Washington State University researcher Dr. Shulin Chen was one of two Washington State scientists selected by Farming and the Environment to receive funds from the Kellogg Foundation to conduct separate three-year research projects.

An associate professor of biological systems engineering and the Associate Director of the Northwest Bioproducts Research Institute, Dr. Chen is investigating both ends of the growing cycle; he is researching whether seeding crops using no-till farming is an effective way to manage a farm’s soil and water resources, and is he also developing new processes for creating products from agricultural wastes and crop residues.

Reducing Soil Loss and Increasing Groundwater Recharge With No-Till Farming

No-till farming is a method that minimizes soil disturbance by drilling seeds into the soil instead of tilling it. Reducing soil loss is especially critical in the Palouse and other areas of Eastern Washington, where steep slopes, a low ground cover of newly seeded winter wheat and other cereals, and thawing of frozen soil along with snowmelt and low intensity rain can cause high soil-loss rates. The USDA estimates that each year in Southeastern Washington alone, 10.3 million tons of soil is lost to erosion and 1.7 million tons of sediment finds its way into streams.

Palouse farmers such as John Aeschliman, this year’s Vim Wright Stewardship Award Winner, have successfully turned to no-till farming to decrease erosion. No-till farming creates healthy, living soils because not breaking up or tilling the soil encourages growth of beneficial soil organisms and plant roots, which in turn enhance water infiltration and reduces soil erosion. This stewardship practice has allowed Aeschliman to grow crops such as corn and hard red wheat on high hill tops, a feat many agricultural experts thought was impossible.

As a Kellogg Fellow, Dr. Chen and a group of graduate students have been scientifically tracking and verifying just how much no-till farming prevents soil loss and enhances groundwater recharge. Their goal is to evaluate the impact of no-till farming on soil erosion at both the field and watershed level. In the field, they established run-off plots and have been monitoring them for the last three winter seasons. Although the mild weather of the last three winters has not created significant erosion in the Pataha Watershed, the results from the run-off plots to date indicate that direct seeding does reduce soil loss.

At the watershed level, they developed a hydrologic model of the Pataha Watershed in Southeastern Washington, including both water quality and water quantity data; and they began continuous monitoring and collection of real-time, watershed data. Five gauging stations at the outlets of major sub-watersheds continuously record flow data and collect samples from which Dr. Chen and his team will estimate total suspended solids both during and not during storm events. A weather station collects a wide variety of meteorological data, and at selected sites along streams, they are monitoring a wide variety of water quality data.

The infiltration data obtained from runoff plots along with other data from the monitoring of the watershed was input into the hydrologic model. The model clearly indicates that direct seeding will in the long-term increase water infiltration during the winter months and suggests that direct seeding can increase the subsurface water storage, augmenting the stream flow.