CAREER: Quantifying the lifespan of agricultural soils

土壤侵蚀降低了土壤肥力，导致农业减产，最终威胁到粮食安全。美国每年因土壤侵蚀造成的损失高达数百亿美元。尽管认识到需要保护土壤，但美国土壤侵蚀的程度仍然存在重大不确定性，而且几乎没有关于农业景观土壤形成率的信息。由于需要解决人类影响景观的基础研究问题，该研究将评估世界上最重要的农业地区之一美国中西部的土壤侵蚀和形成率之间的平衡，该研究与教育计划相结合，该计划将培训下一代科学家，以产生帮助社会解决紧迫的可持续性问题的知识。农业土壤的寿命将通过量化中西部多个州的土壤生产和土壤侵蚀率之间的平衡来评估。一套实地和地球化学测量将用于量化土壤流失的程度，确定土壤生产率，并评估影响土壤有机碳储存的因素。实地和地球化学数据将用于校准景观演变的数值模型，这些模型将用于对碳储存和土壤流失的程度进行景观尺度的预测。

Soil erosion reduces soil fertility, resulting in diminished agricultural production that ultimately threatens food security. The cost of soil erosion in the U.S. reaches tens of billions of dollars annually. Despite recognition of the need to conserve soil, there are still major uncertainties regarding the magnitude of soil erosion in the U.S. and there is virtually no information on rates of soil formation in agricultural landscapes. Motivated by the need to address basic research questions in human-impacted landscapes, the study will assess the balance between soil erosion and formation rates in one of the world's most agriculturally significant regions, the Midwestern U.S. The research is integrated with an education plan that will train the next generation of scientists to generate knowledge that helps society address pressing sustainability problems. The lifespan of agricultural soils will be assessed by quantifying the balance between soil production and soil erosion rates at sites in multiple Midwestern states. A suite of field and geochemical measurements will be used to quantify the magnitude of soil loss, determine rates of soil production, and assess factors that influence the storage of soil organic carbon. Field and geochemical data will be used to calibrate numerical landscape evolution models that will be used to make landscape scale predictions of carbon storage and the magnitude of soil loss.