Project : USDA ARS

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Research Project: Managing Water Resources to Foster the Sustainable Intensification of Agroecosystems in the Northeastern U.S.

Location: Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research

2022 Annual Report

Objectives
Objective 1. Describe and quantify sources and transport processes that transfer agriculturally derived environmental contaminants to receiving waters. Objective 2. Assess the effectiveness of newly developed and existing conservation practices that reduce the risk of agricultural contaminant losses that negatively affect water quality. Subobjective 2.1. Identify, develop, and evaluate manure, fertilizer, tillage, irrigation, drainage, and nutrient management practices that improve production use efficiency and minimize off-site transfers. Subobjective 2.2. Develop new technologies and management practices that improve and protect soil health. Sub-Objective 2.3. Modernizing soil testing to optimize agricultural and environmental priorities and achieve precision management. Objective 3: Develop management strategies and practices that conserve water resources and enhance agroecosystem services of wetlands cultivated for cranberry production. Subobjective 3.1. Characterize soil carbon dynamics and temporal and spatial patterns of nutrient discharge from cranberry farms. Subobjective 3.2. Develop new technologies and management practices that enhance water use efficiency and improve water quality on cranberry farms. Objective 4 . In support of LTAR network goals, design sustainable agricultural systems that balance production, environmental, and rural prosperity objectives under changing agricultural and climatic conditions in the northeastern U.S.

Approach
Research spans the Chesapeake Bay and Buzzards Bay watersheds, relying upon core sites in the Atlantic Coastal Plain (Manokin watershed, MD; Buzzards Bay watershed, MA), Appalachian Piedmont (Conewago watershed, PA), and Appalachian Ridge and Valley (Mahantango Creek watershed, PA and Spruce Creek watershed, PA). The scope of our research encompasses entire agroecosystems and the supporting industrial complex. The water quality emphasis is primarily on controlling nutrient (N and P) loss to the environment. Increasingly, our research addresses carbon as related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. In the Upper Chesapeake Bay, we focus primarily on dairy production, the most common production system in the watershed. Similarly, our Congressionally mandated work on cranberry production (Objective 3) focuses on cranberry production enterprises and related externalities in the Buzzard Bay watershed. The private enterprise is at the center of our work because the individual producer is a key decision maker. Research activities represent targets of opportunity as identified by scientists and/or stakeholders or are in response to external funding opportunities that have been prioritized by funding agencies and that leverage internal resources and university partnerships. As a member of the LTAR network, outcomes have relevance to other agroecosystems and outcomes from research by other members of the network have relevance to our region. Linkages between our research activities and those of the other 19 LTAR research programs are too numerous to describe in detail, but collectively, outcomes from research across the network have greater potential for producing significant new, actionable knowledge for the dairy and cranberry industries than from our work alone. Subsurface flow is the dominant hydrologic pathway in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, whereas overland and shallow lateral flows are the major pathways in the upland provinces. We have landowner contacts and research collaborators at all core sites and a research infrastructure that enables measurement and chemical sampling of surface runoff, subsurface flow, and stream flow. We combine field observations with laboratory experiments that allow for greater control over indirect variables. Our basic research (Objective 1) involves observational and experimental studies, using parametric and nonparametric statistics as well as numerical models to quantify temporal and spatial dynamics or determine differences between management/land use, landscape units, and watershed components. Our applied research (Objectives 2-4) includes experimental studies, remote sensing, and modeling.

Progress Report
In general, research in support of all objectives continued despite restrictions due to the pandemic. As restrictions ease, we expect to recover from any minor disruptions caused by the pandemic. A subset (roughly three years’ worth) of archived water samples have been analyzed for water isotopes using our in-house Picarro isotope analyzer in East Wareham, Massachusetts. To expedite the analysis of the remaining ten years of archived samples, we plan to submit multi-year sets of samples to the Spatio-Temporal Isotope Analytics Lab at the University of Utah; this lab also uses a Picarro isotope analyzer for water isotope analysis. During the summer of FY22, we plan to initiate some preliminary testing of ranked storage selection function models (rSAS) with the isotope data we have on hand to learn how to properly execute these models and acquire reasonable travel time results. Quarterly synoptic sampling is ongoing in WE-38 and Little Conewago Creek. In addition, three of the five s::can sensors have been deployed in WE-38 (one in the mainstem of WE-38, one in the East Branch, and one in FD-36). The remaining two s::can sensors will be installed during the summer of FY22. The in-stream nutrient injection experiment is currently slated for the fall of FY22. Weather ensembles and the Soil Moisture Accounting model with Heat Transfer (SAC-HT) model were used to initiate probabilistic forecasting of runoff and plot-scale runoff datasets have been assembled for SurPhos modeling. A total of 44 sites have been identified for sample collection to characterize urea concentrations in the Manokin River Basin from ditches and headwaters to open water in the Chesapeake Bay. Construction of the new simplified Manure Phosphorus Extraction (MAPHEX) system was completed and tested. Plot scale field trials aimed at demonstrating the beneficial use of MAPHEX by-products compared to both raw manure and commercial fertilizer are established and under way. Initial testing of the disc stack centrifuge shows further removal of solids and P from decanter centrifuge effluent. Research on reverse osmosis suggests that both screw press and centrifuge treatment of raw manures would be required prior to reverse osmosis treatment. Initial testing of in-pit aeration shows lower concentrations of both N and P in aerated manure compared to non-aerated manure. Corn was grown in sterile sand in the greenhouse to determine whether amino acids can be directly taken up and used as a nitrogen source. Corn grown with lysine and histidine grew equally as well as with ammonium nitrate, but corn could not use alanine or arginine as a nitrogen source. Nineteen undisturbed core lysimeters were collected for use in testing whether N leaching losses are lower when lysine and histidine are applied as an N source compared to ammonium nitrate. Manure priming plots were planted and fertilizer was applied to controls. Periodic soil sampling will occur during the growing season and yield will be determined in the fall. The second manure application to split plots was deferred to 2023 due to labor limitations. On-farm sites for the periodic tillage impacts study are being identified this field season; tillage treatments will be applied in 2023. The Fertilizer Recommendation Support Tool (FRST) Project is being co-led by Peter Kleinman, former Research Leader at University Park. Dr. Kleinman left the location in June, 2021 to become Research Leader for a unit at Fort Collins, Colorado. Under his continued leadership of this multi-location project, a database was developed, and metadata requirements were established. However, the plan to establish field trials at University Park and to collect topographic and soil data prior to the growing season and root architecture data at season’s end has been put on hold. Over the course of this year, project members will decide whether this activity will continue under someone else’s leadership or to modify the plan to not pursue this activity due to lack of someone to lead the effort. Scientists stationed at the Cranberry Research Station near East Wareham, Massachusetts, identified six research sites (2 active research cranberry beds, 2 active commercial cranberry beds, a retired cranberry bed, and an ecologically restored cranberry bed) where carbon dynamics will be studied. Each site was instrumented with a micrometeorological station equipped with a data logger and a groundwater monitoring well with a down-well pressure transducer. These stations have been continuously collecting data throughout 2022. In addition, chamber-based CO2 flux measurements began in the summer of 2021 and have been carried out at all sites on an approximately monthly basis. Across sites, hundreds of flux measurements have been made. In support of the effort to measure and model N inputs to Buzzards Bay, staff gauges and pressure transducers were installed at all four rivers. Flow meters were purchased to develop rating curves. A preliminary model was developed for one of the four watersheds. A prototype variable rate irrigation (VRI) system was developed to carry out a field experiment during the 2023 growing season. Sprinkler heads, irrigation lines, pumps, and an irrigation controller have been purchased and are on hand for next year. The experimental system (including the VRI system) will be automated using an Irrigation Automation Systems XR3000 II irrigation controller connected to soil tensiometers and a micrometeorological station. Soil water potential and volumetric water content are being monitored during the 2022 growing season at two candidate study beds to help identify the best site for carrying out the field experiment in 2023. With help from NRCS, a cost scenario package for materials (food-grade aluminum sulfate), equipment (barge to apply aluminum sulfate), labor (a barge operator), and mobilization (transporting barge to and from site) needed for implementing the practice of using aluminum sulfate to control P losses in cranberry production has been developed. At our Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Common Experiment field site, field operations for crop rotations and scheduled sampling continues. University cooperators have created and populated a new database that will facilitate summary of historic data and draft of a publication comparing business-as-usual and aspirational treatments during initial years. At the lysimeter plots, alfalfa was terminated and corn was planted and side-dressed with lysine or urea to monitor potential N loss differences.

Accomplishments
1. Manuresheds: A concept for closing the nutrient cycle in animal agriculture. The nutrient cycle in modern animal agriculture in the United States is broken. Nutrients in grain grown with commercial fertilizers in the Midwest are fed to swine in the Carolinas, poultry in the mid-Atlantic, and dairy cows in the Northeast and other parts of the country where nutrients accumulate as manure in large animal production facilities. In collaboration with other ARS and university researchers, USDA-ARS scientists at University Park used ag census data to conduct analyses that link manure source areas from animal production facilities to nearby croplands where nutrients are needed for crop production. The nutrient source and need area relationships are termed manuresheds and provide opportunities for reconnecting the nutrient cycle, promoting agriculture's sustainability, protecting the environment, and alleviating current fertilizer shortages.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research: University Park, PA