New MU Weather Station Measures Soil Moisture in Forest

Nov 21, 2024

A new weather station at Echo Bluff State Park in Shannon County marks the 46th station in the Missouri Mesonet, the state’s expanding weather station network. University of Missouri Extension state climatologist Zachary Leasor says the location was chosen in part to more closely monitor weather conditions in forested environments.

Located on a ridgetop within the park, the site presents unique challenges for weather monitoring. In densely forested areas, it is difficult to install weather stations that meet standards and recommendations established by weather and climate experts. But trees and their canopies create a unique microclimate where weather conditions in a forest can vary over short distances, says MU Extension state forester Hank Stelzer.

In addition to monitoring meteorological variables, the Echo Bluff station will also measure soil temperature and moisture at different depths. “These measurements will allow us to better understand how forest soil moisture is impacted by periods of wetness and dryness,” says Leasor. “Previous soil moisture monitoring efforts have been primarily focused in agricultural and grassland areas where the dynamics of plant water use and evapotranspiration are different from forests.”

The network plans to expand its forested monitoring sites in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Hydrology Information Center. The Missouri Climate Center and Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership are researching a monitoring plan to guide the selection of new sites that fill in coverage gaps and represent Missouri’s diverse environmental characteristics.

Soil moisture data provides a critical link between the atmosphere and land surface, Leasor says. Improved monitoring will support forestry and fire weather applications while providing important data to research the impact of weather and climate on forests. Forest health can be affected by flooding, drought and long-term climate trends. Data will also be critical for modeling and predicting hydrologic extremes across the Ozarks.

Trees have been subjected to great stress in the past century, says Stelzer. Despite the resilience of trees, droughts, floods and disease have taken their toll.

Fortunately, new technology allows researchers to closely study how forestlands respond. Data obtained from weather stations combined with data gathered by drones give insight into the health of forests, says Stelzer.

Learn more about Missouri Mesonet at http://agebb.missouri.edu/weather/realtime/echobluff.asp.

Photo

https://extension.missouri.edu/sites/default/files/legacy_media/wysiwyg/News/photos/20241120-soil-1.jpg

A new weather station at Echo Bluff State Park in Shannon County will measure soil temperature and moisture. This photo from the installation of a weather station at MU South Farm in Columbia shows how soil moisture sensors are staggered at different depths. Photo courtesy of MU Extension state climatologist Zachary Leasor.

Source : missouri.edu

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”