Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons^™

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Plant Probiotic Bacteria Bacillus And Paraburkholderia Improve Growth, Yield And Content Of Antioxidants In Strawberry Fruit, Mosaddiqur Rahman, Abdullah As Sabir, Julakha Akter Mukrta, Mohibul Alam Khan, Mohammed Mohi-Ud-Din, Giashuddin Miah, Mahfuzur Rahman, M. Tofazzal Islam

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Strawberry is an excellent source of natural antioxidants with high capacity of scavenging free radicals.

This study evaluated the effects of two plant probiotic bacteria, Bacillus amylolequefaciens BChi1 and Paraburkholderia fungorum BRRh-4 on growth, fruit yield and antioxidant contents in strawberry fruits. Root dipping of seedlings (plug plants) followed by spray applications of both probiotic bacteria in the field on foliage significantly increased fruit yield (up to 48%) over non-treated control. Enhanced fruit yield likely to be linked with higher root and shoot growth, individual and total fruit weight/plant and production of phytohormone by the probiotic bacteria applied on plants. …

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Managing Wicked Herbicide-Resistance: Lessons From The Field, Jill Schroeder, Michael Barrett, David R. Shaw, Amy B. Asmus, Harold Coble, David Ervin, Raymond A. Jussaume Jr., Michael D. K. Owen, Ian Burke, Cody F. Creech, A. Stanley Culpepper, William S. Curran, Darrin M. Dodds, Todd A. Gaines, Jeffrey L. Gunsolus, Bradley D. Hanson, Prashant Jha, Annie E. Klodd, Andrew R. Kniss, Ramon G. Leon, Sandra Mcdonald, Don W. Morishita, Brian J. Schutte, Christy L. Sprague, Phillip W. Stahlman, Larry E. Steckel, Mark J. Vangessel

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Herbicide resistance is ‘wicked’ in nature; therefore, results of the many educational efforts to encourage diversification of weed control practices in the United States have been mixed. It is clear that we do not sufficiently understand the totality of the grassroots obstacles, concerns, challenges, and specific solutions needed for varied crop production systems. Weed management issues and solutions vary with such variables as management styles, regions, cropping systems, and available or affordable technologies. Therefore, to help the weed science community better understand the needs and ideas of those directly dealing with herbicide resistance, seven half-day regional listening sessions were held …

Growth, Fitness, And Overwinter Survival Of A Shattercane (Sorghum Bicolor Ssp. Drummondii) × Grain Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor Ssp. Bicolor) F2 Population, Jared J. Schmidt, Melinda K. Yerka, Jeffrey F. Pedersen, John L. Lindquist

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Although sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench ssp. bicolor] is the fifth most important grain crop in terms of global production, no commercial hybrids carry genetically engineered (GE) traits for resistance to insect pests or herbicides due to regulatory concerns about gene flow to weedy relatives. However, non-GE herbicide resistance currently is being developed in grain sorghum and will likely transfer to related weeds. Monitoring the impact of this new nuclear technology on the evolution and invasiveness of related weeds requires a baseline understanding of the population biology of grain sorghum genes once they transfer to in situ weed …

Phenotypic Data From Inbred Parents Can Improve Genomic Prediction In Pearl Millet Hybrids, Zhikai Liang, Shashi K. Gupta, Cheng-Ting Yeh, Yang Zhang, Daniel W. Ngu, Ramesh Kumar, Hemant T. Patil, Kanulal D. Mungra, Dev Vart Yadav, Abhishek Rathore, Rakesh K. Srivastava, Rajeev Gupta, Jinliang Yang, Rajeev K. Varshney, Patrick S. Schnable, James C. Schnable

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Pearl millet is a non-model grain and fodder crop adapted to extremely hot and dry environments globally. In India, a great deal of public and private sectors’ investment has focused on developing pearl millet single cross hybrids based on the cytoplasmic-genetic male sterility (CMS) system, while in Africa most pearl millet production relies on open pollinated varieties. Pearl millet lines were phenotyped for both the inbred parents and hybrids stage. Many breeding efforts focus on phenotypic selection of inbred parents to generate improved parental lines and hybrids. This study evaluated two genotyping techniques and four genomic selection schemes in pearl …

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 …

Hunger In The Land Of Plenty: Local Responses To Food Insecurity In Iowa, Gabrielle E. Roesch-Mcnally, Jacqueline Ann Nester, Andrea D. Basche, Eric Christianson, Emily Zimmerman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Story County (estimated population 92,406 in 2013) lies in the heart of central Iowa, a state renowned for its remarkable agricultural productivity. Iowa leads all states for production of corn, soybean, and hogs. Revenues from agricultural products in Iowa total more than $30 billion annually according the 2012 Agricultural Census (USDA-NASS 2014). This productivity stems from a favorable natural and political environment. The temperate climate, productive soils, and gentle topography are ideal for our production system of commodity agriculture facilitated by federal policies, which include subsidized crop insurance and commodity payments (Horrigan, Lawrence, and Walker 2002). Despite this productivity and …

Social–Ecological Landscape Patterns Predict Woody Encroachment From Native Tree Plantings In A Temperate Grassland, Victoria M. Donovan, Jessica L. Burnett, Christine H. Bielski, Hannah E. Birge, Rebecca Bevans, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, Craig R. Allen

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Afforestation is often viewed as the purposeful planting of trees in historically non-forested grasslands, but an unintended consequence is woody encroachment, which should be considered part of the afforestation process. In North America’s temperate grassland biome, Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) is a native species used in tree plantings that aggressively invades in the absence of controlling processes. Cedar is a well-studied woody encroacher, but little is known about the degree to which cedar windbreaks, which are advocated for in agroforestry programs, are contributing to woody encroachment, what factors are associated with cedar spread from windbreaks, nor where encroachment …

Engineering Linear, Branched-Chain Triterpene Metabolism In Monocots, Chase Kempinski, Zuodong Jiang, Garrett Zinck, Shirley J. Sato, Zhengxiang Ge, Thomas E. Clemente, Joe Chappell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Triterpenes are thirty-carbon compounds derived from the universal five-carbon prenyl precursors isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP). Normally, triterpenes are synthesized via the mevalonate (MVA) pathway operating in the cytoplasm of eukaryotes where DMAPP is condensed with two IPPs to yield farnesyl diphosphate (FPP), catalyzed by FPP synthase (FPS). Squalene synthase (SQS) condenses two molecules of FPP to generate the symmetrical product squalene, the first committed precursor to sterols and most other triterpenes. In the green algae Botryococcus braunii, two FPP molecules can also be condensed in an asymmetric manner yielding the more highly branched triterpene, botryococcene. Botryococcene …

Genomic Selection In Preliminary Yield Trials In A Winter Wheat Breeding Program, Vikas Belamkar, Mary J. Guttieri, Waseem Hussain, Diego Jarquin, Ibrahim El-Basyoni, Jesse Poland, Aaron J. Lorenz, P. Stephen Baenziger

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Genomic prediction (GP) is now routinely performed in crop plants to predict unobserved phenotypes. The use of predicted phenotypes to make selections is an active area of research. Here, we evaluate GP for predicting grain yield and compare genomic and phenotypic selection by tracking lines advanced. We examined four independent nurseries of F_3:6 and F_3:7 lines trialed at 6 to 10 locations each year. Yield was analyzed using mixed models that accounted for experimental design and spatial variations. Genotype-by-sequencing provided nearly 27,000 high-quality SNPs. Average genomic predictive ability, estimated for each year by randomly masking lines as missing …

Transient Heat Stress During Early Seed Development Primes Germination And Seedling Establishment In Rice, Kevin Begcy, Jaspreet Sandhu, Harkamal Walia

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Rice yield is highly sensitive to increased temperature. Given the trend of increasing global temperatures, this sensitivity to higher temperatures poses a challenge for achieving global food security. Early seed development in rice is highly sensitive to unfavorable environmental conditions. Heat stress (HS) during this stage decreases seed size and fertility, thus reducing yield. Here, we explore the transgenerational phenotypic consequences of HS during early seed development on seed viability, germination, and establishment. To elucidate the impact of HS on the developmental events in postzygotic rice seeds, we imposed moderate (35°C) and severe (39°C) HS treatments initiated 1 day after …

Genomic-Enabled Prediction Models Using Multi-Environment Trials To Estimate The Effect Of Genotype × Environment Interaction On Prediction Accuracy In Chickpea, Manish Roorkiwal, Diego Jarquin, Muneendra K. Singh, Pooran M. Gaur, Chellapilla Bharadwaj, Abhishek Rathore, Reka Howard, Samineni Srinivasan, Ankit Jain, Vanika Garg, Sandip Kale, Annapurna Chitikineni, Shailesh Tripathi, Elizabeth Jones, Kelly R. Robbins, José Crossa, Rajeev K. Varshney

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Genomic selection (GS) by selecting lines prior to field phenotyping using genotyping data has the potential to enhance the rate of genetic gains. Genotype × environment (G × E) interaction inclusion in GS models can improve prediction accuracy hence aid in selection of lines across target environments. Phenotypic data on 320 chickpea breeding lines for eight traits for three seasons at two locations were recorded. These lines were genotyped using DArTseq (1.6 K SNPs) and Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS; 89 K SNPs). Thirteen models were fitted including main effects of environment and lines, markers, and/or naïve and informed interactions to estimate prediction …

Gene Expression Profiling Of Iron Deficiency Chlorosis Sensitive And Tolerant Soybean Indicates Key Roles For Phenylpropanoids Under Alkalinity Stress, Brian M. Waters, Keenan Amundsen, George L. Graef

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Alkaline soils comprise 30% of the earth and have low plant-available iron (Fe) concentration, and can cause iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC). IDC causes soybean yield losses of $260 million annually. However, it is not known whether molecular responses to IDC are equivalent to responses to low iron supply. IDC tolerant and sensitive soybean lines provide a contrast to identify specific factors associated with IDC.We used RNA-seq to compare gene expression under combinations of normal pH (5.7) or alkaline pH (7.7, imposed by 2.5mM bicarbonate, or pH 8.2 imposed by 5mM bicarbonate) and normal (25μM) or low (1μM) iron conditions from …

Managing Grazing Lands To Improve Soils And Promote Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation: A Global Synthesis, Marcia Delonge, Andrea D. Basche

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The potential to improve soils to help farmers and ranchers adapt to and mitigate climate change has generated significant enthusiasm. Within this discussion, grasslands have surfaced as being particularly important, due to their geographic range, their capacity to store substantial quantities of carbon relative to cultivated croplands and their potential role in mitigating droughts and floods. However, leveraging grasslands for climate change mitigation and adaptation will require a better understanding of how farmers and ranchers who rely on them for their livelihoods can improve management and related outcomes. To investigate opportunities for such improvements, we conducted a meta-analysis of field …

Plant Community Response To Disturbances In Nebraska Sandhills Upland Prairie, Josiah D. Dallmann

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

Historically, disturbances shaped prairie ecosystems both directly through events like fire and soil moving by animals, as well as indirectly through dynamic rainfall patterns and periodic flux in seed availabilities. We hypothesized that the implementation of several distinct disturbance events in Nebraska Sandhills upland prairie would have measurable effects on plant community composition. We implemented mid-spring fire, soil disturbance in the form of disking, seed addition of native forbs on disked plots, as well as early summer supplemental watering (to mimic minor rainfall events during abnormally dry periods) during 2016 and 2017. Plant community response during the first and second …

Biomass Production Of Herbaceous Energy Crops In The United States: Field Trial Results And Yield Potential Maps From The Multiyear Regional Feedstock Partnership, Dokyoung Lee, Ezra Aberle, Eric K. Anderson, William Anderson, Brian S. Baldwin, David D. Baltensperger, Michael Barrett, Jurg Blumenthal, Stacy Bonos, Joe Bouton, David I. Bransby, Charlie Brummer, Pane S. Burks, Chengci Chen, Christopher Daly, Jose Egenolf, Rodney L. Farris, John H. Fike, Roch E. Gaussoin, John R. Gill, Kenneth Gravois, Michael D. Halbleib, Anna Hale, Wayne Hanna, Keith Harmoney, Emily A. Heaton, Ron W. Heiniger, Lindsey Hoffman, Chang O. Hong, Gopal Kakani, Robert Kallenbach, Bisoondat Macoon, James C. Medley, Ali Missaoui, Robert B. Mitchell, Ken J. Moore, Jesse I. Morrison, Gary N. Odvody, Jonathan D. Richwine, Richard Ogoshi, Jimmy Ray Parrish, Lauren Quinn, Ed Richard, William L. Rooney, J. Brett Rushing, Ronnie Schnell, Matt Sousek, Scott A. Staggenborg, Thomas Tew, Goro Uehara, Donald R. Viands, Thomas Voigt, David Williams, Linda Williams, Lloyd Ted Wilson, Andrew Wycislo, Yubin Yang, Vance Owens

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Current knowledge of yield potential and best agronomic management practices for perennial bioenergy grasses is primarily derived from small-scale and short-term studies, yet these studies inform policy at the national scale. In an effort to learn more about how bioenergy grasses perform across multiple locations and years, the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE)/Sun Grant Initiative Regional Feedstock Partnership was initiated in 2008. The objectives of the Feedstock Partnership were to (1) provide a wide range of information for feedstock selection (species choice) and management practice options for a variety of regions and (2) develop national maps of potential feedstock …

A Transcriptome‑Snp‑Derived Linkage Map Of Apios Americana (Potato Bean) Provides Insights About Genome Re‑Organization And Synteny Conservation In The Phaseoloid Legumes, Jugpreet Singh, Scott R. Kalberer, Vikas Belamkar, Teshale Assefa, Matthew N. Nelson, Andrew D. Farmer, William J. Blackmon, Steven B. Cannon

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Apios (Apios americana; “apios”), a tuberous perennial legume in the Phaseoleae tribe, was widely used as a food by Native Americans. Work in the last 40 years has led to several improved breeding lines. Aspects of the pollination biology (complex floral structure and tripping mechanism) have made controlled crosses difficult, and the previous reports indicated that the plant is likely primarily an outcrosser. We used a pseudo-testcross strategy to construct a genetic map specific to the maternal parent. The map was built using single-nucleotide polymorphism markers identified by comparing the expressed sequences of individuals in the mapping population …

Enhancing Resolution Of Natural Methylome Reprogramming Behavior In Plants, Robersy Sanchez, Xiaodong Yang, Hardik Kundariya, Jose R. Barreras, Yashitola Wamboldt, Sally A. Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

We have developed a novel methylome analysis procedure, Methyl-IT, based on information thermodynamics and signal detection. Methylation analysis involves a signal detection problem, and the method was designed to discriminate methylation regulatory signal from background noise induced by thermal fluctuations. Comparison with three commonly used programs and various available datasets to furnish a comparative measure of resolution by each method is included. To confirm results, methylation analysis was integrated with RNAseq and network enrichment analyses. Methyl-IT enhances resolution of genome methylation behavior to reveal network-associated responses, offering resolution of gene pathway influences not attainable with previous methods.

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 …

Prospects For Increasing Sugarcane And Bioethanol Production On Existing Crop Area In Brazil, Fábio R. Marin, Geraldo B. Martha Jr., Kenneth Cassman, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This article assesses sugarcane yield gaps (YG) in Brazil to determine the degree to which production can be increased without land expansion. In our scenario assessments, we evaluated how much of the projected sugarcane demand to 2024 (for both sugar and bioethanol) can be satisfied through YG closure. The current national average yield is 62% of yield potential estimated for rainfed conditions (i.e., a YG of 38%). Continuing the historical rate of yield gain is not sufficient to meet the projected demand without an area expansion by 5% and 45% for lowand high-demand scenarios, respectively. Closing the exploitable YG to …

Biomass Yield Of Warm-Season Grasses Affected By Nitrogen And Harvest Management, Chamara S. Weerasekara, Newell R. Kitchen, Shibu Jose, Peter P. Motavalli, Sougata Bardhan, Robert B. Mitchell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Native perennial warm-season grasses (NPWSG) have drawn interest as bioenergy feedstocks due to their high productivity with minimal amounts of inputs under a wide range of environments. Nitrogen fertility and harvest timing are critical management practices when optimizing biomass yield of NPWSG. Our objective was to quantify the impact of N fertilizer rate and timing in combination with harvest timing and frequency on NPWSG yield. Research was conducted in 2014 and 2015 on four field-plot locations in Missouri. The experiment was a split-plot design with three replications where N rate and harvest timing were the main and sub-plot treatments, respectively. …

Genome-Wide Association Study For Identification And Validation Of Novel Snp Markers For Sr6 Stem Rust Resistance Gene In Bread Wheat, Amira M. I. Mourad, Ahmed Sallam, Vikas Belamkar, Stephen N. Wegulo, Robert Bowden, Yue Jin, Ezzat Mahdy, Bahy Bakheit, Atif A. El-Wafaa, Jesse Poland, Peter S. Baenziger

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Stem rust (caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici Erikss. & E. Henn.), is a major disease in wheat (Triticum aestivium L.). However, in recent years it occurs rarely in Nebraska due to weather and the effective selection and gene pyramiding of resistance genes. To understand the genetic basis of stem rust resistance in Nebraska winter wheat, we applied genome-wide association study (GWAS) on a set of 270 winter wheat genotypes (A-set). Genotyping was carried out using genotyping-by-sequencing and ~35,000 high-quality SNPs were identified. The tested genotypes were evaluated for their resistance to the common stem rust race in …

Mapping Rootable Depth And Root Zone Plant-Available Water Holding Capacity Of The Soil Of Sub-Saharan Africa, John G. B. Leenaars, Lieven Claessens, Gerard B. M. Heuvelink, Tom Hengl, Maria Ruiperez Gonzalez, Lenny G. J. Van Bussel, Nicolas Guilpart, Haishun Yang, Kenneth G. Cassman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In rainfed crop production, root zone plant-available water holding capacity (RZ-PAWHC) of the soil has a large influence on crop growth and the yield response to management inputs such as improved seeds and fertilisers. However, data are lacking for this parameter in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study produced the first spatially explicit, coherent and complete maps of the rootable depth and RZ-PAWHC of soil in SSA. We compiled georeferenced data from 28,000 soil profiles from SSA, which were used as input for digital soil mapping (DSM) techniques to produce soil property maps of SSA. Based on these soil properties, we …

Crop Residue Harvest Impacts Wind Erodibility And Simulated Soil Loss In The Central Great Plains, Yuxin He, Deann R. Presley, John Tatarko, Humberto Blanco-Canqui

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Crop residue removal can affect the susceptibility to soil wind erosion in climates such as those of the Central Great Plains, United States. Six on-farm trials were conducted in Kansas from 2011 to 2013 to determine the effects of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), corn (Zea mays L.), and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), residue removal at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of initial height on soil wind erosion parameters. Those parameters include soil surface random roughness (RR), and wind erodible fraction (EF; aggregates -¹ for three hours. Threshold wind velocity required to initiate …

Genetic Diversity And Population Structure Of F3:6 Nebraska Winter Wheat Genotypes Using Genotyping-By-Sequencing, Shamseldeen Eltaher, Ahmed Sallam, Vikas Belamkar, Hamdy A. Emara, Ahmed A. Nower, Khaled F. M. Salem, Jesse Poland, Peter S. Baenziger

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The availability of information on the genetic diversity and population structure in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding lines will help wheat breeders to better use their genetic resources and manage genetic variation in their breeding program. The recent advances in sequencing technology provide the opportunity to identify tens or hundreds of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in large genome species (e.g., wheat). These SNPs can be utilized for understanding genetic diversity and performing genome wide association studies (GWAS) for complex traits. In this study, the genetic diversity and population structure were investigated in a set of 230 genotypes …

Lowland Rice Nutrient Responses For The Guinea And Sudan Savannas Of Nigeria, Christogonus K. Daudu, Enemona M. Ugbaje, Eunice Y. Oyinlola, Bitrus D. Tarfa, Adamu A. Yakubu, Ishaku Y. Amapu, Charles S. Wortmann

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Yield response of irrigated lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.) to nutrient application was determined to improve the information base for fertilizer use in the Sudan and Southern Guinea Savannas of Nigeria. Economically optimal rates (EOR) and agronomic efficiency (AE) were determined. Five N levels and four levels each P, K, and Zn were evaluated with two varieties at two locations. Nitrogen effects varied by variety and location but mean paddy yield with 0 kg ha^–1 N was 3.4 Mg ha^–1 and was increased by 1.3 Mg ha^–1 with 40 kg ha^–1 N. The mean EOR …

Lowland Rice Nutrient Responses For The Guinea And Sudan Savannas Of Nigeria, Christogonus K. Daudu, Enemona M. Ugbaje, Eunice Y. Oyinlola, Bitrus D. Tarfa, Adamu A. Yakubu, Ishaku Y. Amapu, Charles S. Wortmann

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Agronomy

This is an open access article

doi:10.2134/agronj2017.08.0469

Can Bangladesh Produce Enough Cereals To Meet Future Demand?, J. Timsina, J. Wolf, N. Guilpart, L.G.J. Van Bussel, P. Grassini, J. Van Wart, A. Hossain, H. Rashid, S. Islam, M.K. Van Ittersum

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Bangladesh faces huge challenges in achieving food security due to its high population, diet changes, and limited room for expanding cropland and cropping intensity. The objective of this study is to assess the degree to which Bangladesh can be self-sufficient in terms of domestic maize, rice and wheat production by the years 2030 and 2050 by closing the existing gap (Yg) between yield potential (Yp) and actual farm yield (Ya), accounting for possible changes in cropland area. Yield potential and yield gaps were calculated for the three crops using well-validated crop models and site-specific weather,management and soil data, and upscaled …

Doublethink And Scale Mismatch Polarize Policies For An Invasive Tree, Caleb P. Roberts, Daniel R. Uden, Craig R. Allen, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr.

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Mismatches between invasive species management policies and ecological knowledge can lead to profound societal consequences. For this reason, natural resource agencies have adopted the scientifically-based density-impact invasive species curve to guide invasive species management. We use the density-impact model to evaluate how well management policies for a native invader (Juniperus virginiana) match scientific guidelines. Juniperus virginiana invasion is causing a sub-continental regime shift from grasslands to woodlands in central North America, and its impacts span collapses in endemic diversity, heightened wildfire risk, and crashes in grazing land profitability. We (1) use land cover data to identify the stage …