Nutrient Uptake and Outcome Network (NUOnet): Connecting a Wide Range of Natural Resource Conservation Networks.

Nutrient application and its uptake by crops are essential to increasing agricultural production, which is essential to feed a growing world population. Efficiency in management of nutrients could be increased with conservation practices that reduce nutrient losses to the environment and promote conservation of natural resources. USDA-ARS is currently developing a national network called the Nutrient Uptake and Outcome network (NUOnet). NUOnet will be connected to a series of database networks. Using the GRACEnet and REAP data entry template (DET) framework, a new DET was developed to help connect nutrient management databases with soil biology and soil health databases; the GRACEnet and REAP databases; the LTAR database; the AgAR databases; DAWG; the wind erosion and surface erosion databases; and the USDA Food Data System (FooDS), which has databases related to nutrient composition of food and biomarkers of human health. This presentation will cover the status of the NUOnet DET, the NUOnet prototype, and how the NUOnet network will be able to connect to other databases. Users of the NUOnet database will be able to enter and download information about nutrient management at a given site, including crop management, nutrient uptake, yields, nutrient use efficiencies, and effects of nutrient management on losses via leaching, atmospheric gases, surface runoff, and/or wind erosion. The crop nutrient composition would be a major variable that would be measured and this would also be used in assessing the efficacy of management systems and their connections to animal, human and soil health.