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Dr. Carl Mize
Principal Investigator
Modeling a Shelterbelt Agroforestry System is a project that is being
funded by the USDA National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program.
The project was funded for $330,000 over three years. Previous shelterbelt
research has also been conducted under the support of the Leopold Center
for Sustainable Agriculture (Projects: #93-04, #97-53 and #98-26) as well
as another previous NRI project 'The development of SAMS' (#96-35108-3892).
There are nine co-principal investigators:Bill Batchelor, ISU, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering,
Jim Brandle, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Forestry,
Joe Colletti, ISU, Forestry,
Rick Cruse, ISU, Agronomy,
Arne Hallam, ISU, Economics
Carl Mize, ISU, Forestry,
Gene Takle, ISU, Agronomy and Geologic and Atmospheric Sciences, and
Paul Wray, ISU, Forestry, and
Mohammed Ghaffarzadeh, Pioneer Hybrid.
Figure 1. (above). Aerial view of a shelterbelt site
at Ogden IA, showing replicated plots of corn, beans and oats to the leeward
of the shelterbelt. the 4 row poplar shelterbelt runs on the right of the
picture from center-top to right side - bottom. Along the bottom of the
image is a dark band of christmas trees (Pinus silvestris).
The objectives of the study are to:
1. Evaluate the ability of the CERES-Maize and CROPGRO-Soybean models to predict the growth and development of corn and soybeans under the influence of a shelterbelt. Data is being collected at windbreak sites in four states to complete this work.2. Evaluate the ability of a microclimatic model to predict changes in temperature and relative humidity produced by a shelterbelt,
3. Develop a characterization of shelterbelts that will allow the new microclimatic model to be incorporated into SAMS. Tree sample data has been collected and evaluated against a Weibull distribution's ability to predict tree surface area distribution.
4. Evaluate the performance of SAMS against measured data
5. Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of shelterbelts and the potential economic returns using simulations from SAMS with long term historic weather data, and
6. Develop effective outreach materials about the costs and benefits associated with shelterbelts or mid-western agriculture.
The development of an integrated crop growth model for agroforestry
systems offers answers to numerous questions concerning the economic viability
of shelterbelts thought out the United States and other countries.