Alvin J.M. Smucker

Michigan State University | MSU · Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

Due to climate change and variability, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent worldwide, causing significant reductions in agricultural production and food security. The livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially those eking out a living by farming on sandy soils, are particularly affected. We examined this issue using the case of Ma...

Urbanization and industrial competition continue to reduce both farmland and available water for food production. Therefore, a new root zone soil water retention technology was modified to transform highly permeable soils into sustainable agriculture. This long‐term drought avoidance technology was tested in two arid regions of Iraq, an arid countr...

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), many smallholder communities continuously grapple with soil-based poverty as the coarse-textured (sandy) soils, on which they eke out a living, have low water and nutrient retention capacities. The new sub-surface water retention technology (SWRT), which is based on the subsurface installation of impermeable water-retai...

Maximizing crop production with minimal resources such as water and energy is the primary focus of sustainable agriculture. Subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) is a stable approach that preserves water in sandy soils using water saving membranes. An optimal use of SWRT depends on its shape, location and other factors. In order to predict c...

A new soil water retaining technology, designed to increase vegetable production and improve water use efficiency (WUE), was field tested on sand soil. Green bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus) were planted on previously installed U-shaped troughs of impermeable membranes designed to double soil water content in plant root...

Plant water deficits prevent maximum crop production. Rising populations are projected to require 70% more food and 40% more water by 2050. Since the majority of highly productive soils are currently engaged with agriculture, innovative hydropedological approaches are needed to convert large tracts of less productive sandy soils into long-term sust...

More food needs to be produced on soils located near consumer markets globally. This mandate requires innovative hydropedologic technology that produces more food with less water. Since most of the farmland is currently under production or has been badly eroded, more of the 26% land area occupied by highly permeable sand soils needs to be converted...

The effect of water deficit on leaf area index, light interception, stomatal conductance, and dry matter production in dry beans was studied in this investigation carried out at Michigan State University, where drought treatments were imposed at different phenological stages such as vegetative (VS), initial flowering (IF) and seed fiJling (SF). Wat...

Subsurface water retention membranes have been designed to double soil water holding capacities in the root zones of sand soils. Greater quantities of plant available water provide drought resilience to plants in high rainfall or irrigated arid regions. These Michigan State University soil water retention technology (SWRT) membranes are installed a...

Subsurface water retaining technology (SWRT) is a new long-term approach developed to improve water storage capacities of sandy loam soils for maximum sustainable crop production. Simulation-based optimization results demonstrated high potential in reducing water losses from plant root zone, which allow us to configure different membranes and perfo...

Michigan State University has developed a new soil water retention technology (SWRT) designed to mitigate short and long-term drought reductions of agricultural and horticultural crops. Initial test plots indicated that long-term SWRT membranes can transform sandy soils into sustainable production by doubling soil water and nutrient holding capacit...

Low retention of water and nutrients in the root zones of highly permeable sandy soils are primary contributors to their low production capacities of corn in Michigan. Excessive irrigation combined with excessive drainage cause excessive leaching of nitrates and potassium leading to high nitrate concentrations of in groundwater. Low water contents...

Agricultural irrigation water sources face declines and greater demands by competing municipal, industrial and commercial interests. Droughts, limited water supplies, soil erosion, shortages of agricultural lands for sustainable production of food and cellulosic biomass require the commercialization of a new long term soil technology that provides...

Subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) is a new, long-term approach developed to improve water storage capacities of sandy soils for sustainable crop production. It consists of subsurface polyethylene membranes installed within the soil profile that prevent the loss of irrigation water via deep percolation. Our objective was to identify membr...

Plant root exudates are primarily composed of carbohydrates (CHs), amino acids (AAs), and organic acids (OAs). Little is known about how plant root exudates influence the stability and mobility of clay colloids in the soil profile. In this study, transport behaviors of K+-saturated smectite colloids dispersed in maize (Zea mays L.) artificial root...

Highly permeable soils containing little carbon require new environmentally sustainable long-term technologies that improve their retention of water and nutrients in the root zone. A new subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) membrane configuration, installed at strategic depths in a soil profile, has been designed to capture and retain twice...

Reduced soil tillage practices are claimed to improve soil health, fertility and productivity through improved soil structure and higher soil organic matter contents. This study compares soil structure stability of soil aggregates under three different tillage practices: conventional, reduced and no tillage. The erosive strength of soil aggregates...

Sustainable crop production in sandy soils is challenging due to low soil water holding capacity and high water permeability. The subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) is a relatively new long-term approach that allows precision control of water and nutrients in the root zone. However design of SWRT and relevant irrigation techniques is stil...

Retaining water at the root level of crops has been a major focus in precision irrigation system from technological, societal, and environmental points of view. Subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) through impermeable membranes placed at certain depths under has shown 1.4 to 3.4-fold increase in production in crops. However, the sizing, pla...

Improved Water Policies and New Technology will Promote Greater Food and Cellulosic Biomass Production and Reduce Competition for Water** Alvin Smucker, Ph.D. Professor of Soil Biophysics; Director, Michigan State University Subsurface Water Retention Technology Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States Summary Growi...

Soil aggregates are an important structural component of the soil matrix that could harbor Escherichia coli and provide an environment for its survival and water flow reentering. Knowledge of the exact pore locations within soil aggregates obtained using X-ray computed microtomography opens new opportunities for understanding microorganism movement...

New Technology Retains Soil Water and Nutrients in Plant Root Zone and Doubles Plant Production Countries must work together to use our combined experiences, sciences and technologies to create national and international preventive policies against droughts. Supplies of high quality water, the world’s most finite critical resource, ensure economic...

Irrigation water sources face declines and greater demands by competing municipal, industrial, or commercial interests. Droughts, increasing commodity prices, shortages of high producing agricultural lands for both food and cellulosic biomass, increasing nitrogen fertilizer costs combined with growing global food and energy demands require the comm...

The study evaluated the effects of soil intra-aggregate pore distributions on movement and fate of E. coli (a global indicator of fecal pollution) within soil aggregates. The first objective was to characterize pore structure of intact soil aggregates (4–6 mm in size) using X-ray computed microtomography and to quantify the differences in pore stru...

Advances in X-ray microtomography enabled the examination of intact pore networks, as small as 3 to 5 microns, within soil volumes. Field management practices controlled clay-organic-ion sorptivity which modified the formation and function of pores undergoing alterations during frequent dry/wet (DW) cycling. Soil aggregates subjected to multiple DW...

Michigan is among the states with glacial soil deposits that fall in a category of multiple levels of degradations, and is dominated by the northward infusion of intensive production of multi-purpose crops such as corn and soybean. The result is often conflicting agronomic, ecological, economic, and biological outcomes associated with changing land...

Intra-aggregate pores play an important role in controlling soil processes on a micro-scale. Differences in parent materials, pedogenic processes, land use, and management practices can have a substantial effect on their characteristics. The goal of this study is to examine intra-aggregate pore characteristics using X-ray computed microtomography (...

Recent advances in computed tomography provide measurement tools to study internal structures of soil aggregates at micrometer resolutions and to improve our understanding of specific mechanisms of various soil processes. Fractal analysis is one of the data analysis tools that can be helpful in evaluating heterogeneity of the intra-aggregate intern...

Soil structure is known to stabilise organic carbon (Corg), as it acts as physical barrier between the decomposing microorganisms and the substrates. It is, however, not fully understood how the organic carbon (Corg) and especially fresh material from plants is distributed within the soil structure. The aim of the current study is to investigate th...

Advances in X-ray microtomography (μCT) are opening new opportunities for examining soil pore structures. However, usefulness of μCT data for pore structure characterization depends on how accurately the grayscale images are segmented into pore and solid components. Multiple segmentation algorithms have been developed; however, one of the difficult...

cn Abstract-In arid and semi-arid regions, water is a major limited factor to vegetation and environment. To study the influence of membranes on water retention, three homogeneous sand columns with membranes were installed. Keep the height of free water at Scm above the soil surface of those columns for 3 hours. Experiments results showed that memb...

Multifractal methods have the potential to be useful tools for characterizing spatial distributions of soil pores from microtomographic images of undisturbed soil cores and soil aggregates. The objective of this study was to examine the limitations of multifractal analyses in binary (void and solid) soil images and to explore conditions under which...

The aim of this research was to investigate effects of olive oil solid waste (OSW) and OSW compost (OSWC) on stabilization of soil structure. OSW, OSW+N (with and additional nitrogen source) and OSWC were mixed with Clay loam soils at the rates of 0, 3, 5 and 7% w/w. Samples were incubated for three months at 25 Co and water stability of soil aggre...

Structure of soil aggregate interiors controls intra-aggregate processes and provides important contributions to the biogeochemical processes of the soil profile. Applications of computed microtomography (CMT) to soil science have enabled the direct and nondestructive analyses of internal aggregate pore structures within soil volumes. The main obje...

Soil aggregates include sand/silt/clay, water, ion and organic matter contents combined with natural dry/wet (D/W) cycling alters both the formation and function of intra-aggregate pore continuity, connectivity, dead-end storage volumes, and tortuosity. Surface aggregates in the 0-5 cm depths of most soils experience from 34 to 57 D/W cycles that e...

Soil structure is known to stabilise organic carbon (C org), as it acts as physical barrier between the decomposing microorganisms and the substrates. It is, however, not fully understood how the organic carbon (C org) and especially fresh material from plants is distributed within the soil structure. The aim of the current study is to investigate...

Advances in X-ray microtomography open up a new way for examining the internal structures of soil aggregates in 3D space with a resolution of only several microns. However, processing of X-ray soil images in order to obtain reliable representations of pore geometries within aggregate pore remain to be established. Multiple approaches to the segment...

Soils are complex environments governing numerous interacting processes which control ecosystem functions. For instance storage and transport of water, gas and nutrients, retardation and transformation of contaminants, and habitat functions for soil biota are strongly dependent on the internal structures and accessibility of interfaces within pore...

Trace evidence is a forensic science term that describes any evidence that occurs in very small quantities and which usually requires a microscope for visualisation and analysis. Common types include hairs, textile fibres, paint fragments, glass, bomb parts, plastics, metal fragments and other similar materials. Methods of analysis for trace eviden...

Knowledge on the geometry of pore networks of intra-aggregate soil pore spaces are of great value for many soil environmental processes. Advances in non-invasive D imaging techniques such as synchrotron-radiation-based microtomography offer an excellent opportunity to study the interrelationship of the pore network geometry with physical processes...

Pore network geometries of intra-aggregate pore spaces are of great importance for water and ion flux rates controlling C sequestration and bioremediation. Advances in non-invasive three-dimensional imaging techniques such as synchrotron-radiation-based x-ray microtomography (SR-mu CT), offer excellent opportunities to study the interrelationships...

Biogeochemical mechanisms at microscale regions within soil macroaggregates strengthen aggregates during repeated DW cycles. Knowledge of additional biogeochemical processes that promote the movement of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) into and throughout soil aggregates and soil aggregate stabilization are essential before we can more accurately pre...

Cycles of wetting and drying (WD) occur naturally in soils and affect the pore structure through altered hydraulic stresses. Two organic-rich soils, a Eutric Histosol and a Histic Gleysol, and two inorganic soils, a Calcic Gleysol and a Dystric Gleysol, ranging in texture and microstructure, were investigated. Undisturbed soil samples were predried...

Soil biophysical transport mechanisms promoting biogeochemical sorption of soluble organic carbon (SOC) compounds within macroaggregates control the retention and release of most soil nutrients, C- and N-based polysaccharides, and contaminants. Ecosystems containing continuous supplies of soluble root exudates and particulate organic matter (POM) p...

Although significant progress has been made in our ability to characterize and quantify the soil physical environment and processes, there remains a critical gap in our understanding of interactions between the soil physical and biological realms. This was the impetus for the special symposium entitled "Soil Biophysics: A Challenging Interface" we...

Knowledge of soil shrinkage behavior is needed to improve the understanding and prediction of changes of unsaturated hydraulic properties in non-rigid soils. The heterogeneity and interaction of horizontal and vertical soil shrinkages that produce soil cracks and associated soil subsidence require additional quantification. Vertical shrinkage can b...

Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 9:15 AM 318-4 Acoustical Profile Identification of Soil Hydration and Stability. Alvin Smucker1, Eun Jin Park2, Marisol Quintanilla1, Stuart Gage1, and George Bird1. (1) Michigan State University, 530 Plant & Soil Sci. Bldg., ., East Lansing, MI 48824-1325, (2) Gyeonggi Research Institute, Suwon, Korea, Kenya New dev...

The CERES (Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis) family of crop models predicts cereal growth, development, and yield. CERES simulates nitrogen (N) as a yield‐limiting macronutrient. Because N leaching is an economic and environmental concern, this study evaluated if CERES can be used to predict N leaching under different N ma...

Hydropneumatic root separation from field soil collects organic non-root residues. This study compares manual cleaning to electronic cleaning with image analysis of carrot roots from field experiments. Washed and stained very fine roots of carrots (diameter 0.15mm) were video-recorded by using a high-resolution robotic camera system. Fibrous root l...

Changes in soil C as a result of changes in management are relatively slow, and several years of experimentation are needed before differ- ences in management practices can be detected using traditional statis- tical procedures such as randomized complete block design (RCBD). Using spatial analyses (SA) that take into account spatial variability be...

Different positions within soil macroaggregates, and macroaggregates of different sizes, have different chemical and physical properties which could affect microbial growth and interactions among taxa. The hypothesis that these soil aggregate fractions contain different eubacterial communities was tested using terminal restriction fragment length p...

The stability of soil aggregate structures is very important for controlling aggregate dynamics and associated biogeochemical soil processes that respond to management and other physical disturbances. We examined the mechanical strengths of concentric soil layers from the surfaces to the centers of individual soil macroaggregates and compared them...

Methods used to study carbon sequestration by soil aggregates have often excluded the concentric spatial variability and other dynamic processes that contribute to resource accessibility and solute transport within aggregates. We investigated the spatial gradients of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) from the exterior to interior layers within macroaggre...

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) contributes 430 million kg N year−1 to the US Corn-Belt soils, according to a 1991 survey. Minimizing leaching losses from these very large N inputs requires a better understanding of the specific root dynamics that relate to the shoot-borne nitrates which have been reported to develop throughout many soil profiles. The...

A. J. M. Smucker; Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States. The functional dynamics of root growth and associated microbial contributions to nutrient and water uptake require additional comparisons of root demographics and their life spans within soil profiles across geopolitical boundaries. Root contributions of carbon into the...