Collaborators: Brendan O’Neill, SEAS (University of Michigan); Vincent Denef, EEB (UM); Jeremiah Asher, Michigan State University (MSU); Christine Sprunger, MSU; Julie Doll, Michigan Agriculture Advancement; Tom Zimnicki, Alliance for the Great Lakes

Funding: Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD)

This research will advance knowledge about the relationship between conservation practices, soil health, and water quality. Our team will partner with row crop and diverse specialty crop producers in southeastern Michigan with a focus on the Western Lake Erie Basin to link management systems with soil health indicators and nitrogen and phosphorus mass balances on working farm fields. We will develop and refine regionally-appropriate soil health indicators with a focus on biological indicators, including activity, composition, and function of the soil microbiome. Our team will also monitor edge-of-field water quality for a subset of fields to improve the ability to predict water quality outcomes based on changes in management. By integrating observational, experimental, and modeling approaches, this project will generate new understanding of the complex relationships between farm management, soil health, and key outcomes including crop productivity and yield stability, soil carbon accrual, and water quality improvements. Overall, this on-farm research will inform the design of conservation programs by increasing understanding of the most effective practices and by using a co-learning approach to receive feedback on results from the agricultural community in Michigan.