Life Sciences Commons^™

Temporal Changes In The Nutrient Content Of Cattle Dung In The Nebraska Sandhills Ecosystem, Amanda Shine, Martha Mamo, Gandura O. Abagandura, Walter Schacht, Jerry Volesky

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Dung excreted by cattle composes a significant portion of the nutrient inputs in a grazed ecosystem and can have wide-ranging effects on soil properties and vegetation. However, little research has been conducted on the nutrient dynamics of excreted dung in situ that has not been disturbed prior to field sampling. In this study, we analyzed 294 dung pats (1–24 days old) collected from a Nebraska Sandhills meadow to determine water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC), water-extractable nitrogen (WEN), water-extractable phosphorus (WEP), and percent dry matter (DM) changes over time. In addition, we investigated if sample handling - frozen storage – and the …

A Method For Visualizing Water Flow Through Modified Root Zones, Dallas M. Williams

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As the number of impervious surfaces in urban environments increases, the ability of modified root zones to infiltrate water is becoming more important. Current methods of tracing water flow through soil profiles include excavating large pits in situ or analyzing soil cores in the laboratory with computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. While useful, these methods may not be suitable for urban settings or practical in every laboratory. We propose a new method that is less invasive, does not require extensive technical equipment and can reliably trace water movement through the soil profile in order to calculate flow rate based …

Wayne E. Sabbe Arkansas Soil Fertility Studies 2020, Nathan A. Slaton

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Rapid technological changes in crop management and production require that the research efforts be presented in an expeditious manner. The contributions of soil fertility and fertilizers are major production factors in all Arkansas crops. The studies described within will allow producers to compare their practices with the university’s research efforts. Additionally, soil-test data and fertilizer sales are presented to allow comparisons among years, crops, and other areas within Arkansas.

Evaluation Of Nitrous Oxide Emissions From Furrow-Irrigated Rice On A Silt-Loam Soil In Arkansas, Jordan M. Slayden

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the number one rice (Oryza sativa)-producing state in the United States, Arkansas also ranks fourth as the largest user of groundwater. Recently, due to the development of drought- resistant hybrid cultivars, the furrow-irrigated rice production system has become an increasingly popular alternative to traditional flood-irrigated production with respect to conserving groundwater and maintaining yield. However, other environmental parameters, like greenhouse gas emissions, specifically nitrous oxide (N2O), have yet to be evaluated under furrow-irrigated rice. The objectives of this study were to i) evaluate the effects of site position (i.e., up-, mid-, and down-slope) and tillage treatment [i.e., conventional tillage …

Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing Data Of Sunflower Rhizosphere Microbial Community In South Africa, Olubukola Oluranti Babalola, Temitayo Tosin Alawiye, Carlos M. Rodriguez Lopez, Ayansina Segun Ayangbenro

Horticulture Faculty Publications

This dataset presents shotgun metagenomic sequencing of sunflower rhizosphere microbiome in Bloemhof, South Africa. Data were collected to decipher the structure and function in the sunflower microbial community. Illumina HiSeq platform using next generation sequencing of the DNA was carried out. The metagenome comprised 8,991,566 sequences totaling 1,607,022,279 bp size and 66% GC content. The metagenome was deposited into the NCBI database and can be accessed with the SRA accession number SRR10418054. An online metagenome server (MG RAST) using the subsystem database revealed bacteria had the highest taxonomical representation with 98.47%, eukaryote at 1.23%, and archaea at 0.20%. The most …

Wayne E. Sabbe Arkansas Soil Fertility Studies 2019, Nathan A. Slaton

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Rapid technological changes in crop management and production require that the research efforts be presented in an expeditious manner. The contributions of soil fertility and fertilizers are major production factors in all Arkansas crops. The studies described within will allow producers to compare their practices with the university’s research efforts. Additionally, soil-test data and fertilizer sales are presented to allow comparisons among years, crops, and other areas within Arkansas.

Statistical And Machine Learning Methods Evaluated For Incorporating Soil And Weather Into Corn Nitrogen Recommendations, Curtis J. Ransom, Newell R. Kitchen, James J. Camberato, Paul R. Carter, Richard B. Ferguson, Fabian G. Fernandez, David W. Franzen, Carrie A. M. Laboski, D. Brenton Myers, Emerson D. Nafziger, John E. Sawyer, John F. Shanahan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer recommendation tools could be improved for estimating corn (Zea mays L.) N needs by incorporating site-specific soil and weather information. However, an evaluation of analytical methods is needed to determine the success of incorporating this information. The objectives of this research were to evaluate statistical and machine learning (ML) algorithms for utilizing soil and weather information for improving corn N recommendation tools. Eight algorithms [stepwise, ridge regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso), elastic net regression, principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares regression (PLSR), decision tree, and random forest] were evaluated using a dataset …

Rethinking Invasion Impacts Across Multiple Field Sites Using European Swallowwort (Vincetoxicum Rossicum) As A Model Invader, Grant L. Thompson, Terrence H. Bell, Jenny Kao-Kniffin

Grant Thompson

Landscape Foundations: A Practical & Technical Guide To Landscape Maintenance, Marco Crosland

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many homeowners struggle to maintain healthy landscapes. Often, they simply don’t understand basic principles that, if followed, would make a significant difference in the health and appearance of their landscape. The hope of Landscape Foundations is to help homeowners maintain healthy and excellent landscapes by teaching these “correct principles”.

What makes Landscape Foundations different than other landscape guides is that it brings in current research and explains it in a simple way. This guidebook provides pictures and additional resources to explain landscape maintenance principles. It teaches both the practical and technical sides.

Landscape Foundations is written for both beginners and …

Tetracycline And Sulfonamide Antibiotic Resistance Genes In Soils From Nebraska Organic Farming Operations, Marylynn Cadena, Lisa M. Durso, Daniel N. Miller, Heidi M. Waldrip, B. L. Castleberry, Rhae A. Drijber, Charles S. Wortmann

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

There is widespread agreement that agricultural antibiotic resistance should be reduced, however, it is unclear from the available literature what an appropriate target for reduction would be. Organic farms provide a unique opportunity to disentangle questions of agricultural antibiotic drug use from questions of antibiotic resistance in the soil. In this study, soil was collected from 12 certified organic farms in Nebraska, evaluated for the presence of tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes (n = 15 targets), and correlated to soil physical, chemical, and biological parameters. Tetracycline and sulfonamide antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were found in soils from all 12 …

Isolation And Analysis Of Microbial Communities In Soil, Rhizosphere, And Roots In Perennial Grass Experiments, Morgan R. Mcpherson, Peng Wang, Robert B. Mitchell, Daniel P. Schachtman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Plant and soil microbiome studies are becoming increasingly important for understanding the roles microorganisms play in agricultural productivity. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide detail on how to rapidly sample soil, rhizosphere, and endosphere of replicated field trials and analyze changes that may occur in the microbial communities due to sample type, treatment, and plant genotype. The experiment used to demonstrate these methods consists of replicated field plots containing two, pure, warm-season grasses (Panicum virgatum and Andropogon gerardii) and a low-diversity grass mixture (A. gerardii, Sorghastrum nutans, and Bouteloua curtipendula). Briefly, plants …

Maize Genomes To Fields: 2014 And 2015 Field Season Genotype, Phenotype, Environment, And Inbred Ear Image Datasets, Naser Alkhalifah, Darwin A. Campbell, Celeste M. Falcon, Jack M. Gardiner, Nathan D. Miller, Maria Cinta Romay, Ramona Walls, Renee Walton, Cheng-Ting Yeh, Martin Bohn, Jessica Bubert, Edward S. Buckler, Ignacio Ciampitti, Sherry Flint-Garcia, Michael A. Gore, Christopher Graham, Candice Hirsch, James B. Holland, David Hooker, Shawn Kaeppler, Joseph Knoll, Nick Lauter, Elizabeth C. Lee, Aaron Lorenz, Jonathan P. Lynch, Stephen P. Moose, Seth C. Murray, Rebecca Nelson, Torbert Rocheford, Oscar Rodriguez, James C. Schnable, Brian Scully, Margaret Smith, Nathan Springer, Peter Thomison, Mitchell Tuinstra, Randall J. Wisser, Wenwei Xu, David Ertl, Patrick S. Schnable, Natalia De Leon, Edgar P. Spalding, Jode Edwards, Carolyn J. Lawrence-Dill

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Crop improvement relies on analysis of phenotypic, genotypic, and environmental data. Given large, well-integrated, multi-year datasets, diverse queries can be made: Which lines perform best in hot, dry environments? Which alleles of specific genes are required for optimal performance in each environment? Such datasets also can be leveraged to predict cultivar performance, even in uncharacterized environments. The maize Genomes to Fields (G2F) Initiative is a multi-institutional organization of scientists working to generate and analyze such datasets from existing, publicly available inbred lines and hybrids. G2F’s genotype by environment project has released 2014 and 2015 datasets to the public, with …

Assessing Explanatory Factors For Variation In On-Farm Irrigation In Us Maize-Soybean Systems, Katherine E.B. Gibson, Haishun S. Yang, Trenton E. Franz, Dean E. Eisenhauer, John B. Gates, Paolo Nasta, Bhupinder S. Farmaha, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Irrigation exhibits large variation across producer fields, even within same region and year. A knowledge gap exists relative to factors that explain this variation, in part due to lack of availability of high-quality irrigation data from multiple field-years. This study assessed sources of variation in irrigation using a large database collected during 9 years (2005–2013) from ca. 1400 maize and soybean producer fields in Nebraska, central USA (total of 12,750 field-year observations). The study area is representative of ca. 4.5 million ha of irrigated land sown with maize and soybean. Influence of biophysical (weather, soil, and crop type) and behavioral …

Soil Analysis Information Sheet, Utah State University

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Phosphorous And Potassium Fertility Management For Maximizing Tart Cherry Fruit Quality And Productivity On Alkaline Soils, Sean D. Rowley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Suitable orchard land in regions of the Intermountain West is becoming more limited due to urban sprawl. With the loss of suitable farmland, increasing production costs, and the lack of sound fertility information for these regions, fruit growers face challenges to produce high quality fruit for market demand. Current standard management practices are not sufficient to optimize yield and fruit quality in the marginal farm land that is currently be used for fruit production. Fertility management of orchard trees is vital to tree health, yield, and fruit quality.

Three different approaches were used to investigate the effects of Phosphorus (P) …

Topsoil Quality Guidelines For Landscaping, Rich Koenig, Von Isaman

Gardening

No abstract provided.

Solutions To Soil Problems: V. Low Organic Matter, Kevin Heaton, Rich Koenig

All Current Publications

Utah soils are inherently low in organic matter due to the desert climate and historically low plant growth rates. In Utah, soil organic matter levels are typically 0.25 to 1%, while regions with high rainfall such as the Midwest and Eastern United States have soils with as much as 7 to 10% organic matter.

Solutions To Soil Problems: Iv. Soil Structure, Rich Koenig, Teresa Cerny

All Current Publications

Soil structure refers to the combination of primary soil particles – sand, silt and clay – into larger units called aggregates or clods. Aggregates are commonly seen when a soil is tilled or disturbed.

Fragaria Species Grown In A Greenhouse Cropping System Chemigated By Phosfite® And Bacillus® In Subsidence Of Phytophthora Fragariae And Verticillium Dahliae, Russell L. Morgan

Earth and Soil Sciences

Strawberry yields depend directly on infestation of Phytophthora fragariae and Verticillium dahliae in correspondance to the use of Phosfite and Bacillus. The objective is to find understanding of newly administered techniques in prevention of Phytophthora fragariae and Verticillium dahliae and prohibiting the use of Methyl Bromide. Application of Phosfite and Bacillus on patented Fragariae species to identify utilization of P and ZN forms and their aid in prevention of Phytophthora and Verticillium species. In the Plots on the western bench the developmental symptoms of PRR disease were absent within all infested soil containers containing the FHS-1 crop. In the plots …

Solutions To Soil Problems: Iii. Drainage, Michael Johnson, Rich Koenig

All Current Publications

Drainage is a common problem throughout Utah. Complex patterns of soil development, transport and deposition have resulted in excessively drained soils that are coarse-textured (sandy or rocky), and poorly drained soils that are fine-textured (silt and clay-dominated). Excessively drained are more common in higher elevation and bench areas.

Understanding Your Soil Test Report, Grant E. Cardon, Jan Kotuby-Amacher, Pam Hole, Rich Koenig

Gardening

No abstract provided.

Understanding Your Soil Test Report, Grant E. Cardon, Jan Kotuby-Amacher, Pam Hole, Rich Koenig

All Current Publications

Regular soil testing helps to develop and maintain more productive soils for farming, gardening, and landscaping. The purpose of this guide is to help you understand and interpret the results from a Utah State University soil test report. Additional Utah State University Extension bulletins are available, which address solutions to specific soil problems and offer guidance on fertilizer selection and use. See “Where to obtain additional information” at the end of this guide.

Caneberry Irrigation, Brent Black, Robert Hill, Grant Cardon

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Soil: The Foundation Of The Garden, Larry A. Sagers

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Moisture Potential Affects Rate Of Leaf Appearance In Cool Season Grasses, Nina Cherone Terrell

McCabe Thesis Collection

The rate of leaf appearance and onset of growth in cool season grasses may be influenced by soil moisture potential and exposure to below freezing temperatures. Levels of moisture potential and days exposed to freezing temperatures, which will restrict leaf appearance, are not well defined. The first part of this study was to determine the effects of different moisture potentials on the leaf appearance rates in two cool season grasses. Italian ryegrass (IRG) and tall wheat grass (TWG) were grown hydroponically at 4 moisture potentials in seed pouches in an incubator under a photoperiod of 13 hours light and 11 …

Water-Wise Lanscaping: Soil Preparation And Management, Rick Heflebower, Rich Koenig

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

What Can I Do Now To Care For My Lawn?, Jerry Goodspeed

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Keeping Your Soil Healthy, Dennis Hinkamp

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Can I Recycle Garden Waste Without Composting?, Jerry Goodspeed

All Archived Publications

No abstract provided.

Fertilizer No Cure All, Dennis Hinkamp

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.