Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was called to order with welcoming remarks by Tyson Ochsner, and Dr. David Porter (Interim Associate Dean, College of Agric. Sci. Natural Resour., OK State Univ.). Dr. Workman was not able to attend but suggested we develop a web site and start a listserve for our group. He encouraged joint publications. Sally Logsdon gave a brief summary of the southern soil physics group. Their data on soil hydraulic properties are among the best in the Unsoda data base, because the data are from the field and undisturbed lab samples. Then we started our business meeting. Maifan Silitonga was supposed to be the secretary this year, but she did not answer e-mails. Apparently she has taken a new job in Kentucky. Sally Logsdon volunteered to be the fill-in secretary. Now a president and host would need to be selected for next year. Christine Morgan sent e-mails to Glenn Wilson, Rich Zartmann, and Ole Wendroth to see if they would be interested. Ole Wendroth was most interested, so he will be the president and host next year. The secretary next year will be ?(Glenn Wilson or Josh Heitman)? We would still aim for the beginning of the third week of May. We decided e-mail was adequate and we did not need a listserve at this time. There is a sample web page from the past. Go to http://soilphysics.akstate.edu, select southern region. It was developed by Dr. H. Scott. Today electronic reports are more useful than hard copies. There is also an administrative website under NIMSS. Perhaps a student with GIS background could get things on the website, but the future secretaries will collate material to put on the website. We have a large number of students this year, and we would like to encourage student participation. We were reminded there would be student best presentation award, and we would take a group picture after lunch. The S1048 project obtained final approval July 2011. Kris Brye explained that a few decades ago, funding was easy for regional projects. In the 2000's, several early career members decided to push for a new project. Kris may have temporary funding for lab analysis. We discussed what to add to the data base. Suggestions were lat. / long., age of ecosystem or tillage, series or map unit number and county to link to SURGO, distinguish reverted bs abandoned land, get NRCS ecological site assessment list, plant species. We would like to invite other disciplines to attend our regional meeting. The SERA 17 P meeting meets at the annual meeting; such an idea might increase attendance. Jason Warren volunteered to pursue a C symposium from our group for 2013 annual meetings, and Josh Heitman agreed to help. A possible invitee would be David Robinson from UK. Tyson had us divide into three groups to discuss outcomes for each sub-objective i) evaluate management effects on SOC, ii) understand processes of C transformations, iii) spatial variability. For sub-objective i, we would summary any related work in our career, to get the database started, along with data collected fall 2011. For sub objective ii, we would summarize carbon dioxide flux in relation to temperature, water, and conservation practices. For sub-objective iii, we would summarize data at both regional and field scales. First we had presentations most closely linked with the project. Dr. JasonWarren and Sumit Sharma discussed "Research supporting the Oklahoma carbon program." Dr. Wes Wood discussed what his group had worked on, including sampling overseas. Jill Motschenbacher presented "Rice rotation and tillage effects on water-stable soil macroaggregates and their associated carbon contents. Richard McMullen presented "Broiler litter effect on long-term seasonal leaching from a Captina silt loam." Dr. Kris Brye discussed "Soil C and N dynamics in a wheat-soybean double-cropped system in the Mississippi River Delta Region of eastern Arkansas." Dr. Jaehoon Lee presented "Soil organic carbon changes for swithcgrass farms in east Tennessee." Then we had more general soil physics presentations. Dr. Josh Heitman discussed "Evapotranspiration at wine-grad vineyards in the Negev and North Carolina." Dr. Sally Logsdon presented some results from the fall sampling and a brief listing of other research. Dr. Robert Horton discussed "Research updates on heat, water, and chemical transfer in soil." He also gave encouraging words to students to follow their ideas. Haly Neely presented "Bulk electrical conductivity as a means to map shrink-swell potential of soils." Jason Ackerson presented "Measurement of soil water dynamics in a Texas Vertisol using electrical resistivity tomograpy." Dr. Christine Morgan discussed "Current issues in the Soil Science Society of America. Yohannes Yimam presented "Canopy interception and soil moisture depletion by switchgrass and forage sorghum." Andres Patrignani presented "A new framework to quantigy soil water stress effects on biomass production." The next day Jason Ackerson was awarded the best student presentation certificate. On the field trip, Dr. Chris Zou from Natural Resources Ecology and Management at Oklahoma State University showed us the "Cross timbers ecohydrology research site." Dr. Jeff Basara. director of research for Oklahoma Climatological Survey showed us "The Oklahoma Mesonet: Marena Station". Dr. Tyson Ochsner showed us "The Marena, Oklahoma in-siute sensor testbed (MOIST). We also got to observe installation of fiber optic soil water sensing cable.