Digital Commons Network^™

Linking Nutrient Reduction Practices With Biomass Energy, Eric Giddens, Laura Jackson, Kamyar Enshayan

Tallgrass Prairie Publications and Reports

This report outlines options for prairie biomass harvesting, storage, processing, and conversion equipment, and it provides a payback period calculator to analyze a range of scenarios of biomass production and processing costs versus the cost of propane.

Opuntioid Cacti Management Guide: Best Practice Information For Austrocylindropuntia, Cylindropuntia And Opuntia Species In Australia, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity published reports

Key points:

• Australia does not have any native cacti.
• Opuntioid cacti impact on Australia environmentally, agriculturally and aesthetically, as well as posing a risk to animal welfare and human safety.
• Invasive cacti are drought resistant and hardy, surviving in low rainfall environments.
• All species spread vegetatively through the rooting of cladodes (stem segments), fruits or flowers. Some species also spread by seed.
• Opuntioid cacti vary significantly in their form and habit, ranging from low-growing shrubs under 50 cm to erect trees up to approximately 6 m tall.
• Australian rangelands are especially vulnerable to cacti invasion.
• The cost of control often …

Root Kerplunk, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

With the help of jumps ropes and nerf balls, students explore two ecosystem services provided by prairie roots: nutrient reduction and invasive weed control.

Muddy Waters, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

With the help of jumps ropes and nerf balls, students explore two ecosystem services provided by prairie roots: nutrient reduction and invasive weed control.

Incredible Carbon Journey, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

Students become a carbon atom and experience the movements of carbon through the environment, including its time sequestered in prairie roots.

Prairie Roadshow, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

Students turn a school hallway into a prairie roadside, while learning about the important services provided by prairie roots.

Battleship Roots, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

Pairs of students play a battleship-style game to show how roots explore the soil to obtain resources.

Root Community, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

Pairs of students play a battleship-style game to show how roots explore the soil to obtain resources.

Roots - Why So Fine?, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

Using root models made of commonly available materials, students explore how the size of roots affects their ability to exchange materials with soil.

School Of Roots, Tallgrass Prairie Center

Open Educational Resources

Students learn about ecosystem services provided by prairie roots by matching them to services provided by various components of a school.

Impact Of Push-Pull Technology On The Nutritional Status Of Farmers' Children In Western Kenya, Nicholas O. Ogot, J. O. Pittchar, C. A.O. Midega, Z. R. Khan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

This study examined the impact of push-pull technology (PPT) on the nutritional status of children aged 1-12 years. Non-push-pull (NPPT) farmers were used as a control group to establish a comparative model for this study. It determined household production, consumption, and surpluses, comparing the PPT adopters to the nonadopters; found out the incomes and food expenditures from farm products; found out the household dietary diversity scores; and finally found the nutritional status of the two household groups. A six faceted household-level metrics was employed. A sample of 216 households that registered 326 children was derived. This study was conducted in …

Executive Summary, Agroforestry: Enhancing Resiliency In U. S. Agricultural Landscapes Under Changing Conditions, Toral Patel-Weynand, Gary Bentrup, Michele M. Schoeneberger

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Agroforestry, the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal production systems, is being deployed to enhance productivity, profitability, and environmental stewardship of agricultural operations and lands across the United States. The full assessment at https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-96 and summarized here provides a science-based synthesis on the use of agroforestry for mitigation and adaptation services in the face of climatic variability and change. It provides technical input to land-use sector issues in the National Climate Assessment (NCA) and serves as a framework for including agroforestry systems in agricultural strategies to improve productivity and food security and to build resilience in …

Influence Of Olfactory And Visual Cover On Nest Site Selection And Nest Success For Grassland-Nesting Birds, Dillon T. Fogarty, Dwayne Elmore, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Scott R. Loss

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Habitat selection by animals is influenced by and mitigates the effects of predation and environmental extremes. For birds, nest site selection is crucial to offspring production because nests are exposed to extreme weather and predation pressure. Predators that forage using olfaction often dominate nest predator communities; therefore, factors that influence olfactory detection (e.g., airflow and weather variables, including turbulence and moisture) should influence nest site selection and survival. However, few studies have assessed the importance of olfactory cover for habitat selection and survival. We assessed whether ground-nesting birds select nest sites based on visual and/or olfactory cover. Additionally, we assessed …

Jasmonoyl-L-Tryptophan Disrupts Iaa Activity Through The Aux1 Auxin Permease, Paul E. Staswick, Martha Rowe, Edgar P. Spalding, Bessie L. Splitt

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Amide-linked conjugates between tryptophan (Trp) and jasmonic (JA) or indole-3- acetic (IAA) acids interfered with gravitropism and other auxin-dependent activities in Arabidopsis, but the mechanism was unclear. To identify structural features necessary for activity several additional Trp conjugates were synthesized. The phenylacetic acid (PAA) conjugate was active, while several others were not. Common features of active conjugates is that they have ring structures that are linked to Trp through an acetic acid side chain, while longer or shorter linkages are inactive or less active. A dominant mutant, called tryptophan conjugate response1-D that is insensitive to JA-Trp, but still sensitive …

High-Throughput Profiling And Analysis Of Plant Responses Over Time To Abiotic Stress, Kira M. Veley, Jeffrey C. Berry, Sarah J. Fentress, Daniel P. Schachtman, Ivan Baxter, Rebecca Bart

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a rapidly growing, high-biomass crop prized for abiotic stress tolerance. However, measuring genotype-by-environment (G x E) interactions remains a progress bottleneck. We subjected a panel of 30 genetically diverse sorghum genotypes to a spectrum of nitrogen deprivation and measured responses using high-throughput phenotyping technology followed by ionomic profiling. Responses were quantified using shape (16 measurable outputs), color (hue and intensity), and ionome (18 elements). We measured the speed at which specific genotypes respond to environmental conditions, in terms of both biomass and color changes, and identified individual genotypes that perform most favorably. With this …

Genome-Guided Phylo-Transcriptomic Methods And The Nuclear Phylogentic Tree Of The Paniceae Grasses, Jacob D. Washburn, James C. Schnable, Gavin C. Conant, Thomas P. Brutnell, Ying Shao, Yang Zhang, Martha Ludwig, Gerrit Davidse, J. Chris Pires

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The past few years have witnessed a paradigm shift in molecular systematics from phylogenetic methods (using one or a few genes) to those that can be described as phylogenomics (phylogenetic inference with entire genomes). One approach that has recently emerged is phylo-transcriptomics (transcriptome-based phylogenetic inference). As in any phylogenetics experiment, accurate orthology inference is critical to phylo-transcriptomics. To date, most analyses have inferred orthology based either on pure sequence similarity or using gene-tree approaches. The use of conserved genome synteny in orthology detection has been relatively under-employed in phylogenetics, mainly due to the cost of sequencing genomes. While current trends …

Dissecting The Genetic Basis Of Local Adaptation In Soybean, Nonoy B. Bandillo, Justin E. Anderson, Michael B. Kantar, Robert M. Stupar, James E. Specht, George L. Graef, Aaron J. Lorenz

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Soybean (Glycine max) is the most widely grown oilseed in the world and is an important source of protein for both humans and livestock. Soybean is widely adapted to both temperate and tropical regions, but a changing climate demands a better understanding of adaptation to specific environmental conditions. Here, we explore genetic variation in a collection of 3,012 georeferenced, locally adapted landraces from a broad geographical range to help elucidate the genetic basis of local adaptation. We used geographic origin, environmental data and dense genome-wide SNP data to perform an environmental association analysis and discover loci displaying steep …

Comparison Of Organic And Integrated Nutrient Management Strategies For Reducing Soil N2O Emissions, Rebecca F. Graham, Samuel E. Wortman, Cameron M. Pittelkow

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

To prevent nutrient limitations to crop growth, nitrogen is often applied in agricultural systems in the form of organic inputs (e.g., crop residues, manure, compost, etc.) or inorganic fertilizer. Inorganic nitrogen fertilizer has large environmental and economic costs, particularly for low-input smallholder farming systems. The concept of combining organic, inorganic, and biological nutrient sources through Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) is increasingly promoted as a means of improving nutrient use efficiency by matching soil nutrient availability with crop demand. While the majority of previous research on INM has focused on soil quality and yield, potential climate change impacts have rarely been …

Supplemental Material For: Multi-Site Evaluation Of Apex For Water Quality: Ii. Regional Parameterization, Nathan O. Nelson, Claire Baffaut, John A. Lory, G.M.M.M. Anomaa Senaviratne, Ammar B. Bhandari, Ranjith P. Udawatta, Daniel W. Sweeney, Matt J. Helmers, Mike W. Van Liew, Antonio P. Mallarino, Charles S. Wortmann

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Model performance was assessed using Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (NSE), coefficient of determination (r²), and percent bias (PBIAS) as defined by Moriasi et al. (2007 and 2015). Threshold values indicating acceptable model performance based on these statistics are dependent on the spatial and temporal scales of the data, water quality constituents of interest, and the modeling objectives (Moriasi et al., 2015). Although some standard values have been suggested (Moriasi et al., 2007 and 2015), considerable variability exist in the published literature. For instance Ramanarayan et al. (1997) considered r² >0.5 and NSE >0.40 as satisfactory for simulation of …

Author Correction: Genome-Guided Phylo-Transcriptomic Methods And The Nuclear Phylogenetic Tree Of The Paniceae Grasses, Jacob D. Washburn, James C. Schnable, Gavin C. Conant, Thomas P. Brutnell, Ying Shao, Yang Zhang, Martha Ludwig, Gerrit Davidse, J. Chris Pires

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The original version of this Article contained an error in the title of the paper, where the word “Phylogenetic” was incorrectly given as “Phylogentic”. This has now been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article, and in the accompanying Supplementary Information file.

Leveraging Agroecology For Solutions In Food, Energy, And Water, Marcia Delonge, Andrea D. Basche

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Global agriculture is facing growing challenges at the nexus of interconnected food, energy and water systems, including but not limited to persistent food insecurity and diet-related diseases; growing demands for energy and consequences for climate change; and declining water resources, water pollution, floods and droughts. Further, soil degradation and biodiversity loss are both triggers for and consequences of these problems. In this commentary, we argue that expanding agroecological principles, tools, and technologies and enhancing biological diversity can address these challenges and achieve better socioeconomic outcomes. Agroecology is often described as multi- or transdiscplinary, and applies ecological principles to the design …

The Impact Of Continuous Living Cover On Soil Hydrologic Properties: A Meta-Analysis, Andrea D. Basche, Marcia Delonge

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Increased rainfall variability due to climate change threatens the efficacy of critical soil ecosystem services. One strategy to negate effects of too much or not enough rainfall is to improve soil water properties. Practices that offer “continuous living cover” can enhance soil water storage and other soil hydrologic properties relative to annual crop systems, but to what extent such benefits can accrue, under different conditions, remains under-quantified. To address these uncertainties, we conducted a meta-analysis that included 27 studies representing 93 paired observations measuring two soil hydrologic properties: porosity and the water retained at field capacity. All experiments compared the …

Genotyping-By-Sequencing Derived High-Density Linkage Map And Its Application To Qtl Mapping Of Flag Leaf Traits In Bread Wheat, Waseem Hussain, P. Stephen Baenziger, Vikas Belamkar, Mary J. Guttieri, Jorge P. Venegas, Amanda Easterly, Ahmed Sallam, Jesse Poland

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Winter wheat parents ‘Harry’ (drought tolerant) and ‘Wesley’ (drought susceptible) were used to develop a recombinant inbred population with future goals of identifying genomic regions associated with drought tolerance. To precisely map genomic regions, high-density linkage maps are a prerequisite. In this study genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was used to construct the high-density linkage map. The map contained 3,641 markers distributed on 21 chromosomes and spanned 1,959 cM with an average distance of 1.8 cM between markers. The constructed linkage map revealed strong collinearity in marker order across 21 chromosomes with POPSEQ-v2.0, which was based on a high-density linkage map. The reliability …

Validation Of Qtl Mapping And Transcriptome Profiling For Identification Of Candidate Genes Associated With Nitrogen Stress Tolerance In Sorghum, Malleswari Gelli, Anji Reddy Konda, Kan Liu, Chi Zhang, Thomas E. Clemente, David R. Holding, Ismail M. Dweikat

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) detected in one mapping population may not be detected in other mapping populations at all the time. Therefore, before being used for marker assisted breeding, QTLs need to be validated in different environments and/or genetic backgrounds to rule out statistical anomalies. In this regard, we mapped the QTLs controlling various agronomic traits in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population in response to Nitrogen (N) stress and validated these with the reported QTLs in our earlier study to find the stable and consistent QTLs across populations. Also, with Illumina RNA-sequencing we checked the differential expression of …

Genetic Characterization Of The Soybean Nested Association Mapping Population, Qijian Song, Long Yan, Charles Quigley, Brandon D. Jordan, Edward Fickus, Steve Schroeder, Bao-Hua Song, Yong-Qiang Charles An, David Hyten, Randall L. Nelson, Katy Rainey, William D. Beavis, Jim Specht, Brian Diers, Perry Cregan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A set of nested association mapping (NAM) families was developed by crossing 40 diverse soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes to the common cultivar. The 41 parents were deeply sequenced for SNP discovery. Based on the polymorphism of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other selection criteria, a set of SNPs was selected to be included in the SoyNAM6K BeadChip for genotyping the parents and 5600 RILs from the 40 families. Analysis of the SNP profiles of the RILs showed a low average recombination rate. We constructed genetic linkage maps for each family and a composite linkage map based on …

Botanist And Plant Exploration On The Pacific Coast Of North America: A Bibliography, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

A Chronicle Of Economic Botany, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

Plant Domestication, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

Molecular Diversity Of Foliar Fungal Endophytes In Relation To Defense Strategies And Disease In Whitebark Pine, Lorinda Bullington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An invasive fungal pathogen, Cronartium ribicola (the causative agent of white pine blister rust) infects and kills whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) throughout the western US. Blister rust has decreased whitebark pine populations by over 90% in some areas. Whitebark pine, a keystone species, has been proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., and the loss of this conifer is predicted to have severe impacts on forest composition and function in high elevations. Hundreds of asymptomatic fungal species live inside whitebark pine tissue, and recent studies suggest that these fungi can influence the frequency and …

Drivers And Feedbacks Of The Fire-Grazing Interaction In The Northern Great Plains, Jacob E. Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The fire-grazing interaction is well studied in mesic grasslands worldwide, but research is lacking in semiarid systems. In addition, the fire-grazing interaction reduces the invasion of exotic forage species in mesic grasslands by increasing the scale of grazing selection and may be a tool to control invasive plants in other grasslands. We examined the principal drivers and feedbacks of the fire-grazing interaction on the strength of cattle grazing selection, forage quantity and quality, and vegetation structure and composition in two pastures in northeast Montana at The Nature Conservancy’s Matador Ranch. We also determined the influence of time since fire, within …