Working to Reduce Farm Nutrient Loss in Iowa

By: Malcolm Robertson, Program Coordinator and Lecturer, Iowa Nutrient Research Center, Iowa State University

From Getting Into Soil and Water 2018

The Iowa Nutrient Research Center (INRC) was established in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University by the Iowa Board of Regents in response to legislation passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2013. More information is available at https://www.cals.iastate.edu/nutrientcenter

The center pursues a science-based approach to nutrient management research. Through its work, the performance of current and emerging nutrient management practices is evaluated, new nutrient management practices are developed and recommendations are initiated for implementation of nutrient management practices.

The primary role of the center is to fund science-based research that explores innovative approaches that identify gaps and needs in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) research to address Iowa’s water quality issues.

Center research evaluates the performance of current and emerging field practices and develops tools to help farmers and landowners adopt effective management practices. Successful research outcomes will minimize the loss of nutrients into Iowa surface and groundwater. Through this research, the INRC will test the performance of current and advanced farmland management, land use and edge-of-field practices on reducing N and P loss.

The center will also develop tools that aid in decision-making and promotions for the adoption of new technologies and creative solutions for more sustainable management practices.

Working with researchers and farmers, the Iowa Nutrient Research Center funded more than 50 research projects from 2013 to 2017, led by more than 80 scientists at Iowa’s three Regents universities. The center’s competitive grants program has awarded nearly $6 million for research since 2013.

These funds are highly leveraged by water-quality scientists, who have successfully brought in over $17 million in grants from many federal and state agencies across five years. Some key results from center-funded research to date include:

  • Field and lab experiments are improving the understanding of winter cover crop management and impacts on corn yield.
  • Saturated buffers are evaluated to better assess their ability to remove nitrates from tile flow.
  • Research is evaluating the effectiveness of practices implemented around the edges of fields, such as planting strips of prairie and restoring stream banks.
  • Work is underway to better understand farm profitability impacts of precision conservation and grazing cover crops.
  • Intensive research at a watershed in Boone County is providing new insights on the contributions of stream bed and bank erosion to phosphorus transport.
  • Research is more precisely examining the movement of nutrients to surface waters.
  • How trading nutrient credits may benefit cities and farmers – and water quality – is explored in a pilot project watershed near Dubuque.
  • Work on research farms and in farmers’ fields is evaluating types of native perennials for prairie strips to reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss.
  • Research is seeking to improve performance and reduce costs of bioreactors, the practice that filters field drainage water with wood chips

In 2017 the center funded 12 projects with a total award value of almost $550,000. Below is a list of the projects awarded in 2017:

  • Total Phosphorus Loads in Iowa Rivers and Estimation of Steam Bank Phosphorus Contribution
  • Water Quality Evaluation of Prairie Strips across Iowa
  • Woodchip Bioreactors for Improved Water Quality
  • Limiting Nitrogen Immobilization in Cover Crop Systems • Amounts and Forms of Dissolved Phosphorus Lost with Surface Runoff as Affected by Phosphorus Management and Soil Conservation Practices
  • Delivery-Scale Evaluation and Modeling of Nutrient Reduction Practices • Improving the Effectiveness of Conservation Programs through Innovative Reverse Auctions and Sensible Enrollment Restrictions
  • Baseline Assessment of Geisler Farm Site: Collection of Pre BMP Monitoring Data
  • Does Quantity and Quality of Tile Drainage Water Impact In-stream Eutrophication Potential? Evidence from a Long Term Biofuel Cropping Systems Experiment
  • Successful Voluntary Watershed Improvement Projects: Do Short-Term Adoption and Outreach Lead to Attitude Changes and Long-Term Sustainable Practice Adoption?
  • Impacts of Cover Crops on Phosphorus and Nitrogen Loss with Surface Runoff
  • Evaluation of Measurement Methods as Surrogates for Tile Flow Nitrate-N Concentrations

In addition to these projects, the center also allocated $367,000 to the University of Iowa to fund a network of water-quality sensors deployed throughout eastern Iowa. These advanced remote sensors collect water-quality data that are relayed back to IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering every few minutes. The data are disseminated on a public website.

The Iowa Nutrient Research Center is dedicated to supporting impactful research in nutrient reduction. As new information, data and science become available, the center believes that the adoption of in-field and edge-of-field practices will increase, resulting in improved water quality through reduced nitrogen and phosphorus losses.

Background to the Iowa Nutrient Research Center’s Work

Scientifically Proven Effective Practices. Iowa leads the nation in corn and soybean production. Research has shown that a variety of management practices can mitigate the loss of nutrients from crop field soils. The goal is to get more of these scientifically proven practices implemented. The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy science team, led by Iowa State University scientists, developed a list of in-field and edge-of-field practices that could reduce nutrient loss from farm lands (http://www.nutrientstrategy.iastate.edu/presentations). Nutrient and soil management practices conducted within field boundaries to mitigate nutrient loss from row-cropped acres, and are known as in-field nutrient management.

Nutrient Loss Reduction – Nitrogen. There are a number of practices that reduce nitrogen loss, including in-field nitrogen management practices such as fertilizer application timing, fertilizer source, application rate, nitrification inhibitors, cover crops and living mulches. Additional in-field practices that reduce N loss include land use changes such as the addition of perennials, extended rotations and pastures for livestock. Edge-of-field practices may take a variety of forms and include practices and/or structures such as drainage water management, shallow drainage, wetlands, bioreactors and buffers.

Nutrient Loss Reduction – Phosphorus. There are a number of in-field phosphorus management practices that may be adopted to reduce P loss, include fertilizer application, source and placement; erosion control or land use change practices such as tillage, crop choice, perennials and terraces. Wetlands, buffers and sediment control are edge-of-field practices that have been shown to reduce phosphorus loss

The #IowaWater2020 Welcome Speech That Will Never Be Given

Post written by Melissa Miller, Associate Director for the Iowa Water Center

Today, at 10 a.m., I was supposed to greet 500+ of my closest friends and colleagues and say (with gusto), “Welcome to the 2020 Iowa Water Conference!”

If you’ve been our conference (or any conference, really), you know how that speech goes.

I would have thanked the planning committee for their tireless efforts in shaping the very best conference agenda for this year, a program that resonated with the theme “Bringing our water vision into focus.”

I would have thanked the sponsors and exhibitors for their generous support year after year.

I would have thanked you for coming and urged you to attend sessions outside of your comfort zone.

I would have introduced you to our amazing new conference logo and told you everything it stands for.

But, instead, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, I’m making a mid-morning snack for my elementary-aged daughters before we go on a walk to the “creek” (okay, it’s a drainage ditch). I haven’t been to Ames in almost a month, and I don’t know when I’ll go again.

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When we announced the cancellation, we had many people reach out to us and express their condolences for the months of lost work and preparation. This missed opportunity to connect and grow side by side is suddenly a common tragedy of this strange new era. We lament with those who planned to present, with the students who planned to compete in the poster contest, for the morning sticky buns we won’t get to eat (I know at least a couple of you were already lamenting the loss of “Scheman Lasagna” from years past, for some reason).

But remember: the Iowa Water Conference is just two days. The work that went into it is not lost. We still had a diverse mix of organizations collaborating to conduct peer reviews of the latest water work in Iowa. We still had hours of introspection and discussion to identify the most pressing topics in water resource management in Iowa. We still built new relationships and cultivated old ones with Iowa’s hardworking water professionals and scientists. Building the Iowa Water Conference takes the entire year – for all of us. The two days is just the celebration.

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In my welcome speech, there is one more thing I would have done this year. I would have challenged every single one of you to consider two questions as you listened to each presentation:

Who cares?

So what?

(Shout out to Molly Hanson, co-founder of Women for Water and conservation and community outreach specialist for RDG Planning & Design. Molly came up with this idea after we discussed my theory on cultivating and stewarding a community of “Water People.”)

This challenge still applies to the work you do, day in and day out. Ask yourself, who cares, and so what? Answering those questions both affirms the importance of the role you play and brings you closer to understanding how to reach the communities in which you’re working.

My final comment of the Welcome Speech That Will Never Be Given: we can and should still work to build a shared vision for Iowa’s water future. What do YOU want for Iowa’s future? Compare your answers with others’ answers. Where are we the same? Where and why are we different? What are our overarching goals that benefit the most people in an equitable and just way? What can you do in your work to move us toward those goals? And, perhaps most importantly, what will it look like when we get there?

Have an answer to any of these questions? Join in the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #IowaWater2020. Jump in with real-time dialogue in our Water Scholars Book Club on Facebook. Send us an email.

Talk to you soon.

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Melissa Miller is the associate director of the Iowa Water Center. She holds a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Community and Public Health and MS degree in Community Development with an emphasis in Natural Resource Management, both from Iowa State University.

2019 One Water Summit

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This year, several member institutes of the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) attended the One Water Summit in Austin, Texas as a delegation. At the end of the conference, each delegation provided a commitment to action for what goals they seek to achieve over the next year.

NIWR’s commitment to action was delivered by Melissa Miller, Associate Director for the Iowa Water Center (see image above).

Bridging the Divide in Water Resource Management

Some members of the Iowa Chapter of SWCS.
9-Mile Watershed, Pittsburgh, PA.
Pittsburgh Botanic Garden
Heidi Ackerman (Left) and Hanna Bates.

Written by Hanna Bates, Program Coordinator for the Iowa Water Center

Regardless of who you are and what path you are on; we all make an impact on water. This belief was the overarching theme of the 74th Soil and Water Conservation Society International Annual Conference held July 28-31 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This city, at the confluence of three rivers and contains 446 bridges, is a town of connections that bridges one side of a river to another. This set the scene for the conference in which diverse ideas were brought together to represent our anthropogenic impact on water resources. Conference attendees included those from private industry, public institutions, and government agencies. The three days of presentations, symposia, and tours enabled attendees to debate ideas and address critical questions about the future of our soil and water resources.

Iowa water resource professionals were well represented on the agenda and covered a vast array of topics. These topics included outreach, education, and community engagement; conservation models, tools, and technologies; professional development; engaging the private sector; water resource assessment and management; and social sciences informing conservation.

On the third day of the conference, I attended a tour on how the City of Pittsburgh alongside several other organizations are restoring impacted landscapes within the city and in nearby rural areas. For several decades, the coal and natural gas extraction industries and steel mills had a negative impact on the surrounding landscape due to the establishment of mine drainage areas and dump areas for slag, a waste product from steel production. Tour stops showcased areas that are in the process of being restored.

 

One stop of the tour was the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, which is an outdoor garden that spans approximately 450 acres of land. Opened in 2015, this is a long-term program to reintroduce native plant species. During a one-year span in 2015, the garden staff planted 9,000 flowering bulbs and 1,500 saplings. Each year, thousands more are planted. The goal is not only to restore the landscape, but also to provide a place for outdoor education and enjoyment of nature. On the day we visited, approximately 40 acres of the 450 acres were rehabilitated and open for the public to visit.

Another stop on the tour was at Pittsburg’s Frick Park and the 9-Mile Run Watershed. This 6.5-square mile watershed flows through the park and carries on to a slag dump site that was in operation from 1922-1972. Restoration projects in collaboration with the City of Pittsburgh and the 9-Mile Run Watershed Association have improved the site to make it the beautiful walking trail and recreational area that it is today. The area is located near vulnerable communities in Pittsburgh, and so it was restored with the belief that everyone deserves access to nature because of the positive impacts it can have on health and well being.

The Soil and Water Conservation Society along with the Pennsylvania Chapter of SWCS did an excellent job fostering conversations among meeting attendees as well as highlighting the natural resource challenges and solutions in the Pittsburgh area. Next year the 2020 SWCS Conference will be celebrating its 75th year in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Save the date for July 26-29, 2020 so that you can be a part of the celebration!

Iowa Water Center Visit Up North

Post written by Melissa Miller, Associate Director for the Iowa Water Center

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One of the greatest benefits of being part of the National Institutes for Water Resources is the connection to the other 53 Water Resources Research Institutes across the country – including those in surrounding states. Last week, Iowa Water Center staff took a day trip up to the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota to visit the Minnesota Water Resources Center (MWRC) staff.

We had a full agenda for the day, well-planned by Iowa State University alum Adam Wilke, who serves as the MWRC Research and Outreach Coordinator.

After a quick tour of the campus with our colleagues MWRC Director Jeff Peterson and Associate Director Joel Larson, we visited with MWRC’s Ann Lewandowski and Matt Drewitz from the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources on the best outreach and communication methods for the Daily Erosion Project (coverage for the entire state of Minnesota coming very soon!).

Next, Leif Olmanson from UMN’s Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Laboratory and Ben Page from MWRC introduced us to remotely sensed water quality monitoring in Minnesota lakes with their tool, LakeBrowser.  This technology is helping Minnesotans keep an eye on water clarity, chlorophyll, suspended solids, and colored dissolved organic matter on all lakes in the state over 10 acres. LakeBrowser covers some lakes in Iowa and can be expanded outside the borders of Minnesota.

We enjoyed lunch with the entire MWRC crew. Afterward, we joined in a planning call for the University Council of Water Resources annual conference, to be held in Minneapolis June 9-11. The theme for the 2020 UCOWR Annual Conference is “Water. Place. People.” The call for special sessions is now open – this is a great conference for university researchers and students, and we encourage you to submit a session idea.

IMG_6100[1]To round out the day, we headed over to the banks of the Mississippi River to chat with Pat Nunnally from UMN’s River Life program. We talked about the history of the Mississippi and River Life’s interdisciplinary journal Open Rivers, which features fascinating pieces that explore topics on water, place, and community. We also got to witness Pat in action, as a mudslide on the banks that morning brought television news crews to the scene, wondering how and why these things occur (Pat makes an appearance around 1:35). Thankfully, we managed to avoid any cameos in the news story!

IMG_6098[1]We want to sincerely thank the entire UMN staff for their hospitality. We came away with actionable items to increase our collaboration between the two centers and throughout the region, as well as some great ideas we might borrow from UMN to incorporate here in Iowa and at IWC. We look forward to their visit to Iowa next spring!

 

 

 

 

Melissa headshot_0Melissa Miller is the associate director of the Iowa Water Center. She holds a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Community and Public Health and MS degree in Community Development with an emphasis in Natural Resource Management, both from Iowa State University.