{"id":1979,"date":"2020-10-30T18:02:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T22:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=1979"},"modified":"2024-05-17T10:28:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T14:28:20","slug":"umes-chesapeake-water-quality-center-receives-half-million-dollar-usda-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/sans-news-releases\/umes-chesapeake-water-quality-center-receives-half-million-dollar-usda-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES Chesapeake Water Quality Center receives half-million dollar USDA grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The University of Maryland Eastern Shore just received a major boost to its Chesapeake Water Quality Center<\/a> from the USDA\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service<\/a>.  The Center received nearly a half-million dollar NRCS grant to \u201cenhance knowledge regarding use of standard metrics to assess soil health,\u201d particularly for agricultural land management.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs interest in soil health management continues to increase, so does the need for consistent, replicable, scientifically sound indicators and associated data that will allow for the assessment of how agricultural management practices are affecting soil health over time,\u201d said Dr. Arthur Allen<\/strong>, principal investigator for the grant and director of UMES\u2019 Chesapeake Water Quality Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant, Allen said, will fund a project titled, \u201cDynamic Soil Properties for Soil Health Assessment,\u201d over the next two years to collaborate with the NRCS and Alabama A&M University researchers.  They will assess the accuracy, repeatability and usefulness of standard soil health metrics on Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore and areas in Northern Alabama for three benchmark soils and dominant land management systems.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAny robust set of indicators and associated data collection, sometimes referred to as a \u201csoil health monitoring network,\u201d must also provide usefulness and compatibility across multiple regions, soils and management systems,\u201d Allen said.  Research through the new agreement will build on the NRCS\u2019 existing national soils database, including water sampling design, field sampling protocols and linking the research to soil maps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen\u2019s colleagues, Drs. Fawzy Hashem and Amy Collick, will help oversee the project at UMES where they will identify sampling sites, coordinate accurate field sampling and supervise various laboratory analyses.  The grant provides a stipend for a graduate and undergraduate students\u2019 involvement in the project.  Collick will also compile, organize and manage datasets for the project that will be shared with the NRCS\u2019 soil survey program\u2019s laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Allen\u2019s water quality research team is to be commended for their efforts and for building a relationship with the USDA\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service to continue these critical research activities,\u201d said Dr. Moses T. Kairo, dean of UMES\u2019 School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences<\/a>.  \u201cThe information and knowledge that will come out of the project will be of value to the NRCS and the holistic soil science and agricultural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 410-621-3850, <\/em>gcstephens@umes.edu.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore just received a major boost to its Chesapeake Water Quality Center from the USDA\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service.  The Center received nearly a half-million dollar NRCS grant to \u201cenhance knowledge regarding use of standard metrics to assess soil health,\u201d particularly for agricultural land management.\u201d \u201cAs interest in soil health management continues to…Read more UMES Chesapeake Water Quality Center receives half-million dollar USDA grant<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":18,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sans-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}