WORKING GROUPS

FY 05/06 | FY 04/05 | FY 03/04 | SPRING 2003 | FALL 2002 | SPRING 2002

FY 04/05

GLOBAL SOIL CHANGE: ASSESSING VALUES AND USES OF LONG-TERM SOIL-ECOSYSTEM EXPERIMENTS

In the mid-1800s, at the birth of modern soil and ecological sciences, farms and fields began to be used for experimental studies of soil and ecosystem processes. One of the first of these long-term studies was launched in the 1840s at Rothamsted Experiment Station in southern England, largely to compare effects of organic manure and inorganic fertilizers on long-term wheat production and soil fertility. Since Rothamsted’s beginning, many long-term soil experiments have been initiated, and on the order of 100 are >25 years in age and continue to function to this day. The overwhelming majority of long-term soil experiments were designed to study agricultural systems, although a few examine forests and grasslands, and nearly all can address environmental objectives far broader than the largely agricultural objectives originally proposed. These experiments have been undertaken in both the developed and developing world.

The ultimate objective of the proposed project is to create international support for a network of long-term soil studies. The project will be initiated with a graduate-level interdisciplinary seminar and subsequently open an international discussion about how soils across the world are changing over time scales of decades, specifically as documented by the world’s long-term soil-ecosystem studies. The central theme of this project is that an international network of long-term soil experiments can greatly expand our understanding of global soil change over time scales of decades, and stimulate sciences directed at global change, biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, and sustainable land management. This networking of long-term soils experiments will aim to encourage a number of cross-site research studies and educational projects, especially those that take advantage of new techniques in molecular biology, organic chemistry, isotope biogeochemistry, and computerization of information.

The interdisciplinary graduate student seminar will be offered during the Fall 2004 term, and will inventory the characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and results of the world’s long-term soil-ecosystem experiments. More information.

A major output of this group will be a metadatabase of long-term soil experiments.

The group is composed of individuals from a number of disciplines at Duke:
Daniel D. Richter (soil science), Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and Department of Biology
Robert B. Jackson (ecology), Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and Department of Biology
William Schlesinger (biogeochemistry), Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and Dept of Biology
Dean Urban (landscape ecology), Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Rytas Vilgalys (mycology), Department of Biology
Peter Wood (American History), Department of History
 

Publications

Richter, DD, Jr, A Mendoza and P Heine, 2008, Four-decade responses of soil trace elements to an aggrading old-field forest: B, MN, ZN, CU, and FE, Ecology, in press.

Richter, DD, Jr and SA Billings, 2008, Strengthening the world's long-term soil research base, IUSS Bulletin, 112: 10-12.

Richter, DD, Jr, N-H Oh, R Fimmen, and J Jackson, 2007, The rhizosphere and soil formation, in The Rhizosphere - An Ecological Perspective, Eds, Z.G. Cardon and J.L. Whitbeck, Academic Press, San Diego.

Richter, DD, Jr, M Hofmockel, MA Callaham, Jr, DS Powlson, P Smith. 2007. Long-term soil experiments: keys to managing Earth’s rapidly changing ecosystems. Soil Science Society of America Journal 71:266–279.

Richter, DD, Jr. 2007. Humanity’s transformation of Earth’s soil: pedology’s new frontier. Soil Science 172:957-967.

Related media links: Earth's Soils Bear Unmistakable Footprints of Humans (Duke news release) | Humans Force Earth into New Geologic Epoch (LiveScience.com)