Source: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
FUNCTIONAL RESTORATION OF MIDWESTERN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
MCINTIRE-STENNIS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0233891
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Apr 1, 2013
Project End Date
Mar 31, 2018
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
2229 Lincoln Way
AMES,IA 50011
Performing Department
Natural Resource Ecology and Management
Non Technical Summary
While society has historically expected agriculture to produce marketable crops and livestock, farmers, farm landowners, and agribusiness are now under increasing pressure to enhance the delivery of additional goods and services from agricultural. The expanded list of expected outputs includes, but is not limited to, clean water, flood control, carbon storage, habitat, and recreational opportunities. Agricultural managers of the future will need to implement management practices that expand the suite of goods and services agricultural landscapes provide. This proposal aims to test innovative approaches to restore ecological function to agricultural landscapes by strategically integrating denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices to maximize societal benefits. Two denitrification systems practices to be tested by this project include denitrification bioreactors and resaturated buffers. Denitrification bioreactors -- also known as woodchip bioreactors, denitrifying bioreactors, denitrification beds, or biofilters -- reduce a common water pollutant, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3), from artificial subsurface drainage (tiles). Resaturated buffers offer another approach to treat tile water. Water is intercepted at the field tile outlet where it crosses a riparian buffer, a portion of which is diverted as shallow groundwater within the buffer. The infiltrated water would potentially raise the water table within the buffer into organic rich soil layers and provide an opportunity for the NO3 contained in the field tile drainage water to be removed by denitrification before entering the adjacent stream. While initial results associated with bioreactors and the single existing resaturated buffer are favorable, more detailed information is needed over a longer duration before these practices can be optimized and more widely recommended as strategies for improving stream water quality. There is a tremendous, unexplored range of potential perennial conservation practices that could improve ecological functioning in agricultural landscapes. Over the past decades, policies have targeted conservation practices that promote planting of perennial vegetation cover (e.g., riparian buffer systems, grass waterways) to offset the negative externalities of agriculture and enhance ecosystem services. While there is growing societal support for more spatially targeted approaches for the allocation of perennial conservation practices, few actual empirical field data exist on the influence of spatial extent, position, and type of perennial cover on the level of ecological function provided. This project seeks to fill these knowledge gaps. Outputs of this project will include new knowledge documented in peer-review scientific journal publications; press releases related to major scientific findings; the development of more extensive partnerships among stakeholder groups composed of the agricultural and environmental communities; field days, seminars, webinars, class presentations, and other forms of oral communication.
Animal Health Component
45%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
45%
Developmental
15%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1020199107015%
1120399107010%
1120399205010%
1250670107015%
1310210107010%
1330210107015%
1360899107010%
4020210202015%
Knowledge Area
133 - Pollution Prevention and Mitigation; 102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 136 - Conservation of Biological Diversity; 112 - Watershed Protection and Management; 125 - Agroforestry; 402 - Engineering Systems and Equipment; 131 - Alternative Uses of Land;

Subject Of Investigation
0670 - Short rotation woody crops, including holiday trees; 0210 - Water resources; 0899 - Wildlife and natural fisheries, general/other; 0199 - Soil and land, general; 0399 - Watersheds and river basins, general;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 2050 - Hydrology; 1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this project is to develop locally acceptable, economically viable, management practices that increase the sustainability of agriculture in the Midwestern United States with respect to surface and ground water quality, while improving the integrity of the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The short-term goal is to quantify the biophysical and socioeconomic impacts of incorporating denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices into row-crop agricultural systems. The central hypothesis is that strategic placement of appropriately sized denitrification systems and small amounts of perennial cover within agricultural landscapes will have disproportionate effects on biophysical functioning of agroecosystems. Our first objective is to quantify the impacts of several denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on water, sediment, and nutrient movement. Our working hypotheses are that (a) denitrification systems, including bioreactors, saturated buffers, riparian buffers and filter strips, located in key places within a corn-soybean agricultural system will reduce nutrient flux to surface waters; (b) small percentages of perennial vegetation strategically located within a corn-soybean agricultural system will increase total water storage with the watershed; (c) small percentages of perennial vegetation will increase sediment and nutrient retention in the soil-plant matrix, thereby reducing losses from the watershed; and (d) reducing hydrologic load to streams will reduce stream bank erosion, stabilize stream channels, and reduce watershed phosphorus flux. Our second objective is to quantify the impacts of perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on soil quality and carbon storage. Our working hypothesis is that strategically located perennial vegetation can improve soil quality and carbon storage by placing more perennial roots in the ground. Our third objective is to determine the relationship between the placement and percentage of perennial conservation practices and biodiversity. Our working hypotheses are that (a) the richness and abundance of native plants and birds will increase with the size of patches of diverse, perennial vegetation incorporated into a corn-soybean agricultural system; (b) the richness and abundance of bird Species of Greatest Conservation Need will increase with the size of patches of diverse, perennial vegetation incorporated into a corn-soybean agricultural system; and (c) watersheds containing small proportions of diverse, perennial vegetation will have species richness and abundance which is disproportionately higher than those of watersheds containing greater proportions of diverse, perennial vegetation. Outputs of this project will include new knowledge documented in peer-review scientific journal publications; press releases related to major scientific findings; the development of more extensive partnerships among stakeholder groups composed of the agricultural and environmental communities; field days, seminars, webinars, class presentations, and other forms of oral communication.
Project Methods
We will address our first objective related to water quantity and quality in multiple ways. Bioreactors will continuously be monitored for flow and water samples collected twice per week for analysis of nitrate-nitrogen. The flow and nitrate (NO3) concentrations will be used to compute NO3 removal by the bioreactor. Flow and NO3 concentrations in the subsurface drainage associated with saturated riparian buffers will be monitored continuously. The fate of the NO3 in the buffers will be followed by sampling the groundwater within the buffers from multiple transects of wells spanning the width of the buffers. Denitrification within the buffer soil will be measured at multiple times and locations. Water flow and quality associated with perennial conservation practices will be continuously measured with H-Flumes and automated ISCO samplers. Groundwater wells have additionally been installed and depth to groundwater will be monitored continuously during the growing season using pressure transducers. Soil moisture in the vadose zone will be monitored using an Imko TRIME-FM instrument with access tubes at six depths (10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 100 cm) and a Theta Probe at the ground surface. Soil moisture will be monitored monthly throughout the growing season and during consecutive days following major rainfall events. Infiltration measurements will also be taken in the spring every several years to assess changes in soil-water infiltration rates over time within vegetation treatments. Suction lysimeters (installed at 100 cm depth) will be utilized to extract water samples for analysis of NO3 and orthophosphate. Lastly, stream channel responses to water flow will be measured at select sites using LiDAR and erosion pin techniques. Our second objective related to soil carbon, initial soil analysis have been performed on samples collected at establishment of our experiments for baseline conditions and periodically thereafter. Protocols used at establishment will be repeated on soil samples periodically collected to determine changes in soil organic matter. Regarding our third objective related to biodiversity, plant biodiversity response will be monitored semi-annually, given the long-term character of our experiments. Surveys will be conducted during July-August to capture the peak flowering period. Data will be analyzed using ordination techniques and ANOVAs. Bird biodiversity response will be monitored using point count and/or spot mapping methodology. Data will be analyzed using ordination techniques and Poisson regression. This work will largely be conducted at four different sites in central Iowa: (a) the Northeast Iowa Research and Demonstration Farm, (b) Bear Creek National Riparian Buffer Research and Demonstration Area located near Roland in Story County, (c) the STRIPs at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge research and demonstration site in near Prairie City in Jasper County, and (d) the Landscape Biomass research and demonstration site near Luther in Boone County.

Progress 04/01/13 to 03/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Farmers and farm land owners, agribusiness, natural resource professionals, and other agricultural and forestry stakeholders are the main target audience for this work. These stakeholders may include people working for universities, agencies (e.g., state DNRs and United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trees Forever), or private consultants (e.g., farm managers, consulting foresters) with a natural resource focus. A secondary audience is university students. Results have been discussed in NREM 130 Natural Resources and Agriculture, FOR201: Forest Biology, FOR/NREM 452 Ecosystem Management, NREM/ENSC 301 Natural Resource Ecology and Soils, and NREM/ENSC 407/507 Watershed Management. These courses reach approximately 200 students per year. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have directly provided training to 20 graduate students and 38 undergraduate students through direct work on the project. We mentored five undergraduate students to complete independent studies relating to this project. Additionally, we have integrated research data and practices into the classes that we teach or through guest teaching. Collectively, these classes have reached 964 undergraduate and 94 graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included direct contact with farmers and farmland owners through research being conducted on their farms; presentations at field days, conferences, ISU Extension trainings, and webinars; and through ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. These have included over 125 presentations to a variety of scientific, agency, and farm management groups during the period of the project reaching approximately 7,500 people. Information has also been distributed through a variety of news outlets, including Corn and Soybean Digest, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Des Moines Register, High Plains Journal, Iowa Farmer Today, Iowa Public Radio, Nebraska Farmer Today, New York Times, Politico, Take Part, Wallaces Farmer, and Washington Post, among others. Together these news sources reach millions of people from across the Midwest, where the research outcomes are most applicable, to globally. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? MPACT: We tested innovative approaches to restore ecological function to agricultural landscapes by strategically integrating biosystems engineering and perennial conservation practices to maximize societal benefits. We engaged cooperators, trained people, collected data, published papers, and delivered outreach in support of our short- and long-term project goals. Over the last 5 years, we provided training to 20 graduate and 38 undergraduate students, and education to 964 undergraduate and 94 graduate students; published 48 scientific and educational papers, including 31 peer-reviewed journal articles; delivered over 125 presentations reaching approximately 7,500 people; and disseminated project information through 3 websites. News reports associated with our research results have reached millions of people globally. We have further worked with ISU Extension and the press for even wider dissemination, especially to the agricultural community. Our research lowers the barriers to the adoption of conservation practices by assuming the risk involved with technology development, developing broader understanding of the new technology by quantifying associated costs and benefits, and training others to seamlessly implement the technology. Thus far, hundreds of farmers/farm owners have adopted or improved management of the technologies under investigation here, including denitrification bioreactors, saturated buffers, prairie strips, and multispecies riparian buffers. The practices are applicable to approximately 200 million acres of farmland across the US. Objective 1) quantify the impacts of several denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on water, sediment, and nutrient movement. We monitored 8 research sites to address this objective of how strategically placed prairie strips impact water runoff. Results indicate prairie strips can reduce surface runoff volume and improve sediment and nutrient retention. Schulte et al. (2017) found that the of prairie strips reduces total water runoff from agricultural catchments by 37%, resulting in the retention of 20 times more sediment and 4.3 times more phosphorus. Brittenham (2017) assessed the nitrogen-retention impacts of replacing of 10-20% of cropland with reconstructed prairie and further documented declining maximum nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in shallow groundwater with increasing amounts of prairie. A companion replicated plot experiment indicates that polycultural conservation plantings are significantly better at retaining nitrate-nitrogen than monocultural plantings, including alfalfa and corn, but more diverse plantings did not offer additional nitrogen retention benefits beyond those with five native species. A companion modeling study shows that, if more broadly implemented, such perennial vegetation types could substantially improve water quality in the state of Iowa, and that impacts on farm finances could be minimized if perennial cover is strategically placed on the least productive areas of crop fields (Brandes et al. 2017). Two new saturated buffers were established and fully instrumented for monitoring water quality, adding to the 11 already established and monitored. Results from over 10 field-years of observations of the nitrate removal performance of saturated buffers illustrates their significant nutrient reduction potential. Monitoring at six sites across Iowa, representing 17 site-years showed that all the saturated buffers were effective in removing nitrate from the tile outlet, with the average annual nitrate load removal ranging from 13 to 179 kg N for drainage areas ranging from 3.4 to 40.5 ha. This is nitrate that would have otherwise discharged directly into the adjoining streams. The annual removal effectiveness, which is the total nitrate removed in the saturated buffer divided by the total nitrate draining from the field delivered to the tile outlet, ranged from 8% to 84%. Assuming a 40-yr life expectancy for the structure and a 4% discount rate, we computed a mean Equal Annual Cost for saturated buffers of $214. Given the average annual removal of all site-years, this cost equates to $2.94 per kg N removed, which if very competitive with other field-edge practices such as denitrification bioreactors and constructed wetlands. 8 graduate students and 11 undergraduate students were trained in this area. Objective 2) quantify the impacts of perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on soil quality and carbon storage. The impacts of reconstructing prairie within row crop fields was assessed for a chronosequence of soil data collected from 6 sites in 5 distinct locations throughout Iowa (Brittenham 2017). A subset from sites with similar soil types was reviewed to determine 0, 10, 25, and 37 years. The remaining 3 sites with differing soil types were analyzed for 0 and 2 year trends. Soil properties measured from all sites were total nitrogen (TN), total carbon (TC), pH, bulk density, aggregate size distribution, and particulate organic matter (POM) associated carbon and nitrogen. In general, both carbon and nitrogen increased while maintaining a similar TC:TN. Bulk density decreased with time and pH did not follow a distinct pattern. After 10 years in prairie, macroaggregate fractions increased significantly and were maintained over time. Carbon and nitrogen content within aggregate fractions increased significantly while maintaining the TC:TN ratio. Within the POM fractions, TC and TN did not express a general increasing trend though the TC:TN ratio increased. Conservatively, prairie litter and dead roots annually provided 1950 kg C ha-1 and 2250 kg C ha-1 more than corn/soybean and continuous corn rotations, respectively. Annually prairie litter contained 53 kg N ha-1 and 57 kg N ha-1 more than corn/soybean rotation and continuous corn, respectively. 5 graduate student and 4 undergraduate students were trained in this area. Objective 3) determine the relationship between the placement and percentage of perennial conservation practices and biodiversity. In 2017, we published a paper showing that placing prairie strips on 10-20% of row crop catchments led to greater insect taxa richness (2.6-fold), pollinator abundance (3.5-fold), native bird species richness (2.1-fold), and abundance of bird species of greatest conservation need (2.1-fold) compared to catchments entirely in row-crop production (Schulte et al. 2017). We are now working at the commercial scale on 14 farms across Iowa with a range of perennial conservation practices. We have thus far found that fields with prairie strips have significantly higher density of birds compared to fields with conventional grass and filter strips. Strongest responses are from dickcissels, common yellowthroats, and red-winged blackbirds. Some species in need of conservation assistance, including the dickcissel, eastern meadowlark, and grasshopper sparrow, have responded positively to the presence of prairie strips. Preliminary results indicate that red-winged blackbirds fledge young 2.1 times as often from nests in prairie strips compared to low-diversity vegetated areas on farms, dickcissels fledge young 5.6 times as often, and vesper sparrows fledge young 8.4 times as often. 4 graduate students and 11 undergraduate students were trained in this area. Results associated with all three of these objectives is being incorporated into PEWI, an online watershed tool designed to help people understand the ecosystem service tradeoffs associated with different types of agricultural production systems. PEWI and companion lesson plans can be found at www.nrem.iastate.edu/PEWI. Version 3 of this model was fully released during this final reporting period. A new version, which include an economic module, is scheduled for release early in 2018. 3 graduate students and 12 undergraduate students were trained in this area.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Brandes, E, G McNunn, LA Schulte, D Muth, A VanLoocke, E Heaton. 2018. Targeted subfield switchgrass integration could improve the farm economy, water quality, and bioenergy feedstock production. Global Change Biology Bioenergy 10:199-212.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Reib, JT, R Chaplin-Kramer, GC Daily, PR Armsworth, K Böhning-Gaese, A Bonn, GS Cumming, F Eigenbrod, V Grimm, BM Jackson, A Marques, SK Pattanayak, H Pereira, GD Peterson, TH Ricketts, BE Robinson, M Schröter, LA Schulte, R Seppelt, MG Turner, EM Bennett. 2018. Response to Kabisch and colleagues. When, were, and how nature matters for ecosystem services. BioScience 68 (3):167-168.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Schilling, K.E., M.T. Streeter, T.M. Isenhart, W.J. Beck, M.D. Tomer, K.J. Cole, and J.L. Kovar. 2018. Distribution and mass balance of groundwater orthophosphorus in an agricultural watershed. Science of the Total Environment 625:1330-1340.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Peacher, R.D., R.N. Lerch, R.C. Schultz, C.D. Willett, T.M. Isenhart, and C.M. McMullen. 2018. Factors controlling streambank erosion and phosphorus loss in claypan watersheds. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 75(2):189-199.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Beck, W.J., T.M. Isenhart, P. Moore, K. Schilling, R. Schultz, and M. Tomer. 2018. Streambank alluvial unit contributions to suspended sediment and phosphorus loads, Walnut Creek, Iowa. Water 10:111-133.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Cibin R., I. Chaubey, M.J. Helmers, K.P. Sudheer, M.J. White, and J.G. Arnold. 2018. An Improved Representation of Vegetative Filter Strips in SWAT. Trans. ASABE 61:1017-1024. DOI: 10.13031/trans.12661.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Webber, D. F., M. Bansal, S.K. Mickelson, M.J. Helmers, K. Arora, K., B.K. Gelder, and C.J. Judge. 2018. Assessing surface flowpath interception by vegetative buffers using ArcGIS hydrologic modeling and geospatial analysis for Rock Creek watershed, central Iowa. Trans. ASABE 161:273-283. DOI: 10.13031/trans.12350.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Luo, C., Z. Wang, T. Sauer, M.J. Helmers, and R. Horton. 2018. Portable canopy chamber measurements of evapotranspiration in corn, soybean, and reconstructed prairie. Agricultural Water Management 198:1-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2017.11.024.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: www.prairiestrips.org
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: https://www.nrem.iastate.edu/pewi/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: https://www.nrem.iastate.edu/landscape/
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: ⿢ Davis, M.P., T.A. Groh, R.J. Williams, T.B. Parkin, T.M Isenhart, and K. Hofmockel. 2018. Portable automation of static chamber sample collection for quantifying soil gas flux. Journal of Environmental Quality 47:270-275.


Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Farmers and farm land owners, agribusiness, natural resource professionals, and other agricultural and forestry stakeholders are the main target audience for this work. These stakeholders may include people working for universities, agencies (e.g., state DNRs and United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trees Forever), or private consultants (e.g., farm managers, consulting foresters) with a natural resource focus. A secondary audience is university students. Results have been discussed in NREM 130 Natural Resources and Agriculture, FOR/NREM 452 Ecosystem Management, NREM/ENSC 301 Natural Resource Ecology and Soils, and NREM/ENSC 407/507 Watershed Management. In total, these courses reached 199 students in past year. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have directly provided training to 22 individual undergraduate and 12 individual graduate students through direct work on the project. Additionally, we have integrated research data and practices into the classes that we teach or through guest teaching. Collectively, these classes reach 179 undergraduate and 20 graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included direct contact with farmers and farmland owners through research being conducted on their farms; presentations at field days, conferences, ISU Extension trainings, and webinars; and through ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. These have included over 25 presentations to a variety of scientific, agency, and farm management groups in the last year reaching approximately 1,500 people. Information has also been distributed through a variety of news outlets, including High Plains Journal, Iowa Farmer Today, Iowa Public Radio, Nebraska Farmer Today, Politico, and Wallaces Farmer, among others. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to collaborate together and with our broader collaborative networks to mentor students; to collect and analyze data; and to present research results in presentation and publication form. Our research will continue to be integrated into our course and extension and outreach activities as appropriate. In particular, much effort will be devoted to analyzing and reporting our data.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? IMPACT: We seek to test innovative approaches to restore ecological function to agricultural landscapes by strategically integrating biosystems engineering and perennial conservation practices to maximize societal benefits. We engage cooperators, trained people, collected data, published papers, and delivered outreach in support of our short- and long-term project goals. In the last year, we have directly provided training to 12 graduate students and 22 undergraduate students; published 15 scientific and educational papers, including 11 peer-reviewed journal articles; and delivered over 25 presentations in the last year reaching approximately 1,500 people. We worked with ISU Extension and the press for even wider dissemination, especially to the agricultural community. Our research lowers the barriers to the adoption of conservation practices by assuming the risk involved with technology development, developing broader understanding of the new technology by quantifying associated costs and benefits, and training others to seamlessly implement the technology. To date, hundreds of farmers/farm owners have adopted the technologies under investigation here, including denitrification bioreactors, saturated buffers, prairie strips, and multispecies riparian buffers. Objective 1) quantify the impacts of several denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on water, sediment, and nutrient movement. We have been monitoring 8 research sites to address this objective of how strategically placed prairie strips impact water runoff. Results indicate prairie strips can reduce surface runoff volume and improve sediment and nutrient retention. Schulte et al. (2017) found that the of prairie strips reduces total water runoff from agricultural catchments by 37%, resulting in the retention of 20 times more sediment and 4.3 times more phosphorus. Brittenham (2017) assessed the nitrogen-retention impacts of replacing of 10-20% of cropland with reconstructed prairie and further documented declining maximum nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in shallow groundwater with increasing amounts of prairie. A companion modeling study shows that, if more broadly implemented, such perennial vegetation types could substantially improve water quality in the state of Iowa, and that impacts on farm finances could be minimized if perennial cover is strategically placed on the least productive areas of crop fields (Brandes et al. 2017). Eleven saturated buffer sites have been instrumented and results demonstrate that denitrification rates effectively reduce nitrate in subsurface water moving through saturated buffers and nitrogen gas is the major product of the denitrification with low levels of nitrous oxide being released. Two graduate students and five undergraduate students are being trained in this area. Objective 2) quantify the impacts of perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on soil quality and carbon storage. The impacts of reconstructing prairie within row crop fields was assessed for a chronosequence of soil data collected from 6 sites in 5 distinct locations throughout Iowa (Brittenham 2017). A subset from sites with similar soil types was reviewed to determine 0, 10, 25, and 37 years. The remaining 3 sites with differing soil types were analyzed for 0 and 2 year trends. Soil properties measured from all sites were total nitrogen (TN), total carbon (TC), pH, bulk density, aggregate size distribution, and particulate organic matter (POM) associated carbon and nitrogen. In general, both carbon and nitrogen increased while maintaining a similar TC:TN. Bulk density decreased with time and pH did not follow a distinct pattern. After 10 years in prairie, macroaggregate fractions increased significantly and were maintained over time. Carbon and nitrogen content within aggregate fractions increased significantly while maintaining the TC:TN ratio. Within the POM fractions, TC and TN did not express a general increasing trend though the TC:TN ratio increased. Conservatively, prairie litter and dead roots annually provided 1950 kg C ha-1 and 2250 kg C ha-1 more than corn/soybean and continuous corn rotations, respectively. Annually prairie litter contained 53 kg N ha-1 and 57 kg N ha-1 more than corn/soybean rotation and continuous corn, respectively. 1 graduate student and 3 undergraduate students were trained in this area. Objective 3) determine the relationship between the placement and percentage of perennial conservation practices and biodiversity. We published a paper showing that placing prairie strips on 10-20% of row crop catchments led to greater insect taxa richness (2.6-fold), pollinator abundance (3.5-fold), native bird species richness (2.1-fold), and abundance of bird species of greatest conservation need (2.1-fold) compared to catchments entirely in row-crop production (Schulte et al. 2017). We are now working at the commercial scale on 14 farms across Iowa with a range of perennial conservation practices. We have thus far found that fields with prairie strips tend to have higher bird abundance and richness that fields without prairie strips, but not Shannon-Weaver diversity: the diversity result is driven by a few bird species respond strongly to the presence of prairie strips (e.g., red-winged blackbirds, dickcissels, common yellowthroat), whereas the response from fields without prairie strips is more even across species. We did not find differences in abundance, richness, or diversity when comparing farms with traditional grass strips to farms with prairie strips, although there is a trend toward higher levels of these measures with prairie strips. We are trying to assess this landscape effect in more refined statistical models. As we expect, red-winged blackbirds, dickcissels, common yellowthroat fairly consistently higher with strips. We also conducted nest searching and monitoring on 21 fields at 10 farms between 2015 and 2016, including 18 fields at 7 farms in 2015 and 2016 and 12 fields at 6 farms in 2017. We found 2-3 times more nests overall on fields with strips (grass and prairie) compared to fields without. We specifically found 30 times more red-winged blackbird, 7 times more dickcissel, 6 times more gray catbird, 5 times more vesper sparrow, 4 times more American robin, and 3 times more meadowlark (Eastern and Western combined) nests on fields with strips. We expect vesper sparrow response to decline as prairie strips mature; in the 2015 and 2016 data, they appear to be responding positively to the mown vegetation associated with establishing prairie strips. American robins are responding more to shrub vegetation associated with grass strips on field borders than to prairie strips. We furthermore found 2.6-4 times more nests of "expected species" in fields with strips compared to fields without (p < 0.05); expected species are those we a priori hypothesized would respond positively to prairie strips because of their life history characteristics. These species include red-winged blackbird, dickcissel, meadowlarks, common yellowthroat, American goldfinch, song sparrow, and ring-necked pheasant. At present, we have not found a difference in nest survival with treatment. The statistical models required to obtain estimates of nest survival require lots of data, underscoring the need for incorporating 2017 data and additional data collection. Four graduate students and 5 undergraduate students are being trained in this area.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Anwar, U, LA Schulte, MJ Helmers, R Kolka. 2017. The effect of five biomass cropping systems on soil-saturated hydraulic conductivity across a topographic gradient. Bioenergy Research 10 (3):824-831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-017-9843-6
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hladik, ML, S Bradbury, LA Schulte, M Helmers, C Witte, DW Kolpin, J Garrett, M Harris. 2017. Neonicotinoid insecticide removal by prairie strips in row-cropped watersheds with historical seed coating use. Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment 241:160-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.03.015
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Marquez , C.O., V.J. Garcia, R.C. Schultz, and T.M. Isenhart. 2017. Assessment of Soil Aggradation through Soil Aggregation and Particulate Organic Matter by Riparian Switchgrass Buffers. Agronomy 7:76. doi:10.3390/agronomy7040076.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Brandes, E, G McNunn, LA Schulte, D Muth, A VanLoocke, E Heaton. 2017. Targeted subfield switchgrass integration could improve the farm economy, water quality, and bioenergy feedstock production. Global Change Biology-Bioenergy. doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12481
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Marquez , C.O., V.J. Garcia, R.C. Schultz, and T.M. Isenhart. 2017. Assessment of soil degradation through soil aggregation and particulate organic matter following conversion of riparian buffer to continuous cultivation. European Journal of Soil Science 68:295-304. doi:10.1111/ejss.12422.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Reib, JT, R Chaplin-Kramer, GC Daily, PR Armsworth, K B�hning-Gaese, A Bonn, GS Cumming, F Eigenbrod, V Grimm, BM Jackson, A Marques, SK Pattanayak, H Pereira, GD Peterson, TH Ricketts, BE Robinson, M Schr�ter, LA Schulte, R Seppelt, MG Turner, EM Bennett. 2017. When, were, and how nature matters for ecosystem services. BioScience 67 (9):820833. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix075
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schilling, K.E., C.S. Jones, C.F. Wolter, X. Liang, Y.K. Zhang, A. Seeman, T. Isenhart, D. Schnoebelen, and M. Skopec. Variability of nitrate-nitrogen load estimation results will make quantifying load reduction strategies difficult in Iowa. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 72:317-325. doi: 10.2489/jswc.72.4.317.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Enloe, S, LA Schulte, JC Tyndall. 2017. Public-private partnerships working beyond scale challenges toward water quality improvement from private lands. Environmental Management 60: 574-587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0905-5
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Brittenham, B.A. 2017. Effect of converting row crop to prairie on nutrient concentration in shallow groundwater and soil properties. M.S. Thesis, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Dziubanski, D.J., K.J. Franz, and M.J. Helmers. 2017. Effects of spatial orientation of prairie vegetation in an agricultural landscape on curve number values. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 53:365-381. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12510.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schulte, LA, and JC Tyndall. 2017. Understanding land-use feedbacks and ecosystem service tradeoffs in agriculture. Chapter 19 in Gergel, SE, MG Turner. Learning landscape ecology: concepts and tools for sustainable landscapes, 2nd edition. Springer, New York, NY.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schulte, LA, TA Ontl, GLD Larsen. 2017. Biofuels and Biodiversity, Wildlife Habitat Restoration, In: Reference Module in Life Sciences, Elsevier.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schulte, LA, JB Niemi, MJ Helmers, M Liebman, JG Arbuckle, DE James, RK Kolka, ME ONeal, MD Tomer, JC Tyndall, H Asbjornsen, P Drobney, J Neal, G Van Ryswyk, C Witte. 2017. Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn-soybean croplands. PNAS 114(42):1124711252. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1620229114
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Stephenson, MD. 2017. Quantifying methods to improve statistical power in grassland and passerine bird nesting studies. M.S. Thesis, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Tomer, M.D., D.B. Jaynes, S.A. Porter, D.E. James, and T.M. Isenhart. 2017. Identifying Riparian Zones Best Suited to Installation of Saturated Buffers: A Preliminary Multi-Watershed Assessment. In: J. Delgado, G. Sassenrath, and T. Meuller, Eds. Precision Conservation Geospatial Techniques for Agricultural and Natural Resources Conservation. Agronomy Monograph 59. doi:10.2134/agronmonogr59.2013.0018


Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Farmers and farm land owners, agribusiness, natural resource professionals, and other agricultural and forestry stakeholders are the main target audience for this work. These stakeholders may include people working for universities, agencies (e.g., state DNRs and United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trees Forever), or private consultants (e.g., farm managers, consulting foresters) with a natural resource focus. A secondary audience is university students. Results have been discussed in NREM 130 Natural Resources and Agriculture, FOR/NREM 442 Forest Stand Dynamics, FOR/NREM 452 Ecosystem Management, NREM/ENSC 301 Natural Resource Ecology and Soils, and NREM/ENSC 407/507 Watershed Management. The combined number of students in these five courses in past year exceeds 217. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have directly provided training to 5 individual graduate students and 11 individual undergraduate students through direct work on the project. Additionally, we have integrated research data and practices into the classes that we teach or through guest teaching. Collectively, these classes reach 210 undergraduate and 7 graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included direct contact with farmers and farmland owners through research being conducted on their farms; presentations at field days, conferences, ISU Extension trainings, and webinars; and through ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. These have included over 25 presentations to a variety of scientific, agency, and farm management groups in the last year reaching approximately 1,500 people. Information has also been distributed through a variety of news outlets, including Corn and Soybean Digest, Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman, TakePart, Washington Post, WHO News Agribuiz Report, Yahoo News, among others. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to collaborate together and with our broader collaborative networks to mentor students; to collect and analyze data; and to present research results in presentation and publication form. Our research will continue to be integrated into our course and extension and outreach activities as appropriate. In particular, in the next year, much effort will be devoted to collecting and analyzing data to evaluate the multifunctional impact of strategically integrating small amounts of diverse, herbaceous, native, perennial vegetation within row-crop fields.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? IMPACT: With our work, we seek to test innovative approaches to restore ecological function to agricultural landscapes by strategically integrating biosystems engineering and perennial conservation practices to maximize societal benefits. In Year 4 of this project, we engaged cooperators, trained people, collected data, published papers, and delivered outreach in support of our short- and long-term project goals. We collectively published nine scientific and educational papers within the last year, including four peer-reviewed journal articles. We also work with ISU Extension and the press for wider dissemination, especially to the agricultural community. Our research lowers the barriers to the adoption of conservation practices by assuming the risk involved with technology development, developing broader understanding of the new technology by quantifying associated costs and benefits, and training others to seamlessly implement the technology. To date, hundreds of farmers/farm owners have adopted the technologies under investigation here, including denitrification bioreactors, saturated buffers, prairie strips, and multispecies riparian buffers. Objective 1) quantify the impacts of several denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on water, sediment, and nutrient movement. We focused on instrumenting research sites and subsequent data collection. We have now established and instrumented 7 research sites to address this objective of how strategically placed prairie strips impact water runoff. Early results indicate prairie strips can reduce surface runoff volume. Two saturated buffer sites have been instrumented and early indications are that denitrification rates effectively reduce nitrate in subsurface water moving through saturated buffers and nitrogen gas is the major product of the denitrification with low levels of nitrous oxide being released. Objective 2) quantify the impacts of perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on soil quality and carbon storage. We collected and analyzed data at seven sites in Iowa. We also published a paper establishing how these systems might be optinally arranged on the landscape in support of bioenergy production (Huang et al. 2016). In early spring, 165 cores from 0-120 cm were subsampled into 8 lengths, and dried awaiting lab analysis for nitrogen and carbon content. These samples were taken from newly established prairie strip areas and adjacent cropland. Infiltration measurements using the Cornell Sprinkler Infiltrometer were completed at two sites. Bulk density and infiltration measurements indicate no difference between the crop field and prairie strip following 1-2 years post implementation. Soil aggregate size distribution samples were taken October through early December at three sites plus Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge at both a cropped and prairie site. Results from a study of soil aggregation looked at mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter (GMD), percent water stable macroaggregates (%WSA),total soil organic carbon (SOC) and infiltration rates in multispecies riparian buffers that contained switchgrass, hybrid poplar and cool-season grasses and were established 20-21 years prior to the study on crop ground. Data from within the switchgrass and the cool-season grass were compared with samples collected in the trafficked and non-trafficked crop interrows in adjacent crop fields. A similar study had been conducted seven years after the MRB's were established. Perennial vegetation had greater MWD, GMD, %WSA, and total SOC compared to the crop field. Data collected in 1997 showed no significant differences in %WSA or MWD between switchgrass and crop field, but did between cool-season grasses and crop field. However, %WSA and MWD under switchgrass increased 45.8% and 120.5%, respectively, since 1997; under cool-season grasses %WSA and MWD increased 17.9% and 34.3%, respectively, since 1997, but decreased by 37.0% and 35.2% under row crops. Sixty-minute cumulative infiltration did not significantly differ among MRBs, but was greater than trafficked crop interrows, and was best explained by rainfall rate, bulk density, and initial saturation. Percent rooted vegetation was not a significant factor explaining infiltration in MRBs. Objective 3) determine the relationship between the placement and percentage of perennial conservation practices and biodiversity. We have worked to establish research sites and develop methodology. We are working on 14 farms across Iowa with a range of perennial conservation practices. Plant survey methods are standard and include evaluating plant species and percent cover within quadrats. Methods for assessing bird response include using acoustic recording units to monitor seasonality of bird presence/absence on 14 farms; unlimited distance point counts to estimate species density on 12 farms; and conducting nest searching and monitoring to estimate nest productivity on 6 farms. Two graduate and three undergraduate students are being trained with these methods. We published one peer-reviewed science paper under this objective (Schulte et al. 2016), which showed that cropland with prairie strips support more birds and a more diverse community of birds than cropland without. These results reinforce earlier work with MRB's that showed significantly higher number of species and higher number of total birds using riparian buffers that were between 2-14 years old compared to cropland. Results associated with all three of these objectives is being incorporated into PEWI, an online watershed tool designed to help people understand the ecosystem service tradeoffs associated with different types of agricultural production systems. PEWI and companion lesson plans can be found at www.nrem.iastate.edu/PEWI. In the last year, we published two papers associated with this model (Chennault et al. 2016, Schulte et al. 2016). Version 2 of this model was fully released in 2016; updates based on user feedback and new science are currently being incorporated into Version 3, which is due for release in 2017.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Brandes, E., G.S. McNunn, L.A. Schulte, I.J. Bonner, D.J. Muth, B.A. Babcock, B. Sharma, E.A. Heaton. 2016. Subfield profitability analysis reveals an economic case for cropland diversification. Environmental Research Letters: 014009.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Chennault, C.M., L.A. Schulte, J.C. Tyndall. 2016. PEWI: A web-based learning tool for evaluating ecosystem service tradeoffs from watersheds. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 71: 31A-36A.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Schulte Moore, L.A. 2016. Growing our prairie roots. Views from the Field: October Issue.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Schulte, L.A., C.M. Chennault, N. Grudens-Schuck, J.C. Tyndall, and R. Valek. 2016. Getting into Soil and Water Virtually with PEWI. Getting Into Soil and Water 2016:24-25
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Schulte, L.A., A.L. MacDonald, J.B. Niemi, M.J. Helmers. 2016. Prairie strips as a mechanism to promote land sharing by birds in industrial agricultural landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment 220:55-63.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Wilson, D.M., T.P. Gunther, L.A. Schulte, K.J. Moore, and E.A. Heaton. 2016. Variety interacts with space and time to influence switchgrass quality. Crop Science 56:773-785.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Zaimes, G.N., K. Ioannou, V. Iakovoglou, I. Kosmadakis, P. Koutalakis, G. Ranis, D. Emmanouloudis, & R.C. Schultz. 2016. Improving soil erosion prevention in Greece with new tools. Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review 9 (2):66-71.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Zimmerman, E. 2016. Learning how to have our cake and eat it, too: identifying opportunities for co-production of commodities and ecosystem services in Iowa. Field Notes 7:28-31.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Huang, S., G. Hu, C. Chennault*, L. Su, E. Brandes, E. Heaton, L. Schulte, L. Wang, J. Tyndall. 2016. An agent-based simulation of farmer decision making on bioenergy crop adoption. Energy 115:1188-1201.


Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Farmers and farm land owners, agribusiness, natural resource professionals, and other agricultural and forestry stakeholders are the main target audience for this work. These stakeholders may include people working for universities, agencies (e.g., state DNRs and United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trees Forever), or private consultants (e.g., farm managers, consulting foresters) with a natural resource focus. A secondary audience is university students. Results have been discussed in NREM 130 Natural Resources and Agriculture, FOR 206 Fall Forestry Camp, FOR/NREM 452 Ecosystem Management, NREM/ENSC 301 Natural Resource Ecology and Soils, and NREM/ENSC 407/507 Watershed Management. The combined number of students in these five courses in past year exceeds 245. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have directly provided training to 6 individual graduate students and 7 individual undergraduate students through direct work on the project. Additionally, we have integrated research data and practices into the classes that we teach or through guest teaching. Collectively, these classes reach 210 undergraduate and 35 graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through individual projects (e.g., Bear Creek Riparian Buffer, Landscape Biomass and STRIPS), we regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included formal field days, presentations at conferences, stakeholder meetings, and webinars, as well ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. Information has also been distributed through a variety of news outlets, including Corn and Soybean Digest, the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman, TakePart, Yahoo News, among others. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to continue to collaborate together and with our broader collaborative networks; to mentor students; to collect and analyze data; to present research results in presentation and publication form. Our research will continue to be integrated into our course and extension and outreach activities as appropriate. In particular, in the next year, much effort will be devoted to collecting and analyzing data to evaluate the multifunctional impact of strategically integrating small amounts of diverse, herbaceous, native, perennial vegetation within row-crop fields.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The long-term goal of this project is to develop locally acceptable, economically viable, management practices that increase the sustainability of agriculture in the Midwestern United States with respect to surface and ground water quality, while improving the integrity of the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The short-term goal is to quantify the biophysical and socioeconomic impacts of incorporating denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices into row-crop agricultural systems. We publish our research findings in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, collectively publishing 10 papers within the last year. We also work with ISU Extension and the press for wider dissemination, especially to the agricultural community. Our research lowers the barriers to the adoption of conservation practices by assuming the risk involved with technology development, developing broader understanding of the new technology by quantifying associated costs and benefits, and training others to seamlessly implement the technology. To date, over 40 farmers/farm landowners have adopted each of the technologies under investigation here, including denitrification bioreactors, resaturated buffers, prairie strips, and multispecies riparian buffers. Objective 1) quantify the impacts of several denitrification systems and perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on water, sediment, and nutrient movement. In the past year we have focused on establishing research locations and instrumenting them for data collection late this year and in subsequent years. In total we established and instrumented 4 research sites to address the objective related to perennial conservation system. Objective 2) quantify the impacts of perennial conservation practices within a corn-soybean agricultural system on soil quality and carbon storage. As documented in a paper we published in the last year (Ontl et al. 2015), we studied short-term (3-year) changes in two measures of soil quality--aggregation and POM-C pools--under three cropping systems (switchgrass, a triticale/sorghum double crop, continuous corn) replicated across five landscape positions along a topographic gradient. We found that switchgrass leads to greater increases in protected soil C stocks than no-till corn or a triticale-sorghum double crop, but that the overall C storage rate was mediated by soil conditions, primarily texture. This work is important because soil is the largest terrestrial reservoir of carbon, but little is known about the relative importance of soil properties and root characteristics in enhancing soil carbon (C) pools, especially in agroecosystems. Two other papers we published (Wilson et al. 2014, 2015) established that soil patterns also affect switchgrass quality as a potential biofuel feedstock but not yield. Objective 3) determine the relationship between the placement and percentage of perennial conservation practices and biodiversity. In the past year we have focused on establishing research sites and methodological development to evaluate this objective for plant and bird biodiversity. We are now working on 20 farms across Iowa with a range of perennial conservation practices. Plant survey methods are standard and include evaluating plant species and percent cover within quadrats. Methods for assessing bird response include standard point counts to estimate species density at 12 farms, but also using acoustic recording units to monitor seasonality of bird presence/absence at a larger number of sites. Two graduate and three undergraduate students are being trained with these methods. We published one paper (Liebman and Schulte 2015) outlining the conservation potential for this approach.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liebman, M., and L.A. Schulte. 2015. Enhancing agroecosystem performance and resilience through increased diversification of landscapes and cropping systems. Elementa: https://www.elementascience.org/articles/41.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Ontl, T.A., C.A. Cambardella, L.A. Schulte, and R. K. Kolka. 2015. Factors influencing aggregation and particulate organic matter responses to bioenergy crops across a topographic gradient. Geoderma 255-256:1-11.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: McGranahan, D., P.W. Brown, L.A. Schulte, and J.C. Tyndall. 2015. Associating conservation/production patterns in U.S. farm policy with agricultural land-use in three Iowa, USA townships, 1933-2002. Land Use Policy 45:76-85.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Chen, B., W.F. Krajewski, X. Zhou, and M.J. Helmers. 2015. Organized variability of surface runoff processes across neighboring hillslopes in Iowa. Journal of Hydrology 523:1-13.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Iqbal, J., M. Castellano, M.J. Helmers, T. Parkin, and X. Zhou. 2015. Denitrifcation and N2O emissions in annual croplands, perennial grass buffers and restored perennial grasslands. Soil Science Society of America Journal 79:239-250.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Mitchell, D., X. Zhou*, T. Parkin, M.J. Helmers, and M. Castellano. 2015. Comparing nitrate sink strength in perennial filter strips at toeslope of cropland watersheds. Journal of Environmental Quality 44:191-199.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wilson, D.M., E.A. Heaton, L.A. Schulte, T.P. Gunther, M.E. Shea, R.B. Hall, W.L. Headlee, K.J. Moore, and N.N. Boersma. 2014. Establishment and short-term productivity of annual and perennial bioenergy crops across a landscape gradient. BioEnergy Research 7:885-898.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Larsen, GL.D., L.A. Schulte, and J.C. Tyndall. 2015. How should Iowa's agricultural landscape look? Rootstalk 1:41-46.


Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Farmers and farm land owners, agribusiness, natural resource professionals, and other agricultural and forestry stakeholders are the main target audience for this work. These stakeholders may include people working for universities, agencies (e.g., state DNRs and United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trees Forever), or private consultants (e.g., farm managers, consulting foresters) with a natural resource focus. A secondary audience is university students. Results have been discussed in FOR/NREM 452 Ecosystem Management, NREM/ENSC 301 Natural Resource Ecology and Soils, NREM/ENSC 407/507 Watershed Management, and GPSA 509 Agroecosystem Analysis. The combined number of students in these four courses in past year exceeds 180. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? We have directly provided training to 7 individual graduate students and 3 individual undergraduate students through direct work on the project. Additionally, we have integrated research data and practices into the classes that we teach. Collectively, these classes reach 155 undergraduate and 25 graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Through individual projects (e.g., Bear Creek Riparian Buffer, Landscape Biomass, and STRIPS), we regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included formal field days, presentations at conferences, stakeholder meetings, and webinars, as well ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. Information has also been distributed through a variety of news outlets, including the New York Times, The Des Moines Register, and Wallaces Farmer. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We plan to continue to collaborate together and with our broader collaborative networks; to mentor students; to collect and analyze data; to present research results in presentation and publication form. Our research will continue to be integrated into our course and extension and outreach activities as appropriate. In particular, in the next year, much effort will be devoted to implementing the prairie strips practice on seven additional commercial farms, instrumenting these farms, and collecting data to evaluate the multifunctional impact of strategically integrating small amounts of diverse, herbaceous, native, perennial vegetation within row-crop fields.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In the last year we have maintained experiments, collected data, and established new partnerships. Toward our three objectives, we have worked to establish saturated buffers and prairie strips on nearly 20 commercial farms; we will begin monitoring environmental and economic impacts in spring 2015. Funding has been secured to do so through diverse federal, state, and foundation resources, including USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture and Farm Service Agency. Our results suggest that prairie strips provide soil and water quality benefits, improve water regulation from agricultural lands, and may increase the populations of beneficial insects, but may not directly impact biocontrol of insect pests. We regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Our close engagement with communities of farmers, farmland owners, farm managers, and individuals in agricultural and environmental governmental and non-governmental organization is proving an effective mechanism for translating science into management actions, as evidenced by adoption of the technologies we are developing.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Asbjornsen, H., V. Hernandez-Santana, M. Liebman, J. Bayala, J. Chen, M. Helmers, C.K. Ong, and L.A. Schulte. 2014. Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 29:101-125.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Cox, R., M. ONeal, R. Hessel, L.A. Schulte, and M. Helmers. 2014. The impact of prairie strips on aphidophagous predator abundance and soybean aphid predation in agricultural catchments. Environmental Entomology 43:1185-1197.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Enloe, Stephanie, L.A. Schulte, and J.C. Tyndall. 2014. Fostering collaborative watershed management: lessons learned from the Boone River Watershed, Iowa. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 69:149A-153A.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Knoot, T.G., GL Drake Larsen, and L.A. Schulte. 2014. So you need a social monitoring plan: now what? Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 69:84A-88A.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Shea, M.E., L.A. Schulte, and B.J. Palik. 2014. Reconstructing vegetation past: pre-Euro-American vegetation for the Midwest Driftless Area, USA. Ecological Restoration 32:417-433.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gutierrez-Lopez, J., H. Asbjornsen, M.J. Helmers, and T. Isenhart. 2014. Regulation of soil moisture dynamics in agricultural fields using strips of native prairie vegetation. Geoderma 226:238-249.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Perez-Suarez, M., M. Castellano, R. Kolka, H. Asbjornsen, and M.J. Helmers. 2014. Nitrogen and carbon dynamics in prairie vegetation strips across topographic gradients in mixed Central Iowa agroecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 188:1-11.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Zhou, X., M.J. Helmers, H. Asbjornsen, R. Kolka, M. Tomer, and R. Cruse. 2014. Nutrient removal by prairie filter strips in agricultural landscape. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 69(1):54-64.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Anwar, U. 2014. Soil moisture patterns and hydraulic properties associated with alternative biomass cropping systems across a landscape gradient. M.S. Thesis. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Chennault, C.M. 2014.People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration: visualizing ecosystem services tradeoffs in agricultural landscapes. M.S. Thesis, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Enloe, S. 2014. Toward a collaborative model of surface water management: lessons from the Boone River watershed nutrient management initiative. M.S. Thesis. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Smith, T.W., R.K. Kolka, X. Zhou, M.J. Helmers, R.M. Cruse, and M.D. Tomer. 2014. Effects of native perennial vegetation buffer strips on dissolved organic carbon in surface runoff from an agricultural landscape. Biogeochemistry 120(1-3):121-132.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Wilson, D.M., E.A. Heaton, L.A. Schulte, T.P. Gunther, M.E. Maier, R.B. Hall, W.L. Headlee, K.J. Moore, and N.N. Boersma. 2014. Establishment and short-term productivity of annual and perennial bioenergy crops across a landscape gradient. BioEnergy Research 7:885-898.


Progress 04/01/13 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Farmers and farm land owners, agribusiness, natural resource professionals, and other agricultural and forestry stakeholders are the main target audience for this work. These stakeholders may include people working for universities, agencies (e.g., state DNRs and United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, Trees Forever), or private consultants (e.g., private consulting foresters) with a natural resource focus. A secondary audience is university students. Results have been discussed in NREM/ENSC 301 Natural Resource Ecology and Soils, and NREM/ENSC 407/507 Watershed Management. The combined number of students in these two courses in past year equals 110. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? We have directly provided training to 6 individual graduate students and 2 individual undergraduate students through direct work on the project. Additionally, we have integrated research data and practices into the classes that we teach. Collectively, these classes reach 95 undergraduate and 15 graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Since this project began in April, 2013, this report encompasses only 6 months of work. On both the Landscape Biomass and STRIPs projects we regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We plan to continue to collaborate together and with our broader collaborative networks; to mentor students; to collect and analyze data; to present research results in presentation and publication form. Our research will continue to be integrated into our course and extension and outreach activities as appropriate.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Since this project began in April, 2013, this report encompasses only 6 months of work. In this time we have maintained experiments, collected data, and established new partnerships. These activities will help us achieve our some short-term objectives within the next year. We continue to disseminate our research through a wide variety of scientific, educational, and news outlets. On both the Landscape Biomass and STRIPs projects we regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs.

Publications