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The Coastal Plainer
Winter 2003
Volume 8, Number 1
3381 Skyway Drive, P.O. Box 311, Auburn, AL 36830
Phone: 334 887-4549 Fax: 334 887-4551
Homepage: //www.mo15.nrcs.usda.gov/
- Message From The
MO–Leader's Desk
- A New Face in a New Place
- Delivery of
Redstone Arsenal Soil Survey
- Using NASIS Reports
for Checking Data
- Mississippi Mourns
the Loss of Melvin Lee
- Editor's Note
- Soil Profile Gallery
-
Managing Soil Organic Matter: The Key to Soil, Water, and Air Quality
- Web Modernization
By Charles Love, State Soil Scientist/MO–15 Team Leader
Greetings to all!
The past few months have been very exciting for all us here in the MO–15 Region.
Great things are happening, and I have several topics to discuss.
Especially exciting is the population of the NASIS databases for soil
correlation activities, SSURGO certification, RUSLE–2, and the 2003 CRP sign-up
with FSA. The installation of T–1 computer connections has really accelerated
the population and management of our NASIS databases at the field level. As we
take this great opportunity to revise our databases, it is very important that
we document our rationale for the revisions in text-note tables. We must keep a
historical account for each revision that we make to the databases.
I know each soil survey office has received "MO–15 NASIS Text Guidelines." This
document will help us maintain consistency in capturing soil business and
correlation activities. I hope you are using the structure and organization
provided in the document so that we can easily enter NASIS text notes. One of
the reasons for putting notes into NASIS is to document why and when changes
were made in the databases. The personnel who are managing the databases need to
be able to retrieve these notes to see how past decisions have influenced the
population of the database. If some effort is not made to keep these notes
organized, the notes will be of little value in the future.
Notes should contain the following information, which is necessary for future
database managers to understand why revisions were made:
- Indicate what data field is being changed.
- Indicate where the data change occurred (especially if the change is in
horizon data).
- Include both old and new values.
- Explain why the change is being made.
- Indicate who made the change and when the change was made.
Again, as we continue to place emphasis on populating and revising NASIS
databases for many of our soil survey activities and NRCS conservation programs,
I encourage you to utilize "MO–15 NASIS Text Note Guidelines" as a tool to
capture those decisions. We need to leave some rationale describing present-day
decisions for our future soil scientists to build from.
If you have questions about using "MO–15 NASIS Text Note Guidelines," please
contact the MO–15 team.
On another topic, I would like to share a few things with you concerning
"Competitive Sourcing." At the winter MO-Leaders meeting in Little Rock,
Arkansas, Tommy Calhoun presented the group with information concerning
competitive sourcing. He said that the competitive sourcing initiative is a high
priority on the President's Management Agenda, has bipartisan support, and is
not going away. Therefore, it is important for us to look for potential benefits
and opportunities to help get our work done. Tommy reviewed the functions that
will be studied by NRCS in FY–03 for competitive sourcing. The study will review
various soil survey activities, including soil mapping. He said that he is very
impressed with Management Analysis Incorporated, the contractor that is drafting
Performance Work Statements for the soil mapping function. Functions performed
by soil scientists are being studied under the "Streamline Cost Comparison"
process. Here in Alabama we are planning to participate in the study to
determine the benefits for our cooperative soil survey program.
We have identified five soil scientists to serve as a Contracting Officer's
Technical Representative (COTR) for contracting soil survey activities (map
compilation and field mapping). Later this year, these individuals will receive
training related to "COTR" roles and responsibilities.
"What is a Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR)," you ask?
Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR): An individual designated
in writing by the Contracting Officer to act as an authorized representative of
the Contracting Officer to perform specific contract administrative functions
(technical consultant) within the scope and limitations as defined by the
Contracting Officer. The COTR does not have the authority to modify the
contract.
On another topic, in the next month I will be developing a draft MO–15 MLRA
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for our State Conservationists, State Soil
Scientists, and cooperators to review and approve. Each MLRA-based soil survey
office in which initial, update, or maintenance soil surveys are performed is to
be covered by this umbrella MOU. It will not supercede any State MOUs or
individual project MOUs. It is designed to streamline the development and
implementation of MLRA-based MOUs across the region and nation.
The umbrella MO-MOU will be a working agreement between members of the board of
directors for an individual region-wide, MLRA-based soil survey office. It will
be signed and implemented by the MO–15 (Southeast Coastal Plain and Caribbean)
board members and the MO leader.
In closing, I would like to announce that we will be hosting NASIS
soils-interpretation training on June 10–12, 2003, at Auburn, Alabama. We have
reserved six extra slots so we can accommodate one participant from each
neighboring state. We are planning to have staff members from the NSSC help us
in this training. State Soil Scientists within MO–15 region, if you are
interested in sending someone from your state to this training, please notify me
or Scott Anderson, SDQS, as soon as possible.
Have a nice upcoming spring!
By Doug Clendenon and Eddie E. Davis, Jr.
The North Alabama Regional Soil Survey Office, located in Huntsville, Alabama,
has recently added to its team. Towards the latter part of 2002, Eddie E. Davis,
Jr., became the newest addition as a Soil Scientist in the office. Although
Eddie is perceived as a new employee, he is no stranger to the agency as a
whole. While attending his undergraduate studies at Alabama A&M University,
Eddie was a recipient of the USDA–NRCS 1890 Soil Science Scholarship. With his
acceptance, the agency provided him with fundamental training as a soil
scientist in Nacogdoches, Texas (Summer 2000), and Washington, Iowa (Summer
2001).
Eddie E. Davis, Jr., is a 22-year old native of Birmingham, Alabama. He
graduated from Alabama A&M University with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a
minor in Chemistry. However, being the new soil scientist in the office, he is
also pursuing his Master's degree. He is seeking his Master's in Urban &
Regional Planning (MURP) with a specialty in Environmental Planning from Alabama
A&M University, the only university in the State of Alabama where this degree is
accredited at the Master's level.
Between his previous exposure provided by NRCS and the supervision of the North
Alabama Regional Soil Survey Team Leader, Doug Clendenon, Eddie will become an
excellent soil scientist in the years to come. Eddie is looking forward to
helping with establishing and structuring the new North Alabama Regional Soil
Survey Office (NARSSO). He is presently working on updates for the Soil Surveys
of Madison and Limestone Counties, Alabama. As another part of his duties, he is
developing a Web page for NARSSO. In addition to the usual web page information,
the NARSSO Web page will contain customer resources, such as downloadable photos
of soil profiles and landscapes for many soils in the region and special links
and resources for high school land judges. Within the next several weeks, Eddie
is slated for Basic Field Conservation training in Greeneville, Mississippi, and
NASIS training in Lincoln, Nebraska. As far as we know, Eddie is the first NRCS
Soil Scientist in the Southeast to run NASIS on Windows XP. Go Eddie!
by Doug Clendenon, Soil Survey Project Leader
(Originally printed in "Current Developments," the newsletter of NRCS Alabama.)
In December, Rick Zellmer, Eddie Davis, and I met with personnel from Redstone
Arsenal and presented the hard copy, CD, Arcview files, and Soil Data Viewer for
the Soil Survey of U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, Madison County, Alabama. It has
been 22 months from the first day of mapping on this project until now.
I've never been a part of a soil survey project that serviced a customer in such
a timely manner and with such a great product. I am greatly pleased that in 2002
we are producing soil surveys superior to the reports of the past, and it is
exciting to see the infrastructure in place to quickly get products into our
customers' hands.
We spent a couple hours with Redstone Arsenal's Natural Resource Division Chief
Danny Dunn and his staff demonstrating the Soil Data Viewer and discussing some
of the interesting facts about their soil data. By their comments, it was
evident that our products exceeded their expectations.
By Scott Anderson, SDQS
By now, most of you should be familiar with how to run NASIS reports and with
the wide variety of reports available for our use. The most commonly used
reports are those that are formatted for soil survey publications. Some of us
are even in the habit of using these same publication reports for routine data
editing. But there is another more useful option that really makes data checking
a breeze: Data Exports.
Exports are not your typical looking reports that come out nicely formatted on a
sheet of paper. Instead, they produce a data dump. The data is most commonly
separated, or "delimited," by a comma, semicolon, space, or tab. These reports
are not intended for viewing on screen or for printing hard copy. They are
designed for merging into other software, such as Access, Excel, or SoilView.
Two such reports that I like to use are "EXPORT_MO15: Horizon Data (coma
delimited)" and "EXPORT_MO15: Component Data (coma delimited)." Both of these
are located on the MLRA15_Office site of your NASIS Report Manager screen.
Downloads of these can easily be merged into Excel, where you can move and
delete columns of data and thereby create any number of usable spreadsheets.
Here is how it works.
Load your county data set into NASIS. Go to "Options," "Standard Reports," and
select one of the reports mentioned above.
Save the report in ASCII format, give it a file name, then retrieve it off the
NASIS central computer site. This is the same procedure you use to save and
retrieve any report you generate from NASIS. Now this is where the fun part
begins.
Start Microsoft Excel. Click on "File," "Open" (make sure the file type is set
to "All Files"), and then select the NASIS report you just downloaded. The Excel
Import Wizard box will appear. This is where you tell Excel the type of file you
are importing. Remember that you are importing a comma delimited file. In the
Import Wizard box you check "delimited" and then "Next."
Select "Comma" delimited, then "Finish."
Now you can manipulate the worksheet for quick and easy scanning of data.
Columns can be moved around, deleted, or frozen in place—allowing you to scan
straight through individual columns of data. This is an excellent way to locate
missing data. You can also print out portions of the worksheet to use for pen
and ink corrections and then correct the data in NASIS at a latter time.
Alternately, you can keep both NASIS and Excel running at the same time and move
back and forth, correcting the database as you find errors or missing data.
Try these NASIS export reports for yourself and see how you like them. I
guarantee they will make the job of reviewing and editing data a lot easier.
Melvin Lee, Soil Scientist, headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, died on
November 18, 2002, at his residence. Melvin was 47 years of age and had worked
for the SCS/NRCS for over 15 years at various locations in Nebraska and
Mississippi. He was a member of the Professional Soil Classifiers Association of
Mississippi. He is survived by six sisters, one brother, several nieces and
nephews, and many other relatives.
Issues of this newsletter are available on the Internet on the MO–15 homepage
(http://www.mo15.nrcs.usda.gov/ ). Click on "MO–15 Items" and then on "The
Coastal Plainer, Quarterly Newsletter."
You are invited to submit stories for future issues to Aaron Achen, editor,
MO–15, Auburn, Alabama.
Voice—(402) 437-4157
FAX—(402) 437-5336
e-mail—Aaron.Achen@usda.gov
The soil profile gallery on the MO–15 Web site contains pictures of over 60
soils. Images include Blackland Prairie soils, Appalachian Plateau soils, Valley
and Ridge soils, Piedmont soils, and Coastal Plain soils. Included for each soil
listed is a picture of a typical profile, a brief description of the soil, the
taxonomic classification of the soil, and a link to the official series
description.
The soil profile gallery can be accessed from the homepage at
http://www.mo15.nrcs.usda.gov/. Select "MO–15 items" from the navigation bar and
then click on "Soil Profile Gallery."
By William E. Puckett and M. Lee Norfleet
Well, it's been approximately 16 months since I left the job as MO–15 Leader and
took over here at the Soil Quality Institute (SQI). I have missed the people in
the old job, but I must admit that I have really enjoyed the new one. Reading
the article by Charles Adams in the last issue of the Coastal Plainer really hit
home about moving around and changing up what you do. It is exciting to have a
job that promotes what we do in soil science everyday. Enough sentimental
journey, let's get on with managing soil organic matter.
The origins of soil conservation policy in the United States reach back into the
early part of the twentieth century and the devastating erosion events of the
1920s and 1930s. The primary societal concern was maintaining a productive
agricultural sector. In response to this concern came the concept of tolerable
soil loss for agricultural production and the creation of the "T" factor.
Towards the latter half of the century, as society became more environmentally
conscious, water, air, and, eventually, soil quality became primary concerns.
While the concept of managing for tolerable soil loss may still be valid for
agricultural productivity, it does not adequately meet societal demands for
cleaner water and air and definitely does not lead to enhanced soil quality.
Soil quality is defined as the ability of the soil to function for an intended
purpose. Agricultural soils must function at an enhanced level in order to
mitigate concerns about water and air quality. Important soil functions, such as
regulating water flow and filtering potential pollutants, are negatively
impacted by poor soil quality. A key component to improving soil quality and
function is soil organic matter.
The key to managing for improved soil quality and ultimately for improved water
and air quality is to manage for soil organic matter. Soil carbon is another
term for soil organic matter. Managing for soil organic matter is the key
because content of carbon is a property that we have the ability to manipulate
and that has a major role in the physical, chemical, and biological properties
of soil. Most agricultural soils in the Southeast have a very low content of
soil carbon and have poor soil quality. Excessive tillage, erosion, and
monoculture cropping systems are the main reasons for loss of soil quality.
Conservation systems that restore soil carbon are critical to improving soils.
Figure 1 roughly illustrates the positive effects that managing for soil carbon
have on the soil and the total environment. (Figure 1 is a graph showing that
clean air and water depend on healthy soil. It shows that as near-surface soil
carbon increases so do aggregation and infiltration, water and nutrient holding
capacity, productivity, and water and air quality. The caption for figure 1
states "Once a land manager sets improved soil carbon as a goal, a sequence of
soil processes and environmental benefits follow.")
Managing for carbon requires the management of crop residues by reducing
tillage, rotating crops, and maintaining cover crops. From the start, the
increased cover provides a physical barrier that reduces wind-borne particles,
minimizes the disruptive force of raindrops, and increases infiltration of water
into the soil. As the content of carbon begins to build in the soil, the soil's
structure improves through greater aggregation. This improved aggregation
provides further resistance to the forces of wind and water and enhances the
soil's ability to take in water, thereby providing more water for plant growth
and less for runoff.
The reduction in runoff begins the process of improving water quality by
reducing sediment and nutrient loads. Air quality is immediately improved
through the reduction of dust, allergens, and pathogens. The next improvement
over time is in the soil's ability to retain water and nutrients. Compared to
inorganic soil particles, organic matter can hold 10 to a 1,000 times more water
and nutrients. This characteristic further enhances productivity and resistance
to drought and improves the soil's ability to act as a filter that provides
cleaner water. The soil's increased ability to retain applied nutrients may also
reduce the volatility and emission of gases, such as ammonia from agriculture.
In addition, as the content of organic matter increases, the soil biota becomes
more viable and diverse. This subsequently improves the soil's natural ability
to fight pathogens and disease without excessive use of pesticides. Studies have
also shown that improved management of residues leads to vast improvement in
wildlife habitat, particularly for ground-nesting birds.
The rate and degree of changes to soil quality, as well as the suite of
practices to achieve best results, vary between different types of soils and
climates. However, given sufficient time, productivity and environmental quality
will be enhanced through better water and nutrient relations and reduced wind
and water erosion. Also, setting an improved content of soil carbon as a
management goal can reduce the severity and costs of natural phenomena, such as
drought, flood, and disease. All of these benefits are in addition to—and far
outweigh—the benefits of reduced greenhouse gases.
The Soil Conditioning Index (SCI) is a new tool for field office staff to
predict the effects of management on soil organic matter. The SCI predicts the
effects of climate, tillage, biomass production, and erosion on organic matter
decomposition. NRCS field office staffs and technical service providers can use
the SCI to assist producers in determining if levels of soil organic matter are
increasing or deceasing in their crop fields. Field office staffs using SCI will
be able to create various scenarios regarding tillage, cropping systems, and
erosion and then predict what effects those practices will have on soil organic
matter. Achieving a positive SCI on cropland will result in improved soil
function by increasing the amount of organic matter in the soil.
By Aaron Achen, Webmaster, MO–15
NRCS is totally overhauling its Web presence. The target date to revise all Web
sites for State offices, technical centers, regional offices, and institutes is
March 31, 2003.
The goals of the NRCS web modernization project are:
- Ensure accessibility via compliance to Section 508,
- Create a consistent Agency identity throughout all sites,
- Improve user access to information, and
- Provide easier navigation between content areas and an enhanced searching
capability.
NRCS Web pages will be revised to comply with the requirements of Section 508
of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Section 508 requires that Federal
agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with
disabilities. Among other obligations, Section 508 requires that government Web
sites be compatible with screen-reader software. Screen-reader software
translates written text on the screen to spoken words, thereby allowing one to
hear what is written on the screen.
NRCS Web pages will be revised to conform to the "NRCS Web Design Style Guide."
Fonts, colors, spacing, page layout, global elements, navigation bars, headers,
and footers are all dictated by the style manual. The NRCS site at
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/ currently conforms to the style manual.
Before being posted, all pages will be reviewed by the "508 Independent
Verification and Validation Committee" and the "Look and Feel Committee." These
committees will review the pages before initial posting and before updating. The
508 committee will consist of staff from the NRCS Information Technology Center
Test Lab. The Look and Feel Committee will consist of contractors and staff from
the NRCS National Headquarters.
The structure of the navigation bars—and therefore the structure of the
information—will be standardized. All State sites will have the following
categories: About Us, Contact Us, Employee Intranet, News, Programs, Technical
Resources, and Partnerships. The MO–15 site will have the first three categories
and up to six additional categories.
A search function will be added to NRCS homepages.
NRCS has an aggressive program in place to hit the target date for
implementation. Look for significant changes on the Web over the next month.
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