Project Number: 6408-12130-012-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Jul 02, 2002
End Date: Feb 28, 2006

Objective:
Determine and evaluate effect of soil properties, profile, surface conditions on soil, sediment and water movement on upland areas. Identify and develop environmentally friendly, economically profitable and soil erosion control effective land and cropping management systems and practices for watershed scale adoption and TMDL reductions. Develop, refine, validate, test and evaluate soil erosion control and prediction models and quantify prediction uncertainties for watershed scale applications (CEAP). Develop reliable acoustic and seismic technologies for the nondestructive measurement of both soil variables that affect water transmission and availability in food and fiber production systems. For the Yazoo River Basin CEAP sub-Watersheds: collect and organize hydrologic, physical, and chemical data sets and document, manipulate, and compile these data sets for assessment of conservation practices. Measure and quantify conservation practice effects on water quality, water quantity, and soil at the field, farm, and watershed scale.

Approach:
Laboratory and field studies will be conducted. Process oriented research primarily consists of laboratory studies with rainfall simulation and flume equipment emphasizing detachment and transport processes by sediment laden overland flow on smooth and rough surfaces simulating field conditions. Changes in soil matrix properties, soil cohesion, and cracking/swelling, deformation will be studied by seismic/acoustic and laser measurement and the development of acoustic and seismic techniques that can be used to characterize non-destructively the determination of important physical properties of agricultural soils, such as detecting hardpans and soil water content, and to determine how the different soil properties affect the transmission, absorption, and scattering of acoustic waves, and assess the feasibility and reliability of using acoustic and seismic technologies for the characterization of agricultural land and natural resource conservation. Control oriented work will consist primarily of field studies of agronomic and structural practices or combinations thereof, such as cover crops, grassed waterways, buffer strips, stiff grass hedges, sediment traps, subsurface drainage, and reduced or no-till field size or small watershed areas. Prediction oriented research will primarily consist of model development, refinement, and maintenance (RUSLE, AGNPS) and their application to complex field scenarios, and the evaluation of the effect of conservation practices in CEAP watersheds. Much of the research is designed to test and evaluate the conversion of CRP land of DEC areas into crop land and reduce TMDLs in offsite streams and lakes. CEAP research will consist of runoff sampling for sediment and chemical constituents to assess the effect of drop pipe structures as a conservation practice in CEAP sub-Watersheds.