Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

1. All participants in the project are active contributors to the National Cooperative Soil Survey as participants on various national and regional committees, as contributors to soil survey activities in their respective states (see below metrics section for quantified impacts), and as educators training the next generation of soil scientists.

2. Despite significant challenges to education in 2020 due to COVID-19, participants generated innovative approaches to content delivery. Examples of these accomplishments include:

In the fall of 2020, virtual field trips were developed for our introductory soils course so that students could study the field trip narratives online and then visit the field sites on their own. An all-day field trip for the Soils and Landscapes class was developed in a virtual format using the Soil Explorer platform (https://SoilExplorer.net). (Purdue University). 

Established 3 permanent soil pits at University of Illinois-Arboretum in 2020. Pits used for teaching/training: K-12, College & professional soil scientists. (University of Illinois).

Co-editing a Special Issue of Natural Sciences Education with contributions documenting innovative approaches to instructions during COVID-19 (special issue published in 2021, work completed in 2020): Mahler, R.L., M. Krzic, B. Garramon Merkle, C. Moorberg, E.C. Brevik. 2021. Natural sciences education in a COVID-19 world. Nat. Sci. Educ. In Print. doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20067. (Kansas State University)

Development of online sections of Basic Soil Science course, with engaging take-home laboratory kits and interactive lecture videos. (University of Minnesota). 

Development of hybrid online/field course on soil and site evaluation for onsite wastewater treatment for resident and continuing education students. (Ohio State University).

3. All of the individuals involved with this project are contributors to the Soil Explorer project and have finalized, or are in the process of finalizing, Dominant Soil Parent Material maps for their respective states. These maps are available to anyone anywhere via a web browser (SoilExplorer.net) or via apps for iOS and Android devices. Support for the parent material maps was provided by a project titled, Completion of the Isee Soils Database for the North Central Region, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($100,000, 8/28/2017 – 8/27/2020). In addition, a new project titled, Leveraging Soil Explorer for Soils and Ecological Training, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($52,295, 8/28/2019 – 8/31/2021), was awarded to Purdue University to expand the maps available on Soil Explorer. This project is utilizing the entire US Soil Survey database (the SSURGO database) to produce maps for the entire area covered by the US Cooperative Soil Survey, which includes the conterminous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Pacific island territories.

Acree, A., Weindorf, D. C., Galbraith, J. M., Jelinski, N. A., & Paulette, L. (2020). Characterization of Gelolls in northern Alaska, USA. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 84(3), 818-832. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20064

Brecheisen, Z., Hamp-Adams, N., Tomasek, A., Foster, E. J., Filley, T. R., Martín Villalta Soto, M., … Schulze, D. G. (2020). Using Remote Sensing to Discover Historic Context of Human-Environmental Water Resource Dynamics. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 171, 74–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2020.3346.x

Brevik, E.C., H. Dolliver, S. Edinger‐Marshall, D. Itkin, J. Johnson‐Maynard, C. Moorberg, Y. Sanchez-de Leon, and J. Steffan. 2020. Undergraduate degrees that train students for soil science careers at universities in the USA and its territories. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 84(6)1797-1807. doi: 10.1002/saj2.20140.

Jelinski, N. A., Perrone, S. V., Blair, H. K., & Fabian, M. L. (2020). Growing hearts and minds: Linking landscapes and lifescapes in a soils field course. Natural Sciences Education, 49(1), [e20018]. https://doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20018

Kidd, D., Searle, R., Grundy, M., McBratney, A., Robinson, N., O'Brien, L., Zund, P., Arrouays, D., Thomas, M., Padarian, J., Jones, E., Bennett, J., Minasny, B., Holmes, K., Malone, B., Liddicoat, C., Meier, E., Stockmann, U., Wilson, P., Wilford, J., Triantafilis, J., Payne, J., Ringrose-Voase, A., Bui, E., Slater, B., Odgers, N., Gray, J., van Gool, D., Andrews, K., Harms, B. Operationalising Digital Soil Mapping - Lessons from Australia. Geoderma Regional. 2020; 23(2020):article no e00335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2020.e00335

Kyebogola, S., L. Burras, B. Miller, O. Semalulu, R. Yost, M. Tenywa, A. Lenssen, P. Kyomuhendo, C. Smith, M. Majaliwa, L. Goettsch, C. Colfer and R. Mazur.  2020.  Comparing Uganda’s indigenous soil classification system with World Reference Base and USDA Soil Taxonomy to predict soil productivity.    Geoderma Regional e00296, 10 p.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2020.e00296

Miller, B.A. and J. Juilleret. 2020.  The colluvium and alluvium problem: Historical review and current state of definitions.  Earth-Science Rev. 209.  DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103316 . 

Minai, J., Z Libohova, and D. G. Schulze. 2020. Disaggregation of the 1:100,000 Reconnaissance soil map of the Busia Area, Kenya using a soil landscape rule-based approach. Catena 195:104806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104806

Moorberg C.J. An open annotated bibliography for soil and water conservation: A case study. Nat Sci Educ. 2020;e20014. doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20014

Mtama, J.G., C.L. Burras and B.M. Msanya.  2020.  Equation chapter 1 section 1 corn suitability rating for Southern Highland Zone of Tanzania – a feasibility assessment at the TARI-Uyole, Mbeya, Tanzania.  Am. J. Agric. For.  8:64-68.  Doi:10.11648/j.ajaf.20200803.12

Ngunjiri, M. W., Z. Libohova, P. R. Owens, D. G. Schulze. 2020. Landform pattern recognition and classification for predicting soil types of the Uasin Gishu Plateau, Kenya. Catena 188:104390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.104390

Nicklay, J. A., Cadieux, K. V., Rogers, M. A., Jelinski, N. A., LaBine, K., & Small, G. E. (2020). Facilitating Spaces of Urban Agroecology: A Learning Framework for Community-University Partnerships. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4, [143]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00143

Salas, E.A., Subburayalu, S.K., Slater, B., Zhao, K., Bhattacharya, B.K., Tripathy, R., Das, A., Nigam, R., Dave, R., & Parekh, P. (2019). Mapping crop types in fragmented arable landscapes using AVIRIS-NG imagery and limited field data. International Journal of Image and Data Fusion, 11, 33 - 56.

Schaetzl, R.J. K. Nyland, C.S. Kasmerchak, V. Breeze, A. Kamoske, S.E. Thomas, M. Bomber, L. Grove, K. Komoto, and B.A. Miller.  2020.  Holocene, silty-sand loess downwind of dunes in northern Michigan, USA>. Phys. Geography 42:1-25.   DOI:10.1080/02723646.2020.1734414

Turk, J. K., and R.C. Graham. 2020. Disturbance impacts on porosity and hydraulic properties of vesicular horizons. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 84(2), 543-555. doi:10.1002/saj2.20055

Turk, J. K. and R.A. Young. 2020. Field conditions and the accuracy of visually determined Munsell soil color. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 2020; 84: 163– 169. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20023

Wade, J., Maltais-Landry, G., Lucas, D. E., Bongiorno, G., Bowles, T. M., Calderón, F. J., Culman, S. W., Daughtridge, R., Ernakovich, J. G., Fonte, S. J., Giang, D., Herman, B. L., Guan, L., Jastrow, J. D., Loh, B. H. H., Kelly, C., Mann, M. E., Matamala, R., Miernicki, E. A., Jelinski, N.A., ... Margenot, A. J. (2020). Assessing the sensitivity and repeatability of permanganate oxidizable carbon as a soil health metric: An interlab comparison across soils. Geoderma, 366, [114235]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2020.114235

Yuling Gong, Zhenqi Hu, Kevin McSweeney, "Reclaiming Subsidized Land: An Evaluation of Coal Gangue Interlayers", Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 2020, Article ID 5740659, 12 pages, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5740659