NCERA3: Soil and Landscape Assessment, Function and Interpretation

(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)

Status: Active

Project Menu

SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[06/08/2020] [12/01/2021] [10/04/2023]

Date of Annual Report: 06/08/2020

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 04/08/2020 - 04/08/2020
Period the Report Covers: 01/01/2018 - 12/31/2019

Participants

Participants Attachment:

NCERA3 - Appendix D 2020.docx

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

NCERA3 - Appendix D 2020.docx

Accomplishments

All participants in the project are active contributors to the National Cooperative Soil Survey as participants on various national and regional committees, as contributors to soil survey activities in their respective states, and as educators training the next generation of soil scientists. All of the individuals involved with this project are contributors to the Soil Explorer project and have created, or they are currently are creating, Dominant Soil Parent Material maps for their respective states. These maps are available to anyone anywhere via a web browser (SoilExplorer.net) or via apps for iOS and Android devices. Support for the parent material maps is provided by a project titled, Completion of the Isee Soils Database for the North Central Region, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($100,000, 8/28/2017 – 8/27/2020). Currently, completed parent material maps are available for IN, OH, IA, MI, WI, KY, WV, MD, and TX, and draft maps are available for ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, and MO. We anticipate completing all the parent material maps during the 2020 calendar year. In addition, a new project titled, Leveraging Soil Explorer for Soils and Ecological Training, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($52,295, 8/28/2019 – 8/31/2021), was awarded to Purdue University to expand the maps available on Soil Explorer. This project will “mine” the entire US Soil Survey database (the SSURGO database) to produce maps for the entire area covered by the US Cooperative Soil Survey, which includes the conterminous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Pacific island territories.

Publications

Impact Statements

The SoilExplorer.net website had 5.5K users and 8.6K sessions between 1/1/19 and 12/31/19 according to Google Analytics. The Soil Explorer iPad app was downloaded by 130 Apple IDs between 1/1/19 - 12/31/19 and there have been 938 total downloads since its launch on 5/30/15 through 12/31/19. A new Soil Explorer app for Android devices was published on May 14, 2019. There were ~ 500 installs by the end of 2019.

Date of Annual Report: 12/01/2021

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 10/01/2021 - 10/02/2021
Period the Report Covers: 01/01/2020 - 12/31/2020

Participants

Hopkins, David G., David.Hopkins@ndsu.edu, North Dakota - North Dakota State University

Jelinski, Nic, jeli0026@umn.edu, Minnesota - University of Minnesota

McSweeney, Kevin, mcsween@illinois.edu, Illinois - University of Illinois

Moorberg, Colby, moorberg@ksu.edu, Kansas - Kansas State University

Schulze, Darrell G., dschulze@purdue.edu, Indiana - Purdue University

Slater, Brian K., slater.39@osu.edu, Ohio - Ohio State University (Attended Remotely Via Zoom)

Turk, Judith, jturk3@unl.edu, Nebraska - University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Project Participants unable to attend
Burras, C. Lee, lburras@iastate.edu, Iowa - Iowa State University

Participants Attachment:

NCERA3 Meeting Minutes 2021 RED.pdf

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

NCERA3 Meeting Minutes 2021 RED.pdf

Accomplishments

1. All participants in the project are active contributors to the National Cooperative Soil Survey as participants on various national and regional committees, as contributors to soil survey activities in their respective states (see below metrics section for quantified impacts), and as educators training the next generation of soil scientists.   2. Despite significant challenges to education in 2020 due to COVID-19, participants generated innovative approaches to content delivery. Examples of these accomplishments include: In the fall of 2020, virtual field trips were developed for our introductory soils course so that students could study the field trip narratives online and then visit the field sites on their own. An all-day field trip for the Soils and Landscapes class was developed in a virtual format using the Soil Explorer platform (<a href="https://soilexplorer.net/">https://SoilExplorer.net</a>). (Purdue University).  Established 3 permanent soil pits at University of Illinois-Arboretum in 2020. Pits used for teaching/training: K-12, College & professional soil scientists. (University of Illinois). Co-editing a Special Issue of Natural Sciences Education with contributions documenting innovative approaches to instructions during COVID-19 (special issue published in 2021, work completed in 2020): Mahler, R.L., M. Krzic, B. Garramon Merkle, C. Moorberg, E.C. Brevik. 2021. Natural sciences education in a COVID-19 world. Nat. Sci. Educ. In Print. doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20067. (Kansas State University) Development of online sections of Basic Soil Science course, with engaging take-home laboratory kits and interactive lecture videos. (University of Minnesota).  Development of hybrid online/field course on soil and site evaluation for onsite wastewater treatment for resident and continuing education students. (Ohio State University).   3. All of the individuals involved with this project are contributors to the Soil Explorer project and have finalized, or are in the process of finalizing, Dominant Soil Parent Material maps for their respective states. These maps are available to anyone anywhere via a web browser (SoilExplorer.net) or via apps for iOS and Android devices. Support for the parent material maps was provided by a project titled, Completion of the Isee Soils Database for the North Central Region, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($100,000, 8/28/2017 – 8/27/2020). In addition, a new project titled, Leveraging Soil Explorer for Soils and Ecological Training, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($52,295, 8/28/2019 – 8/31/2021), was awarded to Purdue University to expand the maps available on Soil Explorer. This project is utilizing the entire US Soil Survey database (the SSURGO database) to produce maps for the entire area covered by the US Cooperative Soil Survey, which includes the conterminous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Pacific island territories.

Publications

Acree, A., Weindorf, D. C., Galbraith, J. M., Jelinski, N. A., & Paulette, L. (2020). Characterization of Gelolls in northern Alaska, USA. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 84(3), 818-832. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20064   Brecheisen, Z., Hamp-Adams, N., Tomasek, A., Foster, E. J., Filley, T. R., Martín Villalta Soto, M., … Schulze, D. G. (2020). Using Remote Sensing to Discover Historic Context of Human-Environmental Water Resource Dynamics. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 171, 74–92. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2020.3346.x">https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2020.3346.x</a>   Brevik, E.C., H. Dolliver, S. Edinger‐Marshall, D. Itkin, J. Johnson‐Maynard, C. Moorberg, Y. Sanchez-de Leon, and J. Steffan. 2020. Undergraduate degrees that train students for soil science careers at universities in the USA and its territories. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 84(6)1797-1807. doi: 10.1002/saj2.20140.   Jelinski, N. A., Perrone, S. V., Blair, H. K., & Fabian, M. L. (2020). Growing hearts and minds: Linking landscapes and lifescapes in a soils field course. Natural Sciences Education, 49(1), [e20018]. https://doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20018   Kidd, D., Searle, R., Grundy, M., McBratney, A., Robinson, N., O'Brien, L., Zund, P., Arrouays, D., Thomas, M., Padarian, J., Jones, E., Bennett, J., Minasny, B., Holmes, K., Malone, B., Liddicoat, C., Meier, E., Stockmann, U., Wilson, P., Wilford, J., Triantafilis, J., Payne, J., Ringrose-Voase, A., Bui, E., Slater, B., Odgers, N., Gray, J., van Gool, D., Andrews, K., Harms, B. Operationalising Digital Soil Mapping - Lessons from Australia. Geoderma Regional. 2020; 23(2020):article no e00335. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2020.e00335">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2020.e00335</a>   Kyebogola, S., L. Burras, B. Miller, O. Semalulu, R. Yost, M. Tenywa, A. Lenssen, P. Kyomuhendo, C. Smith, M. Majaliwa, L. Goettsch, C. Colfer and R. Mazur.  2020.  Comparing Uganda’s indigenous soil classification system with World Reference Base and USDA Soil Taxonomy to predict soil productivity.    Geoderma Regional e00296, 10 p.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2020.e00296   Miller, B.A. and J. Juilleret. 2020.  The colluvium and alluvium problem: Historical review and current state of definitions.  Earth-Science Rev. 209.  DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103316 .    Minai, J., Z Libohova, and D. G. Schulze. 2020. Disaggregation of the 1:100,000 Reconnaissance soil map of the Busia Area, Kenya using a soil landscape rule-based approach. Catena 195:104806. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104806">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104806</a>   Moorberg C.J. An open annotated bibliography for soil and water conservation: A case study. Nat Sci Educ. 2020;e20014. doi.org/10.1002/nse2.20014   Mtama, J.G., C.L. Burras and B.M. Msanya.  2020.  Equation chapter 1 section 1 corn suitability rating for Southern Highland Zone of Tanzania – a feasibility assessment at the TARI-Uyole, Mbeya, Tanzania.  Am. J. Agric. For.  8:64-68.  Doi:10.11648/j.ajaf.20200803.12   Ngunjiri, M. W., Z. Libohova, P. R. Owens, D. G. Schulze. 2020. Landform pattern recognition and classiﬁcation for predicting soil types of the Uasin Gishu Plateau, Kenya. Catena 188:104390. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.104390">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2019.104390</a>   Nicklay, J. A., Cadieux, K. V., Rogers, M. A., Jelinski, N. A., LaBine, K., & Small, G. E. (2020). Facilitating Spaces of Urban Agroecology: A Learning Framework for Community-University Partnerships. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4, [143]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00143   Salas, E.A., Subburayalu, S.K., Slater, B., Zhao, K., Bhattacharya, B.K., Tripathy, R., Das, A., Nigam, R., Dave, R., & Parekh, P. (2019). Mapping crop types in fragmented arable landscapes using AVIRIS-NG imagery and limited field data. International Journal of Image and Data Fusion, 11, 33 - 56.   Schaetzl, R.J. K. Nyland, C.S. Kasmerchak, V. Breeze, A. Kamoske, S.E. Thomas, M. Bomber, L. Grove, K. Komoto, and B.A. Miller.  2020.  Holocene, silty-sand loess downwind of dunes in northern Michigan, USA>. Phys. Geography 42:1-25.   DOI:10.1080/02723646.2020.1734414   Turk, J. K., and R.C. Graham. 2020. Disturbance impacts on porosity and hydraulic properties of vesicular horizons. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 84(2), 543-555. doi:10.1002/saj2.20055   Turk, J. K. and R.A. Young. 2020. Field conditions and the accuracy of visually determined Munsell soil color. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 2020; 84: 163– 169. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20023">https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20023</a>   Wade, J., Maltais-Landry, G., Lucas, D. E., Bongiorno, G., Bowles, T. M., Calderón, F. J., Culman, S. W., Daughtridge, R., Ernakovich, J. G., Fonte, S. J., Giang, D., Herman, B. L., Guan, L., Jastrow, J. D., Loh, B. H. H., Kelly, C., Mann, M. E., Matamala, R., Miernicki, E. A., Jelinski, N.A., ... Margenot, A. J. (2020). Assessing the sensitivity and repeatability of permanganate oxidizable carbon as a soil health metric: An interlab comparison across soils. Geoderma, 366, [114235]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2020.114235   Yuling Gong, Zhenqi Hu, Kevin McSweeney, "Reclaiming Subsidized Land: An Evaluation of Coal Gangue Interlayers", Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 2020, Article ID 5740659, 12 pages, 2020. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5740659">https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5740659</a>

Impact Statements

Project participants are actively involved in soil survey activities in conjunction with soil scientists from USDA-NRCS. This involvement includes research and consultation work in conjunction with soil survey activities in member states. This includes novel work on digital soil mapping techniques (Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa State, Ohio State), monitoring and benchmarking of soil carbon and soil moisture regimes (Kansas State, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Minnesota), collaborative development of Ecological Site Descriptions (Kansas State), development and refinement of novel soil survey interpretations (Iowa State), and novel tools to digitally visualize soil profiles and soil morphology from descriptive text data (Purdue).

Date of Annual Report: 10/04/2023

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/09/2023 - 07/13/2023
Period the Report Covers: 10/04/2021 - 07/14/2023

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

NCERA-3 Meeting Report 2023.docx

Accomplishments

Accomplishments <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400;">All participants in the project are active contributors to the National Cooperative Soil Survey as participants on various national and regional committees, as contributors to soil survey activities in their respective states and as educators training the next generation of soil scientists.</li> </ol>   <ol start="2"> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Despite significant challenges to education in 2020 due to COVID-19, participants generated innovative approaches to content delivery. These initiatives are continuing and being refined resulting in a growing body of instructional materials that are being shared within and beyond the North Central Region.</li> </ol>   <ol start="3"> <li style="font-weight: 400;">All of the individuals involved with this project are contributors to the Soil Explorer project and have finalized, or are in the process of finalizing, Dominant Soil Parent Material maps for their respective states. These maps are available to anyone anywhere via a web browser (SoilExplorer.net) or via apps for iOS and Android devices. Support for the parent material maps was provided by a project titled, Completion of the Isee Soils Database for the North Central Region, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. In addition, a new project titled, Leveraging Soil Explorer for Soils and Ecological Training, funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service ($52,295, 8/28/2019 – 8/31/2021), was awarded to Purdue University to expand the maps available on Soil Explorer. This project is utilizing the entire US Soil Survey database (the SSURGO database) to produce maps for the entire area covered by the US Cooperative Soil Survey, which includes the conterminous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Pacific island territories.</li> </ol> Eight data layers for Soil Explorer were updated or created new in 2022 for the conterminous US, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Island territories. These layers are Soil Orders, Natural Soil Drainage Classes, Dark-Colored Surface Horizons, Clay-Enriched Subsoils, Leached Acid Soils, Calcic Horizons, Swelling Soils, and Soil Map Units. In addition, the states of Alaska and Hawaii were newly added to Soil Explorer in 2022. Work continues on refining Soil Explorer including addition of an ‘Aquic conditions’ layer that includes an active overlay for other thematic maps, as well as improving functionality of the web site application on smart phones.     Committee members are actively involved in soil judging at the high school and collegiate level. These activities serve as valuable outreach/educational initiatives for fostering the next generation of soil scientists. The Ohio State University (Brian Slater, organizer) hosted the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest in April 2022, in central Ohio. Contest had been postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID restrictions. Teams from 21 colleges from all 7 NCSJ regions attended (more than 150 students and 30 coaches). Contest was strongly supported by soil scientists from NRCS and Ohio Department of Agriculture. Committee members contributed to following scholarly article on soil judging. Young, R.A., Turk, J. Jekinski, N.A., Anderson, A.D., Clark, K.M., Deere, A.L., Mooberg, C.J., Osterloh, K., and Pressley, D. Jumble judging: Cognitive and affective outcomes of intercollegiate collaboration at a soil judging competition (2023). Agronomy & Horticulture – Faculty Publications. 1702. <a href="https://digital/">https://digital</a>commons.unl.edu/agonomyfacpub/1702

Publications

Impact Statements

3. Project participants are actively involved in soil survey activities in conjunction with soil scientists from USDA-NRCS. This involvement includes research and consultation work in conjunction with soil survey activities in member states. This includes novel work on digital soil mapping techniques (Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa State, Ohio State), monitoring and benchmarking of soil carbon and soil moisture regimes (Kansas State, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Minnesota), collaborative development of Ecological Site Descriptions (Kansas State), development and refinement of novel soil survey interpretations (Iowa State), and novel tools to digitally visualize soil profiles and soil morphology from descriptive text data (Purdue). Urban soil mapping, East St. Louis, and Chicago (Illinois).