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NORTH ATLANTIC AREA HomeAPPALACHIAN FARMING SYSTEMS RESEARCH CENTERResearch

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# Related Topics

        								Project Team 			
        -  **Zobel, Richard** 
        -  					Gonzalez, Javier 				 
        -  					Halvorson, Jonathan 				 
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**Research Project: **

Start Date: May 17, 2006End Date: May 16, 2011

**Objective:**To discover new information about soil components and processes that will improve pasture and amenity grass establishment and function in Appalachian hill-land grazing and turfgrass ecosystems.  Specific objectives:  Quantify plant community effects on nutrient pools, fluxes and transformations; Determine manageable regulators of these nutrient pools for incorporation into management models; Develop practices to overcome soil physical and chemical limitations for turf uses such as athletic fields, golf courses and home lawns.  This approach will involve natural and constructed soils.
**Approach:**(1) Establish a baseline of management and vegetation effects on Appalachian hill-land soil nutrient and organic matter dynamics; (2) Determine the extent to which pasture management alters organic matter transformations through changes in soil biological communities; (3) Determine the response of root morphology and function on phosphorus and nitrogen uptake/availability in the rhizosphere and the biological and geochemical mechanisms for increasing phosphorus availability to plants; (4) Determine whether tannins, an important decomposition product of plant matter, interact to regulate organic matter and nutrient availability; and (5) Develop and test approaches to modifying the rhizosphere through constructed soils utilizing agricultural and/or industrial by-products as amendments for amenity grasses; Synthesize the findings into conceptual models that provide a framework for decision support tools.
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