From the 2020 NACD Annual Meeting. Lear about the innovative culture and connection opportunities of the Agriculture Research Service.

1. Conservation Innovation -Tying It AllTogether
The Innovation Culture - and - Connection Opportunities of ARS
Dave Knaebel
National Program Leader for Soil Biology USDA Agricultural Research Service

2. ARS
Highlights
Innovations
Partnering opportunities
Today

3. • Visioning
• Coordination
• Engagement
• Agreements
• Facilitate innovative, cross-
cutting, synergistic and
powerful collaborations and
approaches to soil health
Why am I here?

4. Intentional
Problem-Solving
Research
Whose Problems?
Yours
Innovations
ARS Conducts

5. Nutrition, Food Safety and Quality
Animal Production and Protection
Crop Production and ProtectionNatural Resources and Sustainable
Agriculture Systems
ARS has 4 research
Program Areas
1800 PhD Scientists
(8000 total staff)
690 projects
$1.4 Billion budget
Ninety locations
ARS
ARS is a
Problem-Solving
Research Agency

6. ARS – Innovative Research Program Design
How does it work
Five year, high quality research project efforts receive Base funding
Base funding is appropriated, not competitive
High Quality Research
Problem
Hypothesis
Experimentation
Reporting
Critical review
Value/Impact
Value/Impact Basis
Stakeholder input!
Agricultural challenges
Congressional input
Project features
Fully funded for 5 years * X increments
Stakeholder engagement expected!

7. Natural Resources & Sustainable Agricultural Systems
407 Scientists 112 Research Projects 55 Locations
4 National Programs:
• WaterAvailability &Watershed
Management
• Soil and Air
• Grass, Forage, and Rangeland
Agroecosystems
• Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Research

8. 8
Soil and Air National Program
Research improved approaches to:
Manage and Steward Soil and Air Resources
Manage Nutrients in Agroecosystems
Reduce Environmental Risk of Agricultural
Operations
79 Scientists 23 projects 19 locations $37 M

9. Water Availability & Watershed Management National Program
Research improved approaches to:
Improve water management
Address erosion, sedimentation, &
water quality protection
Enhance benefits of conservation
practices (CEAP)
Improve ecosystem services in
agricultural landscapes via watershed
management
132 Scientists 35 projects 25 locations $68 M

10. 10
Grass, Forage, and Rangeland Agroecosystems National Program
Research improved approaches to:
Understand the interacting ecological components of
these agroecosystems
Develop integrated tools to foster improved
management
Generate strategies that simultaneously contribute to
environmental conservation and that are beneficial to
human and animal use
93 Scientists 25 projects 21 locations $42 M

11. Sustainable Agricultural Systems Research National Program
Research improved approaches to:
Achieve agroecosystem potential
Increase Efficiencies for
Agroecosystem Sustainability
Build Agroecosystems for Intensive,
Resilient Production via GxExM
97 Scientists 26 projects 23 locations $48 M

12. ARS Large Scale Research Thrust Innovations
Cross-cutting UBER Grand Challenges
• Synergies
• ARSx-2020 – Disruptive Pests
• Partnership for Data Innovations

13. Data Handling

14. Eleven, multi-disciplinary teams
Assess carbon sequestration and system productivity
Via
Advanced soil ecosystem assessments using soil
biome/metagenomic analysis
Soil Health

15. SBGx ARS Principal Investigators and Research Team
Kate Reardon Dan Manter Patrick Ewing Mike Lehman Sharon Weyers Jude Maul
Mark Ibekwe Dan Miller Amanda Ashworth YichaoYang KristenVeum HeatherTyler Tom Ducey

16. SBGx
Advanced genomic analyses
of soils - to improve
understanding of soil’s role in
agricultural production and
develop soil health focused
management strategies.
Contribute to the understanding
of the biological systems that
advance ecosystem services
opportunities

17. Soil-Water-Production System Innovations

18. Use of indicators of soil and water quality
to monitor resilience of
diversified, adaptive
crop-livestock systems
to shifts in natural resources
and climate
Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP)
El Reno, OK: Ann-Marie Fortuna, Pat Stark and Daniel Moriasi

19. Those were three examples of innovation efforts
• There are 1000’s
• ROI for ARS ~ 20:1
• Increase relevance of innovation?
… by solving your problems

20. FiveYear Cycle Review:
Listening Sessions to gather Stakeholder input!
What are your needs for Soil and Air Research?
• Soil and Air National Program: May 2020
• Participate
• In person
• By Webinar
• By Email
• By Conversation
Email me / contact me to be placed on the invitation list!
David.Knaebel@usda.gov
Innovations that answer your problems…. How?
Soil and Air National Program
1. Beltsville MD
2. St. Paul MN
3. Ft. Collins CO
4. Albany CA

21. Thank you
Questions and Discussion
David.Knaebel@usda.gov
(301) 504-4644

22. Appendix

23. Marlen Eve Marlen.Eve@ARS.usda.gov // 301-504-7987
• Focus and education: Natural resources, soils, greenhouse gasses, landscape ecology // PhD New Mexico State University
• Vision: Empowering sound land and resource management that promotes productive, sustainable and responsible interaction with our natural environment.
Sarah Beebout Sarah.Beebout@usda.gov // 301-504-4613
• Focus and education: Cropping and livestock systems, natural resources, energy, soil // PhD Cornell University
• Vision: Economic, social, and environmental sustainability across agricultural landscapes
Mike Buser michael.buser@ars.usda.gov // 301-504-4634
• Focus and education: Engineering in agriculture // PhDTexasA&M University
• Vision: Enabling engineering expertise to advance agricultural research, and advancing development of powerful, harmonized big data analytics
Dave Knaebel David.Knaebel@ars.usda.gov // 301-504-4644
• Focus and education: Microbial Molecular Systems Ecology of Soils // PhD University of Cincinnati
• Vision: A holistic understanding of agricultural soil ecosystems that enables productive management & improved environmental quality.
TeferiTsegaye Teferi.Tsegaye@ars.usda.gov //301-504-4731
• Focus and education: WaterAvailability andWatershed Management/Soil Physics // PhD University of Maryland
• Vision: An integrated, effective, & safe water resource management for promoting and enhancing the sustainability of US agriculture.
PeterVadas Peter.Vadas@usda.gov // 301-504-6915
• Focus and education: Soil nutrient management for air and water quality, Pasture and range management // PhD University of Delaware
• Vision: Highly productive and economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable agricultural systems
Ellen Buckley ellenp.buckley@ars.usda.gov // 301-504-4785
• Focus and education: NRSAS accountability and prioritization // BA Biology Johns Hopkins U; MS BiochemistryWake Forest University
• Vision: A smoothly-running NRSAS with happy NPLs and SYs.
Kimberlee Watson Kimberlee.Watson@ars.usda.gov // 301-504-5486
• Focus and education: ProgramAnalyst
• Vision: Support the projects/programs for the DeputyAdministrator, National Program Leaders in Natural Resources & SustainableAg Systems

24. Microbial communities respond when maize is drought stressed
Does limited irrigation impact soil microbial
community composition?
• Implications for soil nutrient cycling and
crop production
• Multiple levels of irrigation demonstrated
that plants are stressed; evaluated how are
the microbes responding
• Soil microbiome communities diverge
under different levels of irrigation
• Drought effects on the soil microbial
community builds over years of repeated
limited irrigation
• Impact of divergence is being assessed
Nora Flynn nora.flynn@ars.usda.gov Fort Collins, CO
Full irrigation Limited irrigation
Soil microbial
communities
diverge along a
gradient of
water stress

25. Soil Microbiome Signatures of StressTolerant Soils
e
Soil microbes can influence plant stress tolerance both
directly (plant function) and indirectly (soil function).
Knowledge of the relevant microbial taxa and/or
function present in the soil is often lacking
• NRCS Soil Health Assessment Initiative and others
analyzed by 16S amplicon sequencing and
phylogenetic mapping
• Molecular taxonomic data are highly correlated
with PLFA taxonomic groups; and functional/gene
signatures are correlated with disease suppression
(entA) or drought tolerance (acdS) in the soils
• Taxonomic and/or molecular signatures obtained
from a single 16S amplicon DNA sequencing
analysis provide a powerful snap-shot of soil health
status and plant stress tolerance
NRCS SHAI
Plot Locations
Daniel Manter Fort Collins, CO daniel.manter@usda.gov 970-492-7255
Selected
bacterial genes
specific to soil
health and
stress tolerance

26. Soil biotic and abiotic factors are known to affect
survival behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in soils.
What drivers (soil physicochemical properties and
bacterial community) influence their survival?
• Analyze survival data of E. coli O157:H7
• Conduct high throughput 16S rRNA sequencing data of
soil communities
• soil physicochemical data collection
Soil salinity and microbiome community
composition were major factors affecting survival
of E. coli O157:H7
Bacterial community exerted an influence on
survival behavior via with soil properties (26.91% )
rather than working alone (4.77%)
Quantitative Assessment of Direct & Indirect Factors Driving Survival of
Escherichia coli O157:H7 in soils
Mark Ibekwe Mark.Ibekwe@ars.usda.gov 951-369-4828 Riverside, CA
salinity
ttd δ
pH
Gamma

27. Understanding µ in G(enetics) × E(nvironment) × M(anagement) × µ (microbiome)
Develop better understanding of how crop
management and the environment impact microbial
communities and - determine how we can manage our
crops to promote beneficial populations
• Assess soil microbial communities for functional and
compositional changes by coupling high-throughput
soil enzyme analyses (function), quantitative PCR
(abundance), next-gen amplicon sequencing
(composition)
• Findings expand the science community’s
knowledgebase of soil microbiomes and optimized
protocols
• Stakeholders benefitting by being providing
information on how management impacts soil
function, nutrient availability, and productivity
Kate Reardon Catherine.Reardon@usda.gov Pendleton, OR 541-278-4392
Manipulative
experiments
& Field
studies
Enzyme activity
Bacterial 16S FungalLSU
DNA analysis
Crop type can have persisting effects on microbial community structure (left) and
activity (right) measurable after 7 years. Structure data is fromT-RFLP analysis.

28. Climate Hubs
USDA’s 10 Regional Climate Hubs
provide information and tools to
land managers to build resilience to
climate variability.
Hubs operate in 3 functional
areas
• Science translation and
information synthesis
• Tool development and
technology transfer
• Stakeholder outreach and
education

29. 29
LongTerm Agroecosystems Research
Four Priority Areas of Concern
• Agro-ecosystem Productivity
• ClimateVariability and Change
• Conservation and Environmental
quality
• Socio-economicViability and
Opportunities
Four Key Products
• Knowledge
• Technologies
• Models
• Data