Long-Term Study

“Across 41 farm sites and five soil series in Central Ohio, woodland soils had consistently lower bulk density and penetration resistance and higher porosity than cropland or meadow, while no-till and minimum till fields showed no clear physical advantage over conventional tillage even after 15+ years. Soil organic carbon explained a moderate share of variation in porosity, bulk density, and compaction (R² ≥ 0.33), suggesting building SOC is the lever — and that structural gains from reduced tillage may take longer than 15 years to show up.”

“Thirty years of expanding winter cover cropping and other conservation practices in Nebraska's Shell Creek watershed coincided with less frequent extreme flood events and downward trends in turbidity, total suspended solids, and total phosphorus — though the water quality declines were not statistically significant. Summer cropping intensified over the same period, showing conservation gains happened alongside, not instead of, production.”

“A yield-correlated minimum soil dataset — total organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, active carbon, total nitrogen and aggregate stability — tracked full-dataset soil quality scores closely (R² 0.53–0.93) and beat the usual PCA-selected indicator set. Pairing linear scoring that uses threshold limits with simple additive indexing kept soil quality index values within ±1% of the full dataset, giving farmers and advisers a cheaper, transferable way to rate soil quality across corn–soybean sites in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio.”

“Cutting irrigation to 50% of crop ET over six years in Utah barely changed soil organic matter or aggregate stability, though warmer Cedar City saw ACE protein drop from 1.57 to 1.41 g/kg and Vernal soil respiration was 28% higher under full irrigation. Cover cropping was the standout for infiltration, raising field-saturated hydraulic conductivity to 24.62 cm/h versus 5.55 (tilled) and 3.42 (no-till) cm/h.”

“Across 10 long-term Arkansas row-crop trials, soil health indicators (CO2 respiration, β-glucosidase, POXC, organic matter) and composite scores were highest in the top 0-5 cm and declined with depth, and were higher in summer and winter samples than in spring or fall (fall lowest). Cover crops and fertilized treatments scored better than winter fallow and unfertilized plots, so soil health monitoring needs standardized sampling depth and season to make valid comparisons.”

“Twenty-seven years of organic no-till in central Ohio, comparing compost, manure, cover crop and fallow treatments, produced measurable differences in soil physical quality — bulk density, penetration resistance, water-stable aggregates, saturated hydraulic conductivity, organic carbon and plant-available water — at two depths, combined into a single soil physical quality index. The dataset offers a rare long-term benchmark for how organic amendments and continuous cover shape soil structure and water-holding ability.”

“After 27 years of no-till in central Ohio, annual cow manure (23.3 Mg/ha/yr) gave the highest plant-available water capacity in the top 20 cm (5.14 cm) and the highest surface water content (44.4% at pF 1.8) versus 35.8% under cover crops, mainly by building storage (meso) pores and lowering bulk density. Compost showed poorer pore-structure response, suggesting clogged mesopores, so manure was the more reliable amendment for improving water delivery.”

“We found an association between increased carbon, aggregation, and AMF biomass. Greater soil aggregation, carbon and AMF were observed in NT at 0–5 cm soil depth. The W-S cropping system had greater soil microbial community composition based on fungi biomass, AMF and fungal to bacteria ratio from phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA). Large macroaggregates were positively correlated with total C and N, microbial biomass, Gram + , and AMF. Soil water content was positively correlated with macroaggregates, total C and N, and AC. No-till increased soil carbon content even after 44 years of cult”

“Across 648 soil profiles in North Carolina, particulate organic matter — the fraction most responsive to management — made up 35% of total soil organic C in the top 10 cm but only 10% at 30–60 cm, and was lower in sandier soils. Poultry litter application raised root-zone particulate organic C and N by 17%–32%, and pastures 30 years old held 4%–20% more than newer pastures, while deeper, stable (nonparticulate) carbon was set by long-term soil formation rather than management.”

“After 27 years of no-till in central Ohio, compost and manure raised topsoil (0-20 cm) carbon stocks about 66%-67% above fallow, with compost sequestering 0.85 Mg C/ha/yr and manure adding the most nitrogen (0.061 Mg N/ha/yr); cover crops alone gave a smaller 21%-27% gain. Higher soil carbon tracked better aggregate stability (R2 = 0.76) and lower bulk density, though compost also pushed up salinity near the surface.”

“This study was conducted to investigate linkages between seasonal climatic conditions and sugarbeet sucrose content in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon.”

“The impact of long-term conservation farming research and education in Pacific Northwest wheatlands.”

“Bacterial communities on wheat grown under long-term conventional tillage and no-till in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.”

“Intensified dust storm activity and Valley fever infection in the southwestern United States.”

“Detection of Shelterbelt Density Change Using Historic APFO and NAIP Aerial Imagery.”

“Long-term agro-management strategies shape soil bacterial community structure in dryland wheat systems.”

“The Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network measures the chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter at over 160 locations throughout the United States.”

“Long-term repeated application of fumigants can have greater and longer lasting impacts on soil microbial communities than single fumigation events.”

“Use of historical mapping to understand sources of soil-lead contamination: Case study of Santa Ana, CA.”

“Global Water Scarcity and Watershed Management Planning: A Case Study of Clear Lake, IOWA, USA.”

“Cadmium exposure and endometrial cancer risk: A large midwestern U.S. population-based case-control study.”

“Study on Nitrogen Concentration of Corn Hybrids in South Dakota.”

“Identify potential soil legacy effects and recovery time delays after land transformation and place those effects in the context of EGS tradeoffs.”

“Impacts of stocking densities on soil biochemical and microbial properties in a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem at two landscape positions.”

“Impact of changes in barometric pressure on landfill methane emission.”

“The Palmer Drought Severity Index has been widely used to evaluate drought conditions since it was developed in 1965. In the original formulation of the PDSI, potential evapotranspiration (PET) was estimated using the Thornthwaite equation. This study evaluates how using more physically based approaches for estimating PET influences the depiction of drought conditions over the U.S. Great Plains from 1980 to 2012.”

“Patchy Fires Promote Regeneration of Longleaf Pine in Pine Savannas.”

“Prairie strips improve biodiversity and delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands.”

“Insect declines have become pronounced in prairie ecosystems, particularly in areas of agricultural intensification. Non-target pesticide exposure has been raised as a key concern for prairie remnant health.”

“Bird community response to field-level integration of prairie strips.”

“Foliar sprays of eight plant-derived protein hydrolysates on tomato generally increased digital biomass, with two products (A and I) significantly improving relative growth rate and overall growth performance, though chlorophyll fluorescence showed no photosynthetic differences. Metabolomics indicated the biostimulants worked by reprogramming ethylene-precursor, polyamine, and ROS-signaling pathways, and the phenotyping-plus-metabolomics combination proved an efficient way to screen new biostimulant candidates.”

“Woody encroachment is a global driver of grassland loss and management to counteract it represents one of the most expensive conservation practices implemented in grasslands.”

“Exploring Old Data with New Tricks: Long-Term Monitoring Indicates Spatial and Temporal Change in Populations of Sympatric Prairie Grouse in the Nebraska Sandhills.”

“Long-term biosolids applications improve key soil health functions for semi-arid dryland systems.”

“Trace Element Export from the Critical Zone Triggered by Snowmelt Runoff in a Montane Watershed.”

“Wildfire impacts on groundwater aquifers: a case study of the 1996 Honey Boy Fire in Beaver County, Utah, USA.”

“Exploiting Earth Observation Data to Impute Groundwater Level Measurements with an Extreme Learning Machine.”

“The impact of repeated application of alkaline biosolids products over more than a decade on soil concentrations of nutrients and trace metals, and potential for uptake of these elements by crops was investigated by analyzing soils from farm fields near Oklahoma City.”

“In 13 years of the Rodale Farming Systems Trial, cutting tillage lowered gross revenues about 10-13% in conventional and low-input organic systems but also trimmed costs 5-6%, leaving net returns essentially unchanged (though with more year-to-year economic risk). The manure-based organic system with continuous living cover was least affected by reduced tillage and out-earned the conventional system even without organic price premiums.”

“Longterm impacts of drain spacing, crop management, and weather on nitrate leaching to subsurface drains.”

“Water and productivity accounting using WA+ framework for sustainable water resources management: Case study of northern Iran.”

“The effect of a white clover living mulch on nutrient cycling in a cotton production system in the Georgia Piedmont.”

“Low-intensity forest restoration does not increase surface water yields.”

“Soil health and nutrient dynamics in pasturelands: A decadal study on the effects of alternative grazing management.”