Duration: 10/01/2024 to 09/30/2029

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

The Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers contribute significant amounts of freshwater flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) lost from the landscape into waterways in the river basins, loss of floodplains and wetlands, and anthropogenic changes to the landscape have contributed to hypoxia in the Gulf. The Gulf hypoxic zone, commonly known as the “dead zone,” is the second largest in the world. State efforts to reduce nutrients entering the Gulf are coordinated through the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force (HTF), a formal partnership of representatives from five federal agencies, the National Tribal Water Council, and environmental quality, agricultural, and conservation agencies from twelve of the Basin states. SERA-46 works alongside the HTF to utilize the research and extension capacities of the land grant universities (LGUs) in the 12 Mississippi River mainstem states to promote the implementation of science-based approaches to nutrient management and conservation practices. Project members work with farmers, farm advisors, watershed practitioners, and other landscape managers to increase adoption of conservation practices and apply knowledge gained through applied research. Key elements of the project include strengthening relationships among LGUs, HTF members, and other partners; communications and outreach activities such as publications and digital media; and strengthening the knowledge base for discovery of new tools and practices in support of nutrient reduction strategies.

Statement of Issues and Justification

The Gulf of Mexico covers approximately 600,000 square miles and is the world's ninth-largest body of water. Water enters the Gulf through the Yucatan Strait, circulates as the Loop Current, and exits through the Florida Strait eventually forming the Gulf Stream. Coastal wetlands in the Gulf encompass over five million acres (about half of the U.S. total) and serve as important habitat for numerous fish and wildlife species. Gulf fisheries are some of the most productive in the world. It is home to 141 federally protected species (102 are endangered) including fish, birds, turtles, alligators, coral, and plants.  

The Mississippi River accounts for nearly two-thirds of the freshwater flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi-Missouri River is the fourth longest in the world (3,710 miles or 5,970 km) draining the third largest river basin in the world (1.2 million mi² or 3.1 million km²) (Figure 1).  The Basin includes all or parts of 31 states and 2 Canadian Provinces, covering roughly 40% of the land in the 48 contiguous states. Tributaries to Lake Itasca in Minnesota are the source of the Mississippi River. About 70% of the flow discharges into the Gulf of Mexico more than 50 miles (80 km) southeast of New Orleans in Louisiana and 30% of the discharge is through the Atchafalaya River delta, to the west of New Orleans. More than 72 million people live in the Mississippi River Basin. It is the migration corridor for 60 percent of North America's bird species and supports 25 percent of its fish species.  The river provides water to more than 50 cities and 18 million people and serves as a major shipping and transportation corridor for US commerce.

FIGURE 1. Mississippi and Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB) in the USA and the general location of the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – to the southwest of New Orleans (map source: USEPA)

Annually, the United States grows more than one-third of the corn and soybeans in the World and much of this production is in the Mississippi River Basin (USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service, http://www.nass.usda.gov/). Major portions of US wheat, cotton, and rice crops are grown in the Basin, and it contains extensive livestock operations (pork, poultry, beef, dairy). More than 70% of the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) delivered to the Gulf of Mexico is associated with agricultural and other non-point activities (Alexander et al., 2008).

Human settlement and activity have dramatically changed the Basin’s landscape and hydrology. Beyond the navigational and flood protection structures throughout the river and tributary corridors, estimates suggest 10.4 million hectares of the 18.1 million hectares of wetlands in the Mississippi River Basin were drained prior to 1980, primarily to support crop production (Hey and Philippi, 1995). From 1980 to 2005, N loadings ranged from 0.8 million to 2.2 million metric tons per year. Over the same period, P loadings were between 0.08 million and 0.18 million metric tons per year (Aulenbach et al., 2007). Nitrate loads in the Mississippi River increased about threefold from the 1950s to the mid-1990s (Goolsby and Battaglin, 2001).  High nutrient loads, loss of floodplains and wetlands, population growth, anthropogenic changes to the landscape, increased combustion of fossil fuel, engineering of the river system, and point sources contribute to water quality impairments in the Basin, hypoxia in the Gulf, and a decline in the assimilative capacity and resilience of these systems.

These changes contribute to the hypoxic zone (the “dead zone”) in the Gulf of Mexico, which is the second largest in the world. Since 1985, the size of that hypoxic zone has fluctuated, exceeding 3,860 mi² (10,000 km²) in most years and in several years surpassing 7,720 mi² (20,000 km²) (Figure 2). To put this in perspective, these areas compare in size to the states of Delaware on the low end and New Jersey in large-zone years. In 2017 the hypoxic zone reached 8,776 mi²(22,720 km²), the largest on record since standardized mapping began in 1985 (Rabalais and Turner, 2023). Nutrient impacts on the Gulf of Mexico have led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to work with states to develop and implement comprehensive statewide nutrient reduction strategies, with a goal of states eventually promulgating numeric nutrient standards for rivers and lakes.

State nutrient reduction efforts are coordinated through the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force (HTF), a formal partnership of representatives from five federal agencies, the National Tribal Water Council, and environmental quality, agricultural, and conservation agencies from twelve of the Basin states. Established in 1997 to partner on local, state, and regional efforts to reduce nutrient pollution, the HTF encourages a holistic approach that considers upstream sources and downstream impacts. The HTF is assisted by a Coordinating Committee (CC), which is the day-to-day coordinating body for recommending actions to the HTF and facilitating the implementation of those actions. The CC comprises various subcommittees and working groups to ensure good communication with on-the-ground implementers across the region. SERA-46 has been a partner with the HTF CC since 2014. In this proposal, “HTF members” refers to members of both the Task Force and the Coordinating Committee.

HTF activities reflect priorities adopted through its 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan and updated 2015 “reassessment” report to establish a goal of reducing the five-year running average size of the hypoxia zone to less than 5,000 square kilometers. To achieve this goal and improve water quality in the Basin, a 45% reduction in total N and total P load, relative to the 1980 – 1996 average load may be necessary. The Action Plan identifies specific actions for stakeholders throughout the Mississippi River Basin, with the development and implementation of state nutrient reduction strategies as its key priority. The strategies are comprehensive in nature and address both point and nonpoint sources of nutrient pollution. Point sources are regulated under EPA’s NPDES program while nonpoint sources, mainly agriculture, are largely currently unregulated. Both sources must significantly reduce the loss of N and P from the landscape for the strategies to be successful. As stated in the 2015 reassessment:

Research on the Gulf ecosystem since the last reassessment (2005–2007) has led to a more comprehensive understanding of factors regulating hypoxia, but the overwhelming majority of these studies have reinforced the central tenet of the 2008 Action Plan that “reducing nutrient loadings from the various sources in the Basin addresses the most critical and controllable cause of hypoxia.” Reducing nutrient inputs into the MARB and Gulf will continue to be the Task Force’s overall approach towards reducing the size of the Gulf hypoxic zone and protecting in-basin waters. The advancement of new tools and analyses has also better refined our approaches to controlling nutrient loads.

The 2015 reassessment and related 2017 HTF Report to Congress also identified goals of reducing the size of the hypoxic zone to less than 5,000 km² by 2035 and set an interim target of a 20% reduction in nitrogen or phosphorus loading by 2025, relative to the 1980-1996 baseline average loading to the Gulf of Mexico.

FIGURE 2.  Size of the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico from 1985-2023 (source: N.N. Rabalais, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/, R.E. Turner, Louisiana State University. Funded by: NOAA, map originating from: https://www.epa.gov/ms-htf/northern-gulf-mexico-hypoxic-zone.

As demonstrated through the years of supportive relationships with HTF agencies and partners, Land Grant Universities (LGUs) are uniquely positioned to assist each state within the basin and the HTF in developing and implementing state-level nutrient reduction strategies. The LGUs conduct research ranging from basic discovery to on-the-ground applications of the science of soil conservation, nutrient movement, water quality, and human behavior. Extension specialists and educators put the science into practice by educating farmers and agribusinesses, conducting on-farm research, and understanding farm-level economics and farmer decision making. LGUs in each state have expertise in the local soils, climates, people, and solutions, and are a highly trusted source of objective research-based information helpful to all entities actively exploring solutions to nutrient pollution (e.g., Christianson et al., 2018; Feyereisen et al., 2022; Wardropper et al., 2023). In addition, through USDA’s National Institutes for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and its multi-state committee structure, faculty in LGUs regularly collaborate on multi-state research and extension education projects that address state and regional nutrient reduction needs.

Reinforcing both the importance of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia issue and connections between the HTF and LGUs, the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL, PL 117-58) provided $60 million in new funding for the issue and created a new USEPA Gulf Hypoxia Program (GHP). Building upon previous work of SERA-46 (and the partnerships that led to the initial SERA-46 project in 2014), the GHP has allocated $600,000 for a cooperative agreement (1/2024-12/2028) supporting LGUs through SERA-46. This agreement speaks to strong and growing partnerships and support for the roles of SERA-46 in addressing research, outreach, and extension challenges of nutrient reduction in the MARB and Gulf of Mexico.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

Objective 1:

Document and communicate progress towards nutrient reduction goals at state and basin scales including actions that involve climate co-benefits.

Since 2014, SERA-46 projects have established strong working relationships among LGU faculty and staff, the HTF and its Coordinating Committee (CC), and other organizations with similar interests in addressing nutrient loss reductions. These mutually beneficial interactions allow for exchange of information about priorities and approaches for measuring and communicating progress toward shared goals. By participating on HTF and CC sub-committees and ad-hoc initiatives, the SERA engages with a wide array of partners and stakeholders.

For this objective, the SERA-46 will work closely with a communications committee, initiated by HTF and including members from Sub-Basin Commissions and other partners. Through co-leadership and collaboration among partners, the SERA-46 will produce a communication strategy document outlining goals, audiences, messages, tactics, and evaluation metrics for communicating progress on nutrient loss reduction goals and showcasing successful nutrient management projects and programs from across the Basin. Throughout this five-year project, SERA will develop communications materials such as publications, digital media products, and other informational materials that serve to advance the goals of the communication strategy. SERA will also conduct outreach and engagement with media and target audiences to advance the goals of the communications strategy, resulting in increased media coverage and public awareness of progress and success stories for reducing nutrient loss in the Basin.

Milestones for Objective 1:

• By Spring 2025, utilize research expertise and Extension best practices to develop and publish Communication Strategy


• By Summer 2025 and thereafter annually, develop Extension and outreach  materials to implement strategy (schedule to be developed with communication strategy)


• By Summer 2025 and thereafter annually, implement outreach and engagement activities with target audiences following strategy (schedule to be developed with communication strategy)


• In 2029, review and refine communication strategy based on feedback and metrics.

Objective 2:

Strengthen and expand relationships that advance nutrient loss reduction and environmental quality goals and improve related communication and information sharing across the basin.

SERA-46 will build upon established working relationships among LGUs, HTF members, and other partners throughout the basin and will look to expand relationships with other relevant multistate committees (e.g. SERA-17, NCERA-217, and NC-1190, S-1089) to engage them on deliverables for Shared Priorities as appropriate, and to ensure new findings from those projects are shared with HTF and partners.

Since 2014, SERA-46 projects have hosted multiple events at which farmers, agriculture advisers, watershed practitioners, and other watershed professionals gathered to exchange information and identify needs to further farmer-led watershed efforts. These activities helped to establish a MARB Watershed Leadership Network to enhance information exchange and create synergy among members to further farmer-led watershed leadership. SERA-46 leadership has expanded this network through the Confluence of Watershed Leaders and will continue to use this and related peer exchange forums to improve farmer knowledge and increase capacity for watershed leadership among the agricultural community.

The strength of this SERA is its focus on applied research and outreach toward specific environmental management challenges: efficient management of nitrogen and phosphorus at local, state, and Mississippi Basin scales. There is a substantial body of research available to be applied in agricultural operations and in watershed management. Extension professionals continue to be a critical component for moving science-based information from universities to rural areas and serve an important role working with agriculture and community leaders to facilitate wider adoption of practices that improve nutrient use efficiency.

In pursuit of this objective, the SERA will develop and refine applied research and extension programs in the following areas:

• Engage farmers in producer-led watershed projects and on-farm research and demonstration efforts. Producers are expert problem-solvers and are one of the decision-making stakeholders in agricultural nutrient management. Extension can work with partners to facilitate farmer leadership in on-farm and watershed management in the Mississippi River Basin and associated states.


• Explore and identify social science research needs opportunities to improve conservation delivery, adoption, and effectiveness, i.e. conduct research on collaborative watershed management programs to identify best practices that can be modeled elsewhere.


• Exchange information about other model programs for working with farmers to improve conservation practices and nutrient use efficiency, such as Mississippi State University’s Mississippi Land Stewards program and Arkansas’ Discovery Farm program. There are many existing successful outreach programs that are ripe for expansion to other Mississippi River Basin states. This activity would identify model programs and work to adapt and expand them.


• Expand use of appropriate nutrient decision support tools and nutrient management principles for better decision-making. Farmers and farm advisors are faced with the challenges of changing research, technology, weather patterns, and socio-political contexts. The SERA is well positioned to increase the availability and use of decision support tools to help farmers with complex nutrient management decisions.


• Increase the ability of local watershed managers and volunteers to develop and implement effective watershed plans. University extension programs nationwide have a substantial number of high-quality watershed leadership programs. These programs train local leaders from all backgrounds in the science and art of watershed planning and management. They are perfect bridges for land-grant research in watershed management to reach users, and for users to express their needs for additional research. The SERA can foster collaboration among existing watershed leadership programs and work to increase access to these programs across participating states. Water resource management is inherently local. Support for local watershed management is critical if Mississippi River Basin and Gulf of Mexico nutrient reduction goals are to be achieved.


• Assist state agency partners to develop, implement, and support tracking systems for nutrient related management practices and water quality outcomes. State and federal agency partners have identified needs in methods and approaches for tracking agricultural and land conservation practices and related nutrient reduction outcomes used across the basin.

Milestones for Objective 2

• Annually, convene meetings of SERA-46/project team with anticipated LGU participation from all 12 HTF states


• By Fall 2025, engage HTF Sub-basin committees regularly to coordinate activities


• By Fall 2025, and annually thereafter, create new materials that support the One Good Idea program


• By Fall 2025 and annually thereafter, conduct activities and create materials that support the Confluence for Watershed Leaders

Objective 3:

Strengthen the knowledge base for discovery of new tools and practices as well as for the continual validation of recommended practices in support of nutrient reduction strategies.

LGUs have substantial experience providing credible discovery and applied science to the issue of gulf hypoxia for the Ohio/Mississippi river basin. SERA-46 is well positioned to engage LGU faculty staff with HTF members to best understand scenarios and concerns in each state and then to connect to each state’s research programs in determining potential solutions. While LGU faculty often work primarily in individual states, researchers from other institutions also benefit from and contribute to the regional research coordination through SERA-46.

While that research on basic mechanisms and principles of conservation practices will continue, essential research is also needed for continual validation of existing practices (e.g., nutrient management, edge-of-field tile drainage practices) as well as game-changing practices for the next 100 years of agriculture (e.g., drainage water recycling/tail-water recovery, or redesigning the cropping system or agroecosystem). While much of this research is led by biological, ecological, and physical scientists, SERA-46 recognizes the important contributions of economists, sociologists, and policy analysts that integrate the various scientists’ efforts with the goal of optimizing agronomic, economic, and environmental impacts. There is also a critical research gap involving the development, calibration, and applied testing of monitoring tools that could significantly inform not only the design and management of recommended practices but also the tracking and reporting of said practices for HTF efforts.  Examples in this area include items such as advanced monitoring, sensing, modeling, data analytics, and decision support systems, etc. Integration of these research components will form a strong foundation for educational programs and state/federal policy that may need to be considered to address the hypoxia issue. 

The LGU research activities will be addressed via a strategic process. Since 2014, SERA-46 and the HTF have maintained a set of shared priorities. That process has shaped this proposal and provides a strong basis for identifying emerging needs and changes in capacity to address those needs across all SERA 46 LGUs. Gap assessment along with dialogue among HTF members and partners provides direction for immediate and long-term research priorities.

Through the formal SERA meeting process along with the proposed interaction with the HTF, and the HTF subcommittees (e.g., on research and monitoring) there should be a greater understanding of tools and technologies that are being tested/refined in one state that other states may want to validate for their own use. As applied research goes through this validation process, the application of that research often is expanded to benefit more areas and circumstances.

Milestones for Objective 3:

• By Summer 2025, convene first meeting of researchers to begin developing coordinated research strategy (from SERA-46 LGUs and others)


• By Summer 2026, convene at least one meeting of researchers including state and federal agency partners


• By Winter 2027, develop and make public summaries of research priorities and opportunities for sharing resources


• By Winter 2027, establish a forum for university researchers and extension educators for sharing information and findings that inform overall nutrient reduction strategies and individual actions.


• Annually throughout the project, update and review research priorities and opportunities for sharing resources


• By Summer 2028, produce and make public a research agenda to advance nutrient reduction goals

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

Outcomes from the SERA will be assimilated into LGU extension publications, programs, and activities to be distributed through service frameworks, communicated through state and regional workshops, field days and farm tours, and demonstrated through establishment of on-farm research-demonstration sites, such as Arkansas’s and Wisconsin’s Discovery Farms and Mississippi REACH program. The SERA will consider digital formats for outreach throughout its activities as well as traditional field days and fact sheets.

Organization/Governance

The core SERA project committee will be composed of at least one research oriented and one extension oriented faculty from each of the 12 HTF Cooperative Agreement signatory LGU universities.  Additional project participants may include other faculty from those and other universities, federal and state agency personnel, and representatives from public/private stakeholder groups.  The primary SERA project governance will follow the standard model with a chair, chair-elect, and a secretary, with each serving one year terms in each role, for a total term of 3 years; chair and chair-elect function as co-chairs. The SERA may also establish ad hoc groups to develop and/or implement specific activities pursuant to the project’s objectives. 

At the HTF’s request, in addition to the above governance structure, the SERA project committee will have one liaison appointed by the HTF to communicate HTF needs and priorities. Also, each HTF member state agency will be encouraged to appoint a liaison to engage relevant state agencies with the SERA. HTF will invite at least one representative from the SERA to participate in monthly CC (Coordinating Committee) webinars and conference calls. HTF will also invite the SERA to send a representative to participate in their annual meetings and report on SERA activities.

Literature Cited

Alexander Richard B, Richard A Smith, Gregory E Schwarz, Elizabeth W Boyer, Jacqueline V Nolan, and John W Brakebill. 2008. Differences in phosphorus and nitrogen delivery to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin. 2008. Environ. Sci. Technol. 42:822–830.

Aulenbach, B.T., Buxton, H.T., Battaglin, W.A., and Coupe, R.H., 2007, Streamflow and nutrient fluxes of the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin and sub-basins for the period of record through 2005: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2007-1080.

Christianson, R. L. Christianson, C. Wong, M. Helmers, G. McIsaac, D. Mulla, M. McDonald. 2018. Beyond the nutrient strategies: Common ground to accelerate water quality improvement in the upper Midwest. Journal of Environmental Management 206:1072-1080.

Feyereisen G.W., Hay C.H., Christianson R.D., Helmers M.J. (2022) Frontier: Eating the metaphorical elephant: Meeting nitrogen reduction goals in Upper Mississippi River Basin states. Journal of the Asabe 65:621-631. DOI: 10.13031/ja.14887.

Goolsby, Donald A. and William A. Battaglin. 2001. Long-term changes in concentrations and flux of nitrogen in the Mississippi River Basin, USA. Hydrological Processes 15(7):1209–1226,

Hey, D.L., and Philippi, N.S. 1995. Flood reduction through wetland restoration: The Upper Mississippi River Basin as a case history. Restor. Ecol., 3:4–17. 

Rabalais, N.N and R.E. Turner. 2023. Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. https://gulfhypoxia.net/research/shelfwide-cruises/  (Accessed 9/20/2023)

Wardropper, C., K. Genskow, A. Lavoie, D. Franklin, E. Usher, A. Wilke, J. Arbuckle, D. Jackson- Smith, L. Prokopy, A. Rissman. 2023. Policy process and problem framing for state Nutrient Reduction Strategies in the US Upper Mississippi River Basin. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. Vol 78(1):70-81. doi:10.2489/jswc.2023.00025

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions