leytem, USDA-ARS Idaho