Mixing Reconstructed Prairie with Cropland to Balance Food and Biofuel Production with Environmental Quality

Project Overview

LNC09-314
Project Type: Research and Education
Funds awarded in 2009: $174,722.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2013
Region: North Central
State: Iowa
Project Coordinator:
Dr. Matthew Helmers
Iowa State University

Annual Reports

Commodities

  • Agronomic: corn, soybeans
  • Additional Plants: native plants

Practices

  • Crop Production: no-till, contour farming
  • Education and Training: extension, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
  • Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration, biodiversity, hedges - grass
  • Production Systems: agroecosystems

    Proposal abstract:

    This project investigates and demonstrates the effects of incorporating perennial vegetation in the form of restored native prairie into row-crop agriculture. Our overall goal is to evaluate how targeted conservation practices can achieve a balance between food production, biofuel production, and environmental quality in working agricultural landscapes. Our central hypothesis is that strategic integration of perennial cover within agricultural landscapes will have disproportionate benefits on agroecosystem functioning. We will test our hypothesis by replicating four configurations of perennial strips within corn-soybean systems. We will be evaluate treatment effects on water quality and biodiversity, as well as on the knowledge and perceptions of our target audience of farmers, agribusiness professionals, conservationists, scientists, policy makers, university students, and the public. Our short-term outcome is demonstration of how mixed annual-perennial cropping systems could potentially be used to balance the food-fuel-conservation conundrum. In the intermediate-term, we expect to quantify the initial effects of incorporating perennial vegetation into row-crop agriculture on ecohydrology, biodiversity, and crop productivity. We expect to assist our target audience in developing integrated systems thinking—as exemplified in our experimental design—and, in the long-term, begin to apply this thinking to agricultural land management through the implementation of alternative agroecosystem designs.

    Project objectives from proposal:

    This project investigates and demonstrates the effects of incorporating perennial vegetation in the form of restored native prairie into row-crop agriculture. Our overall goal is to evaluate how targeted conservation practices can achieve a balance between food production, biofuel production, and environmental quality in working agricultural landscapes. Our central hypothesis is that strategic integration of perennial cover within agricultural landscapes will have disproportionate benefits on agroecosystem functioning. Specifically, this project seeks to quantify effects of targeted conservation practices on (1) ecohydrology, (2) biodiversity, and (3) the dissemination of alternative agroecosystem designs. Based on this we have identified three specific project components for this proposal, which are, (1) ecohydrology, (2) biodiversity, and (3) outreach.

    The short-term outcome we seek to achieve is demonstration of how mixed annual-perennial cropping systems could be used to balance the food-fuel-conservation conundrum. In the intermediate-term, we will quantify the initial effects of incorporating perennial vegetation into row-crop agriculture on ecohydrology, biodiversity, and crop productivity. In addition we expect to develop recommendations for enhancing ecosystems services on agricultural lands by incorporating small percentages of perennial vegetation. We expect to assist our target audience of farmers, agribusiness professionals, conservationists, scientists, policy makers, university students, and the public in developing integrated systems thinking—as exemplified in our experimental design—and, in the long-term, begin to apply this thinking to agricultural land management through the implementation of alternative agroecosystem designs.

    Objectives of Project Components
    Ecohydrology. The main objective of the ecohydrology component is to quantify water flow, nutrient movement and cycling, and sediment loss under varying percentages and placements of perennial vegetation within a row-crop agricultural system.

    Biodiversity. The main task of this component is to determine the change in size, density, and composition of native plant, bird, and insect populations under varying percentages and placement of perennial vegetation in a row crop agricultural system.

    Outreach Activities. The project team believes that it is essential to disseminate this information to a broad group of stakeholders to maximize influence on future land management decisions. This requires an extensive network of partners and a combination of outreach mechanisms. The outreach encompasses activities at local, state-wide, and regional scales.

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.