Podcast - The Science Supporting Changes in Soil Health

Audio-only portion of the webinar. View the webinar at conservationwebinars.net to earn CEUs.
Presented by:
Jerry L. Hatfield, Ph.D., Laboratory Director and Supervisory Plant Physiologist, National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, USDA-ARS, Ames, IA
Participants in this webinar will learn about the science that supports changes in soil health that improves habitat for soil organisms and the impact this has on aggregate stability, water and gas exchange, and soil organic matter for more efficient crop production systems.
Soils can be managed to mitigate climate change effects by improving their biophysical function to become more resilient to long-term trends and short-term extremes in temperature and precipitation. Practices that increase soil organic matter are critical since they not only sequester carbon but the increase in soil organic matter also improves soil moisture and thermal regimes. There is a pressing need to address soil health improvement. This webinar will explore the science that supports the critical role soil health plays in efficient crop production systems; variations in production caused by short-term stresses; and the large economic impact of degraded soils across the country in terms of yield and efficiency of input use.
This webinar is presented by USDA NRCS Science and Technology.
Captions will be posted when they are available.