392 Soil Functional Zone Management:a Vehicle for Enhancing Agroecosystem Services

Oral Session
ASA Section: Land Management and Conservation
Soil functional zone management (SFZM) is a novel strategy for developing sustainable production systems that attempts to combine the production benefits of intensive row-crop agriculture with the environmental benefits of no-tillage. SFZM creates distinct functional zones within crop row and inter-row spaces. By incorporating decimetre-scale spatial and temporal heterogeneity, SFZM attempts to foster greater soil biodiversity and integrate complementary soil processes at the sub-field level. Such integration maximizes soil services by creating zones of ‘active turnover’, optimized for crop growth and yield (provisioning services); and adjacent zones of ‘soil building’, that promote soil structure development, carbon storage and moisture regulation (regulating and supporting services). These zones allow SFZM to secure existing agricultural productivity while avoiding or minimizing trade-offs with soil ecosystem services. Moreover, the specific properties of SFZM may enable sustainable increases in provisioning services via temporal intensification (expanding the portion of the year during which harvestable crops are grown). Through the creation of functionally distinct but interacting zones, SFZM may provide a vehicle for optimizing the delivery of multiple goods and services in agricultural systems, allowing sustainable temporal intensification while protecting and enhancing soil functioning. Team members from an AFRI-funded, multistate project will present results on various dimensions of agroecosystem performance in an SFZM system, encapsulating 5-years of coordinated research.

Approved for 1.5 SW CEUs

Cosponsor(s):

Soil Health Community

ASA Section: Environmental Quality

Sustainable Intensification Community

Wednesday, November 9, 2016: 9:30 AM-11:20 AM
Phoenix Convention Center North, Room 221 A

Organizers:
Jodie M Reisner and Adam Davis
9:30 AM
Introductory Remarks
9:35 AM
Introduction to Soil Functional Zone Management.
Adam Davis, USDA-ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit
9:50 AM
Reconciling Opposing Soil Processes in Row-Crop Agroecosystems Via Soil Functional Zone Management.
Alwyn Williams, University of Minnesota; Adam Davis, USDA-ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit; Andrea Jilling, University of New Hampshire; A. Stuart Grandy, University of New Hampshire; Roger T. Koide, Brigham Young University; David Mortensen, The Pennsylvania State University; Richard G. Smith, University of New Hampshire; Sieglinde S. Snapp, Michigan State University; Kurt A. Spokas, USDA-ARS; Anthony C. Yannarell, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign; Nicholas R. Jordan, University of Minnesota
10:05 AM
Effects of Soil Functional Zone Management on Fungal and Invertebrate Communities and on Ecosystem Services.
Patrick M. Ewing, University of Minnesota; Meng Li, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign; Lesley W. Atwood, University of New Hampshire; Adam Davis, USDA-ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit; Nicholas R. Jordan, University of Minnesota; David A. Mortensen, Pennsylvania State University; Richard G. Smith, University of New Hampshire
10:20 AM
Break
10:35 AM
Capitalizing on Synergies: Critical Reflection on a Coordinated Agricultural Project.
Richard G. Smith, University of New Hampshire; David A. Mortensen, Pennsylvania State University; Roger T. Koide, Brigham Young University; Adam Davis, USDA-ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit; Nicholas R. Jordan, University of Minnesota
11:05 AM
Discussion
11:20 AM
Adjourn
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