Field, Lab, Earth

"Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Mercury Unaffected by Wildland Fires in Northern Minnesota" with Dr. Randy Kolka and Trent Wickman.

We often hear of the dangers of mercury to pregnant women and children that require them to restrict fish consumption. For good reason – even at low concentrations, mercury can do serious damage to neural networks and reproductive systems. However, we talk little of how the mercury gets in these fish in the first place.

The most common way mercury enters the ecosystem is through the burning of coal; however, it can also volatilize via prescribed and wild fires in forests. From there, it can redistribute into other parts of the ecosystem, such as lakes, and work its way into the food chain. This can hurt the animals that rely on lakes or the fish that live in them to survive. It can also hurt people. For Dr. Randy Kolka and Trent Wickman of the USDA Forest Service, who love the people and wildlife of Northern Minnesota – they had to know more.

They set up a study on two lakes – one that hadn't seen a fire in over 100 years and one that had a serious fire that covered over 99% of the watershed – and sampled soil, water, and fish to compare mercury levels.

In this episode, they discuss their experimental design, along with a breakdown of the realities of fieldwork. It can be tough carrying heavy equipment or samples of lakewater, let alone camping gear and food; they discuss how they made choices on what to bring, how samples were collected, and how they managed the logistics of the trips.

Tune in to learn this and more:

• How does one collect a water sample from a deep lake?
• What's a "crown fire" and why is it so dangerous?
• How is fire severity judged?
• Why perch?

If you would like more information about this topic, this episode's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2016.10.0418

It will be freely available from 19 October to 2 November, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Randy, you can find him here: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/people/Kolka [email protected]

If you would like to reach out to Trent, you can find him here: [email protected]

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/827

No Mercury Accumulation in Fish after Fire: https://www.soils.org/discover-soils/story/burn-without-concern

BWCWA: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/superior/specialplaces/?cid=fseprd555184

Randy's additional fire and mercury publications: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/people/Kolka

MN Department of Health fish consumption advisories: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/fish/index.html

USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/

USDA Forest Service, Air Resource Management R8 & 9: https://webcam.srs.fs.fed.us/

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"An Inventory of Crop Wild Relatives of the United States" with Dr. Stephanie Greene.

Crop Wild Relatives week is September 22 – 29, 2018!

Crops are vital to feeding an expanding world – and like anything incredibly important, they need to be protected from things like disease, environmental disaster, and anything else that can pose a real threat. The key to their protection? Unexpected heroes that could be growing in your back yard– wild varieties of domesticated crops called crop wild relatives.

Crop wild relatives are the close cousins of domesticated crops (think a poodle vs. a wolf). Often, these crops are well-adapted to their environment and can exhibit wild superpowers such as drought or disease resistance. And because they are so closely related to domesticated crops, scientists can cross them with crops that people rely on for food or other uses, such as wheat or blueberries. The result – stronger, healthier crops– and peace of mind that your favorite blueberry muffins will be available for years to come.

Dr. Stephanie Greene and seedbanks around the world have made it their mission to catalog, protect, and educate the public on these wild, unruly cousins of crops and how scientists use them to give our favorite crops super strength.

This year, for Crop Wild Relatives week, tune in to find answers to the following questions and more:

• What's the point of a gene bank?
• What type of traits are scientists looking for in crop wild relatives?
• How do they determine which ones are important?
• What's a gap analysis, and how is it done?
• Why is it so important that the public knows about crop wild relatives?

If you would like more information about this topic, please visit our Crop Wild Relatives Week website here: https://www.crops.org/crop-wild-relative/

Today's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2012.10.0585

This paper is always freely available.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Stephanie, you can find her here: [email protected]

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/826

Crop Wild Relative Diversity Site: https://www.cwrdiversity.org

Crop Wild Relatives Site: www.cropwildrelatives.org/

Wild Relatives Resource Site: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/wildrelatives.shtml

Crop Wild Relatives of the US Site: https://cwroftheus.wordpress.com/

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

The Farm Bill with Dr. Julie McClure and Dr. Elizabeth Stulberg

If you have ever eaten food in the United States, you've been impacted by The Farm Bill, a mega-bill that is due for renewal in Congress this September. Although it heavily affects farmers, the Farm Bill covers a huge swath of topics: wildlife conservation, rural affairs, agriculture research, food stamps, and a lot more. If it seems like a big and overwhelming deal, that is because it is. Luckily, we have Drs. Elizabeth Stulberg and Julie McClure, two ASA-CSSA-SSSA science policy managers that are fluent in scientific research and the ins and outs of Washington politics to be our guides. For our membership, they work as translators between scientists and policymakers. Scientists want to know about relevant happenings in D.C. and new available funding opportunities; policymakers want to know new science that could impact their legislative districts.

We discuss the amazing history of the Farm Bill, how the bill will move through Congress this September, and what happens to the $1 trillion that is slated to be budgeted for this next Farm Bill. As it turns out, passing an important bill (especially a bill that affects so many) is hard! Put your learning caps on, because we're about to take a deep dive into the process of how a concept grows from idea into a large-scale part of our daily lives.

Tune in to learn:

• Why is the Farm Bill so huge?
• What does the Farm Bill have to do with The Dust Bowl?
• What's a congressional committee and what do the different committees do? How are committee assignments made?
• What's an authorization, and how is that different from an appropriation?
• What's mandatory funding, and why would a bill need it?
• Where are we are with the Farm Bill today?

Please note: At around 32:00 Dr. McClure says FFAR funds have to be matched by public funding, but in fact they must be matched by private (non-federal) funding.

If you would like more information about the Farm Bill, check out the Farm Bill Policy webpage or check out these articles from CSA News:

June 2017: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2017.62.0622

March 2018: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2018.63.0321

July 2018: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2018.63.0732

These articles will be freely available from 7 September to 21 September, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Julie or Elizabeth, you can find them here: https://crops.org/science-policy/about-us

Julie: @McClurePhD [email protected]

Elizabeth: [email protected]

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/825

Legislative Action Network: https://www.crops.org/science-policy/get-involved/lan

Farm Bill Pages: https://agronomy.org/science-policy/farm-bill-policy https://crops.org/science-policy/farm-bill-policy https://soils.org/science-policy/farm-bill-policy

Society Policy Pages: https://agronomy.org/science-policy/ https://crops.org/science-policy/ https://soils.org/science-policy/

USDA Leadership Opportunities: ACS-NIFA Internship https://agronomy.org/undergrads/awards-scholarships https://crops.org/undergrads/awards-scholarships https://soils.org/undergrads/awards-scholarships

Congressional Fellowship https://agronomy.org/science-policy/fellowship https://crops.org/science-policy/fellowship https://soils.org/science-policy/fellowship

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"Simulated Canola Yield Responses to Climate Change and Adaptation in Canada" with Dr. Budong Qian.

Canada really cares about the future of canola. It has surpassed spring wheat as the dominant crop in Canada, covering 8.5 million ha of Canadian agricultural land. It is even named after Canada, as the word canola itself is a contraction of "Canada" and "oil". However, climate change and increasing temperatures threaten Canada's canola sector—which is why Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has constructed a team of scientists to study the future of canola and Canada's agricultural areas, which are projected to have a 3 to 3.5 °C increase in temperatures within the next 30 years.

Tune in to learn:

• What exactly is canola, and why does it matter?
• How Dr. Qian simulated the response of canola growth to future climate change scenarios
• Potential adaptations for canola to climate change

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2017.02.0076

This paper is always freely available.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Budong, you can find him here: [email protected] http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/research-centres/ontario/eastern-cereal-and-oilseed-research-centre/scientific-staff-and-expertise/qian-budong-ph-d/?id=1426279254549 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Budong_Qian

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/824

DSSAT and Crop Growth Models: https://dssat.net/

Canola production in Canada: https://www.canolacouncil.org/

Scientific research and innovation: http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/?id=1360882179814

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"Benefits of Insect Pollination to Confection Sunflowers Differ Across Plant Genotypes" with Dr. Rachel Mallinger.

Sunflowers are a hallmark of an American summer. They're grown for beauty, but they are also important industrial crops in America, grown for sunflower oil, for fresh eating (of the seeds), and for bird seed. And although we've slowly bred them to be more independent of pollinators, sunflowers still partner with bees. And not just honey bees. More often, they partner with native bees.

Did you know honey bees aren't even native to the U.S.? And while just as charismatic in their own way, native bees might not fit the usual description of a bee that we imagine. Most U.S. bees don't have a colony, don't have a queen, and don't have a hive that sits in a tree. And yet these mostly underground, solitary dwellers are the ones that are so important for sunflowers (and many flowers).

Dr. Mallinger's research looks at the fascinating relationship between these species – the confection sunflower and native bees. She wants to be able to measure this relationship. How do sunflowers benefit from pollination by bees?

Tune in to learn more about Dr. Mallinger's research and to find answers to these questions:

• What are the differences between a honey bee and a native bee?
• Why should we care about native bees?
• What is Dr. Mallinger's favorite type of bee?
• How does pollination increase the yield of sunflowers?

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2017.03.0148

It will be freely available from 20 July to 3 August, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Rachel, you can find her here: [email protected] www.rachelmallinger.com www.twitter.com/remallinger

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/835

For bees:

Xerces Society: https://xerces.org/

Pollinator Partnership: http://pollinator.org/

The Great Sunflower Project: https://www.greatsunflower.org/

Rachel's lab: www.rachelmallinger.com

Bee Identification: http://beesinyourbackyard.blogspot.com/p/poster.html

Bee Identification Book: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10593.html,

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"Artificial Sweeteners Reveal Septic System Effluent in Rural Groundwater" with Dr. John Spoelstra.

Dr. John Spoelstra is something like a wastewater detective. If there is secret wastewater that is contaminating groundwater and putting health outcomes at risk, he wants to know. To trace the path of wastewater, he uses a special set of tools: tracer compounds. These are compounds that are not found in the natural environment, but have a lot of human use. Examples are caffeine, acetaminophen, anti-seizure medication, and a recent discovery Dr. Spoelstra and his team have found to be incredibly effective: artificial sweeteners. Think about it: they are in everything from fruit snacks to ketchup to toothpaste and mouthwash. In his latest research, he needed to investigate the source of a surplus of nitrogen in a community's soil. Artificial sweeteners in rural wells and river seeps pointed to a wastewater problem.

Listen in to hear more about:

• The potential threats of wastewater to the environment and humans
• How Dr. Spoelstra's team figured out that artificial sweeteners could be such a powerful tool
• What ion chromatography is and how it separates out the chemicals in a sample

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2017.06.0233

This paper is always freely available.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to John, you can find him here: [email protected] https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/john-spoelstra https://uwaterloo.ca/earth-environmental-sciences/people-profiles/john-spoelstra-0

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/823

"Grand River has highest levels of artificial sweetener pollution on record:" https://www.therecord.com/news-story/4271982-grand-river-has-highest-levels-of-artificial-sweetener-pollution-on-record/

Municipal Wastewater Treatment Systems: https://www.epa.gov/npdes/municipal-wastewater

EPA-Private Wells: https://www.epa.gov/privatewells

EPA-Septic Systems: https://www.epa.gov/septic

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

Rapid soil formation in engineered soils, as highlighted in the article "Soil Evolution Par for the Golf Course" with Glen Obear.

Not all of us who go golfing think about what is happening underneath the green. Glen Obear has always been that kind of guy. Since his high school days, he has wanted to be a golf course superintendent – even though he doesn't play that much golf! What fascinates him is the science of developing a golf course. We may simply see a beautiful, natural-looking terrain, but those rolling hills and magnificent green fields are the product of the hard work of agronomists, soil scientists, and engineers. They manipulate the elements of soil creation to create a terrain that is perfectly suited to its purpose – an engineered soil. Engineered soils are everywhere – from an urban garden bed to athletic fields to green roofs.

Glen's internship work at a golf course in Hawaii led him to find an interesting problem that not even his agronomy professors could solve. Iron pan layers called placic layers were developing in the greens between the sand and gravel layers. These layers were preventing the greens from draining water. However, there was little prior literature on these layers developing in engineered soils. He's now focused his PhD research on these placic layers.

Listen in to learn to hear Glen discuss more of his research on engineered soils and to learn:

• How a putting green is developed, and how they keep it so green
• What CORPT means
• The differences between engineered and natural soils

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2017.62.0616

It will be freely available from 22 June to 6 July, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Glen, you can find him here: [email protected]

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/822

University of Nebraska Turfgrass Science: https://turf.unl.edu/

"Soils with iron-cemented layers on golf courses in the USA" https://turf.unl.edu/research/iron_cemented_layer/geoderma.pdf

USGA: http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/turfgrass-and-environmental-research/research-updates/2018/genesis-and-prevention-of-layers-in-putting-green-rootzone-profi.html

Research Spotlight: Automating XRF analysis of turf soils: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJzYzuITz44&list=PLwj31x_xFLecSVdfbDs6gnEM8rRWY3gJz

Research Spotlight: Iron-Layer Formation in Sand Root Zones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_iQjshOnHw&list=PLwj31x_xFLecSVdfbDs6gnEM8rRWY3gJz&index=3

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (Vis-Nir-Swir) as a Promising Tool for Blue Carbon Quantification in Mangrove Soils: A Case of Study in Tropical Semiarid Climatic Conditions" with Dr. Gabriel Nuto Nóbrega.

Mangrove forests are some of the most important forests in the world. Mangroves are uniquely adapted to acting as a middleman. They can deal with very high salinity and hide tides, but when the tide drops, they can deal with the low salinity. They act as nurseries for young birds, fish, and large, rare mammals like dugongs and manatees before they are ready to branch out into the ocean. They also have the important ability to act as a carbon sink – they take carbon from the atmosphere and trap it in the soils. Dr. Gabriel Nuto Nóbrega has been working with this aspect of mangrove soils since his undergrad days. He wanted to know just how much carbon mangrove forests have the capability to sequester. However, the act of doing so had proven tricky. Not only were traditional methods not reliably measuring the carbon, but they were leaving a toxic residue behind – not ideal in an important and sensitive ecosystem. His solution was DRS – diffusive reflectance spectroscopy, a technique that is not only friendlier to the ecosystem, but cheaper and easier than traditional methods.

Listen in to learn about:

• What makes mangrove soils different than terrestrial soils
• How DRS functions similarly to the human eye
• How Dr. Nóbrega has learned to avoid getting stuck in mangrove forests' sticky soils
• All the work that goes into taking a mangrove soil sample from the forests into the lab – it's not easy

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: dx.doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2017.04.0135

It will be freely available from June 22 to 6 July, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or signup for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Gabriel, you can find him here: [email protected]www.twitter.com/GNNobrega

If you would like to reach out to other members of Gabriel's research group, you can find them here: https://twitter.com/Tiago_OFerreira https://twitter.com/QueirozHM https://twitter.com/danilo_ichi

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.soils.org/education/classroom/classes/836

Blue Carbon Initiative: http://thebluecarboninitiative.org/

Blue Carbon Portal: http://bluecarbonportal.org/

Department of Soil Science, University of São Paulo: https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Sao_Paulo/department/Departamento_de_Ciencia_do_Solo_LSO_ESALQ

http://www.en.esalq.usp.br/departments/soil-science

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"Assessment of Selected Antibiotic Resistances in Ungrazed Native Nebraska Prairie Soils" with Dr. Lisa Durso.

Antibiotic resistance has revealed itself as one of the great public health threats of our lifetimes. It currently causes 23,000 deaths per year and $55 billion of health costs in the U.S. Those numbers are predicted to skyrocket in coming years without major change.

However, there's a caveat that makes researching it harder. Antibiotic resistance occurs naturally in soil, even without antibiotics present – but we're not sure why. That's where Dr. Lisa Durso comes in. She works with the USDA-ARS to look at Nebraskan soils and examine how much antibiotic resistance really occurs in untouched soil so we can establish a baseline for future research. She works with native prairie soils all over Nebraska to promote the broader goal of learning how drug-resistant genes survive in environments, and how they can move from field to people.

Tune in to learn:

• Unexpected grocery store products that were created by the USDA-ARS
• Top health threats listed by the CDC
• How bacteria share resistance genes like a banana bread recipe
• How scientists count bacteria

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: dx.doi.org/10.2134/jeq2015.06.0280

It will be freely available from 22 June to 6 July, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or signup for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Lisa, you can find her here: [email protected]

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/821

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/protecting_yourself_family.html

More information on antibiotic resistance: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/index.html

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

"Achieving Diverse Cover Crop Mixtures: Effects of Planting Date and Seeding Rate" with Dr. Ebony Murrell and Dr. Mac Burgess

In fall, organic farmers across the country will start spreading seeds for crops that they won't ever harvest. The reason? They're cover crops! The secret agents of the crop game, these are crops that are planted in between plantings of cash crops like corn or wheat because of their many benefits to the land, the environment, and the farmer.

Historically, they've been planted to prevent water from carrying nutrients away in runoff. But in recent years, there have been discoveries of the many other benefits that cover crops provide, everything from weed suppression, to breaking up soil compaction, to making more nutrients like nitrogen available to their crops in spring. Dr. Ebony Murrell and Dr. Mac Burgess are fascinated with all of this.

They've found that mixing cover crops together can bring those benefits to the next level, especially if they are equally represented in the spring. Working with a panel of farmers, agronomic industry professionals, and academics, the two developed four seed mixes that brought together some of the most popular cover crops to see how these pairs worked with one another and how each was represented in spring.

Listen in to learn:

• How Dr. Murrell moved from mosquito research to cover crops
• How cover crops are like football players
• How to get started with trying out cover crops for yourself

If you would like more information about this topic, today's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2016.03.0174

It will be freely available from 22 June to 6 July, 2018.

If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or signup for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe.

If you would like to reach out to Ebony, you can find her here: [email protected]https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ebony_Murrell If you would like to reach out to Mac, you can find him here: http://plantsciences.montana.edu/directory/faculty/1582268/macdonald-burgess

Resources

CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/820

"Diversifying Cover Crop Mixtures" CSA News article: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2017.62.0518

Penn State: http://agsci.psu.edu/organic/research-and-extension/cover-crop-cocktails

Practical Farmers of Iowa: https://www.practicalfarmers.org/

NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/

Midwest Cover Crop Council: http://mccc.msu.edu/covercroptool/covercroptool.php

Managing Cover Crops Profitably: https://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Managing-Cover-Crops-Profitably-3rd-Edition

Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.