Long-Term Field Studies: A Critical Investment for the Future.

Over the past 150 years soil management research has shifted from experiments focused on the “system” to an increasingly reductionist approach.  Reductionism focuses on understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things.  Obviously, our science has advanced greatly using this approach, but we must ask; how has “reductionism” affected the application of information derived from our field research?  This approach has led to: (1) more narrowly focused experiments; (2) less linkage between experiments; and (3) ultimately, a scaling down with little consideration of the “system” at all.  Many of us have fallen into the trap of “reductionist research” at the expense of viewing the “system”.   Fortunately in the last 30-year period there has been a reawakening of interest in “systems”, which in part has been driven by questions regarding global climate change.  Global issues require a greater understanding of how environments interact with soils and cropping systems; long-term field experiments are needed to further this understanding.  Existing, as well as new system level experiments are needed to unravel the enigma of cropping system interactions with climatic environments.  We will use citation data from “Web of Science” and “Google Scholar” to illustrate and quantify the scientific contributions of two long-term studies, a 40+ year old and a 25+ year old experiment, in the Central Great Plains.  Scientists and administrators should be focusing on how to encourage establishment of new experiments and how to fund existing relevant experiments.