provide multi-year results on the feasibility and cost effectiveness of converting from intensive tillage systems to environmentally enhancing direct seeding crop management systems. This information will contribute to establishing sustainable agroecosystems in the Pacific Northwest.

finalize the development of methods using flocculants to reduce the transport of weed seeds, microbes, and pathogens in water. This technology will lessen the risks of environmental contamination and ecosystem impacts from chemicals. This information will be shared with NRCS, canal companies, farmers, consultants, and other water users and providers.

develop cropping systems, rotations and residue management practices to enhance soil quality, while reducing fertilizer and agrochemical inputs.

deliver site-specific best management practices to producers of grass seed to protect water quality.

Make available the results of a long-term (more than 60 years) assessment of the impact of grazing on sagebrush rangeland.

develop methods to treat seeds of native grasses to promote their germination and seedling vigor to help restore native species on rangelands.

make technology available for establishing Wyoming Big Sagebrush to restore rangeland disturbed by mining.

make methods available to State regulatory agencies for rehabilitating mined land with excess salinity and sodicity in the Northern Great Plains.

assess the impact of human settlements on grazing ecosystems in the Northern Great Plains using repeated photography and images from the early, middle, and late 1900s.

provide methods to monitor, access, and restore the health and productivity of desert range.

recommend ways to defoliate native grasses to establish and manage them in pastures for persistence in the Southeast.

assess the value of native range as a means of carbon sequestration in the Northern Great Plains.

develop site-specific management practices that result in more effective use of nutrients and agrochemicals.

determine the effectiveness of site specific tillage practices to reduce snowmelt runoff and surface water contamination.

evaluate multiyear results concerning potential pathogen effects on pasture lands for development of mitigation strategies.

begin development of a decision support system to avoid salinity induced decreases in rice yields by modeling ion uptake with growth and environmental factors.

$1,400,000 to research particulate matter and precursors.

$300,000 to develop new knowledge on emission and control of odors.

$300,000 to protect agricultural crops from the effects of tropospheric ozone.

develop scientifically defensible guidelines and decision-making tools to assist the national dairy, pork, and poultry producer groups; farmers; NRCS; and EPA in developing nutrient management plans for phosphorus and animal manure application. Tools will be provided to establish agronomically and environmentally sound threshold soil phosphorus (P) levels, determine P-based manure application rates, and select effective remedial strategies to minimize P loss to surface waters. This will assist States and national regulatory agencies in meeting their mandates to revise the nutrient management planning process of animal feeding operations, and provide criteria for managing nutrients in water bodies as requested in the Clean Water Action Plan.

complete an evaluation and assessment of different cropping practices and farming systems from the MSEA program that will provide a comprehensive picture of the fate and transport of herbicides, nitrate, and sediment within Midwestern agricultural watersheds. The Clean Water Action Plan and other conservation programs encourage States to develop Federal-State partnerships to assess the potential for using tax incentives to protect water quality, provide increased wildlife habitat, and encourage conservation of critical private lands.

demonstrate the effectiveness of natural and constructed biofilters, riparian areas, wetlands, and buffer strips for trapping sediment and other contaminants before they reach surface waters. The Clean Water Action Plan calls for farmers to create two million miles of buffers adjacent to waterways by 2002, construct 100,000 acres of wetlands by 2005, and restore 25,000 miles of stream corridors by 2005.

demonstrate how the integration of remotely sensed imagery with ground-based data can be used to obtain spatially distributed information on vegetation and water use in rangeland watersheds. These monitoring strategies and interpretive methodologies will provide ranchers and public land managers with new approaches for improving the management of rangelands.

develop and transfer a model to predict the water quality functions of riparian ecosystems of various sizes, vegetation, soils and management.

examine soil moisture data collected from a satellite launched in the year 2000, which will be used to develop hydrologic process models for better water management.

evaluate prototype sensors and algorithms for remotely discriminating crop residues on soils. This technology will be useful for minimizing chemical inputs and potential water contamination, while increasing crop production and profitability.

determine the influences of irrigation methods on water transport and salinity changes within the soil profile and interactions on soybean growth and yield.

compare amounts of organic carbon in plots of soil maintained for decades with different tillage and crop production systems in order to define more accurately the extent that conservation practices have removed greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

conductmore detailed studies of agriculture•s role in greenhouse gas emissions and make more accurate assessments of how changes in soil management can reduce atmospheric CO₂ levels.

identify existing gaps in knowledge and technology for predicting the effects of global change on agriculture production.

begin to develop the tools necessary to adapt agriculture to a changing climate.

begin to develop the tools necessary to expand and improve plant biomass production for use as energy so that it will become a viable alternative to fossil fuel and coal produced energy.

$4,700,000 to develop new information on the carbon cycle research initiative.

$2,000,000 to research climate change impacts on food availability.

$400,000 to research the impacts of atmospheric and climate change on Alaskan ago-ecosystems.

$800,000 to conduct U.S. global change research program national assessment activities.

determine how rising CO₂ levels in the atmosphere will alter the yield and water requirements of sorghum, a crop of major importance domestically and internationally in cooperation with university scientists and the Department of Energy.

conduct research that provides a better understanding of complicated interactions between rising atmospheric CO₂, rising temperatures and changing amounts of rainfall on crop production, competition with crops, and the availability of water for crop and forage production.

develop regional data bases and models for analysis and prediction of carbon storage in soils and aboveground plant material with cooperating agencies.

develop the necessary tools for analysis of the agricultural water cycle from the meter to basin scale.

assess the value of native range as a means of carbon sequestration in the Northern Great Plains.

$4,000,000 to develop new technology for predicting and adapting to global change impacts.

$900,000 to manage and restore riparian zones and coastal habitats.

$3,850,000 to prevent and control eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and hypoxia.

$600,000 to implement the CENR research and monitoring framework.

test a distributed hillslope sediment yield model coupled with NRCS range site descriptions to assess rangeland health. The simulation model will provide a repeatable means to quantify the soil/site stability component of the rangeland health assessment methodology.

release new varieties of forage grasses better adapted to the environmental conditions of the Great Plains and the Intermountain West, which are more productive and more persistent on grazed rangelands and pastures.

propose prototype procedures and methods for assessing the ecological status or 'health' of rangelands in cooperation with NRCS and EPA.

genetically characterize (sequence or clone) at least one of the several genes for asexual seed reproduction of eastern gama grass, a native forage plant. Detailed knowledge of this and related genes will help researchers produce hybrid crops with genetic characteristics that are stable over generations, which may tangibly decrease hybrid production costs.

expand research on grazing management, especially as related to development of approaches to grazinglands utilization which are more environmentally compatible, and will provide land managers with tools for enhancing the ecological condition of grazing lands. Research will also be initiated on the foraging behavior of livestock to provide guidance for testing methods of improving forage utilization by improving the distribution of livestock across extensive areas of rangeland. New research will be directed at integrating multiple sources of forages (from croplands, annual and perennial pastures, and rangelands) to provide green forage over a longer portion of the year, thereby reducing producers• need to purchase expensive feeds from off farm sources.

indicate methods for the establishment of livestock, forages, and trees in agroforestry systems.

test the relationship of species diversity on primary production and nutrient cycling in grazing ecosystems in the Northeast so they can be managed in a sustainable manner.

develop protocols utilizing goats to renovate and protect pastures in Appalachia, while providing income sources for limited resource producers.

develop crop rotations that will serve as a viable alternative to wheat fallow in the Great Plains.

complete evaluation of the effects of 25 years of continuous corn cropping in conventional and ridge tillage production. The impact of spatial variability, and water and nitrogen use efficiency on yield will be reported.

$550,000 to conduct integrated ecosystems risk assessments.

develop new methods to mass produce beneficial insects such as parasites and predators of insect and weed pests. develop new artificial diets, automate processing and harvesting equipment, and improve methods of distributing and releasing mass produced beneficial biological control agents.

identify new sampling and control procedures for the Asian longhorned beetle, a newly introduced pest that is damaging many species of hardwood trees in New York City and Chicago. This may include the identification of chemical attractants that are produced by either the beetle or by its preferred host plants.

develop new biological control agents for several major target weed species including kudzu, tropical soda apple and saltcedar. Methods are currently being developed to mass produce parasitized caterpillars that can be released on kudzu. ARS scientists believe that these beneficial agents will not only eat the kudzu, but the resulting parasites are expected to attack and kill crop damaging caterpillars in nearby agricultural fields.

develop new biochemical methods to identify the feeding preferences of several beneficial insects under natural field conditions. Using ELISA and biochemical markers, and/or rare elements the feeding patterns and impact of natural occurring beneficial insects will be assessed and the information used to help cotton and grain farmers avoid making unnecessary pesticide applications to their crops.

collect parasitic insects from native apple orchards in Kazakstan and China where apples and apple pests originate, then introduce them into U.S. areas to control exotic pests such as the codling moth and apple leafrollers.

develop new remote sensing technology to identify pest attacks on important crop production and natural areas where exotic insects and diseases threaten to cause economic and/or environmental losses. Aerial photography surveys linked with geographic information systems to organize and display complex pest and weather data will assist scientists, extension agents, and farmers in making pest control decisions.

continue to provide critical identifications of unknown pest species, provide taxonomic revisions of critical groups of insects, identify new biological control agents, and produce updated keys to agriculturally important insect groups.

continue to collect and ship many new exotic biological control agents to ARS quarantine laboratories in Albany, California; Stoneville, Mississippi; Newark, Delaware; and Temple, Texas. The agents will be tested for their host specificity and appropriateness for release into the U.S. environment to control introduced pest insects and weeds.

release and evaluate new biological agents to control insect pests such as the silverleaf whitefly and the pink hibiscus mealybug. Both of these pests attack a large number of crop plants and cause extensive economic losses in areas where infestations occur. Scientists will attempt to control similar pests in the Caribbean Basin before they can invade the Continental U.S.

complete the shift of internal resources of the weed science program so that two-thirds of the resources are directed to biologically-based integrated weed management in line with the USDA Strategic Plan for 'Invasive and Noxious Weeds' and the ARS Strategy on 'Noxious and Invasive Weeds.'

begin to change how biological weed control programs are planned and conducted in ARS. Scientists will prepare a long-term management plan for each targeted weed. This plan will concentrate on measuring the long-term impact of released biological control agents on the target weed and on closely related nontarget plants, incorporate cultural control/revegetation as an integral part of the biologically-based weed management program, and emphasize developing partnerships.

continue to provide critical identifications of presently unknown pest species, provide urgently needed taxonomic revisions of critical groups of insects, identify new natural control agents, and produce updated keys to agriculturally important insect groups.

use classical biocontrol approaches to suppress invasive insect and weed pests such as the Asian longhorn beetle, gypsy moth, fire ant, cereal aphid, leafy spurge, or saltcedar. Permanent ecosystems are targets.

continue to collect and ship many new exotic biological control agents to ARS quarantine laboratories. The geographic base for collections of natural enemies will be overseas laboratories in Montpellier, France; Thessaloniki, Greece; Beijing, China; Hurlingham, Argentina; and Brisbane, Australia. Control agents will be tested in overseas laboratories or quarantine facilities for their host specificity and appropriateness for release into the U.S. for control of introduced or native pests of insects and weeds and if suitable, they will be released and evaluated.

use augmentative biocontrol approaches to suppress native or invasive insect and weed pests, such as tarnished plant bug, boll weevil, or kudzu. Greenhouse and high value crops are targeted beneficiaries.

develop new microbial agents for insect biocontrol, including native and genetically engineered strains. This includes determining the factors responsible for pathogen persistence, the use of protectants to lengthen activity, and new methods to deliver the agents.

develop new methods to mass produce and deliver beneficial insects such as parasites, predators, and pathogens of insect and weed pests, which includes formulation of artificial diets and fermentation (or cell culture) systems for mass production, invention of automated processing, and harvesting equipment, and improving release systems for distribution.

develop new detection tools for assisting APHIS in interdicting invasive species.

develop remote sensing systems for monitoring insect distribution, density, and damage, along with development of economic thresholds, and relate the information to biocontrol prospects. Increased knowledge of the biology, and behavior of pests and their natural enemies will be part of this effort. Climate matching models will be used as decision aids to guide biocontrol success.

determine movement of insects related to the presence and persistence (microbes) or behavior (parasites and predators) of natural enemies. The latter includes determining the role of refugia in conservation of natural enemies or protecting nontargets, particularly along the borders of transgenic crops.

develop new means for determining host preferences and impacts of natural enemies, such as predatory spiders, lacewings, and beetles, using techniques such as ELISA and molecular markers.

determine how the signaling strategies of plants interface with the feeding behavior of pests and the foraging behavior of natural enemies of those pests.

develop methods for transferring genes into insect cells in vitro and in vivo. These methods will be used to identify vulnerabilities in pest insect physiology, improve control efforts such as the sterile male technique, and improve natural enemies as biocontrol agents.

continue implementation of changes in how biological weed control programs are planned and conducted in ARS. Scientists will prepare a long-term management plan for each target weed. This plan will concentrate on measuring the long-term impact of released biological control agents on the target weed and on closely related nontarget plants, incorporate cultural control/revegetation as an integral part of the biologically-based weed management program, and emphasize developing partnerships.

develop environmentally-benign, biologically- and ecologically-based, highly integrated areawide control strategies for fire ants (e.g., phorid flies and microsporidia) and continue to transfer the technology and information to regulatory agencies, such as APHIS-PPQ and State agencies through the Southern Legislative Council on how to use the strategies and monitor biologically-based management of fire ant populations. This technology transfer will reduce the use of insecticides.

continue to develop and field test biologically-based management methods to control biting and filth breeding insects, e.g., mosquitoes, using bacteria, viruses, and microsporidia biocontrol agents as replacements for conventional chemical control methods.

discover and begin development of attractants for trapping and monitoring biting and filth-breeding arthropod pests, and repellents for personal protection from them.

complete the technology transfer of diagnostic tests for tick-vectored equine babesiosis. This will facilitate the international movement of horses and make equine events in the United States less restrictive.

continue development and technology transfer of new and improved vaccines and immunomodulators for protection of animals against arthropod-borne pathogens such as the protection of calves from cryptosporidiosis. The results will reduce the impact of disease on animal populations.

continue to screen, breed, and select honeybee stocks that are resistant to Varroa and/or tracheal mite parasites. The result will aid crop production and the beekeeping industry by reducing the cost and difficulties in maintaining honeybee stocks.

continue developing precision targeting techniques to reduce pesticide use for the control of Lyme disease ticks on an areawide basis in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and Rhode Island.

continue development of precision targeting for control of the cattle fever tick using medicated corn technology in the quarantine area along the United States and Mexican border.

continue to provide competitive genetic strains of screwworm to supply the eradication program in Central America.

continue areawide integrated pest management strategies for the control of the Formosan subterranean termite in Louisiana, Texas, Hawaii, and other infested States.

continue field testing and demonstration of Pharaoh•s ant and cockroach control on DoD facilities using spatial mapping to facilitate precision targeting and reduction of pesticide use.

field test the performance of decision support systems for water quality protection with NRCS. The field tests will assess how decision support systems, which include an embedded simulation model and a multi-objective decision-making component, can improve NRCS conservation planning and help farmers select improved farm management systems.

release the Kineros2 rainfall-runoff-erosion model on an Internet accessible website. This model will provide improved estimates of runoff flood peaks and soil erosion rates for designing efficient flood control structures and evaluating erosion control strategies.

field test decision support tools for the assessment of soil quality in cooperation with NRCS. The tools will range from brochures to computer programs. They are intended for use by farmers and other land managers to enable them to select management systems to enhance soil and environmental quality.

assist NRCS in final testing, modification, and preparation of WEPS1 and RUSLE2 under MOSES so that field offices may apply the models in FY 2002.

formally deliver MOSES, with RUSLE2 and WEPS1 incorporated to NRCS.

demonstrate that specially designed municipal biosolid composts can be used to remediate metal contaminated sites at a fraction of the cost of soil removal and replacement techniques.

conduct research to link the manure management model with the beef production system model for use in raising beef cattle.

develop new technologies for managing livestock waste and reducing odor production and emissions.

evaluate near-infrared spectroscopy as a technique for quick analysis of nutrients in manure.

develop strategies to reduce emission of volatile organic compounds including ammonia from manure.

evaluate urease inhibitors, antimicrobial agents, and odor-masking agents in combination for controlling ammonia and odor emissions.

develop treatment technologies to reduce ammonia emissions from animal facilities and manure storage areas.

develop improved tools to determine nutrient concentrations in manure and predict nutrient release from manure.

develop methods or techniques to reduce or eliminate pathogens in manure.

develop methods to measure emission rates of gases from animal production and manure storage facilities.

investigate composting technologies that will conserve more nutrients (e.g., nitrogen) and reduce odors and destroy pathogens.

$900,000 to improve livestock manure management systems to protect environmental quality.

develop bioprocess and metabolic engineering technologies that expand biofuel feedstocks and add value to agricultural wastes.

develop technology to remove and concentrate nutrients from liquid animal waste and waste water. This process will protect environmental quality and create a source of concentrated, high-value, low-volume fertilizer.

continue to develop novel bacteria that efficiently ferment a mixture of sugars that are genetically stable, selectively produce ethanol, have reasonable ethanol productivity, high ethanol tolerance, and tolerate inhibitors found in biomass-derived hydrolysates.

expand the microbial diversity of available microorganisms by metabolically engineering other organisms for selective fuel and chemical production.

identify the bacteria present in swine manure and waste holding facilities (primarily pits) to establish the primary bacterial populations present in the swine intestinal tract and waste holding facilities. The bacteria can then be isolated and studied for production of known odorous compounds. This information will be employed to develop diagnostic methods aimed at determining the effectiveness of abatement strategies to control the microbiological agents responsible for odor.

convert agricultural byproducts, such as nut shells, soybean hulls, and sugarcane bagasse into high value absorbents of metals and organics to clean up wastewater from industrial processes.

evaluate the use of manure fiber in composite materials.

advance recently developed laboratory procedures to the pilot plant stage with interested industrial partners to demonstrate the production of alternative fuels (bio-diesel) from soap stocks, an underutilized byproduct of edible oil processing. This innovative technology has the potential to not only reduce the cost of biodiesel but also to abate a serious pollution problem in edible oil refining.

establish methods for setting quality standards and enhancing the properties of biodiesel fuels in collaboration with farm cooperatives, industry trades groups, government and university partners.

conduct research with an industrial partner, through a CRADA, to complete research necessary for commercialization of a lipid-based nutraceutical with beneficial pharmacological activity.

transfer technology for a new downstream ethanol recovery unit operation, potentially saving three cents per gallon.

$3,000,000 to develop new technologies for improving and expanding biomass for energy.