Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Meeting minutes for NCERA-59 Business Meeting June 29-July 1, 2007 Recorded by Teri Balser, edited by members present (listed above). Field trip Saturday morning: 1. Peter Keneghe's farm (winner of the sustainable agriculture award, and site for previous collaborative work done by Richard Dick and NCERA-59), 2. OSU research site addressing organic and low-input fruit production with a presentation by Jennifer Moore Kucera, 3. OSU horticultural research site manure and disease suppression study presented by Alex Stone and Jessica Grinot, and 4. Gathering Together farm for a presentation on OSPUD, an organic potato project presented by Dan Sullivan Business meeting called to order: 3:20 pm, Saturday June 29, 2007 by D. Archibald. A. PowerPoint Introduction and Overview of NCERA-59 (Archibald) 1. Agribusiness issues in the news&. Recent articles from the Oregon Statesman 2. Website and officers listed - project renewed until 2011 3. Statement of our purpose - come together as group to do more than we do individually 4. List of 5 primary objectives for NCERA-59, reminder B. Introductions and sign-in (Archibald and group) Sign-in sheet passed around. DA called for a volunteer to take notes for our year-end report - note incidences of Impacts for the SAES 422 report. For example: symposia that people mention. Need someone to pick out the possible outcomes/impacts as they are mentioned. Then fit them into the 5 NCERA-59 objectives. -- Michelle Wander later led the discussion and notes were recorded by Teri Balser. C. Agenda review D. Approved minutes of 2006 meeting E. Discussion of the need to review and update our Impact Statement. We need to be able to explain to others what we do and why it's important. Is generally a summary of number of publications and symposia, collaborations, and so forth. Need a committee of 3 people, and complete the update by Dec 2007. The original is on the NRCA web page. Chuck Rice and Michelle Wander volunteered, and elected Peter Motavalli (absent from meeting, so to be confirmed). F. Back to Introductions Doug Archibald - Penn State University, analytical chemist using infrared spectroscopy for analysis of SOC levels and characterization of SOM fractions Chuck Rice - Kansas State University, cross scales, mechanistic/microbial diversity to carbon and policy Michelle Wander - U Illinois, works on soil ecology and management. Current projects include bioenergy crops, organic agriculture, tillage and cover crops, Land Informatics, and eOrganic Larry Cihacek - North Dakota State, teaching soil chemistry, research Gerald Miller - Admin advisor, soil genesis, admin since 1998 (Assoc Dean), may be his last year if there is a 10-year term limit. NCERA-3 (Soil Genesis) also has SOM interest: regional inventory based on soil surveys. Pedologists have put a lot of effort into SOM characterization. Ann-Marie Fortuna - Wash State Univ, soil ecology Elizabeth Burr - PhD student with Dave Myrold and Peter Bottomley currently Alex Stone - Dept of Hort at OSU, soil quality, OM quality, and plant health Deborah Allan - UMN, C and N cycling, soil quality Richard Dick - Ohio State, wetlands, CH4-oxidation, mic groups Teri Balser - Madison, lots of things Rhae Drijber - was absent first, but will be here tomorrow. G. Administrative oversight/update - Gerald Miller, 3:50pm 1) Check the membership sheet and make any corrections necessary to contact information. File Appendix E if there is a change, work with the CRIS administrator (for Ann-Marie), 2) Note - We struggled this past year with getting the SAES 422 report completed on time. Must be more on top of the Dec 15 deadline. Don't leave it all to the Chair at the last minute! Critical to follow through. Doug made a great outline. Must be better at reporting our accomplishments to be able to put them in the report. We only need to have 2-4 good impacts/outcomes. We should have a discussion before we leave. We post the minutes, but the SAES 422 is the critical form, so that the Administrative Committee can see what we are up to. We need to do a better job. 3) We need to redo the Impact statement. This is the first meeting of the new approved committee. Midterm reports are required after second year (which would be 2008). 2009 is an "off" year for Impact report. 2010 we will need to do our renewal. Dec 2010 will be 4th year. (New Impact Statement due). 4) Nominating committee for officers rather than informal process. 5) Some NCRA Administrators retired and there are some new ones. There is a new Executive Director who is visiting campuses. They meet quarterly. In Spring (March) they take action on project renewals and midterms. Dept chairs plus NCAC form an administrative committee that meets in January. Miller prepares materials for review that are approved by the NCAC. THE TAKE HOME POINT FOR NCERA-59 PARTICIPANTS IS: We must communicate with our Dept Chair (at least informally) about this committee. Especially those of us in the North Central. Additionally, we should garner support from our local NCRA administrators for the NCERA-59 project when the project is up for review. 6) Update of Federal - Earmarks taken out and put into formula funds. Some states' experiment stations were winners and others were losers. Trends: 2006-->2008, Hatch $177M-->$164.5M, NRI $181M-->$265M. Final budget item - by 2008 we are down by 3 million (?). June - House subcommittees meeting during June. Completed. Assumption that House will take up the 2008 Budget after they come back, mid-July. The federal funding overview prompted a discussion of what appears to be a long-term weakening in support for the soils program of NRI. It was stated that the soils program has been cut despite the recommendations of an NAS committee and a statement by ASM in favor of expanding soils research and training, because of the crucial roles of soils in important contemporary issues facing society. The discussion noted that the organizational work to improve support for soils research and training also could benefit from expansion of relevant SSSA and NAS committee planning and action. 7) 'Create-21' was initiated by a committee of deans and directors 3-4 years ago. The idea is to reorganize efforts to improve financial support and accountability for LGU funding. A proposal to merge NRCS, CSREES, Forest service, ARS and ERS has been scrapped. Additionally, national program leaders have been looking at strategies to improve efficiencies. Within the past 6 weeks the National Institute on Food and Ag (NIFA) merged with Create-21. The Fed admin branch proposal for the Farm Bill still has the efficiency piece in it (the merging of all those). The take home lesson is that the reorganization discussion has evolved. Handouts (n=3): Create-21 and Farm Bill 25% of Hatch $ is required to get coded as multi-state activity. Discussion about the above statements and potential threats to Hatch formula funds: A. Fortuna - Concern about losing all hard-money if a Create-21 plan advocates growth mainly in the competitive funding, while leaving capacity funds stagnant. We should reiterate the importance of the capacity funds any chance we get. These can be a critical source of support for pre-tenure faculty and they provide infrastructure. L. Cihacek - Perceives a weak link between Expt Station and USDA. Expt Station needs to engage USDA-ARS. G. Miller - Need to retain formula, but also need to grow the research dollars. G. Miller - NIFA - may get rolled-into Farm Bill. C. Rice - Even among the prof societies they want to get rid of Formula Funds (ASM). NIH and NSF are growing while USDA is not growing. In scientific and technical societies there seems to be the common perception of lack of accountability and inefficient use of funds. Consequently, we need to work on accountability. Our program at USDA needs to highlight success stories and/or impact. H. State Reports 1) The state reports are our collective accomplishments. D. Archibald will email a document template with NCERA59 objectives so we can make a matrix of impacts. 2) Larry had his report ready to distribute. Chuck is "saving carbon" by not bringing hard copy. 3) State reports end up as appendix to minutes. Collaborative grants funded Publications Reports Abstracts Outreach activities Comments: C. Rice - We need to go back to NCERA-59 objectives and remind ourselves. So we can brainstorm and come up with impacts. Deb Allan - Can we do this later? (Revisit the objectives and report.) Ann-Marie and Richard have reports. We should decide to end at 5:30pm and start again at 8:00am. The group resolved to have 2 talks (discussions or state reports) after the business meeting with 2 talks remaining for the next morning. I. REPORTS: Chuck Rice - Presented his Work and Led Discussion of NCERA-59 Objectives: 1. One is to coordinate research projects/info exchange on SOM. 2. Identify and evaluate indicators for soil ecology mgt. 3. Conduct outreach activities to scientists in related disciplines to promote ecol mgt of soils Issues That Should be Driving our Plans: "Biofuels. Concern about impact of removal of biomass on soil. -AAQTF - Ag AirQual Task Force. Rice is a member. Requested that USDA do a holistic analysis on sustainability, but got poor response. Appointed by Sec to advise him. Particulates, then added greenhouse gases. -NAS - also looking at it. -Can we (NCERA-59) do anything? Should we? (Laura Lipps, and I can get help in a proposal for the new DOE Center?) "C sequestration (C markets, inventories, sustainability, CSP) -how much can be stored? -how to measure it -scaling -model - aggregation. Need for mechanistic models that incorporate aggregation. ((NACP experience - clueless in academe! Opportunity for our outreach)) We CAN measure carbon - despite that NRDC and Env. Defense Fund says we cant. We have an opportunity (G. Miller). Not in a journal - but need to inform. White paper. Credibility. Symposium in Societies - Also highlight the need to assess Trade-offs in Biofuels. (ASA/SSSA Symposium last year - claim my talk, and my Oxford RT thing. And participated in NACP.) C. Rice - Carbon credits - energy commissions. Need for monitoring, modeling& Possible activity - use the farmer thing, and we test it on our systems. "C-N interactions - managing for one cant be sep from the other& There's a triangle, of sustainability. "Biodiversity Rice presented data on tillage and C sequestration related to measuring baseline SOC values. J. Discussion of what to do tomorrow. D. Allan - 3 talks, then 2 20-minute presentations. Then decide what to do between 10am-12pm. Meeting ended at 6:10 pm. Sunday July 1 2007 Meeting begin at 8:15am Present: Stone, Cihacek, Balser, Archibald, Wander, Miller, Fortuna, Dick, Allan, Rhae Drijber (NE), Addy Elliott (CO), A. Reports from members: 1. Larry Cihacek Description of current research. Terrestrial C sequestration in restored grasslands CRP land, 5, 10, or greater ages Described sampling. 2 increments, 0-6 inch depth, 6-12 inch. Sample for every 10 acres. Mix, take 10 g subsample. Org C and inorg C. In some systems we may be sequestering a lot of C as inorg C, but its hard to nail down (age, formation etc). C in soil increases with time in CRP - to 21 years (Oldest site) Native grasslands still have more, but barely. Native sites tend to be unfit for cropping - too steep, shallow, rocky. ACTION: New samples - western MN this year. Jerry gave him two places in Iowa to sample too. At end, goal = 1500 benchmark sites from N Iowa to N Eastern MT. Impact: could be shared with NCERA-3 2. Ann-Marie Fortuna, 8:35am Postdoc work - NP in contrasting soils following dairy manure application 5 state coordinated project focusing on biology as an indicator of changes in soil quality AOB - affected by SOM-N content, mineralogy, CEC Used DGGE to identify beta-AOB Some correlation between C and N in the soil and the NP results Amount of C in system makes a big difference - impact by site Organisms are responding within 28 day incubation to the N addition in dairy application Goal: Try to develop indicators to relate to rates -SOM C and N, and pH were most important, -soils with history of high N had more NP - but soils with history of LOW N inputs had higher increase/response -Determining variations in timing of addition can improve management 3. Richard Dick Project that led to NSF project - native shrubs and hydrologic cycle - Senegal (cell phones but no running water)- Studied the agroecology of perennial shrubs growing in farmers' crop fields during drought. There are two species with differing densities on the landscape. Shrubs are commonly burned prior to growing season leaving piles of ash and the team suspected that practice was counterproductive in a dry, carbon-depleted landscape. They excavated under shrubs and found deep roots, higher soil C and evidence for hydraulic lift. They characterized the crop productivity, soil moisture patterns and soil biology/diversity versus distance from the shrubs. Impressive effect of shrubs on productivity of nearby crop plants during droughty periods. 4. Teri Balser Presented studies of nutrient cycling, soil properties and soil microbiology at otter latrine sites in the Prince William Sound area of Alaska. Latrine sites support formation of a highly fertile 'soil' in a landscape that is predominantly peat. Fascinating natural system case study with implications for managed systems. B. New Topics 1. M. Wander Community of Practice (CoP) - A discussion of this and other ways to foster our interactions? CoP definition - social learning that develops over time as people with common interest in a subject collaborate and share ideas. The conceptual framework was developed by Fred Nikols (Three principles of CoP). Work on the SQWebsite with Susan Andrews has progressed. There are also other soil management web sites including USDA-NRCS and Sieglind Snapp's university web site. NCERA-59 project was modifed from NCR-59 (research) to NCERA-59 (extension and research) in 2005. An idea generated at the meeting in 2006 was to pursue an eXtension grant to foster developing a CoP. A class in IT helped review our needs (an "IT Makeover"). We needed to add peer review, and they recommend OJS software (Open Journal Software). It may be quite a big a task to maintain a new journal. New IT for developing a collaborative environment for peer reviewed extension information is evolving rapidly, with implications for a number of group activities that have been proposed in NCERA-59. Overview of Informatics tools - 1. Collaborative environments Plone 2. Text communication tools Face to face Email Forums Wikis RSS Feeds (Current awareness) (Place it in areas, like a link - but it alerts to changes?) Journal 3. Data management tools Concept mapping Terminology and definitions Preservation standards Last year we talked about Ecological Soil Management CoP Potential types of content? - Articles - not necessarily peer-reviewed - Presentations - for CEUs - FAQs - Forums - Policy pieces - Training guides - White papers - Podcasts T. Balser mentioned a possible model site, the 'Encyclopedia of the Earth', a peer reviewed Wiki. Text Informatics strengths and weaknesses (see table) Proposed to generate a WikiSpace for this group - perhaps an example would be to revise the minutes. It's a good first assignment for us to learn. Group had questions about what it is. [Note added later by D. Archibald: I explored several avenues for an interactive document for the minutes, including a Wiki or a Plone or Drupal site, and decided that 'Google docs' was the best option. Some options had no way to restrict viewing on the web (except for a fee), some had difficult sign-up procedures, some had non-standard editor commands, and some required setting up a web server.] M Wander - We are not a clearinghouse so much as posting to others sites A Stone - We should commit to a couple areas that we care about. Areas for a Wiki: - Notes - MGT pages - Food-web/BioIndicators - White Paper 10:10am 2. A. Stone Introduced and discussed eXtension - National website for extension programming - to help extension work go national rather than only state by state. Funded by the Land Grants, give out small grants to start CoPs. Goal: Practitioners create the content - Extension has to write materials, and the online part will also be part of job for tenure/promotion. Community of Practice interacts with Community of Interest - Who is that, and how do we reach them? What are the things we can do? Where are we... Jan 2006 Stated need (Michelle - outcome from the NCERA59 group) Conference calls to develop idea  ATTRA and OAI (Organic Ag Info) March 2006 - preproposal June 2006 - full proposal Oct 2006 - eXtension workshop to learn more Nov 2006 - CSREES Integrated Organic Project (coordinates with other Org Ag Info providers, got funded to develop an eOrganic eXtension site in two areas. Evolution of content emphasis - certification, dairy as model livestock, diversified vegetables as model cropping system. Alex Stone wants NCERA-59 participants to contribute soils content to their eOrganic site. This is to be explained in detail in the workshop Monday and Tuesday. 3. C. Rice Action items discussed. OBJ 1 A) Evaluate COMET VR - supposed to be USDAs sanctioned way for farmers to do a C inventory/assessment - leads into DOE program for voluntary reporting for greenhouse gases. COMET VR is supposedly user friendly, just type in land-management practice and come up with a C sequestration rate (assigned to: L Cihacek, C Rice, D Allan) A simple test is envisioned to answer the question: are the practices relevant to your area and do the soil C budgets make sense? The plan is to write up something that will go on a Wiki? B) Evaluate SCI (Wander, Cihacek) C) Build table from the C diagram of how we can collaborate through research platforms/methods (Rice will circulate a table through Wiki) ((need for keywords to search and project titles. Send me your annual reports)) D) Grassland cross-sites comparisons (future) E) Compare soil C measurement techniques (Doug, Larry, Chuck) F) Ecol Soil Mgt CoP (Wander) Wiki Start with the minutes from here (Teri) Potential collaboration networks - who is doing what/can do what? Topics? OBJ 2 A) Review NRCS Indicator Matrix for ecological soil management (Wander) - report for next year B) Develop our own matrix (future) OBJ3 A) Co-sponsor symposium with GSA at the SSSA-GSA meeting in 2008 - Who? Will be in Early October, in Houston (Rice, Wander. Also involve Susan Trumbore, Claudia Moria.) B) Participate in K-State workshop (Chuck please send info out to everyone) (Rice, Larry, Doug) C) eOrganic (Stone, Wander) Soil component - (Stone, Wander, Fortuna, Motavalli, Balser, Dick, Drijber, Horwath, Snapp) D) paper to address the Tilman article re: Biofuels (Chuck, Deborah, Michelle, Teri) OBJ4 A) Co-sponsor at ASA-GSA 2008 OBJ5 A) Coordinate with NCERA-3 next June for meeting June 2008 Rice - Manhattan, KS (Tours: farmer panel, Konza Prairie, Ecosystem plots, restoration plots) June 2009 Balser - Madison WI (Tour ideas? Arboretum, WICST?) Coordinate with NCERA-218? C. Final business Motion to approve 2008 meeting location at Kansas State University Wander, so moved Cihacek second, approved Entertain motion to have Richard Dick become next secretary Discussion - nominating committee& desire to have a member with past service remain on committee leadership. Members who have been around be warned - you will likely be called into service. Moved Allan, Second Drijber We did not unofficially recommend Ann-Marie as Sec in waiting Officers for 2008: Chair: Stone Vice-Chair: Balser Sec: Dick Past Chair: Archibald Archibald  send out template, reports due in 4 weeks Minutes filed in 60 days subsequent to meeting D. Impacts/Accomplishments Group Accomplishments/Impacts Summary Task Group discussion led by M. Wander Accomplishments - See composite list of publications and state reports OBJ1 Cover crop working group adopted by CCX trading OBJ2 Papers by members OBJ3 eOrg IOP IPCC OBJ4 SQ Working Group 06 SQ website - eOrg visioning C-Seq House briefing House Briefing, Legislation being drafted Richard"s enzymes Teris NSF workshop Report to NSF for new funding areas OBJ5 Planning to meet with NCERA-3 in June 2008 Impacts - Selected committee members: a. Received an extension grant for development of eOrganic, a National Extension Website (NRI Organic Grant) on organic agriculture. (Alex Stone and Michelle Wander) b. Developed a Soil Quality Website, indicator development project (Michelle Wander, Rhae Drijber. Terri Balser, and Ann Marie Fortuna) c. Research and educational meetings were held resulting in 90 contracts signed by Kansas Kansas producers with the Iowa Farm Bureau, representing nearly 100,000 acres. Overall, the Chicago Climate Exchange has 1250 contracts for soil carbon credits representing 802,000 acres in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas at a current value of approximately $2.25 per acre per year ($1.8 million per year or nearly $7.2 million for a four year contract) (Rice) Meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- eOrganic workshops continued Monday and Tuesday Submitted by: Teri Balser NCERA-59, Secretary, 2007 Approved: Signed Douglas Archibald NCERA-59, Chair, 2007 Signed Gerald Miller NCERA-59, Administrative Advisor, 2007

See composite list of publications and state reports OBJ1 Cover crop working group adopted by CCX trading OBJ2 Papers by members OBJ3 eOrg IOP IPCC OBJ4 SQ Working Group 06 SQ website  eOrg visioning C-Seq House briefing House Briefing, Legislation being drafted Richards enzymes Teris NSF workshop Report to NSF for new funding areas OBJ5 Planning to meet with NCERA-3 in June 2008

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The impact of nutrient availability on rhizosphere microbial communities under native and invasive Hawaiian forest species. Microbial Ecology xx:xxx Kao-Kniffin, J.T., and Balser, T.C., 2007. Elevated CO2 differentially alters belowground plant and soil microbial community structure in reed canary grass-invaded experimental wetlands. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 39, 517-525. Kimble, J.M., C.W. Rice, D. Reed, S. Mooney, R.F. Follett, and R. Lal. 2007. Soil Carbon Management: Economic, Environmental and Societal Benefits. Taylor and Francis. Liang, C., H.W. Read, T.C. Balser. In review. Reliability of bacterial muramic acid as a biomarker influenced by methodological artefacts from streptomycin. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Submitted July _ 2007. Liang, C., R. Fujinuma, L. Wei, T.C. Balser. 2006. Tree species-specific effects on soil microbial residues in an upper Michigan old growth forest system. Forestry doi:10.1093/forestry/cpl035 Liang, C., R. Fujinuma, T.C. Balser. In review. Comparing PLFA and amino sugars for microbial analysis in an upper Michigan old growth forest. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, xx-xxx Submitted July 22, 2007 Liang, C., X. Zhang, K.F. Rubert IV, T.C. Balser. 2006. Effect of plant materials on microbial transformation of amino sugars in three soil microcosms. Biology and Fertility of Soil http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00374-006-0142-1 Liang, C., X. Zhang, T.C. Balser, 2007. Net microbial amino sugars accumulation process in soil as influenced by different plant material inputs. Biology and Fertility of Soils DOI 10.1007/s00374-007-0170-5 Lucas, R., B. Casper, J. Jackson, T. Balser. 2007. Nitrogen addition alters microbial community structure but not extracellular enzyme activity in New Jersey pinelands Soil Biology and Biochemistry 39, 2508-2519. Marriott, M.E, and M.M. Wander. 2006. Total and labile soil organic matter in organic farming systems. Soil Science Society of America. 70:950-959. Marriott, M.E, and M.M. Wander. 2006. 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