Soil organic carbon beneath croplands and re-established grasslands in the North Dakota Prairie Pothole Region.

Grassland ecosystems established under the conservation reserve program (CRP) in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) currently provide soil conservation and wildlife habitat services. We aimed to determine if these lands also sequester soil organic carbon (SOC), as compared with neighboring croplands across multiple farms in the North Dakota PPR. We sampled soil from small plots at 17 private farms in the central North Dakota PPR, where long-term (≥15 years) grasslands managed under the CRP were paired with neighboring annual croplands. Cores were collected to 100 cm and split into 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-70, and 70-100 cm soil depth layers. We hypothesized the effect of land use on soil organic carbon (SOC), root carbon (C), and bulk density would be greatest near the surface. For 0-10 and 10-20 cm layers, grasslands managed under the CRP were lower in bulk density and higher in SOC. From 0 to 70 cm, grasslands managed under the CRP were higher in root C. Average (±standard error) SOC for re-established grasslands and croplands was 25.39 (0.91) and 21.90 (1.02), respectively, for the 0-10 cm soil layer and 19.88 (0.86) and 18.31 (0.82), respectively, for the 10-20 soil layer. Compared to croplands, re-established grasslands sampled in the North Dakota PPR were 3-13 % lower in bulk density and 9-16 % higher in SOC from 0 to 20 cm, while root C was 2-6 times greater from 0 to 70 cm.

Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) EST and SSR marker development, annotation, and transferability.

Orchardgrass, or cocksfoot [Dactylis glomerata (L.)], has been naturalized on nearly every continent and is a commonly used species for forage and hay production. All major cultivated varieties of orchardgrass are autotetraploid, and few tools or information are available for functional and comparative genetic analyses and improvement of the species. To improve the genetic resources for orchardgrass, we have developed an EST library and SSR markers from salt, drought, and cold stressed tissues. The ESTs were bi-directionally sequenced from clones and combined into 17,373 unigenes. Unigenes were annotated based on putative orthology to genes from rice, Triticeae grasses, other Poaceae, Arabidopsis, and the non-redundant database of the NCBI. Of 1,162 SSR markers developed, approximately 80% showed amplification products across a set of orchardgrass germplasm, and 40% across related Festuca and Lolium species. When orchardgrass subspecies were genotyped using 33 SSR markers their within-accession similarity values ranged from 0.44 to 0.71, with Mediterranean accessions having a higher similarity. The total number of genotyped bands was greater for tetraploid accessions compared to diploid accessions. Clustering analysis indicated grouping of Mediterranean subspecies and central Asian subspecies, while the D. glomerata ssp. aschersoniana was closest related to three cultivated varieties.

Phenology and abundance of bean leaf beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in eastern South Dakota on alfalfa and soybean relative to tillage, fertilization, and yield.

Phenology and abundance of bean leaf beetles, Cerotoma trifurcata (Förster), were examined throughout two eastern South Dakota growing seasons in relation to grain yields in chisel- and ridge-tilled soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] grown in 2-yr rotation with corn (Zea mays L.) with and without added nitrogen (N). Populations were also sampled early and late season in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Beetles were present in alfalfa by late May and most were reproductively active within a week, but their presence in alfalfa did not always precede soybean emergence. Most beetles taken from alfalfa in late fall were teneral; all were previtellogenic and unmated. Reproductively active beetles were detected in soybeans as soon as seedlings emerged. A partial second generation apparently occurred each year. First-generation beetles started to emerge in soybean fields during the first or third week of July but, whether emergence started early or late, most beetles emerging after July seemingly failed to mature their eggs and started leaving soybeans within several weeks of eclosion. This pattern suggested that any second generation arose from only the earliest emerging beetles of the first generation, with later emerging individuals having to overwinter before reproducing. Thus, any factors delaying emergence of the first generation, such as delayed soybean planting, could potentially limit its reproductive capacity through winter mortality. Cumulative seasonal beetle counts were lower in N-treated subplots and in ridge-tilled compared with chisel-tilled plots. Soybean grain yield increased with decreases in peak abundance of first-generation beetles and with N fertilization.