USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Research Articles

Information Technologies and Ecological Site Descriptions

Just as ecological systems are dynamic, so too are the needs for managing ecological site descriptions as part of a business system. The development of information technology (IT) as a discipline has brought increased capability to represent and communicate concepts that exist in the minds of rangeland managers and scientists. IT plays an important role throughout the processes of defi ning, publishing, and marketing ecological site descriptions through the collection, analysis, storage, and mining of fi eld and supporting data. In this paper we examine the current role that IT (including recent Web-based information sources and tools) plays in the development of ecological site descriptions, as well as some of the future challenges and opportunities. Although most land management entities follow a somewhat similar data process, this example is from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which has historically managed ecological site information for public use.

Measuring conservation program best management practice implementation and maintenance at the watershed scale

There is growing interest in evaluating the impacts at the watershed scale of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) designed to improve water quality. Many approaches to impact assessment require detailed information about actual BMP use by farmers and landowners in a watershed. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of using formal USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service records of conservation program participation as an indicator of spatial and temporal patterns of BMP implementation and maintenance. Field interviews with conservation program participants revealed potential limitations with official records regarding (1) documentation of the incidence of successful BMP implementation, (2) the nature of the BMPs that were implemented, (3) accurate measurement of the timing and location of BMP implementations, and (4) information about the long-term use and maintenance of implemented BMPs. The results suggest that official records should be field-verified before being used as indicators of BMP use. The findings also point to a larger need for development of more robust and accurate systems for tracking BMP implementation and maintenance over periods of time.

South Texas Natives: a collaborative regional effort to meet restoration needs in south Texas

Forrest S Smith, John Lloyd-Reilley and William R Ocumpaugh

Reflections on 2010 International Annual Conference

A s we closed the doors on the week-long event that was this year's 65th International Annual Conference of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS), we left St. Louis, Missouri, with the satisfaction that 615 participants who attended had benefitted from an outstanding program of education, professional development, and networking opportunities. Through the combined efforts of the program committee, Missouri Show-Me Chapter, workshop leaders, sponsors, volunteers, and participants were treated to a kaleidoscope of learning opportunities each day. The Fellows Forum examined Gulf hypoxia from a Midwest perspective. Forum panelists discussed nutrient enrichment from agricultural lands, wastewater discharges, and urban runoff. They also explored opportunities and costs to address excess nutrient loss into Midwest waters that lead to the Gulf. Later in the conference, Michele Laur of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS) and Nathaniel Ostrom of Michigan State University led a discussion session on the additional challenge the Gulf oil spill has brought to the Gulf ecosystem. Ostrom contributed the historic perspective of the 1979 Ixtoc 1 oil spill that resulted in 140 million gallons of oil being released into the Gulf off the coast of Cuidad del Carmen, Mexico. Laur described the efforts the USDA was making…

The evaluation of conservation practice placement in the Little River Experimental Watershed using geographic information systems

The Conservation Effects Assessment Program Watershed Assessment Study is a joint effort between the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the USDA Agricultural Research Service to evaluate the effectiveness of federally funded conservation programs. In response to this initiative, a 26-year history of NRCS conservation practice placement (1980 to 2006) was evaluated for the Little River Experimental Watershed (LREW) in the southeastern coastal plain of Georgia. To accomplish this task, currently available geographic databases were integrated and queried to assess levels of commonly adopted practices and to evaluate factors affecting practice placement. Databases included (1) USDA NRCS Conservation Practice Database for the LREW, (2) USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), and (3) 30 m (98 ft) digital elevation maps. Nearly 50% of all cropland fields in the LREW were delineated as having participated in conservation programs. Practices were predominantly used for water quality and erosion control. Sixty to 65% of the fields (77% of land area) implemented soil erosion and/or water quality control practices in high resource concern areas. Results showed that hydrologic group and proximity to a water body, rather than slope class, were the predominant factors in conservation practice placement. Using a subwatershed database having complete field coverage of four LREW subwatersheds (with and without USDA NRCS assistance), geographic information system databases were queried to evaluate the adoption and placement of erosion control practices that were visible in a 2005 digital orthoquad. Forty-seven percent of all fields in the subwatershed database had implemented visible erosion control–specific conservation practices. and implementation was linearly related to slope class ( r 2 = 0.64, p < 0.10). Fields identified as having participated in federally funded conservation programs coincided with high resource concern areas 35% of the time.

Calibration of the soil conditioning index (SCI) to soil organic carbon in the southeastern USA

Prediction of soil organic C sequestration with adoption of various conservation agricultural management approaches is needed to meet the emerging market for environmental services provided by agricultural land stewardship. The soil conditioning index (SCI) is a relatively simple model used by the USDA–Natural Resources Conservation Service to predict qualitative changes in soil organic matter. Our objective was to develop a quantitative relationship between soil organic C derived from published field studies in the southeastern USA and SCI scores predicted from matching management conditions. We found that soil organic C sequestration (at 20 ± 5 cm depth) could be reliably related to SCI across a diversity of studies in the region using the regression slope: 1.65 Mg C ha−1 SCI−1 [which translated into a rate of 0.25 ± 0.04 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 SCI−1 (mean±standard error of 31 slope estimates)]. The calibration of soil organic C on SCI scores will allow SCI to become a quantitative tool for natural resource professionals to predict soil organic C sequestration for farmers wanting to adopt conservation practices.

Rating sustainability: An opinion survey of national conservation practices funded through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program

The US government continues to expand the suite of programs and funding available to farmers who produce agricultural products in a manner consistent with environmental goals such as clean water, stable soil, and ample wildlife habitat. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is one of the most prominent examples of such programs due to its growing budget and scope. EQIP is a voluntary program that provides cost-share, incentive payments and technical assistance for farmers who institute conservation practices that aim “to promote agricultural production, forest management and environmental quality as compatible goals, and to optimize environmental benefits” (US House 1996). In contrast to USDA land retirement programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the premise of EQIP is to keep farmland in agricultural production with conservation integrated throughout a farm's working operation.

Agricultural Energy Management Plans: Conception to implementation

ENERGY CONSERVATION IN THE FARM BILL As energy becomes a larger portion of a farmer's operating costs, farmers and ranchers can cut input costs, maintain production, protect soil and water resources, reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels, and save money by implementing conservation practices that promote energy conservation and efficiency. Since 1935, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has provided leadership in a partnership effort to help America's private landowners and managers conserve their soil, water, and other natural resources. Energy conservation and energy efficiency are becoming important aspects of how NRCS delivers technical and financial assistance.

A multiscale database of soil properties for regional environmental quality modeling in the western United States

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) database contains general soils information, but data available in STATSGO cannot be readily extracted nor parameterized to support regional environmental quality modeling. As such, each user must individually and repeatedly process data in STATSGO to obtain necessary soil properties. The objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive database, the Western States Soil Database (WSSD) (http://www.lar.wsu.edu/nw-airquest/soils_database.html), for use in modeling regional soil and water resources and environmental quality across eight western states (Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming). We aggregated existing soil properties in STATSGO from 19,681 map units of the eight states and estimated soil properties based upon quantitative relationships among existing soil properties. The WSSD comprises 3,910 map units, with each map unit defined by 10 soil layers and each layer characterized by 31 soil properties. The WSSD was gridded to 1 and 12 km (0.62 and 7.44 mi) resolution cells for application to grid-based environmental models. Data from WSSD was tested against USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service field data and indicated satisfactory agreement; for example, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for sand and clay content varied between 4% and 7%. The RMSE appeared to be greatest for organic matter and was as large as 106% of the measured value. The WSSD provides information on soil properties useful for regional-scale modeling.

Pasture monitoring at a farm scale with the USDA NRCS pasture condition score system

The Pasture Condition Score (PCS) system, developed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, is a monitoring and assessment tool for pastureland enrolled in conservation programs. Ten indicators of vegetation and soil status are rated on a 1 to 5 scale and are summed to give an aggregate score, which is interpreted for management recommendations. Information is lacking, however, on how PCS results vary within and among environments and farms. We applied the PCS on two farms in Pennsylvania (one dairy, one beef), two dairy farms in New York, and an organic dairy in Maryland. All pastures (25 to 63 per farm) on each farm were evaluated according to PCS methodology in spring, summer, and autumn of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Aggregate PCS scores ranged from 30 to 40 (indicating some improvements were needed to pasture management) and were relatively stable within management recommendation categories across seasons in 2004 and 2006. The PCS scores in 2005, however, plummeted (below 25 to 30—indicating major management changes to prevent degradation) on the Pennsylvania and Maryland farms because of drought. Pastures used for heifers and dry cows or as wintering areas often had lower scores than other pastures. Typically, these pastures were on less productive soils, steep slopes, and were stocked intensively. There was much overlap among individual score categories for some indicators, which suggests that fewer but broader score categories (e.g., low, medium, high) would simplify the system for farmers. The monitoring workload could be reduced by assessing representative subsets of pastures managed similarly or in similar landscape positions instead of all pastures on a farm.

Annual Reports To Council Ecological Society of America August 2009

<i>Annual Reports To Council</i> Ecological Society of America August 2009

Estudio de la temperatura del suelo en Puerto Rico.

Se evaluaron mediciones de temperatura del suelo de la red de monitoreo de clima en Puerto Rico y se calculó la diferencia entre la temperatura promedio del suelo de verano y de invierno, conocida como valor de isotividad. Se tomaron datos de temperatura del aire y del suelo de cinco estaciones climatológicas del Servicio de Conservación de Recursos Naturales del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos desde el nivel del mar hasta 1,019 m de elevación sobre el nivel del mar y a diferentes regímenes de humedad del suelo. Los valores de isotividad oscilaron entre 1.2 y 3.9° C con una media de 2.6° C. El límite entre el régimen de temperatura de suelo isohipertérmico e isotérmico en el régimen de humedad perúdico en Puerto Rico fue identificado a una elevación de 750 m. En las estaciones de Guánica, Combate y Guilarte se observaron las mayores diferencias entre la media anual de la temperatura del suelo y la media anual de la temperatura del aire (2.1° C). En las estaciones de Maricao (0.8° C) e Isabela (1.8° C) se observaron las menores diferencias. El estudio también indica que la media anual de la temperatura del suelo en Puerto Rico puede ser estimada añadiéndole 1.8° C a la media anual de la temperatura del aire o por la ecuación y = -0.007x + 28.0° C. La ecuación indica que el 97 por ciento del tiempo el comportamiento de la media anual de la temperatura del suelo es una función de la elevación. De acuerdo con la actualización de los límites de los regímenes de temperatura de suelo, se establecieron ocho series de suelo en el Catastro de Suelos del Área de San Germán. Cuatro series de suelo clasificaron como Oxisoles (Haploperox), dos series de suelos como Inceptisoles (Eutrudepts) y dos series de suelos como Molisoles (Argiudolls) en el área bajo régimen de temperatura isotérmico. Este es el primer reconocimiento en el campo del gran grupo de suelos Haploperox en los Estados Unidos de América y sus territorios.

English

Determining a cropland yield standard to be met for final bond release purposes can be accomplished by either trying to use actual average yield data over several years or using USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) productivity indices (PI) if field data is unavailable or unreliable. However, both cases are subject to variability in growing season conditions from one cropping year to the next and thus methodologies must be developed to try to account for this yearly variation. Several methods have been developed and are currently being used by the North Dakota Public Service Commission to try to the yield standards necessary for final bond release caused by these yearly climatic variations. These methods include: 1. Developing a climatic correction factor ratio using a county-wide average yield based upon USDA- NRCS PI data and dividing that yield into the yearly average county yield reported by the USDA-North Dakota Agricultural Statistical Service (USDA- NDASS) or yield data from an area of similar soils where the actual yield was measured. This correction factor is then multiplied times the reclaimed area yield standard calculated using USDA-NRCS PI values to develop an adjusted yield standard; 2. Developing a Productivity Ratio between the reclaimed yield standard for the reclaimed tract based on USDA-NRCS PI values divided by the long-term average county yield from USDA-NRCS which is then multiplied times the annual county yield data supplied by the USDA-NDASS to develop an adjusted yield standard; or 3. Developing a crop-based weighted production ratio factor taking into consideration one of the above climatic adjustments and the acreage of all crops within the reclamation tract. Each of these methods have their own advantages and disadvantages which will be discussed and have been used successfully by several mining companies to adjust reclaimed cropland yield standards for final bond releases in North Dakota.

Predicting soil organic carbon sequestration in the southeastern United States with EPIC and the soil conditioning index

The Soil Conditioning Index (SCI) is a relatively simple model that predicts the consequences of cropping systems and tillage practices on the status of soil organic matter in a field. The SCI is administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to predict a positive or negative trend in soil organic matter based on knowledge of field operations, erosion loss, and organic matter inputs but has not been adequately tested against long-term management conditions that could affect soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. We calibrated the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model (EPIC v. 3060) for three major land resource areas in the southeastern United States using 5 to 10 years of measured SOC data to develop a predictive relationship of SOC for 50-year simulations with SCI values. Management systems included conventional tillage and no tillage in (1) a two-year rotation of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)/sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench)-corn (Zea mays L.) with low and high fertilizer application on a Blackland Prairie site in Texas, (2) a two-year rotation of corn-cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) with and without dairy manure application on a Coastal Plain site in Alabama, and (3) in monoculture cotton on a Mississippi Upland site. Across sites and fertilizer conditions, SOC sequestration during 50 years of using EPIC was greater under no tillage (9.5 Mg ha-1 [4.2 tn ac-1]) than under conventional tillage (6.3 Mg ha-1 [2.8 tn ac-1]) (p

Improving the Design of Amphibian Surveys Using Soil Data: A Case Study in Two Wilderness Areas

ABSTRACT: Amphibian populations are known, or thought to be, declining worldwide. Although protected natural areas may act as reservoirs of biological integrity and serve as benchmarks for comparison with unprotected areas, they are not immune from population declines and extinctions and should be monitored. Unfortunately, identifying survey sites and performing long-term fieldwork within such (often remote) areas involves a special set of problems. We used the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Database to identify, a priori, potential habitat for aquatic-breeding amphibians on North and South Manitou Islands, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan, and compared the results to those obtained using National Wetland Inventory (NWI) data. The SSURGO approach identified more target sites for surveys than the NWI approach, and it identified more small and ephemeral wetlands. Field surveys used a combination of daytime call surveys, nighttime call surveys, and ...

Innovative operational seasonal water supply forecasting technologies

Today's Western United States is home to nearly one-third of the American population. The region has experienced rapid population growth in recent years. Continued urban growth, combined with economic changes and federal environmental mandates, are exerting increased pressure on the Western United States' irrigated agriculture. Serving these competing uses, in the face of uncertain and extreme weather, can be difficult. Managers of a fixed water supply must operate their projects within an ever-shrinking margin of error (Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission 1998). Improved water supply technologies and products will help resource managers to improve water use efficiencies wherever possible. This article describes some of the recent advances by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in its mission to support Western US water managers.

The first five years of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project

T he Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) was initiated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) in response to a general call for better accountability of how society would benefit from the 2002 farm bill's substantial increase in conservation program funding (Mausbach and Dedrick 2004). The original goals of CEAP were to establish the scientific understanding of the effects of conservation practices at the watershed scale and to estimate conservation impacts and benefits for reporting at the national and regional levels. Other federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations with conservation and natural resource interests are currently partners in various CEAP activities, often through jointly funded research projects. CEAP activities are organized into three interconnected efforts: 1. Bibliographies, literature reviews, and a scientific workshop to establish what is known about the environmental effects of conservation practices at field and watershed scales, and what kinds of research and data collection are needed to assess conservation practice benefits. 2. Watershed assessment studies to provide in-depth quantification of water quality and soil quality impacts of conservation practices at the local level and to provide insight on what practices are needed…

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project benchmark watersheds: Synthesis of preliminary findings

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project was established to quantify the envi- ronmental impacts of USDA conservation programs. The Conservation Effects Assessment Project involves multiple watershed assessment studies designed to provide a scientific basis for a national assessment. The USDA Agricultural Research Service established 14 research sites—benchmark watersheds—to measure regionally specific environmental quality effects of conservation practices and to improve and validate models used by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for their national assessment. Within each watershed, data were collected and continue to be collected to provide insight into the effects of specific conservation practices implemented under programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Reserve Program. A data storage and management system, Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds-Agricultural Research Data System (STEWARDS), was developed to provide easy accessibility to these data for analysis. Models were validated using data from many of the watersheds and were shown to be valuable tools for extrapolat- ing the results for a national assessment. The physical process models were also combined with economic models to optimize tradeoffs among environmental and economic objectives of conservation practices. The benchmark watershed studies have begun to identify the effects of selected conservation practices, although additional data are required to provide definitive results. A prototype of a new modular modeling system has been developed that will provide a more powerful tool for future analyses. The initial Conservation Effects Assessment Project findings and products demonstrate progress toward the overall goals of quantifying conserva- tion practice effects and providing tools to transfer the knowledge to points where they are applied under future conservation policy.

Conservation practices and gully erosion contributions in the Topashaw Canal watershed

Quantifying the effectiveness of conservation practices at the watershed scale throughout the nation has been identified as a critical need. Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of these conservation practices for reducing sediment yield. The Topashaw Canal watershed (TCW), an 11,000-ha (27,181-ac) area in northcentral Mississippi, exhibits flashy stream response to storms with mean sediment concentrations (117 mg L^-1 [117 ppm]) almost double the median sediment concentration (60 mg L^-1). The most prevalent conservation practice imposed by acreage, since 1985, is enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (e.g., planting of pine trees). Grade-stabilization structures (e.g., drop pipes) are the most common conservation practice used to control gully erosion within the TCW. These structures are estimated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to reduce annual sediment yield from 11.5 to 0.1 Mg ha^-1 yr^-1 (5.13 to 0.05 tn ac^-1 yr^-1), but measurements have not been made to determine the accuracy of these estimates. Nonetheless, an average of 58 drop pipes have been installed annually within the TCW using Environmental Quality Incentives Program funds, and an additional 5.4 large drop pipes have been installed each year using US Corps of Engineers funds. Annual gully erosion accounted for 54% of the total sediment yield of over 73,000 Mg (80,445 tn) from TCW. The shift in land use to Conservation Reserve Program, combined with channel incision, has resulted in streambank failure and gully erosion being the primary sources of sediment currently leaving the watershed.

Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source model application for Mississippi Delta Beasley Lake watershed conservation practices assessment

The Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source (AnnAGNPS) model has been developed to quantify watershed response to agricultural management practices. The objective of this study was to identify critical areas where conservation practices could be implemented and to predict their impact on Beasley Lake water quality in the Mississippi Delta using AnnAGNPS. Model evaluation was first performed by comparing the observed runoff and sediment from a US Geological Survey gauging station draining 7 ha (17 ac) of Beasley Lake watershed with the AnnAGNPS simulated runoff and sediment. The model demonstrated satisfactory capability in simulating runoff and sediment at an event scale. Without calibration, the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency was 0.81 for runoff and 0.54 for sediment; the relative error was 0.1 for runoff and 0.18 for sediment, and the Willmott index of agreement was 0.94 for runoff and 0.80 for sediment. The quantity of water and sediment produced from each field within the Beasley Lake watershed, quantity of water and sediment reaching Beasley Lake, and the potential impact of various USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation programs on water quality were then simulated. High sediment-producing areas for nonpoint source pollution control were identified where sediment loads could be reduced by 15% to 77% using conservation practices. Simulations predicted that converting all cropland to no-till soybeans (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) would reduce sediment load by 77% whereas no-till cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) would reduce it 64%. The approach taken in this study could be used elsewhere in applying AnnAGNPS to ungauged watersheds or watersheds with limited field observations for conservation program planning or evaluation.