Agronomic, Ecological, and Economic Comparisons of Conventional and Low-External-Input Cropping Systems, $38,500, year 2 of 3 ($118,262 total), Matt Liebman, ISU Agronomy [E2007-09] STORY COUNTY This grant continues a previous project that gathered data from an experiment studying the effects of the addition of perennial forage legumes into a conventional row crop system. Objectives of this project are to (1) measure crop yields, weed growth and weed seed densities in conventional and low-external-input (LEI) cropping systems; (2) assess labor requirements, energy consumption, input costs and net returns for conventional and LEI systems; (3) determine the impacts of soil microbes on the survival of weed seeds in conventional and LEI systems; (4) determine the impacts of conventional and LEI systems on soil organic matter and fertility; and
Matt Liebman is the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair of Sustainable Agriculture and professor in the Department of Agronomy at ISU. He is also a member of the graduate faculties in Biorenewable Resources and Technology, Crop Production and Physiology, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research focuses on the development of farming systems that are productive, profitable and environmentally benign. Topics addressed in his research group include biomass production and nutrient cycling by annual and perennial crops used as biofuel feedstocks; weed suppression by cover crops, rodent and insect seed predators, and diverse crop rotations; nitrogen fertilizer replacement values of legume green manures; energetic costs and economic returns associated with simple and diverse rotation systems; and dynamics of native plant communities in filter and buffer strips constructed in and around corn and soybean fields. He teaches graduate courses concerning diversified farming systems and ecologically based pest management strategies. He is a co-author of the book Ecological Management of Agricultural Weeds, published in 2001 by Cambridge University Press, and held the Pioneer Agronomy Professorship from 2001 through 2004. |
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Quantifying the Role of Perennial Vegetation in Removing Nitrate from Groundwater in Riparian Buffers, $26,700, year 2 of 3 ($84,054 total), William W. Simpkins, ISU Geological and Atmospheric Sciences [E2007-22] STORY COUNTY Using field and laboratory experiments, this study will quantify the ability of established perennial plant communities to remove nitrate from groundwater and apportion nitrate loss via plant uptake versus denitrification. A Groundwater Nitrate Removal Index (GNRI) will be developed to help guide the strategic placement of perennial plants in riparian buffers across the agricultural landscape. Experimental sites will be established in existing riparian buffers in the Bear Creek watershed, which has one of the oldest and most extensive areas of contiguous streamside buffers in the nation with more than 8 miles of buffers and a sequence of plantings that range from one to 15 years.
William Simpkins is a professor of hydrogeology in the ISU Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences and teaches basic courses in hydrogeology (groundwater) and hydrology, including field methods and computer modeling applications. He co-teaches a course that examines the environmental effects of energy exploration, production and use. His research interests include the agricultural groundwater quality and geochemistry, the hydrogeology of riparian buffers, the water quantity impacts of ethanol production, groundwater/lake interaction, and aquifer sustainability. A native of Illinois, he holds a B.A. in geology from Augustana College (Illinois), M.S. degrees in geology and geophysics and in water resources management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the same institution. He has been a faculty member at ISU since 1989 where he has teaching responsibilities in the Environmental Science graduate and undergraduate programs. Simpkins has also worked at the Bear Creek riparian buffer since its inception in 1990 and is also involved in tine USDA's Conservation Effects Assessment Project. |
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| Screening Winter Tritiacle Cultivars and Breeding Lines for Forage and Biomass Production, $24,160, year 2 of 3 ($75,227 total), Lance Gibson, ISU Agronomy [E2007-15] CHICKASAW COUNTY
This project will create research-based information for developing and selecting winter cereal grain varieties for forage and biomass production. The objectives of the research are to quantify the forage and biomass production in Iowa from commercially available winter triticale and rye cultivars, and screen breeding lines of winter triticale for forage and biomass production in Iowa with the goal of releasing new cultivars. Field experimentation and trait assessment will be conducted at Ames and Nashua in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The research for 2007, planted in September, includes 15 commercial triticale cultivars, 19 experimental triticale lines, five commercial rye cultivars, and two rye/triticale blends. Adding more acres of winter crops to current cropping systems would provide cropping system and environmental benefits, such as erosion control, improved nitrogen capture and nutrient cycling, better nutrient use efficiency, and increased profitability. Livestock producers, crop producers, cereal grain breeders, the biofuels industry and policy developers are the primary audiences for this research. The general public and consumers of agricultural products have considerable stake in the potential benefits that these systems possess for reducing sediment, nutrient, and pesticide contamination of surface and ground waters of the region and creation of more diversified wildlife habitat in agriculturallandscapes.
Lance Gibson is an associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. He contributes to the scholarly program of the department through research and teaching directed at improved crop management in the Midwestern United States. In that role, he conducts research on agronomic crops relatively new to Iowa including eastern gamagrass, triticale and canola.
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Assessing Soil Quality Impacts after Conversion of Marginal Cropland to Productive Conservation, year 3 (extension of 2-year grant, $7,292 total), Tom Sauer, Cindy Camberdella and David E. James, USDA-ARS National Soil Tilth Laboratory, and Heidi Asbjornsen, ISU Natural Resource Ecology & Management [E2006-17] ALLAMAKEE, CLAYTON, JEFFERSON AND SAC COUNTIES Development and Implementation of Low Input Delivery Systems for Ethanol Co-products in Forage-based Beef Systems, $18,272, year 3 of 3 ($51,862 total), Dan Loy, ISU Animal Science, and Joe Sellers, ISU Extension [E2006-12] UNION AND LUCAS COUNTIES Grazing Compatibility in and for Future Years, $15,862, year 3 of 5 ($53,095 total), Ed Johnston, Southern Iowa Forage and Livestock Committee, and John Klein, Natural Resources Conservation Service [E2006-01] ADAMS COUNTY The Landowners' Decision: Grazing and Fire as a Management Tool on Iowa Grasslands, $28,950, year 2 of 2 $56,734 total), Lois Wright Morton, ISU Sociology [E2007-05] RINGGOLD, GUTHRIE AND CARROLL COUNTIES New Strategies to Enhance Sustainability of Iowa Apple Orchards, $35,239, year 3 of 3 ($115,798 total), Mark Gleason, ISU Plant Pathology, and Matt Liebman, ISU Agronomy [E2006-04] STORY, GREENE, MARION, HARDIN AND WEBSTER COUNTIES Optimizing Legume Establishment in Winter Small Grains, $19,218, year 3 of 3 ($54,770 total), Lance Gibson, ISU Agronomy, and Jeremy Singer, USDA-ARS National Soil Tilth Laboratory [E2006-10] STORY COUNTY Participatory Ecology for ‘Agriculture of the Middle’: Developing Tools and Partnerships to Bridge Gaps among Science, People and Policy in Landscape Change, $10,971, year 3 of 3 ($54,575 total), Lisa Schulte and Ryan Atwell, ISU Natural Resource Ecology & Management, and Lynne M. Westphal, USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station [E2006-20] STORY AND BOONE COUNTIES Forage Double-Cropping Demonstration, year 4 (extension of 3-year grant, $11,644 total), Inger Lamb, Iowa Native Lands; Steve Barnhart, ISU Agronomy; and Mark Honeyman, ISU Agricultural Research Farms [E2004-39] STORY AND CASS COUNTIES Survey of Mycorrhizal Symbioses in Remnant and Reconstructed Prairies at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, year 4 (extension of 2-year grant, $23,000 total), Inger Lamb, Iowa Native Lands [E2004-18] JASPER COUNTY Variations in Water and Nutrient Cycling and Soil Properties during Agricultural Landscape |
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[Return to 2008 Ecological Systems Initiative Grant Descriptions] |
