Field, Lab, Earth

“Artificial Sweeteners Reveal Septic System Effluent in Rural Groundwater” with Dr. John Spoelstra. Dr. John Spoelstra is something like a wastewater detective. If there is hidden wastewater that is contaminating groundwater and putting health outcomes at risk, he can find it. To trace the path of wastewater, scientists use a special set of tools: tracer compounds. These are compounds that are not found in the natural environment, but have a lot of human use. Examples are caffeine, acetaminophen, anti-seizure medications, and a recent discovery Dr. Spoelstra and his team have found to be incredibly effective: artificial sweeteners. Think about it: in addition to diet drinks, they are in everything from fruit snacks to ketchup to toothpaste and mouthwash. In his latest research, he needed to investigate the sources of a surplus of nitrogen in a community’s groundwater. Artificial sweeteners in rural wells and river seeps were used to assess the impact from wastewater. Listen in to hear more about: • The potential threats of wastewater to the environment and humans • How Dr. Spoelstra’s team figured out that artificial sweeteners could be such a powerful tool • What methods are used to analyze artificial sweeteners in a water sample • How common it is find find artificial sweeteners in groundwater If you would like more information about this topic, today’s paper is available here: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/jeq/articles/46/6/1434 This paper is always freely available. If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/podcast Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you would like to reach out to John, you can find him here: John.Spoelstra@canada.ca https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/john-spoelstra https://uwaterloo.ca/earth-environmental-sciences/people-profiles/john-spoelstra-0 Resources “Grand River has highest levels of artificial sweetener pollution on record:” https://www.therecord.com/news-story/4271982-grand-river-has-highest-levels-of-artificial-sweetener-pollution-on-record/ Municipal Wastewater Treatment Systems: https://www.epa.gov/npdes/municipal-wastewater EPA-Private Wells: https://www.epa.gov/privatewells EPA-Septic Systems: https://www.epa.gov/septic

Rapid soil formation in engineered soils, as highlighted in the article “Soil Evolution Par for the Golf Course” with Glen Obear. Not all of us who go golfing think about what is happening underneath the green. Glen Obear has always been that kind of guy. Since his high school days, he has wanted to be a golf course superintendent – even though he doesn’t play that much golf! What fascinates him is the science of developing a golf course. We may simply see a beautiful, natural-looking terrain, but those rolling hills and magnificent green fields are the product of the hard work of agronomists, soil scientists, and engineers. They manipulate the elements of soil creation to create a terrain that is perfectly suited to its purpose – an engineered soil. Engineered soils are everywhere – from an urban garden bed to athletic fields to green roofs. Glen’s internship work at a golf course in Hawaii led him to find an interesting problem that not even his agronomy professors could solve. Iron pan layers called placic layers were developing in the greens between the sand and gravel layers. These layers were preventing the greens from draining water. However, there was little prior literature on these layers developing in engineered soils. He’s now focused his PhD research on these placic layers. Listen in to hear Glen discuss more of his research on engineered soils and to learn: • How a putting green is developed, and how they keep it so green • What CORPT means • The differences between engineered and natural soils If you would like more information about this topic, today’s paper is available here: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/csa/articles/62/6/4 This article is always freely available. If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/podcast Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you would like to reach out to Glen, you can find him here: glenobear@gmail.com Resources University of Nebraska Turfgrass Science: https://turf.unl.edu/ “Soils with iron-cemented layers on golf courses in the USA” https://turf.unl.edu/research/iron_cemented_layer/geoderma.pdf USGA: http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/turfgrass-and-environmental-research/research-updates/2018/genesis-and-prevention-of-layers-in-putting-green-rootzone-profi.html Research Spotlight: Automating XRF analysis of turf soils: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJzYzuITz44&list=PLwj31x_xFLecSVdfbDs6gnEM8rRWY3gJz Research Spotlight: Iron-Layer Formation in Sand Root Zones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_iQjshOnHw&list=PLwj31x_xFLecSVdfbDs6gnEM8rRWY3gJz&index=3

“Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (Vis-Nir-Swir) as a Promising Tool for Blue Carbon Quantification in Mangrove Soils: A Case of Study in Tropical Semiarid Climatic Conditions” with Dr. Gabriel Nuto Nóbrega. Mangrove forests are some of the most important forests in the world. Mangroves are uniquely adapted to acting as a middleman. They can deal with very high salinity and hide tides, but when the tide drops, they can deal with the low salinity. They act as nurseries for young birds, fish, and large, rare mammals like dugongs and manatees before they are ready to branch out into the ocean. They also have the important ability to act as a carbon sink – they take carbon from the atmosphere and trap it in the soils. Dr. Gabriel Nuto Nóbrega has been working with this aspect of mangrove soils since his undergrad days. He wanted to know just how much carbon mangrove forests have the capability to sequester. However, the act of doing so had proven tricky. Not only were traditional methods not reliably measuring the carbon, but they were leaving a toxic residue behind – not ideal in an important and sensitive ecosystem. His solution was DRS – diffusive reflectance spectroscopy, a technique that is not only friendlier to the ecosystem, but cheaper and easier than traditional methods. Listen in to learn about: • What makes mangrove soils different than terrestrial soils • How DRS functions similarly to the human eye • How Dr. Nóbrega has learned to avoid getting stuck in mangrove forests’ sticky soils • All the work that goes into taking a mangrove soil sample from the forests into the lab – it’s not easy If you would like more information about this topic, today’s paper is available here: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/articles/81/6/1661 It will be freely available from June 22 to 6 July, 2018. If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/podcast Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you would like to reach out to Gabriel, you can find him here: nutonobrega@usp.br www.twitter.com/GNNobrega https://www.researchgate.net/institution/Universidade_Federal_Fluminense/department/Departamento_de_Geoquimica_GEO If you would like to reach out to other members of Gabriel’s research group, you can find them here: https://twitter.com/Tiago_OFerreira https://twitter.com/QueirozHM https://twitter.com/danilo_ichi Resources Blue Carbon Initiative: http://thebluecarboninitiative.org/ Blue Carbon Portal: http://bluecarbonportal.org/ Department of Soil Science, University of São Paulo: https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Sao_Paulo/department/Departamento_de_Ciencia_do_Solo_LSO_ESALQ or http://www.en.esalq.usp.br/departments/soil-science Department of Geochemistry, Federal Fluminense University: http://www.geoquimica.uff.br/

“Assessment of Selected Antibiotic Resistances in Ungrazed Native Nebraska Prairie Soils” with Dr. Lisa Durso. Antibiotic resistance has revealed itself as one of the great public health threats of our lifetimes. It currently causes 23,000 deaths per year and $55 billion of health costs in the U.S. Those numbers are predicted to skyrocket in coming years without major change. However, there’s a caveat that makes researching it harder. Antibiotic resistance occurs naturally in soil, even without antibiotics present – but we’re not sure why. That’s where Dr. Lisa Durso comes in. She works with the USDA-ARS to look at Nebraskan soils and examine how much antibiotic resistance really occurs in untouched soil so we can establish a baseline for future research. She works with native prairie soils all over Nebraska to promote the broader goal of learning how drug-resistant genes survive in environments, and how they can move from field to people. Tune in to learn: • Unexpected grocery store products that were created by the USDA-ARS • Top health threats listed by the CDC • How bacteria share resistance genes like a banana bread recipe • How scientists count bacteria If you would like more information about this topic, today’s paper is available here: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/jeq/articles/45/2/454 It will be freely available from 22 June to 6 July, 2018. If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/podcast Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you would like to reach out to Lisa, you can find her here: Lisa.Durso@ARS.USDA.GOV Resources CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/protecting_yourself_family.html More information on antibiotic resistance: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/index.html

“Achieving Diverse Cover Crop Mixtures: Effects of Planting Date and Seeding Rate” with Dr. Ebony Murrell and Dr. Mac Burgess In fall, organic farmers across the country will start spreading seeds for crops that they won’t ever harvest. The reason? They’re cover crops! The secret agents of the crop game, these are crops that are planted in between plantings of cash crops like corn or wheat because of their many benefits to the land, the environment, and the farmer. Historically, they’ve been planted to prevent water from carrying nutrients away in runoff. But in recent years, there have been discoveries of the many other benefits that cover crops provide, everything from weed suppression, to breaking up soil compaction, to making more nutrients like nitrogen available to their crops in spring. Dr. Ebony Murrell and Dr. Mac Burgess are fascinated with all of this. They’ve found that mixing cover crops together can bring those benefits to the next level, especially if they are equally represented in the spring. Working with a panel of farmers, agronomic industry professionals, and academics, the two developed four seed mixes that brought together some of the most popular cover crops to see how these pairs worked with one another and how each was represented in spring. Listen in to learn: • How Dr. Murrell moved from mosquito research to cover crops • How cover crops are like football players • How to get started with trying out cover crops for yourself If you would like more information about this topic, today’s paper is available here: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/aj/articles/109/1/259 It will be freely available from 22 June to 6 July, 2018. If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/podcast Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you would like to reach out to Ebony, you can find her here: egmurrell@gmail.com https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ebony_Murrell If you would like to reach out to Mac, you can find him here: http://plantsciences.montana.edu/directory/faculty/1582268/macdonald-burgess Resources Penn State: http://agsci.psu.edu/organic/research-and-extension/cover-crop-cocktails Practical Farmers of Iowa: https://www.practicalfarmers.org/ NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/ Midwest Cover Crop Council: http://mccc.msu.edu/covercroptool/covercroptool.php Managing Cover Crops Profitably: https://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Managing-Cover-Crops-Profitably-3rd-Edition