Welcome to the Agricultural Land and Watershed Management Research Unit

Our mission is to develop an understanding of natural resource responses to agricultural activities at regional and watershed scales. Multi-disciplinary experiments at regional, watershed, and field/farm scales investigate how agricultural systems influence soil and water resources.  This research is of substantial interest to NRCS, EPA, state agencies and producer groups. 

Our ARS research is built around four projects

1)     Water quality improvement from management practices in agricultural watersheds.  This project measures the transport of nitrate, phosphorus, and fecal indicator bacteria in several watersheds.  This information is related to the terrain, soils, and agricultural practices within these watersheds.  We aim to develop methods to identify areas where wetlands, buffers, and other conservation practices can provide water quality benefits.

2)     Biological buffers for improving water quality in agricultural landscapes.  Riparian buffers are largely effective in reducing transport of nutrients, pesticides and sediments by filtering the runoff water before it enters a stream.  This project examines the subsurface nutrient uptake by a three component riparian buffer system in southwest Iowa. Significant quantities of nitrate move beneath this buffer in groundwater flow to the stream.  We aim to understand how the buffer vegetation takes up nitrate and stimulates denitrification.

3)     Site- and time-specific crop, tillage, and nutrient management for sustainable agroecosystems.  This research seeks to understand the variability within agricultural production fields.  We know there is variability in both soils and crop growth within fields, but current management practices manage fields as if they were uniform systems.  The long-term yield responses to soils, nitrogen fertilizer and water are  being researched at several sites near Ames..  This information may allow us to determine management zones within production fields, which would allow farmers to improve their site-specific farming systems.

4)     Integration of research information into a decision support system for resource conservation and water quality.  A three-location project (Ames, Fort Collins, Tucson) is evaluating conservation planning tools to be used by NRCS for environmental and economic goals.  We are using the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) to simulate environmental outcomes resulting from combinations of soils and management practices.