Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The business meeting of NC-1178 was called to order at 1:30 PM by Mohammad Golabi. An agenda for the business meeting was approved. The adopted agenda included: a discussion of the committee officer structure; approval of minutes from 2010; review of administrative adviser comments; discussion of reporting requirements and deadlines for the NIMSS reporting system; review of objectives to determine progress and future needs; individual state reports; the date and location of the next meeting; discussion of the NC-1178 sponsored Conference logistics and agenda; and adjournment. Since Gary Steinhardt (chair-elect from the 2010-2011 meeting) was unable to attend this year, it was decided that Mohammad Golabi would function as chair for the current 2011 meeting. Tom Schumacher will serve as secretary. Officers elected for next year (2012-2013) include Mahdi Al-Kaisi as chair and Larry Cihacek as secretary. If for any reason the officers are unable to serve, the rotation will be advanced a year. Past minutes were approved with no additions or subtractions. Gary Pierzynski, administrative advisor, was not able to attend due to travel conflicts. Written administrative comments were provided for our review and discussion. An important date highlighted in the administrative advisor comments concerned the midterm report which is due December 15, 2011. Dr. Pierzynski quoted a previous message sent to the committee in May: This is a friendly reminder that NC1178 will be undergoing midterm review by the NCRA this coming winter, 2012. Guidelines for a favorable can be found at http://ncra.info/MSR_MidtermReview.php . Please note that all materials must be submitted no later than December 15, 2011 in order to allow the NCRA ample time to conduct the review. Other comments reflected the continuing turmoil and uncertainties in federal and state budgets. The committee discussed individual state situations and strategies for adjusting to budget pressures. The committee members reviewed the status of project objectives. Objective 1 is to - Assess management effects on carbon sequestration and soil productivity including the impacts of crop residue removal on soil organic carbon (SOC) and erosion. Objective 2 is to - Determine spatial C distribution and dynamics in soils of eroded landscapes for better quantification of erosion impacts on soil carbon loss and sequestration. Work has progressed on both objectives in line with project expectations. Individual state reports were distributed to committee members and explanatory presentations were made with accompanying discussions. Highlights of individual reports are given in the accomplishments section of the annual report. The committee discussed the NC-1178 supported conference logistics and agenda details. The conference entitled, Towards Understanding Soil Carbon Sequestration: Processes and Mechanisms on Eroded Landscapes, was conceived and developed by NC-1178 members with funds provided by USDA-NIFA (grant #2011-035), the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center (WPTRC), and the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Guam. Mahdi Al-Kaisi will host the next NC-1178 meeting at Iowa State University at Ames. The committee suggested that our next meeting take place the second or third week in June. The exact dates will be selected after conferring with the administrative adviser and the rest of the committee. Adjournment of the business meeting took place at 5 PM. The committee reconvened at the conference at 8:30 AM August 4. Registered participants numbered approximately 50 and included scientists and stakeholders from Guam and surrounding island associated states within the Micronesia region. Research from NC-1178 members was highlighted at the conference including a keynote presentation by NC-1178 member Rattan Lal using distance technology. The conference included sessions on Understanding the mechanisms and processes of soil carbon dynamics; Residue removal impact on soil carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling; Landscape and crop biomass management effects on soil erosion and soil carbon change; and a field trip providing examples of research involving soil carbon dynamics and soil management at the University of Guam experiment stations. The conference concluded with a banquet held the evening of August 5. All expressed appreciation to Mohammad Golabi for his efforts in conducting an informative and successful conference. Submitted by Tom E. Schumacher Secretary

Corn residue removal treatments at North Dakota includes an irrigated continuous corn and a corn-soybean rotation on a loamy fine sand and a similar study under dryland conditions on a fine sandy to loam soil. Initial soil samples were taken and are currently being analyzed. A related study examines the contribution of grassland plant species to soil carbon sequestration when grassland is used for biofuels. Soils were examined to a depth of 1 m for total organic carbon as well as water soluble organic carbon. Preliminary results indicate that up to 7 percent of the total organic carbon in these soils is from water soluble organic carbon. Cool season species and forbs tended to have more water soluble organic carbon than warm season species. A survey study examining 1163 diverse sites in the Northern Great Plains found that sites with only cool season grasses present, slopes of less than 3 percent, and little or no slope aspect had the highest soil organic carbon levels. Experiments initiated at three sites in Ohio were continued during 2010-2011. Six residue retention (% of total residues produced) treatments implemented on three diverse locations (Coshocton, South Charleston, Hoytville), were: 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 200. Residue retention treatments at Ohio were measured on older established plots (7 year history) and plots established in 2011. Soil temperature, soil moisture, and penetration measurements were conducted across treatments. Soil temperature was found to be decreased by 1 degree centigrade as the rate of residue retention increased from 0 to 200 percent on the established plots. This was not observed on the newly established plots. Similar trends were observed with soil moisture with the older plots retaining more moisture as residue retention increased. No trends were observed for soil penetration due to highly variable soil conditions. Residue retention impacts on earthworm counts were inconsistent with 3.6 middens per square meter in the old plots and 5.8 in the new plots. Plant height in general increased with the rate of residue retention. Effects of residue retention depended on site. The Hoytville site had higher grain yields when residue was retained compared to 0 percent retention plots. At the Coshocton and South Charleston sites residue retention did not have an effect on grain yields. At the Coshocton site there were differences in crop stands among treatments. Accumulation of wet straw in front of the no-till seeder caused poor germination and low stand in treatments with high rates (75, 100, 200 percent) of residue retention. The results from the Illinois site with a 20 year history using a corn-soybean rotation on sloping and eroding soils showed that significantly more soil organic carbon, 17 percent, was retained by the no till system based on a paired comparison method with the moldboard plow system. However, no SOC sequestration actually occurred since the SOC level of the NT and MP plots after 20 years were 13 and 30 percent lower, respectively, than at the start of the experiment. Findings suggest a pre-treatment baseline is required in all tillage comparison studies to verify the SOC sequestration amounts and rates. As a result of this 20-year Illinois tillage study and other similar studies, tillage researchers are now collecting pre-treatment baseline SOC prior to the establishment of long-term tillage studies. The use of the pre-treatment baseline (the SOC content of the plot areas prior to establishment of the tillage experiment) could in many cases reduce the current overestimation of the amount of the SOC sequestration and rates and an underestimation of the amount greenhouse gas released to the atmosphere during these long term studies. The Guam study specifically examines conservation and restoration strategies that address crop production needs within a framework of increasing environmental and financial constraints of the island farmers and ranchers. A higher percentage of carbon content of soil was observed under no-till while the reduced till plots also were higher compared to conventional till treatments. The percent carbon content in the conventional tilled plots were the lowest for all sampling events while the conventional tilled sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) rotation had higher carbon mainly due to the green manure effect of the added organic matter from sunnhemp biomass production. A similar trend was observed in the 2008 and 2009 treatment plots with NT showing the highest amount of carbon content compared to the other treatments under study. Preliminary findings from Iowa show that application of N led to increase of both above and below ground biomass of corn and increase the net sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, potential amounts of carbon dioxide sequestered in the soil and biomass were reduced as rates of corn residue removal increased. An increase in fertilizer application above agronomic rates led to an increase in nitrous oxide emission. Potential for soil carbon sequestration declined as the residue removal rate increased. It was also observed that the chisel plow caused greater carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emission than no till. Managements practices that had the potential to increase soil organic carbon sequestration were only observed when no corn residue was removed. These preliminary findings suggest that residue removal of 50 percent or greater increases the potential for net GHG emissions and reduces potential for soil organic sequestration regardless of establishment of mitigation practices such as no-till and different N fertilization rates. Studies at Kansas found that removing 6.6 Mg/ha of crop residue from an irrigated, continuous corn production system could have some positive financial incentives for producers, but it would have costs that should be considered. The costs of the additional field operations, as well as the nutrients removed with the residue are quite easy to value. Much harder to monetize are the environmental costs. The increased fragility and subsequent risks to topsoil loss via wind erosion has been documented in this research project. We anticipated losses in profile moisture during the winter following residue removal, but failed to observe any treatment differences. Possible reasons would include undocumented losses from the profile due to leaching, or could be due to large within field variability in these values. In the future, soil profile moisture monitoring systems (such as a neutron probe) might be used to make more frequent observations during the winter season, which would help to document potential losses from deep profile leaching. In summary, at todays prices, producers should expect a minimum of 56.51 dollars per dry metric ton to break even, though realize that by doing so they are failing to value soil resources and could experience catastrophic soil losses that are nearly impossible to mitigate or monetize. Missouri is evaluating long term studies at the Sanborn field for impacts on crop residue removal and on a claypan soil site. Surface penetrometer measurements are being made this year. Channel erosion was observed at the claypan soil, Mexico silt loam, with a low slope gradient of 1-2 percent. Work has started on the development of an active carbon field kit and a claypan productivity assessment tool. The study site at Wisconsin was planted to a uniform crop of soybeans in 2010. Plots for continuous corn and switchgrass were established in the spring of 2011. Objectives of the study in addition to NC-1178 objectives to be implemented in the study include assessing the impact of variable corn row width and population, and two levels of residue removal (0 and 90 percent) and a comparison of corn residue removal with switchgrass harvesting on soil erosion, carbon distribution, fertility, and selected soil physical properties. Crop planting was successful and initial crop growth looks good. Data collecting started this growing season. South Dakota study sites comparing continuous corn, and switchgrass, were established in 2008 and include three landscape positions. Biomass yields for switchgrass generally produced equal or higher biomass yields in the backslope and footslope positions compared to corn. Corn biomass yields were higher in the summit/crest position than switchgrass. Corn grain yields were highly variable in the footslope positions with zero grain yields due to spring flooding at the lowest positions. Three years of removal of corn stover after grain harvest resulted in a reduction of larger conducting pores compared to no residue harvest and the switchgrass harvest and no harvest treatments. Comparisons of the study site and a nearby never cultivated prairie remnant demonstrated a reduction in particulate organic matter, wet aggregate stability, microbial hydrolytic activity, and soil polysaccharides at all landscape positions due to a long history of past cultivation. The distribution of soil organic matter concentration across landscape positions was consistent with a past history of soil erosion on the cultivated land compared to the prairie remnant. A second study involving a corn-soybean rotation involving corn stover removal since 2000 showed a significant loss in soil organic carbon and reductions in wet aggregate stability and particulate organic matter. Water conducting pores between 30 and 150 cm tensions were also reduced in the residue removal plots. This was mostly observed during the rotation in which soybean was growing in corn residue.

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