Is It The End of the World As We Know It?

Did that catch your attention?  Given the rumors that the world (according to the Mayan calendar) is ending in a couple of days I was hoping I might gain a few minutes of your time to read this.  While the news of the world ending on December 21, 2012 is greatly exaggerated (as in not going to happen) it makes for a good segue into the issues that do face us and could end the world as we know it.  Oh, and by the way, you don't have to take my word on the Mayan calendar, you can also view NASA's take on it.  They have already released a video entitled "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday" which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY_Gc1bF8ds or if you prefer to read about it you can find information on their website at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/14dec_yesterday/  

So you might be asking yourself what prompted me to write about "It's The End of the World as We Know It".  I happened to hear the R.E.M. song of that title (released in 1987) that I have always liked on the radio this morning, which got me thinking about a few things.  There is a recurring lyric in the song "The world serves its own needs..."  Interesting and true if you think about it.

I obviously have a passion for soil and water (and the environment).  It's what I do and what my career has been based on. December has been a fairly busy month for soil and water issues.  December 5 was World Soil Day. The FAO joined the International Union of Soil Sciences in celebrating this day and also released the first Global Soil Partnership report, The State of the Art Report on Global and Regional Soil Information: Where are we? Where to go?, which presents the status of global and regional soil information, analyzes user needs, highlights the ongoing global and regional soil information initiatives, and provides recommendations for future joint initiatives. This is a downloadable document that can be found here:  http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/home/en/  (look in the box for Latest News on that page).

On December 14, Time Magazine on-line ran an article in its "World" section entitled What if the World's Soil Runs Out?  The article was actually an interview with Dr. John Crawford from the University of Sydney. I encourage you to give this article a read when you have a chance, which provides a sobering vision of where we are headed with our soil and related resources. http://world.time.com/2012/12/14/what-if-the-worlds-soil-runs-out/  Crawford estimates that given current rates of soil degradation that we have about 60 years of topsoil left.  If that figure didn't catch your attention, he also remarked that under a "business as usual scenario, degraded soil will mean that we will produce 30% less food over the next 20-50 years", which given we have a growing population and rising need for food and fiber with less land available to accomplish this will not bode well. He also brings up the strong connection to water availability in degraded soils slong with impacts due to climate change and food security.  Crawford talks about what can be done, and one thing he mentions is that we need to recognize that we have a global problem and it needs to be treated as such.

This brought me back to the FAO and the Global Soil Partnership and the fact stated very well on the website: "Soil is a finite natural resource. On a human time-scale it is non-renewable [emphasis added]. However, despite the essential role that soil plays in the life of people, there is increasing degradation of soil resources due to inappropriate practices, burgeoning population pressures and inadequate governance over this essential resource."

What is the Global Soil Partnership?
 
"Soils are often perceived as a second-tier priority and no international governance body to support coordinated global action on their management exists. A unified and authoritative voice for soil management is needed to better coordinate efforts and pool limited resources. For these reasons, FAO and a group of partners have launched the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) to improve global governance of the world’s soil resources in order to guarantee healthy, productive soils for a food secure world -- and to work together to sustain other essential ecosystem services on which our livelihoods and societies depend." http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/highlights/detail/en/c/157597/
 

“Because it’s everywhere, we tend to overlook the fact that soil is a limited natural resource”

 

 

 

Back to R.E.M. and their song.  There is another part to the song's title that shows up in parentheses.  The full title of the song is "It's The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).  I'd like to concentrate on the "I Feel Fine" part and not look at the end of the world as we know it in a negative way.  We can instead make this a positive by accepting that we have a real problem on our hands with our soil and water resources, being accountable and responsible for doing something to change the direction in which we are headed, and take an active role in moving in a direction ending the world as we know it currently to move on to something better and more sustainable.  How's that for a New Year's Resolution?  How about you - are you with me?

The Odyssey that is Graduate School: Part 2—Perspectives of a Faculty Member

In the last Wired for Soils, I posted an article that I wrote for Soil Horizons about graduate school from the graduate student side of things. This time, I am going to try to provide insight into the general expectations of a graduate student by faculty. I can’t cover it all in a short article, but I will try to hit the big points. In order to do that, I would like to set the stage by reviewing the work that faculty members do and what they are responsible for—aside from graduate students.

As part of their position descriptions, faculty members have a split percentage of their time that is assigned to research, teaching, and service and are evaluated for promotion and tenure based on these percentages. This would include starting and maintaining a viable research program in their area of interest, which includes securing funding and establishing a publication record; teaching undergraduate and graduate students; and providing service to the university (and their department) along with the community at large. As you might imagine, this makes for an extremely busy schedule.

Research funding is obtained through research proposals, which take a lot of time and effort to put together, especially for large projects that have multiple research entities. Generally faculty have several research projects that they are working on at any given time. Teaching also requires a lot of time because courses have to be created, maintained, and updated, and there are students to consider, office hours to be scheduled, and grading to be done. There may also be time spent with undergraduate students who want to do undergraduate research projects. Add to that committee work, which involves meeting time and effort spent on activities for the committee, and service to the community outside the university, and there are barely enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished. The point is that the rumors by students that a professor shows up for class and then has the rest of the day off is just not anywhere near the truth.

So what are the general expectations of a graduate student from the faculty perspective? 

Stipends and Timelines

As a graduate student, you are being paid a stipend (in most cases) as a teaching assistant (TA) or a research assistant (RA) that come from grants, university fellowships, etc. These stipends are, at least in part, supported by research funds that expire in some time frame that was agreed to within the research grant. 

·         Due to this, time management is essential for a graduate student to understand and take responsibility for. Students should be cognizant of deadlines within the project and strive to keep pace with those deadlines. This is also where communication with the adviser and research team is important if timelines are being exceeded since it is feasible to get deadline changes to research projects with ample notice, not at the last minute.

·         Keep in mind that it is not always easy or possible for faculty to fund a student beyond the end of a project when the money is gone and the project is complete. 

Peer-Reviewed Paper

Unlike in the past, most institutions now require the preparation of a thesis or dissertation that consists of a paper or series of papers that are meant to be published upon completion of the degree. The big advantage to this is that students can leave graduate school with a peer-reviewed publication and usually are listed as the first author on those papers.  The paper also provides the faculty with a publication to show an outcome for the research grant. 

·         Students who don’t finish put an extra burden on faculty to complete the research paper since these are often required to complete the research project. Faculty would rather see the student gain the experience that comes with going through the publication process, especially at the Ph.D. level.

·         We all understand that as you near the end of your research project and are down to writing the thesis or dissertation that there are times when you have writer's block or just cannot stand looking at numbers, statistics, and figures anymore. If that happens, take a break and walk around, but in the end, you need to finish what you started.

·         After you have worked hard to prepare a manuscript and have received approval from your adviser(s) to submit it to the peer-reviewed journal that you have chosen for publication, it is not always easy to see the comments made by reviewers. Some comments may seem irrelevant or superfluous, but you need to make that last push and address them. Most times you will find that you end up with a stronger manuscript since a fresh set of eyes is always good for finding areas where the paper can improve. Sometimes you find questions asked by reviewers that can lead to future research projects.

Classes

Faculty and the university want to make sure that when you leave, you carry the stamp of the university; in other words, the reputation of that institution. Graduate studies committees talk about this in terms of what classes belong on a program of study. This is also something the graduate school at a university considers in looking at the metrics of each department’s graduate programs. Other metrics include the time it took for a student to move through the graduate program and graduation rates among other things. Faculty have to be cognizant of these metrics to keep a graduate program in place and funded and maintain the ability to offer fellowships and scholarships to incoming graduate students.

·         Don’t be surprised if you are asked to take a class that would seem pertinent to your field of study. For example, I saw more than one Ph.D. student at Ohio State University in the soils program try to petition out of soil genesis, morphology, and classification when they didn’t have that course in their transcripts. Faculty have a hard time graduating someone in soils with no coursework a basic area of soil science.

Basic Expectations

There are basic things that faculty key in on for graduate students working through our programs. Not only does the university want to sustain a good reputation, but faculty also strive to attract future graduate students, so they need to show that they produce graduates who know what they are doing and are successful in whatever career path they choose. Things we expect include the following:

·         Keep up with coursework; most graduate programs where a stipend is involved require that the student maintain a minimum grade-point average.

·         Take responsibility for your own destiny and be accountable.

·         Be inquisitive, self-motivated, and proactive in what you do. As I pointed out in the beginning of this article, faculty are busy and sometimes you need to insist that we spend time and listen to you.

·         Ask questions when needed or ask for help when stuck. However, make an effort to figure it out for yourself first.

·         Interact with your committee members.

·         Make contacts that you need both inside and outside the university.

·         Learn how to teach and communicate; experience is good even if it is outside of your comfort zone. I still remember my first time having responsibilities for assigning grades to a class that I taught as a Ph.D. student and giving my first F. My adviser gave me a great piece of insight, saying that people earn failing grades—they are not given out without a reason. I also know that it took me some time to figure out how to teach effectively.  Everyone goes through this, but many universities are now offering courses for Ph.D. students to take and learn about teaching and communication skills. I highly recommend that students consider this option; I wish I had that type of opportunity.

Exams

M.S. and Ph.D. exams probably still give students nightmares. There is also the never-ending story that since faculty were given a hard time in their exams, they are paying it back by making it hard for their students. Is this true? Not really. The point is not to make anyone fail or feel dumb, but instead, to make you think. We want to see a logical thought process. This is not a time, however, to do a lot of bluffing about answers to questions. I can almost guarantee that bluffing will get you backed into a corner with your committee. If you don’t know an answer, it is best to say so, but follow up with a statement of how you might figure it out. Also, we expect that a student should be able to explain concepts. One-word or short answers won’t always suffice in allowing us to understand your depth of knowledge. The bottom line is to be prepared.  As advisers, we want our students to do well since it also reflects on us.

·         For a M.S. degree, there is typically only a final exam as well as a seminar presented on the research project. The seminar is generally open to all, but the exam is with the student and committee members only. Questions will be pertaining to your research, the methods used, results, and thoughts on applications or future research needed. We are trying to feel comfortable that you know what you did, the principles behind it, and how it applies to the world around you. Remember that you did the research, so you should know these things.

·         The Ph.D. is a little different and scaled up in difficulty; unlike the M.S. degree, the Ph.D. is based on original research. There are (in the U.S.) generally two exams: prelims (or candidacy exam) and the final exam. Prelims are challenging; they are meant to make you think and are used by the faculty to assess your progress and determine whether you should continue in your Ph.D. program or not. Generally there are written and oral prelims. Both are important in determining whether a student is moved to the Ph.D. candidate level, and the rule is that there are no rules on what is asked, although most committee members keep questions relevant. There may also be questions asked that the committee member doesn’t have a definitive answer for, but wants to see what you think. You will be expected to pull from a wider body of knowledge, including the literature, and to synthesize concepts across not only your area of expertise, but other supporting areas. The final exam is more focused on the research, but again, there may be questions that require a student to think beyond the research project to consequences, applications, as well as relationships to other areas of study.

In closing, I should point out that we care about our graduate students; we have (we hope) in some sense helped you grow both personally and professionally. We really do want to see you succeed, and we will push you, sometimes to your limits, to get you there. We tend to see the potential in you more than you do and want to help build the expertise and confidence that you will need to be successful in your careers. As faculty, we know what you’re going through: we’ve experienced the frustrations, the sleepless nights, the tears—and in the end, the joy of finishing. We are, in the end, quite simply, proud of you. 

 

The Odyssey that is Grad School

The following article is a reprint from my current column, Tales from the Pits, which appears in the SSSA publication Soil Horizons. I don't cover everything about the journey of graduate school; that would take many more pages.  This article is meant to provide an overview.  If you are considering graduate school and have questions, please ask!  I am more than happy to talk with students (as are the faculty at institutions you are considering applying to) and it is best to get questions answered up front.  And as always I welcome comments! 

Being a Grad Student

 

Graduate school is not easy, but then no one ever said it was. It should challenge a person in several different ways and teach many things aside from the advanced coursework and learning within a research project. A graduate degree should also help you learn about yourself, including how to think critically, deal with success and failure, handle criticism, work under pressure, and stand up for your work. In the sense of moving forward in a career, I could argue that this is even more important than the technical knowledge and experience you receive in graduate school.

In preparing for this article, I reflected on both my experiences as a graduate student and as a faculty member advising graduate students. I think, sometimes, students don’t recognize that their professor went through the same things that they are currently going through and think that we have lost our perspective (or our minds—I’m not sure). While I cannot speak to all circumstances, I believe many of us have tried to remember our experiences in graduate school in dealing with our students. 

As a new school year begins, I thought I would try to share some insights from both sides. In this issue, I will talk about the student side of the graduate school experience, and in the next issue, I will talk about the faculty side. Not everyone will agree with me, and if you don’t, I would invite you to share your thoughts and ideas for inclusion in a future Tales from the Pits article (dferris@soils.org). This invitation is open to everyone; faculty and students as well as employers who have their tales to tell regarding what they look for when hiring their employees.

There’s one important point that I would like to make before going much further since I will cite the hard work associated with graduate school along with the numerous positives: Graduate school has to be the right decision for you. You have to want to do it, and you have to make the commitment to it, or it won’t work out. I was the first person in my entire family to attend college and earn a bachelor’s degree, so moving on to a master’s and then to the Ph.D. was, I think, proof to them that I was pretty much crazy. Being blue collar, they couldn’t understand why I didn’t get a “real” job after four years of school and start paying off my student loans like everyone else, so I didn’t exactly have a cheering section where my family was concerned. In the end, graduate school was exactly the right decision for me, and while I lost some things, I gained more than I ever thought I would. 

What Does it Mean to Be a Grad Student?

So what does it mean to be a graduate student? Well, you won’t necessarily be able to call your life your own, which is very different from the days as an undergrad. Relationships tend to take a beating, especially if your significant other isn’t in or hasn’t been to grad school. Harder yet is the situation where there is a family to think about. However, your fellow grad students who are all in the same boat as you will become family. Many of these people will become your best friends—people you can count on to keep you company late at night in the lab, seriously listen to your research hypotheses (and understand them), and not yawn when you excitedly talk about a new reference you found. 

Grad school comes with long hours of hard work both in coursework to keep your GPA high and in getting research done that doesn’t always go the way you would like. Depending on what your research project entails, you may be on the road for days/weeks on end (not always a bad thing) or you could be in the lab at all hours of the day and night. I have experienced both. I remember working on my master’s degree in soil physics at the University of Minnesota. The program is located in the basement of Borlaug Hall, so I never got to see daylight during the winter given the short days in the north. After a while, you begin to feel like the sun just doesn’t exist anymore or that you’ve become permanently nocturnal. And then those grad students who have become your family take advantage of the fact that you have no idea what the weather is and spin stories about snowstorms and anything else they think they can sell as plausible and get away with. Practical jokes tend to be a part of any family, and grad school is no exception; there has to be fun along with the work!

When I moved on to my Ph.D., I was thrilled to have a field research project and was excited to be back working outdoors. It didn’t take me long to realize, however, that field work comes with its own set of issues unlike the controlled environment of the lab. Working in northern Minnesota in glacial till brought the unforgettable experiences of long hours battling the stones and rocks to auger holes to insert wells and piezometers while waging a constant battle with deer flies, mosquitoes, ticks, and whatever other pest happened to be present at any given time. I had to deal with porcupines that insisted on eating the wooden boxes that housed my research equipment, deer hunters who weren’t thrilled with me moving through “their” area, and wolf packs leaving behind their fresh deer kills. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the wildlife and being outdoors, and my research bog was beautiful unto itself. Northern Minnesota is gorgeous no matter what season you are there—who could ask for a better office?

One thing that helped me get through the frustrations was to get to know other students and their research; this made me realize that we were all dealing with frustrations, and by sharing them, we were able to help each other out. This was especially true during my Ph.D. when I was at the Marcell Experimental Forest in northern Minnesota. There was a group of students using the facility, and we helped each other out on our projects. For example, there was a person from the University of North Dakota who was working on black bears and helped me with soils work and some of the heavy lifting in the bog that I was working in. To pay him back, I helped him with some of his research, which included crawling through the woods on my hands and knees collecting bear scat so that he could document the diet of black bears in the area. I learned about radio-collaring and tracking black bears, along with their diets and habits. It had nothing to do with my work on subsurface flow patterns between uplands and peatlands, but it was a great diversion from my research problems, and I learned a lot. The best part was that it was an experience that came back to help me during my days in environmental consulting.

Life as a grad student can get especially difficult (or should I say interesting) when the thesis/dissertation writing begins. By that time, most students, having completed their research, would just like to be done with the project. Writing the literature review, running statistics day after day, and putting it all together in a concise and meaningful way that will satisfy your committee and a peer review can only stay exciting for so long. I recall submitting drafts of my thesis to my master’s degree adviser. He would suggest that I change something, so I would make the change and resubmit it, and he would change it back. Over time, with changes back and forth several times, I was ready to tear my hair out. (I have asked my students to tell me if I do that to them.) It is hard to stay focused at the end, especially if you are looking forward to finding a job and are busy interviewing. Keep in mind, however, that it is important that you finish. This is especially true in a Ph.D. program where many people leave with an ABD (all but dissertation) and then find it extremely hard to focus on finishing their dissertation. I went through this and wouldn’t suggest that route for anyone. For me, it was a financial decision having just gone through a divorce and basically needing a job to pay the bills, but it took me six years of long nights after working a consultant’s long day to complete my dissertation. I will be forever glad that I did, but it was hard.

My Advice to Students

Here’s some advice I have for students:

·         Remember to breathe. Things do actually tend to work themselves out. When research doesn’t give you the answer that you thought it was going to, it still teaches you something and provides information that you didn’t have before; and that is useful. Alternatively, if you made a mistake, then learn from it. And last, don’t be so afraid of making a mistake that it constrains your ability to do research.

·         Make sure you do have some type of life outside of academia. It is important to be able to take a break once in a while to keep your perspective. I played on a softball team in the summers with other grad students, and it was a much welcome break from the books. We even won once in a while.

·         When you select your committee members, don’t obsess on getting the “easy” faculty. You really do want your committee to push you and ask the probing questions. It will make you better in the end. 

·         When you put your program of study together, don’t opt for all of the easier courses to just “get through them.” Figure out where you are going and what you might need for both your research and your future career plans. Getting the information through coursework while still in school sets the stage for continued learning once you are in your career.

·         Get interested in the other research going on around you; you never know when it might come in handy. Those friends you make in grad school will always be a part of your career network no matter where you scatter to across the globe. Take the time to make those connections. 

·         Work on your communication skills, both written and spoken. I cannot stress enough how important this is! If you cannot communicate your ideas or explain how something works, not only in science speak but also to the lay person or colleagues from other disciplines, you won’t get far.

·         Make as many connections as you can while in school and then don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or contact them once you are out of school. I think a lot of people coming out of grad school think that they have to (or should) know all the answers. The truth is you don’t, and you won’t. No one is going to think less of you because you reached out and asked a question or for help on a project. And…next week someone will be calling you for your expertise.

·         Do not alienate your adviser no matter how much they frustrate you. They will be a great resource for many things for a long time. I have remained friends with my advisers along with many of the faculty from my grad school days, and they have become great friends too.

·         Everyone’s graduate school experience is different depending on where you are and who you are. Make the most of it.

My Ph.D. adviser gave me a great piece of advice one day when I was complaining about my research project and everything that was going wrong or taking longer than expected. It was advice that I disregarded at the time, thinking he didn’t know what he was talking about, but it came back to me later as one of the most important things he said to me, and I wish I would have paid more attention to it at the time. He said, “Graduate school is a time in your life when you have the most freedom to learn. Once you’re out working, you lose the opportunity to focus on one project or research idea and learn in an atmosphere that is virtually unrestricted by time and other priorities and issues in life. You will long for the freedom you had in graduate school once you leave.” I have thought about that statement many times over the years; it's very true.

Last, for some good comic relief that you can relate to, I would suggest checking out Ph.D. Comics (www.phdcomics.com/comics.php), if you haven’t already done so. It targets the wonderful world of being a graduate student and is appropriate whether you are at the master’s or Ph.D. level. 

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my advisers from my graduate career. I would sincerely like to thank Dr. Satish Gupta (University of Minnesota–Soil Physics) and Dr. Ken Brooks (University of Minnesota–Forest Hydrology) for putting up with me and teaching me not only the academics, but also about life and growing up as part of my master’s and Ph.D. programs, respectively.

Do you have a tale you'd like to share—good or bad—about life as a soil scientist or an experience you've had in the field? If so, email it to Dawn Ferris at dferris@soils.org. You may remain anonymous if you like.

Soil is a Big Issue in the Aftermath of the Waldo Canyon Fire

The Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs is now 100% contained, but the problems associated with the fire are far from over. One of the biggest issues facing residents in the area next is related to the fire's impact on the soil. In fact, soil science was front page news in The Gazette, the Colorado Springs newspaper this past week. The front page article featured Brad Rust, a soil scientist with the U.S. Forest Service Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) team looking at changes in the soil due to the fire. The article can be found at http://www.gazette.com/articles/years-141471-recover-scar.html.

So why the focus on soils? Depending on how hot the fire is, how long it stayed in the area, and the vegetation that was burned, the soil in many places of the burned area will repel water or is hydrophobic. The changes to the soil coupled with the changes in the landscape in the loss of vegetation means the overall hydrology of a forest system is significantly changed when it has been affected by fire.

Let’s look at a forest system that hasn’t been recently disturbed first to understand the typical hydrology. Generally, a natural or undisturbed forested system exhibits little to no surface runoff during storm events because precipitation is removed from the system in several ways including interception by the trees and shrubs, storage on the soil surface in the organic layer (leaves, needles, twigs, vegetation), and through infiltration into the soil. Soils under forested areas normally have fairly high infiltration rates due to the protection of the soil surface from the organic material lying on top and incorporation of this material into the upper layer of soil, as well as a well-developed network of macropores (large pores in the soil due to old root channels and the work of soil fauna like earthworms). Therefore most water moves through forested systems as subsurface flow, which takes more time than surface flow and thus the water moving downhill and eventually adding to surface water flows is desynchronized in its timing to add to overall storm flows.

After a fire, the forest environment is altered and depending on how hot the fire burned or how long it burned in a particular area will dictate the effect it has on the subsequent hydrology. Burning of the overstory or understory will diminish interception of precipitation by vegetation. Burning of the organic layer on the soil surface is what most will affect the degree to which the soil becomes hydrophobic. In the case of the fire causing hydrophobic soils, the overall result is that precipitation cannot infiltrate into the soil and therefore water will remain as surface flow, thus “short-circuiting” the storm flow (no desynchronization) and the water in the landscape moves downslope at the approximate same rate ending up in downslope areas and surface waters at the same time. This results in the potential for severe flooding downstream from the burned area. To make the situation worse, the runoff will not be just include water, it will carry large amounts of ash and debris along with it. This can and does result in changes to stream morphology, clogged culverts, landslides, and debris deposited on people’s property.

The mechanism by which soils become hydrophobic is related to the severity of the burn. In high temperatures or severe burns the organic material is burned releasing waxy substances in the form of gas, which is pushed into the soil. Upon cooling, the waxy substances are deposited on and coat the soil particles in the upper layer(s) of soil. How deep these substances penetrate is dependent upon the amount and type of organic matter burned, the severity of the fire and the length of time the high temperatures were present.  Generally more coarse textured soils exhibit deeper penetration of the gases and corresponding waxy substances than finer textured soils due to pores sizes. The larger the pore sizes (sandy soils), the deeper the gas can penetrate. Depth of penetration and thus the thickness of the hydrophobic layer can vary over a landscape and can range from a thin layer on the soil surface to several inches deep.

The result of the waxy coatings on the soil particles is water repellency.  From a physical standpoint this means that the contact angle that the water makes with the soil is obtuse (>90 degrees ) instead of acute (<90 degrees ). The figure below is from Hillel (1998) Fig. 2.10 in Environmental Soil Physics. The figure shows a drop of liquid on a solid surface. The contact angle is given by “α” and in this figure, it is an acute angle. The acute angle signifies that the water has an affinity for the surface (in this case the soil surface). A contact angle of zero means the drop of water is laying flat on the surface and the affinity for the soil surface would be high and wetting would occur. An obtuse angle, therefore, signifies little affinity for the soil surface and the water drop would have more of a spherical shape as it sits on the surface.  This can be seen in the second figure shown below, which is from my Masters research where I did some work with hydrophobicity in soil. One soil clod shows water at an acute angle and soil wetting is occurring (bottom clod), the other an obtuse angle where the water droplet stays on the soil surface (clod on the right).

While not all of the Waldo Canyon fire resulted in severe burn areas, many places were impacted. In the short term there will need to be an assessment of where those areas are and how the hydrology will be affected, as well as providing measures to minimize impacts. In areas where hydrophobicity is severe, it may take several years and some intensive management to help decrease the impact of the fire and re-establish vegetation.

The USDA NRCS has a fact sheet about hydrophobicity, which outlines the causes, an easy test for determining hydrophobicity, and some information on rehabilitation and treatment for these types of soils. That document can be found here: http://www.co.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/eng/HYDROPHOBICITYfactsheet.pdf

Other sources of information on this topic, specific to Waldo Canyon, can be found at:

http://www.koaa.com/news/scientists-gauge-flood-risk-in-waldo-canyon-burn-area/

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2929/

Customer Service and Communication - A Lost Art?

This is a recent article that I wrote for my "Tales from the Pits" column in SSSA's Soil Horizons publication.  It is that time of the year when most of us are crazy busy with field work, projects, you name it, and that doesn't include what is happening on the personal side of our lives.  So...just some thoughts on keeping up with a side of your work life that is very easily pushed aside amidst the busy workdays.

A Tale of Communication and Customer Service

I don’t know about anyone else, but I grow exceedingly tired of poor customer service.  Perhaps I am old-fashioned (yes, I do find myself sounding like my parents every once in a while), but I don’t think it is too much to ask to speak to a human and, then when you do, to have that person actually have a conversation with you, try to help you, or provide a direction towards whatever solution you are seeking.  Can you tell I’ve had a frustrating week trying to talk to people that are in customer service?  Again, at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I think good customer service has been lost somewhere along the line and I would argue that if you can provide good service to your customers/clients you will stand out as brilliant among your peers in what has become a lost concern and/or mediocre practice at best.  

I am not trying to imply that everyone’s customer service is bad or needs improvement, but I do find that good service to customers had become the exception rather than the norm.  Perhaps it is our reliance on computers and cutting the costs of employing people to answer the phones.  The sad thing to me is that many people seem to accept it, even as they complain about it.

Have we really lost the expectation of good customer service?  In this fast-paced world does the customer/client still want and need a high level of service?  I would argue that yes, they do, and that they do recognize and appreciate it.  When I first started in consulting I worked for an engineering firm who instilled basic business practices (or rules) within me that I still hold as important today – and this is 22 years later.  These practices are not just consultant specific, and I have tried to follow them no matter where I have been employed.  I think on some level these “rules” are intuitive, but when we deal with clients (clients includes customers, students, or anyone looking for our time) it doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves that providing competent service that lets those we interact with know we are listening is very important.  It is a practice that will be appreciated and can pay back in terms of professional respect and additional work.

There are three major points that I try to keep in mind when interacting with clients: 1. be responsive, 2. be polite, professional, and care about the client and their issues, and 3. take the initiative to follow up.  Let me explain what I mean by each.

1.       Be Responsive:  The engineering firm I first worked for was run very strictly in terms of client service.  We were expected to put communication with clients as a priority.  This point of being responsive and communicative is important.  I was taught that all phone calls were to be returned within 24 hours.  It didn’t matter if you had answers for the client or not, the phone call had to be returned to let the client know that you were working on their project. (I should point out that email wasn’t the major way of communicating at this time since it was just beginning to be used and yes, I just dated myself.)  I still try to live by this rule even now when email or texting tends to be the way we talk to each other.  I don’t like when I don’t receive some acknowledgement of a phone call or email so I try not to do that to others.  If someone took the time to contact you, then you should take the time to respond to them in a timely manner.  You should respond even if it is to say that you don’t have the answer(s) yet, but you are working on it and will get back with them within “x” amount of time.  It is also important to remember to get back to them when “x” amount of time has expired. Do not make them call you again by being late! 

2.       Be Polite/Care about the Client:  Being respectful, polite and professional isn’t always easy if you have a client that is not behaving that way towards you.  However, you need to be the bigger person, so to speak, and remain professional.  There are two things that I tend to think about with regard to this point.  The first comes from my Dad who has always said to treat people as you would like to be treated.  The second comes from a very smart friend and is one of the best consultants I know who says to put yourself in the other person’s place, understand where they are coming from and then figure out how to talk to them.  This is valuable advice to remember no matter what the circumstances, but especially important when the conversation is contentious.  Your client wants to feel like they and their project are important to you and you need to convey to them that it is.  Understand their pressures and obligations and make them your own to the extent that you can.  This means understanding their responsibilities, obligations and the project as a whole, what your part in that project is, and how the timeline all fits together. 

3.       Initiative and Follow Up:  It is the lasting impression that you are going for so make sure you leave a good impression.  Following up to the work that you did is important and shows someone that you find them and the work that you did important.  Take the initiative to follow up with your client to make sure that everything was done to their satisfaction and ensure that they were happy with your work.  Find out if there were things that you could have done better by giving the client a chance to tell you how they thought the job went.  You may not always hear what you want to, but it will make you better at what you do and provide you and your client with an opportunity to build a working relationship that can move forward.  One important note for this point is to do this follow up on the phone or in person.  The point is to build a relationship with your client, not just add them to the email list.

I don’t mean to suggest that we are all perfect with customer service all the time.  We all have our “bad” days where our problems seem much more important than the client’s or we are distracted by something going on elsewhere in our work or personal lives.  This is when it gets hard to keep focused on the client, but it also when it is essential.  The client is there because they trust your or your colleagues to address a problem and they are willing to pay for your insight, expertise and advice.  I think we need to remember that it takes a lot of time to build the trust with our clients that makes them want to come back and also leads to more business from word of mouth.  It takes very little time to destroy that trust or turn away a new client if they don’t feel like they have your attention.  Quite honestly, your clients don’t necessarily care what your problems are when they have financial considerations, are on tight deadlines, or are trying to obtain permits for their project.  They want a professional attitude and attention to the details that they hired you to take care of.  While that sounds one-sided, it actually is not.  If you do a good job for your client they are more likely to come back to you on the next project and in that, you have just scored.  Add to that the solid reputation that you will build and the new customers will tend to show up because they want the type of service you provide.

So next time you have a voicemail or email waiting for you, can you answer it within 24 hours?  Try to challenge yourself to do this even if your schedule is busy.  It may mean few extra minutes in the work day, but I have found that the consideration and response time is much appreciated and not taken lightly.

Big Ag Companies and Universities - An Issue?

There was an article published by Mother Jones earlier this week entitled "How Your College is Selling Out to Big Ag".  The article can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/J59eD4  I suggest reading not only the article, which is in itself interesting and thought provoking, but also reading through the comments.  Some of the comments come from students that are in ag programs in land grant institutions.

This is a contentious issue.  That is the long and short of it.  Ag companies provide funding to universities for research and other things, such as campus buildings, as the author of the article reports.  Many ask "Why?"  On the surface it may appear that they are "buying" some sort of way to control research and the universtiy by providing funding that is needed more and more due to less and less funding from the government.  Is it what it appears to be?  Honestly, I have no answer to provide because I believe that this issue is complex and needs to be looked at from many different angles, but let me just briefly talk about a couple of things and I will leave the opinions to my readers (feel free to post responses).

Research funding is hard to come by and faculty need to publish in order to attain promotion and tenure, as well as support undergrad and graduate student research to train the scientists and teachers of the future. Some faculty members are on "soft" money and need to support themselves with research grants in order to keep their jobs. State funding for the university systems has been cut, at times drastically, over the past few years.  Running a university is analogous to running a small city and takes a fair amount of money without resorting to options such as immense tuition hikes, which in turn affects who can afford to go to college.  Decreases in funding also has an additional affect on faculty when positions that open due to retirement are not filled and faculty are thus finding themsleves carrying heavier teaching loads, trying to advise more students and seeing no financial return (salary) for their increased work load. (Take a look at what is going on with Cal State University these days.) 

Funding from outside sources is needed to provide for active research programs that cater both to a better understanding of the world around us and also as a teaching tool to our next generation.  In the arena of research, funding is a welcome input. It used to be that the majority of research conducted at universities came from government funding.  As that source of funding has decreased, other sources have become available in the form of private industry.  In the philosophy of research, the source of funding shouldn't matter.  Having been a faculty member, conducted research, and also trained students/graduate students about research methods I would like to think that research projects are not "colored" by their funding source. The scientific method is in place to provide for good research that is defensible and repeatable. In addition, peer reviewed jounals provide for in-depth reviews of research as well as the methodology used and conclusions reached. 

That all said, if one looks hard enough, one will find examples of research that is biased, whether it is in the way the data analysis was conducted or in the determination of what portion of the results are used in technology transfer. Does that mean everyone can be accused of deliberately "coloring" their research?  I don't think so and I don't think that type of behavior by researchers is commonplace.

The times of a majority of government-funded research are quickly diminishing and being replaced with private sector funding.  The point is that research is still taking place.  Do we need to pay closer attention to how results are being disseminated with respect to what the research shows versus what the company would like to advertise? Perhaps.  It is a difficult question as well as an emotional one for the general public.  There is a mistrust of big business, especially when it comes to our food supply and how agrichemicals affect our health, safety and welfare. 

Agricultural research is important in trying to figure out how to feed a growing population on less arable land.  I'd like to say that we all just need to trust each other more, but somehow that sounds naive even to my own ears.  Let me ask this question though, would you rather that the private companies did all of their own internal research with nothing done by universities?  Many companies do conduct their own research studies, and those studies aren't necessarily published in peer reviewed journals. Is that better? Where does that leave our universities? Or, is it better to continue allowing private funding/support to higher education and its institutions and find a better way to ensure unbiased research, results and technology transfer to provide viable options for food production for a growing global population facing a growing number of issues as we look to the future.

As I said at the beginning of this blog post, I don't know the answers.  I do think it is imperative that universities continue to be a lead in research.  I would also like to think we can all work together for the greater good and our collective future, but there is a lot that gets in the way of that.  Unfortunately, the stakes are high no matter how you view this issue.

Minnesota Celebrates their State Soil

On Saturday April 28, 2012, MN Governor Mark Dayton signed the legislation that included establishing Lester as the Minnesota State Soil.  Finally!  This has been something in the works in MN for a long time and I was really glad to see it finally passed and official.  Many thanks to the Minnesota Association of Professional Soil Scientists (MAPSS) to keeping this going; it wasn’t a given that the legislation would be passed .  A big help was the senate sponsor, a woman that is retiring this year, who took this bill on and understood the importance since she had done soil judging in 4H.  She made a great speech supporting the bill and when she was done another senator commented that ‘maybe now we can stop treating our soil like dirt’. 

MAPSS put together a very nice information sheet on the Lester Series, which also talks about their plans this year to celebrate their 40^th anniversary and also the University of Minnesota Department of Soil, Water and Climate’s 100^th anniversary.  The Dig It Exhibit is on its way to St. Paul and the Bell Museum later this year to help with the celebration.  Check out the information sheet here:  https://www.soils.org/files/certifications/licensing/lester.pdf 

Just a quick follow-up to the blog.  The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran an article this past weekend regarding the new state soil. It provides some additional insight as to how long this has been in the works and some quotes from legislators.  You can find it here: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/150303445.html