** AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** EXTREME DROUGHTS AND HEAVY RAINFALLS ARE THE PREDICTED AND ALREADY EMERGING EFFECTS OF CHANGINGCLIMATE IN THE U.S. MIDWEST. PERSISTENT OCCURRENCE OF THESE WEATHER EXTREMES IS EXPECTED TOINFLUENCE NOT ONLY PERFORMANCE OF THE MIDWEST CROPS, BUT ALSO SOIL CHARACTERISTICS. ESPECIALLYVULNERABLE ARE SOIL STRUCTURE AND ORGANIC MATTER, THE PROPERTIES LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR SOIL HEALTHAND SUSTAINABILITY. YET, RELIABLE QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENTS OF SUCH CHANGES ARE LACKING, IN PART DUE TOCHALLENGES AND EXPENSES OF FIELD PRECIPITATION SIMULATIONS. OUR GOAL IS TO EVALUATE THE INFLUENCE OFANTICIPATED RAINFALL SHIFTS AND OCCASIONAL EXTREME DROUGHTS ON SOIL HEALTH IN THREE MAJOR MIDWESTROW CROPS, I.E., CORN, SOYBEAN, AND WHEAT, GROWN IN A BUSINESS-AS-USUAL CONVENTIONALLY PLOWEDMANAGEMENT VS. LONG-TERM MAINTAINED (>30 YEARS) NO-TILL, AND COMPARED TO SIMILARLY LONG-TERMPERENNIAL HERBACEOUS EARLY SUCCESSION VEGETATION. WE WILL NOT ONLY DOCUMENT THE EFFECTS OFPRECIPITATION PATTERNS ON KEY SOIL HEALTH INDICATORS, BUT ELUCIDATE THE MECHANISMS THROUGH WHICH THEPRECIPITATION CHANGES WILL AFFECT BIOPHYSICAL INTERACTIONS ENABLING SOIL C GAINS, PROTECTION, ORLOSSES. FOR THAT WE WILL (I) WORK WITH ON-GOING RAINOUT SHELTERS ESTABLISHED AT THE LONG-TERMAGRONOMIC FIELD EXPERIMENT AT KBS LTER; AND (II) UTILIZE A COMBINATION OF STATE-OF-THE-ARTTECHNIQUES FOR MICROSCALE ANALYSES OF SOIL PHYSICAL, BIOLOGICAL, AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS,INCLUDING ΜCT, ΜXRF AND XANES SPECTROSCOPY, 13C LABELING, AND 13C LASER ABLATION. THUS, THEPROJECT WILL DIRECTLY ADDRESS THE 4.0 SOIL HEALTH PROGRAM AREA PRIORITY TO IMPROVE OURUNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICAL AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL INTERACTIONS AND PROCESSES WITHIN AND BETWEENTHE SOIL AND THE ENVIRONMENT.

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators