Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2010SD171B

Microbial and Chemical Indicies of Soils and Water Associated with Vegetated Treatment Areas(VTAs) from Two Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in South Dakota

Institute: South Dakota
Year Established: 2010 Start Date: 2010-03-01 End Date: 2011-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $8,160 Total Non-Federal Funds: $26,433

Principal Investigators: Bruce Bleakley, Todd Trooien

Project Summary: Previous cooperative work by the PIs has examined performance of vegetated treatment areas (VTAs) in moderating the effect of runoff from several cattle feeding operations in South Dakota. Effects of the VTAs on selected microbial and chemical indices of soils and water have been studied, mainly at two sites in the towns of Howard and Sturgis, SD. Two sites in Minnehaha County and Roberts County in South Dakota only became functional during 2009, and have not yet had enough water flow pass through them to provide significant data sets. There are significant differences between the nature of these two new sites and the previously studied VTAs associated with AFOs. The proposed work would require one year of salary for an undergraduate laboratory technician who is experienced with the lab analyses, so that data can be collected and analyzed for the newly operational sites in Minnehaha and Roberts counties. Microbial and chemical indices to be studied in the soils and/or waters associated with VTAs at the two new sites are soil redox potential, soil microbial heterotrophic activity, soil microbial community physiologic profiling using Biolog plates, molecular analysis of soil microbial communities using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and counts of E. coli in waters after rain fall and/or snow melt. Ability of the VTAs at the two new sites to reduce the numbers of fecal coliforms entering nearby water bodies, and effect of the VTAs on soil redox, soil microbial activity and soil microbial populations in pre-VTA and post-VTA soil areas will be assayed.