Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:In our final year our project was focused on reachingundergraduate students participating in our course and masters students engaged in graduate research for the grant. We had 6 students complete our Spring 2023 course "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" jointly offered between ASU and MCC. This was the second time we were able to offer the course inperson since COVID. Enrollment from MCC slipped to low enrollment at MCC in general, and at ASU due to course time conflicts. We were unable to hire any undergraduate students to work on research over the summer due to budget. We were abel to fund fivemasters students in the final year who worked on projects coadvised by ASU and ALARC, and one MS student defended a project in the Fall of 2023. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Through our fourth offering of the undergraduate level course (second fully in person), we have trained an additional 6 students from ASU on agricultural research. Each student group was mentored by one faculty from ASU or MCC, and a USDA scientist and developed a grant proposal for agricultural related research. We have also provided training activities for students through this grant this year including a field sampling training event. We have also provided training activities for five Masters students co-advised by Co-PI Williams and either Co-PI Conroy-Ben or PI Muenich, including group meetings aimed at introducing the students to new areas of work. These advanced research projects have been designed to help achieve objectives 5 and 6 and facilitate further research collaborations between ASU and ALARC. Three of the fiveMS students presented their work at conferences, one MS student defeneded a MS project based on their work, and three publications were developed (two published). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Work from this project was presented during this annual project period at the ASABE Annual Conference, the Annual EPAZ Conference, and the ASPRS Technical Symposium. One publication related to project activities was also submitted for review, two were published, and one MS project was successfully defneded. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this grant is to improve Arizona State University's (ASUs) capacity to perform agricultural research and education to address challenges and identify emerging opportunities at the urban-agriculture nexus in the desert Southwest. To meet our goal we have begun laying the foundations to create the knowledge, actions, and conditions to sustain out goal long-term. We developed and deployed our second joint class between ASU and MCC which enrolled 6 students. We funded five Masters students to work on projects related to the benefits and risks of using urban and other wastes in arid lands agriculture. One of these students finished a Masters projects and graduated in the Fall of 2023. We had two publications come out this year related to this work and three conference presentations. We held a field sampling event to provide training opportunities for undergradaute and graduate studeents. Project Objectives 1. Increase connections between agricultural and urban stakeholders in the Phoenix area and ASU and MCC faculty and students and ALARC scientists. (1) We engaged the advisory board through the invitation of the advisory board to student presentations and in participating in student reserach projects (2) N/A (3) N/A(4) N/A 2. Increase ASU and MCC student awareness and interest in agricultural research and jobs. (1) Major activities for this objective included developing and deploying the joint ASU-MCC course on "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" (6 enrolled and completed)and funding five MS students. (2) N/A (4) N/A 3. Increase undergraduate student participation in sustainable agriculture research at ASU and MCC. (1) Major activities for this objective included recruiting and hiring five ASU Masters students, all co-advised by ALARC and ASU. (2) 5 MS students were funded to work on agricultural research at ASU (3) Two students presented their work at conferences, one student has submitted a publication for their work, and one student defended a MS project based on their reserach (4) 5 masters students were funded. 4. Increase undergraduate and graduate student leadership skills in agriculture. No activites on this objective in the extension year. 5. Quantify the co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use for urban agriculture in arid environments. (1) Major activities for this objective include funding two MS students who worked on a variety of research projects run jointly between ALARC and ASU (2) many kinds of data were collected and analyzed including survey data, remotely sensed data, and organic fertilizer survey data (3) two graduate level presentation was completed and one publication was submitted (4) one publication related to this objective was submitted and another published. 6. Identify the benefits and short-comings of various water sources used in urban/arid agriculture. (1) Major activities under this goal include sampling various wastewater streams from around the Phoenix area and analyzing them for their genomic profile and sampling soils from a groundwater recharge area and analyzing them for their genomic profile, with three MS students working on these projects. (2) metagenomics data and soil column experimental data were collected. (3) Results were presented at two conference presentations (4) one MS level student completed an MS project and one publication was accepted.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Nguyen, T., Appiah Nsiah, G., Crowder, E., Garland, S., Williams, C.F., Conroy-Ben, O., 2023. Predicted Endocrine Disrupting Activity of Unregulated Drinking Water Contaminants. ACS EST Water. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.3c00156
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Muenich RL, Bonham E, Zanin A, Williams C. Insights on organic farm nutrient management and associated soil nutrient outcomes. American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers, July 9-12, 2023. Omaha, NE.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Zanin, A.C., Tietsort, C.J., Muenich, R.L., Bonham, E.E., 2023. Irrational rationality in organizational decision-making: sustainability discourses and material constraints of U.S. urban desert farmers. Journal of Applied Communication. Research 0, 121. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2023.2220779
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Collins H, Muenich RL, Hamilton K, Xu T, Williams C. Movement and quantification of E. coli in a managed aquifer recharge site. Annual Environmental Professionals of Arizona Conference, Feb. 28, 2023. Phoenix, AZ.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Rashid, B. Muenich RL. Examining water levels of managed aquifer recharge pond at Riparian Preserve Arizona using Plantscope imagery. American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing International Technical Symposium, Jun. 12-16, 2023. Virtual Meeting.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Collins, H. Movement and Quantification of Escherichia coli at a Managed Aquifer Recharge Site. ASU MS Project Report.
|
Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includcedundergraduate students participating in our course and receiving internships, masters students engaged in graduate research for the grant, and stakeholders engaged through the project's Advisory Board and for a project kick-off event. We had 58 students complete our course "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" jointly offered between ASU and MCC throughout the project. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this course was offered online rather than in-person for the first two years and then twice in person in the final two years. We hired 22undergraduate students who had taken our course to complete an internship with the USDA in the summer follwoing the course to work on agriculttural-related reserach projects. We have funded thirteen different masters students over the project who worked on projects co-advised by ASU and ALARC, and 4 MS students defended a thesis based on their work with the project. Our project Advisory Board was made up of ~10-15members from a wide-range of entities. Changes/Problems:Our grant was definitely impacted by the COVID19 pandemic. While we were able to pivot to virutal course offerings without issue, it was difficult to continue to engage with the project's advisory board in later years. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have trained 58undergraduate students students from ASU and MCC on agricultural research and 22 worked on applied projects during their USDA internships. Each student group was mentored by one faculty from ASU or MCC, and a USDA scientist and developed a grant proposal for agricultural related research. We have also provided 12+ training activities for students in total including field trips, data collection demonstrations, and caree panels. Each student intern was co-mentored by Co-PI Williams and one of the other Co-PIs. Each student worked with both mentors to identify a research area of interest and develop a project plan for implementing their research. We have also provided training activities for 13 Masters students co-advised by Co-PI Williams and either Co-PI Conroy-Ben or PI Muenich. These advanced research projects have been designed to help achieve objectives 5 and 6 and facilitate further research collaborations between ASU and ALARC. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have disseminated results through academic journal articles (3 published, 1 submitted), conference presentations (13; both academic and trade), and through social media avenues and a youtube webinar platform. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this grant is to improve Arizona State University's (ASUs) capacity to perform agricultural research and education to address challenges and identify emerging opportunities at the urban-agriculture nexus in the desert Southwest. To meet our goal we began laying the foundations to create the knowledge, actions, and conditions to sustain out goal long-term. We developed and deployed ajoint class between ASU and MCC which enrolled 58 students during the course of the project. We funded 22 student internsto work under the supervision of the USDA ALARC and ASU or Mesa Community College faculty on agricultural related research. We funded 13 Masters students to work on projects related to the benefits and risks of using urban and other wastes in arid lands agriculture. Five of these students finished a Masters thesis or project. We held over 12 events (e.g. demo days, field data collections, career panels)to help students engage with agriculture research and careers. We engaged the larger stakeholder community through a large kick-off event and our external project Advisory Board that helps guide project activities, meet and engage with students, and provide an additional platform for formative feedback. ASU's UOEEE provided evaluation throughout the grant by completing surveys, interviews, and focus groups of students, faculty, and stakeholders involved. Project Objectives 1. Increase connections between agricultural and urban stakeholders in the Phoenix area and ASU and MCC faculty and students and ALARC scientists. (1) Major activitiesincluded a Kick-Off event with AZ stakeholders, development and engagement of an advisory board, and enagement of stakehodlers on student internship and research projects (2) UOEE completed surveys and interviews.(3) Data was collected from kick-off event surveys and leadership team interivews. (4) There was a wide range of stakeholder engagement at the event, encompassing 10 distinct categories.The kick-off event had a positive impact on attendees' capacity to identify challenges (a) in Arizona agriculture and (b) between traditional and urban agriculture. The kick-off event had a positive impact on attendees' (a) interest in pursuing agriculture-related research and (b) awareness of collaboration opportunities in agriculture. Leadership surveys indicate that in later years, engagement of stakeholders was more hands-on through student internship connections and reserach projects. 2. Increase ASU and MCC student awareness and interest in agricultural research and jobs. (1) Major activity was contniuing with one more offering of the Exploring Agricultural Reserach Applications Course, and engaging MS researchers. (2) number of students enrolled was collected and student evaluations were completed by UOEEE. (3)Responses to retrospective gains questions about students' awareness and interest in agriculture-related education and career opportunities demonstrated increases during all three years of evaluation. Responses to retrospective gains questions about students' interest, confidence, and understanding of agriculture-related research demonstrated increases during all three years of evaluation. Even with challenges related to COVID-19, students found the course style to be highly conducive to their learning, particularly the projects and presentations. 3. Increase undergraduate student participation in sustainable agriculture research at ASU and MCC. (1) Major activity was students participating in the course and students participating in internships. (2) UOEEE collected data in surveys adn focus groups(3) NA. (4) All the undergraduate students believed the most valuable outcome of the internship was their improved technical knowledge and practical experience. Most noted improved research skills; particularly technical skills (e.g., Writing literature reviews, developing surveys, and analyzing data). 4. Increase undergraduate and graduate student leadership skills in agriculture. (1) Major activities were student engagement in course, internships, and reserach. (2) survey and interview data were collected by the UOEEE. (3/4)Students did report experiencing positive impacts on their professional skills development and future aspirations.Nearly all undergraduates reported positive impacts on professional development; including improved interpersonal skills, presentation skills, broadened career/education prospects, and publication opportunities. 5. Quantify the co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use for urban agriculture in arid environments. (1) 6MS reserachers were engaged in research related to this topic. (2)many kinds of data were collected and analyzed including metagenomics data, remotely-sensed data, and organic fertilizer survey data. (3) multiple conference presentations were made and 2publications published, 1 submitted. (4) three MS thesis project defended. 6. Identify the benefits and short-comings of various water sources used in urban/arid agriculture. (1) 7 MS reserachers were engaged in research related to this topc. (3) many kinds of data were collected including metagenomics data, soil column experimental data and remote sensing data. (3) multiple conferencepresentations were made and 2 publications were published. (4) one MS project was defended.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience reached so far includes undergraduate students participating in our course and receiving internships, masters students engaged in graduate research for the grant, and stakeholders engaged through the project's Advisory Board and for a project kick-off event. We had 18students complete our Spring 2022course "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" jointly offered between ASU and MCC. This was the first time we were able to offer the course in-person since COVID. We hired six undergraduate students who had taken our Spring course to complete an internship over the summer and fallwith the USDA. We have funded three masters students this year who have worked on projects co-advised by ASU and ALARC, and one MS student defended a thesis in the Spring of 2022. Our project Advisory Board is now made up of 15 members from a wide-range of entities. Changes/Problems:We requested an extension to for this grant in this year. The primary reason for requesting the extension is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first two offerings of our classes have been during the pandemic and were primarily virtual classes with only our third and most recent (spring 2022) offering entirely in-person, so we would like to be able to offer one more fully in-person class. Also due to the pandemic we were unable to hire as many interns in 2020 as we would have liked due to hiring freezes at the USDA until later summer of 2020 and inability to access in-person internship locations. Labs at ASU were shutdown until Fall 2020 and labs at USDA ALARC were shut down on March 17, 2021 and operated at only 25% capacity until May 1, 2022. During this time exceptions had to be granted to enter the labs, and our interns were unable to get exceptions. Therefore, some of our MS student and undergraduate students could not complete lab work until very recently. The construction of the vertical farm and hydroponic systems at MCC were also delayed due to MCC shutdowns and were only complete at the end of 2021. Since most of our objectives are tied to the experiential course, internships and MS student work, we would like an extension to ensure our objectives are achieved. In addition to our MS students being hindered by lab access, they have also been unable to attend conferences to present results so we would like to use the final year to get them that key professional development experience. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Through our third offering of the undergraduate level course (first fully in person), we have trained an additional 18 students from ASUon agricultural research. Each student group was mentored by one faculty from ASU or MCC, and a USDA scientist and developed a grant proposal for agricultural related research. We have also provided training activities for students through this grant this year including a trip to ALARC and a vertical farm site. Each student intern was co-mentored by Co-PI Williams and one of the other Co-PIs. Each student worked with both mentors to identify a research area of interest and develop a project plan for implementing their research. We have also provided training activities for three Masters students co-advised by Co-PI Williams and either Co-PI Conroy-Ben or PI Muenich, including group meetings aimed at introducing the students to new areas of work. These advanced research projects have been designed to help achieve objectives 5 and 6 and facilitate further research collaborations between ASU and ALARC. Two of the three MS studetns presented their work at conferences, one MS student defeneded a thesis based on their work, and one undergradaute student presented their wrok at a local conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Work from this project was presented during this annual project period at the ASU MORE Symposium, the SEBE Graduate Student Symposium, the ASCE/ASHE Annual State Conference, and the Project Confluence final presentations. One publication related to project activities was also submitted for review and one MS thesis was successfully defneded.We added one additional webinar to ourYouTube channel focused on Urban-Ag Nexus topics. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next year, we will be updating and deploying our experiential learning course based on feedback from the 2022 cohort with a special focus on providing more leadership opportunities since we will be in person for the first time. We are also working to transition this special topics course to a permanent course for the future on research methods. We also plan to hire at least 6 more interns for next summer. We will also continue to fund two Masters student lines to continue our work on objectives 5 and 6. Finally, we will work to evaluate each of our objectives through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with project participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this grant is to improve Arizona State University's (ASUs) capacity to perform agricultural research and education to address challenges and identify emerging opportunities at the urban-agriculture nexus in the desert Southwest. To meet our goal we have begun laying the foundations to create the knowledge, actions, and conditions to sustain out goal long-term. We developed and deployed our second joint class between ASU and MCC which enrolled 18students. We funded 6 student interns this year to work under the supervision of the USDA ALARC and ASU or Mesa Community College faculty on agricultural related research. We funded three Masters students to work on projects related to the benefits and risks of using urban and other wastes in arid lands agriculture. One of these students finished a Masters thesis and graduated in the Spring of 2022. We held multiple events to help students engage with agriculture research and careers. We have engaged the larger stakeholder community through our external project Advisory Board that helps guide project activities, meet and engage with students, and provide an additional platform for formative feedback. Project Objectives 1. Increase connections between agricultural and urban stakeholders in the Phoenix area and ASU and MCC faculty and students and ALARC scientists. (1) We engaged the advisory board through the invitation of the advisory board to student presentations and in participating in student reserach projects(2) UOEEE completed a survey of the leadership(3) All PIs were intereviewed(4) Leaders reported that progress was made through connections fostered by studetns through the course and summer internship. 2. Increase ASU and MCC student awareness and interest in agricultural research and jobs. (1) Major activities for this objective included developing and deploying the joint ASU-MCC course on "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" (18enrolled and completed), funding 6 undergraduate student interns, and funding three MS students. (2) Students in the course were surveyed (8 responses). (3)Overall, all students who completed the course survey (n = 8) indicated that the "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" course resulted in gains in agriculture interest, awareness, confidence, and/or knowledge. Additionally, the course provided an experiential learning opportunity to participate in agriculture-related research to students who had not participated in hands-on research in the past, thus reaching new audiences and affording novel opportunities to produce student growth and other valuable experiences. (4) 18 students completed the course (18 ASU, 0MCC). Sixstudent teams presented their proposed research idea at the end of the course with advisory board members present. Six undergraduate students participated in internships with the USDA NLGCA. 3. Increase undergraduate student participation in sustainable agriculture research at ASU and MCC. (1) Major activities for this objective included recruiting and hiring six USDA student interns and three ASU Masters students, all co-advised by ALARC and ASU. (2) Six students were funded this year for USDA internships and 3 MS students were funded to work on agricultural research at ASU (3) Three students presented their work at conferences and one student has submitted a publication for their work (4) six new students participated in agricultural research from ASU or MCC and 3 masters students were funded. 4. Increase undergraduate and graduate student leadership skills in agriculture. (1) Major activities included continuing a webinar series for students to take the lead in reaching out to and inviting speakers to talk about any agricultural-related topic of interest to them. (2) through the YouTube channel we can keep track of subscribers and views of videos (3) We have 9 subscribers to the channel and the five webinars have garnered over 300 views so far. (4) We have had five webinars completed so far, led by three students only due to timing issues with the pandemic. 5. Quantify the co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use for urban agriculture in arid environments. (1) Major activities for this objective include funding three MS students who worked on a variety of research projects run jointly between ALARC and ASU (2) many kinds of data were collected and analyzed including metagenomics data, remotely-sensed data, soil column experiment data, and organic fertilizer survey data (3) onegraduate level presentation was completed and one publication was submitted (4) one MS student completed thesis based on the organic farm nutrient managementwork. 6. Identify the benefits and short-comings of various water sources used in urban/arid agriculture. (1) Major activities under this goal include sampling various wastewater streams from around the Phoenix area and analyzing them for their genomic profileand sampling soils from a groundwater recharge area and analyzing them for their genomic profile. (2) Data analysis still ongoing. (3) Analysis of the data is not complete. (4) one MS level student presented work at a state conference.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Becerra J, Roman M, Wann J, Williams C, Muenich RL. Water is Our Teacher and Future. Project Confluence Final Presentations, April 14, 2022.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bonham E*, Williams C, Zanin A, Muenich RL. An Assessment of Organic Farm Nutrient Management. SEBE Graduate Student Symposium, February 11, 2022. *Received an honorable mention prize.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Collins H, Liu T, Xu T, Williams C, Hamilton K, Muenich RL. Movement and quantification of coliform bacteria and E. coli in a managed aquifer (MAR) site. ASCE/ASHE Annual State Conference. Oct. 27, 2022. Phoenix, AZ.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bonham, Emma. (2022). "Assessing Organic Farm Nutrient Management". Arizona State Thesis
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bonham E, Williams C, Zanin A, Muenich RL. An Assessment of Organic Farm Nutrient Management. ASU MORE Symposium, April 22, 2022
|
Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience reached so far includes undergraduate students participating in our course and receiving internships, masters students engaged in graduate research for the grant, and stakeholders engaged through the project's Advisory Board and for a project kick-off event. We had 22 students complete our Spring 2021 course "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" jointly offered between ASU and MCC. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this course was offered online rather than in-person. We hired six undergraduate students who had taken our Spring course to complete an internship with the USDA. We have funded four masters students this year who have worked on projects co-advised by ASU and ALARC, and one MS student defended a thesis in the Spring of 2021. Our project Advisory Board is now made up of 15 members from a wide-range of entities. Changes/Problems:In addition to delays in getting grant funds at each institution in our first year, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have a significant impact on this year's activities, including preventing an in-person option for the course. The pandemic interfered with course activities including a field/site visit to the AZCATI center at ASU. Furthermore some content, including the leadership opportunity for students, had to be cut due to undue stress caused by the pandemic on students enrolled in the course. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Through our second offering of the undergraduate level course, we have trained 22 students from ASU and MCC on agricultural research. Each student group was mentored by one faculty from ASU or MCC, and a USDA scientist and developed a grant proposal for agricultural related research. We have also provided training activities for students through this grant this year including a diary farm visit, field sampling observation, and career webinar. Each student intern was co-mentored by Co-PI Williams and one of the other Co-PIs. Each student worked with both mentors to identify a research area of interest and develop a project plan for implementing their research. We have also provided training activities for four Masters students co-advised by Co-PI Williams and either Co-PI Conroy-Ben or PI Muenich. These advanced research projects have been designed to help achieve objectives 5 and 6 and facilitate further research collaborations between ASU and ALARC. One Masters student attended the virtual AGU conference and one attended the virtual ASA-CSSA-SSSA to present work, and one student developed a publication that was submitted. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Work from this project was presented during this annual project period at the 2020 AGU meeting and the 2020 tri-societies meeting. One publication related to project activities was also developed. We continue to run a Twitter account (@ag_asu) to promote project activities and increase awareness and interest in Arizona agriculture and a YouTube channel on Urban-Ag Nexus topics. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next year, we will be updating and deploying our experiential learning course based on feedback from the 2021 cohort with a special focus on providing more leadership opportunities since we will be in person for the first time. We are also working to transition this special topics course to a permanent course for the future on research methods. We also plan to hire at least 6 more interns for next summer. We will also continue to fund two Masters student lines to continue our work on objectives 5 and 6. Finally, we will work to evaluate each of our objectives through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with project participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this grant is to improve Arizona State University's (ASUs) capacity to perform agricultural research and education to address challenges and identify emerging opportunities at the urban-agriculture nexus in the desert Southwest. To meet our goal we have begun laying the foundations to create the knowledge, actions, and conditions to sustain out goal long-term. We developed and deployed our second joint class between ASU and MCC which enrolled 22 students. We funded 6 student interns this year to work under the supervision of the USDA ALARC and ASU or Mesa Community College faculty on agricultural related research. We funded four Masters students to work on projects related to the benefits and risks of using urban and other wastes in arid lands agriculture. One of these students finished a Masters project and graduated in the Spring of 2021. We held multiple events to help students engage with agriculture research and careers. We have engaged the larger stakeholder community through our external project Advisory Board that helps guide project activities, meet and engage with students, and provide an additional platform for formative feedback. Project Objectives 1. Increase connections between agricultural and urban stakeholders in the Phoenix area and ASU and MCC faculty and students and ALARC scientists. (1) Major activity included continuing to consult our stakeholder Advisory Board (currently at 15 members) (2) ASU's UOEEE reviewed AB materials and recorded video (3) 12 AB members were in virtual attendance. (4) All participants were engaged and some provided feedback. The AB members plan to meet again in the fall semester 2021. 2. Increase ASU and MCC student awareness and interest in agricultural research and jobs. (1) Major activities for this objective included developing and deploying the joint ASU-MCC course on "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" (22 enrolled and completed), funding 6 undergraduate student interns, and funding four MS students. (2) Students in the course were surveyed (16 responses) and one student who completed their MS was interviewed by the UOEEE. (3) Overall, all students who completed the course survey (n = 16) indicated that the "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" course resulted in gains in agriculture interest, awareness, confidence, and/or knowledge. Additionally, the course provided an experiential learning opportunity to participate in agriculture-related research to students who had not participated in hands-on research in the past, thus reaching new audiences and affording novel opportunities to produce student growth and other valuable experiences. Overall, the MS student who completed a joint research project with the USDA Arid Land Agricultural Research Center indicated numerous benefits from the collaboration, including access to mentoring, recognizing their research interests, and presenting at conferences. Furthermore, this student indicated plans to continue their work with ALARC through a professional publication. They plan to pursue their doctoral degree at another university, working on a similar area of research related to agriculture. (4) 22 students completed the course (20 ASU, 2 MCC). Five student teams presented their proposed research idea (virtually) at the end of the course. Six undergraduate students participated in internships with the USDA NLGCA. 3. Increase undergraduate student participation in sustainable agriculture research at ASU and MCC. (1) Major activities for this objective included recruiting and hiring six USDA student interns and four ASU Masters students. (2) Six students were funded this year for USDA internships and 4 MS students were funded to work on agricultural research at ASU (3) Two students presented their work at conferences and one student has prepared and submitted a publication for their work (4) six new students participated in agricultural research from ASU or MCC and 4 masters students were funded. 4. Increase undergraduate and graduate student leadership skills in agriculture. (1) Major activities included starting a webinar series for students to take the lead in reaching out to and inviting speakers to talk about any agricultural-related topic of interest to them. (2) through the YouTube channel we can keep track of subscribers and views of videos (3) We have 7 subscribers to the channel and the four webinars have garnered over 153 views so far. (4) We have had four webinars completed so far, led by two students only due to timing issues with the pandemic. 5. Quantify the co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use for urban agriculture in arid environments. (1) Major activities for this objective include funding four MS students who worked on a variety of research projects run jointly between ALARC and ASU (2) many kinds of data were collected and analyzed including metagenomics data, manure lagoon data from the literature, and organic fertilizer survey data (3) one graduate level presentation was completed and one publication was submitted(4) one MS student completed thesis based on the manure lagoon work. 6. Identify the benefits and short-comings of various water sources used in urban/arid agriculture. (1) Major activities under this goal include sampling various wastewater streams from around the Phoenix area and analyzing them for their genomic profile, and sampling soils from a groundwater recharge area and analyzing them for their genomic profile. (2) Data analysis still ongoing. (3) Analysis of the data is not complete. (4) none.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Rudko N, Garcia M, Xu T, Muenich RL. (submitted) Development of a Point-Source Model to Improve Simulations of Manure Lagoon Interactions with the Environment.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Rudko N, Muenich RL, Garcia ME, Xu T. Hydrologic and water quality modeling of a CAFO dairy lagoon. American Geophysical Union, Virtual Meeting, Dec 1-17, 2020.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Breure T, Williams C, Muenich RL, Conroy-Ben O. Biochar removal of E. coli in arid agricultural lands. Virtual ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meeting, November 9-13, 2020.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Rudko, N. 2021. Hydrologic and Water Quality Modeling of a CAFO Dairy Lagoon
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience reached so far includes undergraduate students participating in our course and receiving internships, masters students engaged in graduate research for the grant, and stakeholders engaged through the project's Advisory Board and for a project kick-off event. In October we hosted a two-day kick-off event, "Identifying Emerging Opportunities for Arizona Agriculture" which was attended by over 115 students, faculty, and local agricultural stakeholders. We had 16 students enrolled in our course "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" jointly offered between ASU and MCC. There were 4 enrolled from MCC and 12 enrolled at ASU. Because of COVID-19, two MCC students had to drop the course midway through. Despite USDA hiring delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were still able to recruit and hire five undergraduate students to serve as interns. While our intention was to hire them over the summer, we could not hire until fall due to COVID-19. We were able to start 5 new undergraduate students on a summer internship in July and August however, and all will complete their work in the fall of 2020 or spring 2021. We have funded three masters students this year who have worked on projects co-advised by ASU and ALARC. Our project Advisory Board is now made up of 17 members from a wide-range of entities. Changes/Problems:In addition to delays in getting grant funds at each institution in our first year, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on this year's activities. The pandemic interfered with course activities including a field/site visit to the AZCATI center at ASU. Furthermore some content, including the leadership opportunity for students, had to be cut due to delays in students returning to classes at MCC. Additionally, due to hiring freezes at USDA ALARC, student interns could not be hired until late summer so student interns are still working on completing their projects. One research project was specifically interrupted due to concerns about coronavirus in wastewater. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Through our first offering of the undergraduate level course, we have trained 16 students from ASU and MCC on agricultural research. Each student group was mentored by one faculty from ASU or MCC, and a USDA scientist and developed a grant proposal for agricultural related research. We have also provided training activities for five new USDA student interns through this grant this year. Each student has been co-mentored by Co-PI Williams and one of the other Co-PIs. Each student worked with both mentors to identify a research area of interest and develop a project plan for implementing their research with 4 of the 5 interns working on projects they developed through the course. We have also provided training activities for three Masters students co-advised by Co-PI Williams and either Co-PI Conroy-Ben or PI Muenich. These advanced research projects have been designed to help achieve objectives 5 and 6 and facilitate further research collaborations between ASU and ALARC. We also held one field training day for students to learn water and soil sampling techniques. One Masters student attended the virtual Arizona Water Reuse conference in July 2020 and one attended the virtual ASABE 2020 meeting to advance their own professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Work from this project was presented during this annual project period at the 2020 ASABE meeting and the 2019 tri-societies meeting. One publication related to project activities was also developed. We also recently created and deployed a Twitter account (@ag_asu) to promote project activities and increase awareness and interest in Arizona agriculture. We continue to update our project website. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next year, we will be updating and deploying our experiential learning course based on feedback from the 2020 cohort with a special focus on providing more leadership opportunities. From that we hope to identify more student interns to hire in the summer of 2020. We will also continue to fund two Masters student lines to continue our work on objectives 5 and 6. Finally, we will work to evaluate each of our objectives through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with project participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this grant is to improve Arizona State University's (ASUs) capacity to perform agricultural research and education to address challenges and identify emerging opportunities at the urban-agriculture nexus in the desert Southwest. To meet our goal we have begun laying the foundations to create the knowledge, actions, and conditions to sustain out goal long-term. We developed and deployed our first joint class between ASU and MCC which enrolled 16 students. We funded 5 student interns this year to work under the supervision of the USDA ALARC and ASU or Mesa Community College faculty on agricultural related research. We funded three Masters students to work on projects related to the benefits and risks of using urban and other wastes in arid lands agriculture. One of these students finished a Masters project and graduated in the Summer of 2020. We have engaged the larger stakeholder community through an two day event in October of 2019 and our external project Advisory Board that helps guide project activities, meet and engage with students, and provide an additional platform for formative feedback. Project Objectives 1. Increase connections between agricultural and urban stakeholders in the Phoenix area and ASU and MCC faculty and students and ALARC scientists. (1) Major activities include continuing to consult our stakeholder Advisory Board (currently at 17 members) and hosting an October 2019 public event on "Identifying Emerging Opportunities for Arizona Agriculture". (2) Event attendees were asked to fill out a survey each day to assess the impact of the event toward project objectives. 55 attendees completed the survey on Day 1 (~48% response rate) and 13 on Day 2 (~33% response rate as fewer were in attendance on day 2). (3) Over 115 attendees representing academic, professional, industry, and community realms attended. Attendance increased respondents' interest in agriculture-based education, employment, and research. The event helped attendees identify challenges and collaboration opportunities between traditional and urban agriculture. Thirty-eight unique opportunities in AZ agriculture were identified. Forty-three new topics for the upcoming experiential learning course were identified. The event afforded opportunities for attendees to connect with agriculture researchers, industry representatives, and students (4) Key outcomes were creating new connections between 18 stakeholders in the Phoenix area. 2. Increase ASU and MCC student awareness and interest in agricultural research and jobs. (1) Major activities for this objective included developing and deploying the joint ASU-MCC course on "Exploring Agricultural Research Applications" (16 enrolled; 12 finished), funding 5 undergraduate student interns, and funding three MS students. (2) Students in the course were surveyed; 8 responded (3) On average, respondents reported increased awareness and inters in agriculture-related research. On average, respondents indicated gains in understanding how agriculture research works as well as inters in and confidence around agricultural research (4) 12 students completed the course (10 ASU, 2 MCC; 2 MCC students dropped the course due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Four student teams presented their proposed research idea (virtually) at the end of the course. 3. Increase undergraduate student participation in sustainable agriculture research at ASU and MCC. (1) Major activities for this objective included recruiting and hiring five USDA student interns and three ASU Masters students. (2) four students from ASU and one from MCC were funded this year for USDA internships and 3 MS students were funded to work on agricultural research at ASU (3) N/A. (4) five new students participated in agricultural research from ASU or MCC and 3 masters students were funded. 4. Increase undergraduate and graduate student leadership skills in agriculture. We have not completed activities under this goal. Our plan was for students enrolled in the course to identify and connect with agricultural stakeholders who could give a talk about their work. However, due to COVID-19 we had to drop this objective from the course as we lost two teaching weeks from university closures. 5. Quantify the co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use for urban agriculture in arid environments. (1) Major activities for this objective include funding one MS student who completed a systematic review of the co-benefits of recycled fertilizers in arid lands, and one MS student who developed a module to better understand manure lagoon management for improved manure management (2) 350 articles were systematically reviewed and subsequently screened for the systematic review (3) 58 articles had information relevant to co-benefits of recycled fertilizer in arid lands. 48 of these students focused on the benefits including nutrients, crop yield increases, organic matter increases. (4) one MS student completed thesis based on the systematic review. 6. Identify the benefits and short-comings of various water sources used in urban/arid agriculture. (1) Major activities under this goal include sampling various wastewater streams from around the Phoenix area and analyzing them for their genomic profile, and sampling soils from a groundwater recharge area and analyzing them for their genomic profile. (2) Data analysis still ongoing. (3) Analysis of the data is not complete. (4) none.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Williams C, Muenich R, Conroy-Ben O. Competitive Sorption of Pharmaceuticals to Soil. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meeting, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13, 2019.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Conroy-Ben, O. and Crowder, E., 2020. Unregulated and Emerging Contaminants in Tribal Water. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, (169), pp.92-100.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Rudko N, Muenich R, Garcia M. Development of a CAFO Lagoon Module to Advance Manure Management. American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, July 13-15, 2020. Virtual.
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience reached so far includes students receiving internships, masters students and stakeholders engaged through the project's Advisory Board. We recruited five undergraduate students to serve as interns over the summer of 2019; 4 were from ASU and 1 was from MCC. We have funded three masters students so far who have worked on projects co-advised by ASU and ALARC. Our project Advisory Board is now made up of 18 members from a wide-range of entities. We have engaged seven Advisory Board members that represent agriculture and food-related initiatives at ASU. We have members from four state level agencies or councils, four farming stakeholders, two local food/city coalitions, and an additional community college.Our target audience reached so far includes students receiving internships, masters students and stakeholders engaged through the project's Advisory Board. We recruited five undergraduate students to serve as interns over the summer of 2019; 4 were from ASU and 1 was from MCC. We have funded three masters students so far who have worked on projects co-advised by ASU and ALARC. Our project Advisory Board is now made up of 18 members from a wide-range of entities. We have engaged seven Advisory Board members that represent agriculture and food-related initiatives at ASU. We have members from four state level agencies or councils, four farming stakeholders, two local food/city coalitions, and an additional community college. Changes/Problems:We had delays in getting funding accounts set up at ALARC and at MCC. This, combined with the fact that the notification of the award came after the deadlines to create new classes at MCC and ASU meant that we could not hold our first experiential learning course in the spring of 2019 as we had planned. Instead, we focused on testing the intern hiring process with a smaller set of students in the summer of 2019 and will teach the course for the first time in the spring of 2020. We also have been delayed in setting up the vertical farm at MCC for use in student projects due to facility delays. We anticipate it will be ready for student use by the end of the year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have provided training activities for five USDA student interns through this grant. Each student has been co-mentored by Co-PI Williams and one of the other Co-PIs. Each student worked with both mentors to identify a research area of interest and develop a project plan for implementing their research. We have also provided training activities for three Masters students co-advised by Co-PI Williams and either Co-PI Conroy-Ben or PI Muenich. These advanced research projects have been designed to help achieve objectives 5 and 6 and facilitate further research collaborations between ASU and ALARC. We also held one field training day for all students to become certified to work in agricultural fields and one field sampling day for all students to learn. One Masters student attended the Arizona Water Reuse conference in July 2019 to increase their professional development and learn more about water reuse activities in Arizona. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have presented on project activities at one local conference - the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research annual all scientists meeting in January 2019. The purpose of this presentation was to inform a community typically focused on urban ecology about our project and opportunities for agriculture in urban areas. We have also created a project webstie to continuously disseminate resutls and outcomes. In September of 2019, we also released a joint news statement between ASU and MCC announcing the project and it's goals and activities (https://www.mesacc.edu/news/press-release/asu-mcc-form-collaborative-usda-urban-agriculture-nexus-project). From this release, our work has also been written about by the Arizona Chamber of Business News: https://chamberbusinessnews.com/2019/09/20/asu-and-mcc-team-up-with-usda-research-service-to-expand-agriculture-education/ What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next year, we plan to hold our kick-off event, titled, "Identifying Emerging Opportunities for Arizona Agriculture"( https://urbanagnexus.engineering.asu.edu/events/). This two-day event is planned for October 10-11, 2019 at Mesa Community College and will feature panels on the future of agriculture in Arizona, careers in agriculture, agricultural opportunities in diverse communities, and waste to benefit opportunities in agriculture. The second day of the event is focused on creating new collaborations between ASU, MCC, ALARC, and area stakeholders. Activities include lightening presentations, a presentation on agricultural funding opportunities, and a world café for facilitating new collaborations. We are also currently planning and developing our experiential learning course which will launch in the Spring of 2020. From that we hope to identify more student interns to hire in the summer of 2020. We will also continue to fund two Masters student lines to continue our work on objectives 5 and 6. Finally, we will work to evaluate each of our objectives through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with project participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The overall goal of this grant is to improve Arizona State University's (ASUs) capacity to perform agricultural research and education to address challenges and identify emerging opportunities at the urban-agriculture nexus in the desert Southwest. To meet our goal we have begun laying the foundations to create the knowledge, actions, and conditions to sustain out goal long-term. We have hired 5 student interns to work under the supervision of the USDA ALARC and ASU or Mesa Community College faculty. We have hired three Masters students to work on projects related to the benefits and risks of using urban wastes in arid lands agriculture. One of these students finished a Masters project and graduated in Spring of 2019. We have engaged the larger stakeholder community through an Advisory Board to help guide project activities, meet and engage with students, and provide an additional platform for formative feedback. Project Objectives 1. Increase connections between agricultural and urban stakeholders in the Phoenix area and ASU and MCC faculty and students and ALARC scientists. (1) Major activities include forming a stakeholder Advisory Board (currently at 18 members), convening the Advisory Board for the first meeting in the Spring of 2019, and assessing the Advisory Board members' initial perceptions on project activities through a survey after the first meeting. (2) Our survey of the Board collected data on what role the advisory board should play in the project, what Board members hope to gain through participating in the project, what Board members hope to contribute to the project, preferred logistics of involvement, how they felt the first meeting went, and their ideas for the project's kick-off event. (3) The Advisory Board survey had 14 responses and indicated that they felt their roles included providing guidance, expertise and establishing connections. Board members wanted to increase their connections with ASU, increase urban agriculture in the region. They hoped to contribute valuable knowledge and expertise, as well as foster connections in and outside of ASU. Most respondents wanted to be moderately to substantially involved, with only three indicating minimal involvement. For the kick-off event, members wanted to help raise awareness of the project and ag-related research at ASU, bring attention to ASU as a potential contributor to agricultural research, and connect students to industry stakeholders. (4) Key outcomes were creating new connections between 18 stakeholders in the Phoenix area. 2. Increase ASU and MCC student awareness and interest in agricultural research and jobs. (1) Major activities for this objective included recruiting and hiring five USDA student interns and three ASU Masters students. Four of the student interns were from ASU and one was from MCC. (2) We have not collected data on student participation but will do so in the fall of 2019. (3) none. (4) none. 3. Increase undergraduate student participation in sustainable agriculture research at ASU and MCC. (1) Major activities for this objective included recruiting and hiring five USDA student interns and three ASU Masters students. (2) We have not collected data on student participation but will do so in the fall of 2019. (3) none. (4) none. 4. Increase undergraduate and graduate student leadership skills in agriculture. We have not completed activities under this goal. 5. Quantify the co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use for urban agriculture in arid environments. (1) Major activities for this objective include hiring a masters student who has been compiling relevant literature for a systematic review of co-benefits of recycled fertilizer use in arid land agriculture. (2) no data has been collected. (3) none. (4) none. 6. Identify the benefits and short-comings of various water sources used in urban/arid agriculture. (1) Major activities under this goal include sampling various wastewater streams from around the Phoenix area and analyzing them for their genomic profile, and sampling soils from a groundwater recharge area and analyzing them for their genomic profile. (2) Data collected include XX. (3) Analysis of the data is not complete. (4) none.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Muenich RL. Quantifying urban and agricultural connections over space and time. Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors, Tempe, AZ, May 14-16, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Muenich, Rebecca, Otakuye Conroy-Ben, Clinton Williams, and Peter Conden. The nexus of agricultural and urban trade-offs: Enhancing interdisciplinary education and research to create emerging opportunities in urban agriculture. Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research All Scientists Meeting and Poster Symposium, Tempe, AZ, Jan. 11, 2019.
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