SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report

Sections

Basic Information
Additional Info

Status: Approved

Basic Information

Project No. and Title: NCERA_OLD3 : Soil and Landscape Assessment, Function and Interpretation
Period Covered: 10/01/2009 to 09/01/2014
Date of Report: 06/13/2010
Annual Meeting Dates: 06/13/2010 to 06/17/2010

Members Present: Crum, James (MI); Hopkins, David (ND Chair); Kuzila, Mark (NE); Levin, Maxine (NCSS Liaison); Miller, Jerry (Administrative Adviser); Olson, Ken (IL); Owens, Phillip(IN); Ransom, Mickey (KS); Slater, Brian (OH Host); West, Larry (USDA-NRCS Representative); Burras, Lee (IA secretary)

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

NCERA-3 Annual Meeting Minutes and State Reports 2010-2014 Project title: Soil & Landscape Assessment, Functions & Interpretations

Legacy attachment file:

[Minutes]

Accomplishments

Accomplishments: A Symposium on Soil Carbon and Green House Gas Dynamics in Agricultural Lands held at the 2009 Soil Science Society of America annual meeting in Pittsburgh, PA was Co-organized by an NCERA-3 representative. The Symposium was well attended i.e., 200 people at the Keynote address and 66 submitted abstracts. The Symposium was co-sponsored by NCERA-3, NCERA059, and NC1017. The NCERA-3 High Intensity Soil Survey Committee co-hosted the Scaling Symposium at the 2009 Soil Science Society of America conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Several states have contractual agreements with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to incorporate university characterization data into the National Soil Survey Laboratory (NSSL) Soil Characterization database. North Central Region universities have thousands of pedons that can be added to improve the national database, i.e., Missouri alone has 3017 pedons currently being transferred to the NSSL. In addition, North Dakota has submitted 750 pedons and South Dakota has just entered into a contract for FY 2011. Kansas State University is scheduled to host the biennial Soil Science Institute in summer 2010 for NRCS employees as part of their professional development. A regional benchmark catena study was initiated in MLRA 120A and 120B and covers parts of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. This project is focused on hydropedologic processes which impact soil development. The NRCS has funded the research proposal Quantifying Dispersion Potential of North Dakota Soils: the Role of Sodium and Soluble Salt Concentrations which is relevant to land management in three MLRAs located in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota (MLRA 56, MLRA 55B. MLRA 54)

Impacts

The National Soil Survey Laboratory director, Dr. Larry West, indicated that several aspects of the new thrust in NRCS research including rapid carbon assessment, salinity, soil quality, and laboratory soil carbon analyses are all offshoots of discussions held with the university cooperators in NCERA-3.
Over 3000 soil profiles and associated soil characterization data from Missouri were added to the NSSL Soil Characterization database.
Because of the long term participation in training students in field soil survey techniques and soil judging, the NRCS asked their national training supervisor to solicit input from NCERA-3 members for new approaches to help train the new employees.

Publications

See state reports in annual meeting minutes.

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