Project Number: 6208-12000-008-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Mar 19, 2001
End Date: Mar 18, 2006

Objective:
1. Develop agricultural practices that control wind erosion & ambient dust & effectively use soil water; 2. develop detailed understanding of wind barriers; 3. develop management systems to modify soil structure for efficient water management & reduced wind erosion; 4. define wind erosion induced changes in soil properties & their relationship to crop productivity &'tolerable soil loss'; 5. evaluate the NRCS Soil Conditioning Index; 6. determine crop physiological responses to soil particle abrasion.

Approach:
Cotton plant spacings & row widths will be evaluated for wind erosion protection & soil water use efficiencies. Daily ambient dust levels will be measured concurrently with meteorological properties & regional land use to relate dust levels to climate & management. Wind barriers using various crops, plant densities, & numbers of rows will be tested in small field plots & in farmer fields. Use of ferrihydrite, PAM & other products added to dry soils will be evaluated for their effects on soil aggregation. Plant biomass & yields & soil properties will be evaluated on severely winderoded cotton, sorghum & kenaf fields. Soil properties & plant yields & residue production will be compared on a wide variety of cropping systems in the Southern High Plains of Texas to test the NRCS Soil Conditioning Index rating. Plant physiological response to water stress after abrasion will be tested by abrading plants in a wind tunnel. Plants will evaluated for sap flow, carbon assimilation, transpiration, leaf conductance, water use efficiency & chlorophyll fluorescence after abrasion.