Incorporating Soil Ecological Knowledge into Management of CRP Lands

Incorporating Soil Ecological Knowledge into Management of CRP Lands

Summary

Overall, great strides were made in the first year of my SARE grant, especially in regard to my first research objective. The mid-contract management treatments were applied to the field in spring of 2014, collaborations with other University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers led to a greatly expanded survey, and a successful field season yielded preliminarily promising results. Data collection and analysis were conducted on an ongoing basis, and results are being shared at a professional conference in spring 2015. As more landowner survey responses are returned and another summer of soil data is collected, the second objective (providing applicable, relevant information to landowners, managers and personnel to support smarter management of Conservation Reserve Program Lands) will be addressed.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The objectives identified in the research proposal are as follows:

1. 1. Tracking and establishing a set of measurable soil health attributes as identified by private landowners, and how they are differentially impacted by the four major mid-contract management (MCM) strategies; and

2. 2. Providing applicable, relevant information to private landowners, land managers and USDA-NRCS personnel in an effort to promote smarter adaptive management decisions that balance short- and long-term objectives to meet CRP contract requirements and landowner-desired outcomes alike.

In spring of 2014, three of the mid-contract management disturbance types were applied to my 1000 acre research site (interseeding was applied in spring 2013). By the start of the 2014 summer field season, I had 9 replicates of each of the following: disk tilled, burned, herbicide treated, interseeded, and control (for a total of 45).  Agency personnel working overtime and good weather conspired to get this massive project complete, and the burned plots (applied earliest in the season) are visible on the updated version of google earth’s satellite image of the field (Figure 1).                           

In another huge stride towards meeting my first objective, my surveys greatly expanded from a short questionnaire to 200 participants, to an in-depth statewide survey. In the early spring of 2014, I collaborated with other University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers who were already funded to survey landowners currently or previously enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. By adding my specific question to their survey, my proposed number of surveys expanded from 200 to 10,000+ mailed surveys. Surveys were mailed in fall 2014, and we are currently receiving our first responses and beginning to enter data.

Although I proposed to use survey responses to design data collection, this timeline wasn’t feasible with my new collaboration. As a result, I used an intensive approach, and collected soil in an effort to measure a range of physical, chemical, and biological attributes that 1) comprise general soil health, and 2) likely encompass landowner-identified attributes of soil health. If my 2014 data collection fails to capture landowner identified attributes of soil health, I will adjust my methods to better match survey results. If my 2014 methods do reflect survey results, I will continue with the same methods, highlighting results from soil health attributes that landowners identify in the surveys as important.  

Data from the 2014 summer field season is forthcoming, but preliminary results show that different management treatments do have strong, significant (P<0.05) effects on bulk density (an example is shown in Figure 2.), which is a cornerstone of soil health on sandy soils in north Central Nebraska. Various other physical, biogeochemical, and microbial analyses are currently underway.

Additionally, as a potential indicator of both soil health and upland gamebird health (the focus of a concurrent project dovetailing with this grant), the plots interseeded with a  “pollinator” seed mix had a significantly higher amount of ground dwelling macroinvertebrates less than 1cm in the length (P<0.05) in 2014 (Figure 3.)

Currently, all 180 soil samples collected from the 2014 field season are processed (2mm sieved, air dried where appropriate), and have been/are currently being analyzed. Preliminary statistical investigation is ongoing, and polished results are beginning to emerge.

Overall, the first objective of my study is nearly complete, paving the way to easily complete the second objective, which is to synthesize my results to present to landowners. While part of this will take place within my new collaboration, I will continue to focus my efforts on north central Nebraska, as I specified in my original proposal.

• ObjectivesFigures1-3

Accomplishments/Milestones

The first major milestone of this project was installing the treatments in my study area. This was a huge undertaking of brain and muscle power in a remote location. The second was a highly successful field season. I received more funding to support ongoing research at this site (including the support for an additional graduate student and three more full time summer technicians) through 2017, allowing me to focus my own efforts more heavily on the research funded by SARE and amplifying the impacts of this SARE grant overall. I have also added four publications (2 first author) to my name since I received SARE funding, and use my research as a teaching tool in the course I am currently co-instructing (Landscape Ecology).

In fall 2014, I was accepted to give a talk at a special session at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) annual meeting. The special session is entitled “Using Disturbance as a Management Tool”, and I plan to use data gathered from my SARE project to present “Not All Disturbance is Created Equal: Soil Health on CRP Lands.”

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

This project is still in its inchoate stages, and until the completion of analyzing data from 1) at least two field seasons of soil collection, and 2) the landowner surveys, I am unable to address my second objective, which will have the most long lasting contribution and impact of my project. However, in the meantime I hope to report my findings in academic journals/at academic conferences. I’ve been accepted into a program to write a manuscript in Sweden in spring 2015, and I will use many of the lessons/data from my SARE project to inform this endeavor.

Additionally, I encouraged and aided my colleague Maggi Sliwinski to apply for a graduate SARE grant, which she was successfully awarded in fall 2014.

Collaborators: