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Conservation NewsBriefs is a weekly compilation of news stories of interest to SWCS members and stakeholders. The opinions expressed
herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official policy of the Soil and Water Conservation Society unless otherwise stated. The products mentioned herein are not endorsed by the Soil and Water Conservation Society unless so stated.
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New
estimation strategy improves soil carbon sampling in agricultural fields
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment via ScienceDaily
Researchers have evaluated strategies for efficiently estimating soil organic carbon in agricultural fields. Quantifying soil organic carbon stocks in agricultural
fields is essential for developing sustainable management practices and monitoring. The research team found that in a typical Midwestern agricultural field, public soil surveys and satellite imagery can be leveraged to efficiently select sample locations.
This may reduce the number of samples needed to achieve a given precision (compared to random sampling).
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USDA
encourages enrollment of Grassland into working land conservation
Successful Farming
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) encourages producers and landowners to enroll in the Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) starting now through May
13, 2022. Grassland CRP provides a unique opportunity for farmers, ranchers and agricultural landowners to keep land in agricultural production and supplement their income while improving their soils and permanent grass cover.
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Saving
the Driftless Region from itself
The Progressive Magazine
Many conservation practices we take for granted today were born in the 1930s in a part of western Wisconsin known as the Driftless Region, an area that was missed
by the glaciers, resulting in striking geological features. Here, the Coon Creek Watershed Project became the first of many conservation projects that would spread across the country under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's newly created Soil Erosion Service.
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Food
processing wastewater may find use as farmed seaweed fertilizer
New Atlas
The processing of foods typically generates a lot of wastewater, which has to be cleaned up before being released back into local waterways. According to new research,
however, that water could first be put to use as a very effective fertilizer for farmed seaweed.
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Soil
microbes sacrifice ribosomes in response to warming
The Scientist
Sustained increases in soil temperature cause microbes to dial down protein synthesis over the course of years but potentially on the scale of weeks. At the same
time, warming microbial populations increase their carbon dioxide production and growth rate, a study published in
Science Advances on March 25 shows, suggesting that bacteria can adapt to changing environments, maintaining a high rate of cell division in the face of warmer conditions.
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Climate
change is intensifying the global water cycle
Discover Magazine
Human-induced climate change is warming the planet and, in turn, enabling our atmosphere to hold more moisture. The magnitude and extent of this shift are challenging
to see on a global scale, but its effects on local weather are much more noticeable: Greater evaporation in some regions and increased precipitation in others has already driven more frequent and intense droughts and rainfall — with the risk of more extreme
weather events looming in the near future.
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Measuring
snowpack near Powder Mountain, experts say conditions look grim
KSL
Even with a decent snowpack this winter, 97% of Utah remains in extreme or severe drought and Utah's statewide snowpack is average in the mid-to-high 80 percentile.
That's better than what it's been, but because of two extremely dry years previously, Utah’s reservoirs still need a lot of help, and hydrologists say water restrictions will most likely be necessary this spring and summer.
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