C. Lee Burras lburras@iastate.edu Associate Professor Department of Agronomy Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011-1010 515-294-0559 As the partial map behind me might suggest, I am very interested in the natural distribution of soils. My interest is in terms of natural soil geography and genesis as well as the long-term impact of humans on soil morphology and soil organic carbon content. The photos below come from a variety of people, each of whom I am indebted to for more than just the photos.

I am standing in gullies that developed in switchgrass fields, one of the more surprising findings of the Chariton Valley Biomass Project ( http://www.cvrcd.org ) and the ISU Pedometrics group.

Mike Barker and Charlie Brummer (http://www.public.iastate.edu/~brummer) checking out their switchgrass variety trials at the ISU College of Agriculture’s McNay Farm near Chariton. Mike doing fieldwork, the heart of all good soils and cropping research.

Julie McLaughlin and Rocky Lemus standing next to a Chariton Valley Biomass Project sign. This project is one of the leading field-scale biomass for biofuel research projects in the USA. It exists because of a strong collaboration between the USDOE ( http://www.doe.gov ) , Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( http://www.ornl.gov ), the USDA-NRCS ( http://www.nrcs.gov ) and a number of local organizations (see http://www.cvrcd.org ) that includes progressive farmers, the Iowa Farm Bureau, and others.

Julie and Jamie collecting a soil core in the Chariton Valley biomass project. While it looks straightforward, this work is challenging because of the high content of shrink-swell in many of the area’s soils as well as the plethora of ticks in these fields and the heat and humidity. The one-meter long cores Julie is collecting are the heart of Pedometrics.

Julie surveying gullies in the Chariton Valley biomass project. Gullies are present in about 1/2 of all the switchgrass fields we have surveyed. Presence of gullies does not appear to be correlated with switchgrass stand quality or quality of field management. We speculate it is largely controlled by soil-landscape conditions (e.g., depth and distribution of paleosols).

Lee’s Ensci/Agron 402 class (Watershed Hydrology & Surficial Processes) from a few years ago visiting a gully on the Iowa Southern Drift Plain that is continuing to downcut and extend headward. is now to the point where it is undercutting the road the students are standing on.

The 2001 Sustainable Agriculture 509 (Agroecosystem Ecology) course visiting Blood Run (far left) and the Schuiteman Farm (left) in northwest Iowa. I was a guest lecturer. The handsome blond Dutch guy in the soybean field is Matt Schuiteman. One of these days either he or his wife, Minde Jo, will be the governor of Iowa.

Skye Wills helping out on one of Julie’s many, many trips to the Chariton Valley. Skye has her own projects as well. In 2001 she finished her MS with me. She studied the divergence of soil morphology that has occurred in Udolls of central Iowa depending on whether they have been cultivated or used as woodlots. She is currently pursuing a PhD with Jon Sandor (http://www.agron.iastate.edu/agronomy/userspage.asp?ID=193) and myself. Her PhD is a combined geostatistics-pedology study examining soil morphology of row cropped fields and the Hayden Prairie, which is located on the Iowa Erosion Surface in northeast Iowa.

Beth Larabee helping Julie measure infiltration rates in a Chariton Valley pasture here as part of Julie’s MS project. I don’t have any photos yet of Beth doing fieldwork on her MS. It is examining the long-term impact of cropping on Histosols on the Des Moines Lobe in Iowa. Her preliminary data is very interesting.

Of course wandering around any city (e.g., Rheims, France) reminds us that long-term impacts on soils are not limited to agricultural settings. In fact, increasingly the soils of the world are urban soils, which are much different than the ones most soil scientist study. As the far left photo shows one can – and should expect to - find anything when digging in a city.

Speaking of urban soils, a couple of years ago I had the pleasure of working with Jan Thompson (http://www.nrem.iastate.edu/HTML/Faculty/staff_html/thompson.html ), an Urban Forester in the Department of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Management on a soil-tree project. Actually, like most research carried out at a university the work was done by graduate students. The above photo on the left shows the two students who did the work, Valasia Iakovoglou and Rebecca Kipper. Valasia focused on the trees. Becky focused on the soils. The center photo shows Becky recording site data. The photo on the right shows Skye helping some of Becky’s pedons in one of her residential sites. Valasia and Becky had study sites in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri.

The photos to the right and below show a few of the other students with whom I have worked, sometimes as a major professor, sometimes as a committee member. Unfortunately I don’t have photos of everyone who deserves to be recognized here. Neil Molstad is at the right pulling a core for his MS project. Rocky Lemus and he led off the Chariton Valley Biomass Project. Rocky earned an MS with Charlie Brummer. He is now working on a PhD at Virginia Tech. Neil is now a soil scientist with the NRCS. Below left are Jamie Patton, Rocky, Jennifer Pinkston, and Neil. Jamie and Jennifer earned MS degrees with me by studying the differences and similarities in soils from Amish and conventional farms. Jamie examined morphology and physical soil properties. Jennifer examined chemical properties. As with everyone I have worked, they did great jobs. Jamie is now wrapping up a PhD at Oklahoma State University. Jennifer is a consulting soil scientist. The center photo below shows some Amish horses in Ohio pulling a harrow. (Jamie and Jennifer’s project took them to Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.) The lower right photo shows Mike Konen, who is a faculty member at Northern Illinois University ( http://www3.niu.edu/~t50mek1/public_html ). Mike earned his PhD with Jon Sandor here at ISU. I am deeply indebted to the help and collaboration Mike provided and provides to me.