Plowing, or tilling, is an age-old agricultural practice that readies the soil for planting by turning over the top layer to expose fresh earth. The method 鈥� intended to improve water and nutrient circulation 鈥� remains popular today, but concerns about soil degradation have prompted some to return to regenerative methods that disturb the soil less.

In a new study, a team led by 天美影视传媒 researchers examined the impact of tilling on soil moisture and water retention using methods originally designed for monitoring earthquakes. Researchers placed fiber optic cables alongside fields at an experimental farm in the United Kingdom and recorded ground motion from plots receiving different amounts of tillage and compaction from tractor tires pulling farm equipment.

The study, , shows that tilling and compaction disrupt intricate capillary networks within the soil that give it a natural sponge-like quality.

鈥淭his study offers a clear explanation for why the process of tillage, one of humanity鈥檚 oldest agricultural activities, changes the structure of soil in ways that affect how it soaks up water,鈥� said co-author , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences.

The link between tilling and soil degradation has been established for quite some time, but the rationale is less robust.

鈥淚t’s counterintuitive,鈥� Montgomery said.

Tilling is supposed to create holes for water to reach the roots of plants, but it breaks these small channels in the soil instead, causing rain to pool on the surface and form a muddy crust. Over time, this can increase erosion and flood risk. The researchers observed this phenomenon in detail using seismological methods.

For the past decade or so, physical scientists have been exploring ways to harness the fiber optic cable network to make remote observations. They use a technique called distributed acoustic sensing, or DAS, that records ground motion based on cable strain. Because the technology is so sensitive, it can also capture the speed at which sound waves pass through a substance, which is called seismic velocity.

When soil gets wet, seismic velocity changes. Sound moves slower through mud than dry dirt.

鈥淲e wanted to find out whether seismic tools could be used to understand how soil 鈥� under different treatment regimens 鈥斕齱ould respond to environmental variability,鈥� said senior author , a UW associate professor of Earth and space sciences.

An experimental farm near Newport in the United Kingdom, affiliated with Harper Adams University, turned out to be an ideal testing ground for their experiment.

The farm is split into rows that have received consistent cultivation for more than two decades.

There are no-till rows, rows tilled 10 centimeters deep and rows tilled 25 centimeters. Compaction is a byproduct of tilling caused by tractors. Different levels of compaction were tested by modulating tractor tire pressure.

鈥淲e took advantage of a natural experiment that had already been done, but just not yet measured,鈥� Montgomery said.

The researchers lined their experimental plots with a fiber optic cable. They collected continuous ground motion data for 40 hours and combined it with weather data over the same period, which featured light to moderate rainfall and mild temperatures.

鈥淲e observed the natural vibration of the ground and found that it is really sensitive to environmental factors, including precipitation,鈥� said , lead author and former UW postdoctoral researcher of Earth and space sciences, now at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

They determined how each cultivation strategy impacted the soil鈥檚 response to rainfall by comparing trends in seismic velocity across study sites. Shi developed various models to process the data and help the researchers understand seismic velocity in terms of soil moisture.

The method is straightforward, inexpensive and offers far better spatial and temporal resolution than previous monitoring tools.

The researchers believe it could help farmers understand how to manage their land, provide real time flooding alerts, improve earth systems models by refining estimates of atmospheric water content and better inform seismic hazard maps with data on liquefaction risk.

Additional co-authors include , a UW professor of atmospheric and climate science, , a UW research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, from the University of California Santa Cruz, formerly at Purdue University, , , and from Harper Adams University, from the University of Exeter听

This study was funded by The Pan Family Fund, the Murdock Charitable Trust, the UW College of the Environment Seed Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and a National Environmental Research Council cross-disciplinary research capability grant.听

For more information, contact Denolle at mdenolle@uw.edu.听

His new book, 鈥�,鈥� released June 21 from W.W. Norton & Company and co-authored by Anne Bikl茅, explores this question. It ties together many previous threads in Montgomery鈥檚 work on how practices that preserve the soil are better in the long run. The book also questions the exclusive focus on organic certification for the use of pesticides, versus farming practices that build healthier crops and livestock from below.

UW News asked Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and a winner of the MacArthur 鈥淕enius鈥� Award, about the book and his continuing journey to chart a new way to view humanity鈥檚 relationship with the land.

Your recent books could be seen as following a pattern: From environmental degradation, to rebuilding soil health, to showing how soil quality affects food and ultimately human health. Was this progression planned, or did it just happen?

DM: There is definitely a progression that played out through our soil-themed books. While it wasn鈥檛 planned, it leads the reader through our process of learning and discovery. The first book, published in 2008, is about the , and how throughout history societies that did not take care of their land didn鈥檛 last. The second book covers insights into how 鈥� microbiomes 鈥� around the roots of plants can restore soil health, and explored parallels with the human microbiome, especially in the gut. The third book, published in 2017, showed how , thereby greatly reducing their use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, while maintaining high yields and increasing soil organic matter.

The new book, 鈥�,鈥� is a standalone capstone that connects the dots between how soil health influences crop health, livestock health and, ultimately, human health. You can read these books in any order. Though unplanned, there is a natural progression through the subjects as each book raised new connections and questions that led to the next.

Your last two books build on partnerships with farmers who use regenerative farming practices. Can you describe how those partnerships began, and how they influence your work?

Meeting and learning from farmers who had successfully used regenerative practices to rebuild the fertility of their land in a wide range of settings 鈥� from huge farms in the Dakotas to small subsistence farms in equatorial Africa and Central America 鈥� had a huge influence on my thinking and writing. I began meeting them at farming conferences where I had been invited to talk about “Dirt.” I think I was something of a novelty, a geologist writing about the history of farming and about the long-term degradation of land under plow-based agriculture.

But my message of soil conservation as the foundation for sustainable (and profitable) farming resonated, and invitations to address farming groups grew. And in sitting in on sessions at conferences I normally wouldn鈥檛 have attended I met and listened to some of the pioneers of regenerative farming.

Their successes in restoring fertility to degraded land paralleled what Anne, my co-author and wife, had done to our yard in making an urban garden. Hearing these pioneers鈥� stories launched me into visiting regenerative farmers and telling their stories to make the larger point about the need to restore soils in general. This has all contributed to a style of weaving science, history and personal stories into broader narratives that make for an entertaining read on an important subject.

What inspired the new book?

After researching and writing several previous books about the importance of healthy soil as a foundation for human civilizations and sustainable farming, Anne and I were curious about how soil health affects human health. We were aware of the early ideas of some of the pioneers of the organic agriculture movement, like , who wrote about connections between soil and the health of crops, livestock and people.

A lot of science has been done since then and we thought it was timely to review what鈥檚 been learned 鈥� and translate it for the general public. As we鈥檝e written about before, there are a lot of reasons to advocate for restoring soil health on our agricultural lands: reduced use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, more-profitable farms, and greater carbon sequestration in the soil, to name a few. But we were also curious about what restoring soil health might mean for human health in terms of providing more mineral micronutrients and phytochemicals, as well as the types and balance of fats in the human diet. So we dug into those connections to craft a new synthesis for nonscientists.

You published a recent study that explores similar questions. Is this the first time you鈥檝e conducted a research study in tandem with writing a book?

In researching this book we found very few studies that tested the role of soil health on the nutritional profile of crops. So we conducted a small study, based on paired conventional and regenerative farms around the country, and found that, on average, regenerative practices that build soil health enhance the micronutrient and phytochemical levels in crops. We also looked at how differences in the diet of grain-fed, feedlot cattle versus grass-fed, free-range cattle translated into differences in the fat profile of meat and dairy products.

But no, this wasn鈥檛 the first time I鈥檝e conducted a research study while writing a book. When I was writing 鈥淒irt鈥� I compiled all the data I could find on rates of soil erosion under conventional and no-till farming practices to evaluate the potential for sustainable farming, and to assess the role of soil erosion on the fate of past societies. That ended up being published in an academic journal at the same time the book came out.

This is the second book you鈥檝e co-authored with your spouse, biologist and environmental planner Anne Bikl茅. What鈥檚 it like co-authoring a book with your spouse?

I won鈥檛 say that the process is frictionless, but Anne is a terrific writer and brings a different perspective and expertise to our research and writing. She is very focused on making a good story out of what could end up as a dry recitation of research results. And her perspective as a biologist complements my background in geology.

Put simply, working with Anne ups my game.

What do you hope people take away from this book?

That what鈥檚 good for the land is good for us too; that agricultural policy is health policy. 听We all know that what we eat matters to our health, but so does how we grow the crops and feed the animals that become our diet.

For more information, contact Montgomery at bigdirt@uw.edu

A new , published in January in the journal PeerJ, looks at how regenerative farming practices 鈥� soil-building techniques that minimize plowing, use cover crops, and plant diverse crops 鈥� affect the nutritional content of the food.

Results of the preliminary experiment, which included 10 farms across the U.S., show that the crops from farms following soil-friendly practices for at least five years had a healthier nutritional profile than the same crops grown on neighboring, conventional farms. Results showed a boost in certain minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals that benefit human health.

鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 find studies that related directly to how the health of the soil affects what gets into crops,鈥� said lead author , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. 鈥淪o we did the experiment that we wished was out there.鈥�

Montgomery designed the study during research for his upcoming book, 鈥�,鈥� due out in June. His spouse, , is a biologist and co-author of the study and the upcoming book.

The authors collaborated with farmers using regenerative farming practices to conduct an experiment. All the participating farms, mostly in the Midwest and in the Eastern U.S., agreed to grow one acre of a test crop 鈥� peas, sorghum, corn or soybeans 鈥� for comparison with the same crop grown on a neighboring farm using conventional agriculture. Co-author , a retired soil conservation scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, visited all the farms and sampled their soil in summer 2019. Farmers then sent samples of their crops in for analysis.

鈥淭he goal was to try to get some direct comparisons, where you controlled for key variables: The crop is the same, the climate is the same, the weather is the same because they鈥檙e right next to each other, the soil is the same in terms of soil type, but it鈥檚 been farmed quite differently for at least five years,鈥� Montgomery said.

The study sites included the farm and ranch of co-author Paul Brown. Brown had met the UW researcher during Montgomery鈥檚 work for the 2017 book, 鈥�Growing a Revolution,鈥� which toured regenerative farms in the U.S. and overseas, including Brown鈥檚 Ranch in North Dakota.

Results of the new study showed that the farms practicing regenerative agriculture had healthier soils, as measured by their organic matter, or carbon, content and by a standard .

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing is that the regeneratively farmed soils had twice as much carbon in their topsoil and a threefold increase in their soil health score,鈥� Montgomery said.

Crop samples were analyzed at lab facilities at the UW, Oregon State University and Iowa State University.

The food grown under regenerative practices contained, on average, more magnesium, calcium, potassium and zinc; more vitamins, including B1, B12, C, E and K; and more , compounds not typically tracked for food but that have been shown to reduce inflammation and boost human health. Crops grown in the regenerative farms were also lower in elements broadly detrimental to human health, including sodium, cadmium and nickel, compared with their conventionally grown neighbors.

鈥淎cross the board we found these regenerative practices imbue our crops with more anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants,鈥� Montgomery said.

Organic farms avoid chemical pesticides but they can vary in their other farming practices, such as whether they have a diversity of crops or till the soil to control weeds. Results from a previous review , published by Montgomery and Bikl茅 in the fall, show organic crops also generally have higher levels of beneficial phytochemicals than crops grown on conventional farms.

The researchers believe the key lies in the biology of the soil 鈥� the microbes and fungi that are part of the soil ecosystem 鈥� as these organisms directly and indirectly help boost beneficial compounds in crops.

鈥淭he biology of the soil was really the part that got overlooked in moving to chemistry-intensive farming,鈥� Montgomery said. 鈥淚t may be that one of our biggest levers for trying to combat the modern public health epidemic of chronic diseases is to rethink our diet, and not just what we eat, but how we grow it.鈥�

The study also included cabbage grown on a no-till farm in California and a single wheat farm in northern Oregon that was comparing its own conventional and regenerative farming practices and provided both samples. The study included meat from a single producer, Brown鈥檚 Ranch; the beef and pork raised on regenerative agriculture feed was higher in omega-3 fatty acids than meat from a conventional feedlot.

鈥淭he biggest criticism I would have of this study is small sample size 鈥� that鈥檚 why the paper鈥檚 title includes the word 鈥榩reliminary,鈥欌�� Montgomery said. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to see a lot more studies start quantifying: How do differences in soil health affect the quality of crops that come from that land?鈥�

The other co-author is Jazmin Jordan of Brown鈥檚 Ranch. The study was funded by the Dillon Family Foundation.

For more information, contact Montgomery at bigdirt@uw.edu

Seven scientists and engineers at the 天美影视传媒 have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences, according to an July 15 by the academy. One-third of the 21 new members for 2020 hail from the UW.

The new members are lauded for 鈥渢heir outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.鈥� The academy鈥檚 current membership selected 17 of the new members, and four were chosen by virtue of their election to one of the .

New UW members who were elected by academy members are:

• , the Frank & Julie Jungers Dean of the College of Engineering and professor of bioengineering, 鈥渇or outstanding contributions to the design and application of microtechnologies to biomedical research, leadership in interdisciplinary research and education, and entrepreneurial excellence.鈥�
• , professor of chemistry and of materials science and engineering, 鈥渇or the development of controlled polymerization reactions for conjugated polymers, especially alkyl-thiophenes, for organic electronics applications.鈥澨齃uscombe is also a faculty member with the , the and the .
• , professor of Earth and space sciences, 鈥渇or fundamental contributions to geomorphology, for the elucidation of soils, rivers, and landscapes as underpinnings of ecological systems and human societies, and for reaching broad audiences through trade books on agriculture, microbes, creationism, and fisheries.鈥�
• Sue Moore, research scientist at the in the Department of Biology, 鈥渇or contributions to the understanding of Arctic marine ecosystems and pioneering the integration of Conventional Science and Indigenous Knowledge to yield better policy decisions.鈥�
• , professor of pharmacology, 鈥渇or exceptional contributions to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which ubiquitin ligases, as a new class of enzymes, control protein ubiquitination in human physiology and diseases, as well as plant growth and development.鈥�

UW members who were chosen by virtue of their election to one of the National Academies are:

• , professor of biostatistics and of epidemiology at the UW and a faculty member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 鈥渇or pioneering work in the field of designing and analyzing vaccine studies, including studies of HIV vaccines and innovative use of mathematical and statistical methods to study infectious disease.鈥� Halloran was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019.
• , professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, 鈥渇or contributions to geotechnical earthquake engineering, including liquefaction, seismic stability and seismic site response.鈥� Kramer was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2020.

New members are to be inducted at the annual members meeting, which is currently scheduled for September.

Historian Patricia Ebrey receives Association of Asian Studies’ top award for 2020

The Association of Asian Studies has given UW historian its 2020 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies. The award, the highest the bestows, honors outstanding scholarship in the field.

Ebrey is the Williams Family Endowed Professor of History. She has written or edited many works on China and East Asia as well as a sourcebook on China for undergraduate teaching. She has written over 70 journal articles and book chapters and her works have been translated into several other languages.

Praising Ebrey for groundbreaking efforts in several areas, the association said in a news release: “By editing or co-editing volumes of scholarly work, and by providing translations and reproductions of primary materials, she has dedicated herself to developing the historical study of China both in terms of research and teaching.”

for the honor at the Association of Asian Studies website.

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UW political scientist Christopher Parker joins Cascade Public Media board of directors

, UW professor of political science, has been chosen to join the board of directors for Cascade Public Media, the nonprofit home of KCTS 9 television and Crosscut.

Parker has taught at the UW since 2006 and is the author of two books, “” (with Matt Barreto, 2013) and “” (2009). His next book, planned for this year, is “The Great White Hope: Donald Trump, Race, and the Crisis of American Democracy.”

Parker was one of two new named, along with Holly Mesrobian, a UW alumna who is a director of engineering at Amazon Web Services. The appointments were April 28. Also on the Cascade Public Media board is , UW professor of law.

“Not only is the world of media changing rapidly, the world itself is changing at a breakneck pace,” Robert Dunlop, CEO of , said of the two new directors. “Their insights will be extremely valuable as we continue to bring the people of our region news and programming that informs and inspires.”

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Terryl Ross receives 2020 social equity award from American Society of Public Administration

The American Society of Public Administration has given , assistant dean of diversity, equity and inclusion in the UW College of the Environment, its 2020 Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Award for 2020.

The recognizes lifetime achievement in the cause of social equity. Candidates are evaluated on the consistency, level and duration of their work on social equity as well as the impact of their efforts. The society’s 8,000-some members are practitioners, academics and students.

Ross came to the UW in 1992 as a doctoral student in the Educational and Communication Technology Program housed in the College of Education and later created the group Multicultural Organization of Students Actively Involved in Change, or MOSAIC.

“Ross continues to work in diversity and inclusion today as he collaborates with college stakeholders to envision diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the college,” the association wrote.

The award, established in 2003, is named for a longtime employee of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

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David Montgomery honored by Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography

The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography has awarded , UW professor of Earth and space sciences its 2020 for achievements in physical geography. He was honored his work in the field of geomorphology 鈥� the study of the origin and evolution of landforms.

Montgomery has written several popular science books as well as teaching materials and over 200 articles. The society praised his impact on the research community. His last book was “,” published in 2017.

“He has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations now and in the past,” the society wrote in its award announcement.

The was founded in 1878 and is supported mainly by the King of Sweden. Its objective is to promote the development of anthropology, geography and closely related sciences in Sweden and serve as a link between scientists in these disciplines, and the public.

The award, one of two informally referred to as the Nobel prize of geography, is named for the of Swedish explorer , who discovered the Northwest Passage in 1881.

Read more on the College of the Environment .

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In other faculty news:

Openness letter: , UW professor of urban design and planning in the College of Built Environments, was one of 31 scientists to sign an open letter to the journal Science calling for more openness in coronavirus modeling. “” was published in Science on May 1.

“A hallmark of science is the open exchange of knowledge, the cosigners wrote. “We strongly urge all scientists modeling the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and its consequences for health and society to rapidly and openly publish their code 鈥� so that it is accessible to all scientists around the world.”

Seattle Channel meets Indigo Mist: The Seattle Channel recently filmed a visit with the UW School of Music faculty members who comprise the improvisational music group : professors , , and , the school’s director 鈥� , artist in residence (and longtime bassist). The school took note in its April newsletter.

“You just let go and let your creativity do its thing,” Vu said in the video, describing the group’s creative approach. Whatever art comes out of that, he said, is “going to make sense 鈥� and it’s going to be uniquely your expression.”

Watch the Youtube video:

Here鈥檚 a look at a few podcasts being produced 天美影视传媒 departments or people 鈥� and an appearance by a faculty member on the podcast “.”

“”

This podcast launched in January 2019 and is produced and hosted by with .

Connors is a lecturer, and N忙sby a visiting lecturer of Danish, both in the . With 13 completed episodes, “Crossing North” is about Nordic and Baltic society and culture, and features interviews with authors, performers and leaders from Scandinavia and the Baltic, plus faculty from Scandinavian Studies and the Baltic Studies Program.

include “,” “” and “,” which asks: What does it mean to be a folk musician in a country with no folk instruments?

UW Notebook asked a few questions to catch up with this podcast’s journey so far.

What got this podcast started?

Colin G. Connors: There are so many incredible stories coming out of the Nordic and Baltic countries that can help us to better understand the world abroad and here at home. We have some amazing faculty in the Department of Scandinavian Studies, and we wanted to be able to share their research and what inspires them directly with the public.

The department serves a lot of different communities: Our focus is of course on the students in our classrooms, but we also serve the public interest as well. The department sees a lot of artists, ambassadors, and business leaders visiting from Scandinavia, so we wanted to share that direct connection with the public, and especially those in the Pacific Northwest with an interest in Scandinavia.

The world is looking to the Scandinavian countries right now for inspiration on how to approach all sorts of issues, including climate change, affordable health care, effective education systems and gender equality in the workplace. We hope that the podcast is an entry point for a lot of people, and a place where listeners can hear what type of work is being done, right now, here and in Scandinavia.

How long does it take you to record and produce a single episode?听

C.C.: I probably spend between 40 and 50 hours per episode. Many people don鈥檛 realize all the skills and expertise required to make a quality podcast, but when you listen you know the difference. That’s why we put so much effort into research, editing, production value, and sound design.

We believe “Crossing North” is a reflection of the university, and we want it to reflect the world-class education one can receive in the Department of Scandinavian Studies.

Who is your audience? Is the podcast finding its audience?

C.C.: Honestly, the show is for anyone who enjoys learning. All the episodes touch on relevant issues in our world. There are lessons to be learned, both good and bad, from the Nordic and Baltic countries. Sometimes those lessons come from unexpected directions because of how distant those countries are from Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, but the podcast also digs into some surprisingly deep connections that reveal how close we really are.

Different audiences have found different ways of engaging with individual episodes. A good example a recent episode, #11, which was an interview with assistant professor of Western Kentucky University about sustainability, green colonialism and Indigenous ecologies. For a lot of our listeners, this episode was the first time they were exposed to the idea of treaty rights and Indigenous sovereignty, especially in the Nordic countries, but for the 厂谩尘颈-American community here in Seattle (the are the Indigenous people of Scandinavia), the episode was an affirmation of their identities and experiences.

That piece also spoke to larger conversations happening around the world and here in Washington about the rights of Indigenous peoples, so I know the episode was shared by different Indigenous advocacy groups as well. I think that’s the mark of a successful piece of work, that people are able to bring something to it and also take something new and meaningful away.

What is your favorite episode so far? Which might be the best for a newcomer to listen to first?听

C.C.: You can’t go wrong with starting at the beginning. Episode 1, “,” is about the power of music and explores how Latvia’s folk songs helped its people to end the Soviet occupation. The episode has some great music and folk stories.

People might also enjoy episode 10, “.'” I interviewed Marc Smith, Disney Animation’s director of story for “Frozen 2” and we talked about how their research trip to Finland, Norway, and Iceland inspired the film. The answer goes way beyond costume design, and our conversation was a once-in-a-lifetime peek behind the scenes at Disney Animation Studios.

How many downloads have you had so far?

C.C.: We have reached between 200 and 750 listeners with each episode. Listeners these days are more likely to binge a series than to tune in every month, so download numbers are less representative of overall appeal in podcasting than in traditional broadcasting.

With 13 episodes, “” is still in its infant stage right now, so we are less concerned with numbers than with continuing to produce quality content, because we know that the more episodes we publish, the more likely we are to get new listeners.

For more information, contact Connors at colingc@uw.edu.

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Other ongoing UW podcasts:

““

Produced and hosted by , associate professor, Information School

Janes studies the cultural impact of documents and documentation and the future of libraries. The title phrase for his podcast came to him in 2012 and he has been producing occasional episodes ever since. In 2017, Janes published a book based on the series titled “Documents that Changed the Way We Live.” Topics across 54 episodes have included the Declaration of Independence’s deleted passage on slavery, Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his nonexistent “list” of communist conspirators in government, an early map of cholera contamination and more. A recent, all-too-timely episode was about the . Over 500,000 downloads. Read more at UW News. For more information, contact Janes at jwj@uw.edu.

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College of Education podcasts on coronavirus, early learning, climate change and more

Dustin Wunderlich, marketing and communications director for the college, produces podcasts with faculty members and students to discuss their research or publications.

He has produced podcasts about college sports, disability studies, climate science education, culturally sustaining pedagogies and education priorities in the Washington state Legislature, and other topics. . The college also has published a list of its top .

A recent episode, released in mid-March, was an with UW assistant professor of education, about the coronavirus threatening to increase inequalities in early learning.

For more information, contact Wunderlich at dwunder@uw.edu.

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Events and lectures as podcasts: Jackson School’s Ellison Center 听

Some UW units are recording events and lectures and making them available in podcast form.

Among these is the in the Jackson School of International Studies. Their most recent recording , is about “Russian Grassroots Activism for the Environment and Beyond.”

For more information, write to reecas@uw.edu.

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‘Don’t disturb the soil’: UW’s David Montgomery discusses ‘regenerative farming’ on ‘Undark’

, UW professor of earth and space sciences, was part of a discussion of soil health and “regenerative farming” on the podcast “.” In each episode, the series explores a topic at the intersection of science and society. This episode was titled “.”

The discussion in January with podcast host Lydia Chain and Seattle-based journalist Eilis O’Neill focused on how regenerative farming practices can improve the health of soil on farms. Scientists, policymakers and manufacturers, they noted, not only disagree on what regenerative farming can accomplish, they even disagree on its exact meaning.

Montgomery defined it with three central rules. First, he said, “Stop tilling, stop plowing. 鈥hen you plow a field, it’s highly disruptive. Think, you know, if only of what it does to the worms in the soil to plow them up.”

Second, he suggested farmers should always be growing something, to keep a living root in the soil. Finally, they should plant diverse crops, either in rotation or all at once.

“That combination is the recipe for building up soil organic matter, building up life in the soil,” Montgomery said.

His last book, on the same subject, “,” was published in 2017.

For more information, contact Montgomery at bigdirt@uw.edu.

UW Notebook is a section of the UW News site dedicated to telling stories of the good work done by faculty and staff at the 天美影视传媒. Read all posts here.

Geologic time is supposed to be slow, and the most solid object should be bedrock. But new 天美影视传媒 research upends both concepts: Effects of logging show that human activity can significantly erode bedrock, causing geology to fast forward.

The , published April 15 in the , focuses on the Teanaway River, a picturesque river in central Washington state.

“In the last century, we have more river incision in this area than expected. Something caused these rivers to start eroding a lot more,” said lead author , a former UW doctoral student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. “We know the Teanaway River has eroded into bedrock before, naturally 鈥� it has some terraces that are 1,800 years old. But this current cycle is anthropogenic, or human-driven.”

Results show that practices related to logging caused bedrock incision of up to 2 meters (6 feet) along the riverbed. As much as a half of what had been a floodplain was transformed into a new terrace abutting the river.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to pinpoint erosion into bedrock due to human action,” Schanz said. “Most rivers are eroding at about a tenth of a millimeter per year. This is about 100 times that amount.”

The discovery means this beautiful riverbank resulted from human action, not natural forces. It could change how geologists think about landscapes in other parts of the world, such as Taiwan, with its long history of intense human activity.

The study began 20 years ago when co-author , a UW senior lecturer in river geology, was curious why there was so much exposed bedrock in the Teanaway.

Collins also noticed unusual , the stepped structures along the river bank resulting from cycles of the river flooding and then running more quickly, cutting a new channel deeper into the sediment. He led a 2016 that calculated short-term changes in the Teanaway’s western fork and suggested logging may have caused the river to cut a new channel.

This site in a community forest offered good access for regular visits by the research team and undergraduate assistants to all three forks. By combining newspaper records, material from the UW Libraries Special Collections, Central Washington University and the local Kittitas County historical society, the researchers were able to piece together and confirm the full history.

Before logging roads existed, companies built temporary “” high up on the slope with all the logs and then broke up the dam with tools or explosives. Released water helped send logs shooting down to the mills.

“It was such an event that schools closed, and newspaper records show it really well,” Schanz said. “People who are still alive today, some of their earliest memories are of going to see it.”

Key to the process is that loggers would clear away debris to give the logs a clear shot down the river. This removed barriers that held back sediment and cleared out much of the gravel from the riverbed. Such events, the authors believe, caused the erosion to change dramatically.

“If you have too much sediment, you’re basically protecting the river from erosion. But if you have not enough sediment, as that sediment is moving along, it starts to hit the bedrock and erode it,” Schanz said.

, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, and the other two co-authors used many techniques to analyze the four youngest terraces on the river’s edge, including maps, carbon dating of rocks and computer models. In 1999 the team even hammered nails into the bedrock and the erosion rates directly.

Many rivers, including the Teanaway, have individual features that show evidence of human impact on areas of bedrock. But this is the first time an entire river basin is found to have been transformed by human activity.

“This is a direct topographic signature of the Anthropocene, the ‘age of humans’ that we now live in,” Montgomery said. “The finding that terrace surfaces in the Teanaway are recently-abandoned floodplains suggests that similar landforms around the world may also reflect the influence of human activity.”

The UW team recently published an overview looking at where river terraces have formed worldwide over the past 4,000 years. The authors showed that in many cases, river terrace formation coincided with deforestation.

“It’s sort of a hand-wavey linkage at this point, but I think this could be prevalent worldwide,” said Schanz. “It’s just not a signal that we’ve known to look for before.”

Schanz will start a faculty position in August at Colorado College, where she plans also to explore what the finding means for how river canyons form through natural processes.

“I think the human part is really interesting, but what has broader implications, for me, is the proof that if you change how sediment moves through a river, you can change erosion rates,” Schanz said.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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For more information, contact Schanz at saschanz@iu.edu鈥�, Montgomery at bigdirt@uw.edu and Collins at bcollins@uw.edu.

Yet his new book, “,” is a good-news environment story. Available May 9 from W.W. Norton, it comes almost exactly a decade after the book that propelled Montgomery to pop-science stardom. During the years since, he has won a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a ‘Genius Award,’ and published several books for general audiences.

The success of “Dirt” also brought invitations to speak at farming conferences. Along the way, Montgomery met farmers who talked about successes in restoring health to degraded soils.

“I kept running into examples of farmers who had restored fertility to degraded land,” said Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “So I started asking, what did you do? How long did it take? I began to recognize patterns among farmers who had been successful not just in restoring soil, but in restoring profits to their farms.”

At one event he shared the stage with Howard G. Buffett, Warren Buffett’s farmer-philanthropist son, who stressed the importance of restoring health to U.S. soils. American soils are currently estimated to have lost about half their pre-agricultural organic matter 鈥� a key ingredient in fertile soil.

“What really impressed me was how he presented examples of real farmers who had restored fertility to their soil, showing the potential for what he called a ‘Brown Revolution,'” Montgomery said. After that encounter, Montgomery set out to visit farmers around the world who were restoring their soil.

The new book weaves a travelogue with history and science to tell of visits to farms in North and South Dakota, site of the famous Dust Bowl, as well as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Africa and Costa Rica. These farmers use technology ranging from hand-powered machetes to enormous modern no-till seeding machines. Seeing approaches that worked in very different situations, Montgomery sought out the common ground for building fertile soil as a consequence of farming.

These farmers had all moved away from tilling their fields, which chops up worms, erodes soil and disrupts beneficial microbes. Instead they focused on boosting soil health, thereby bolstering a crop鈥檚 natural defenses.

“It boils down to a combination of three factors: Park the plow to minimize soil disturbance; grow cover crops, including legumes to get nitrogen and carbon into the soil; and grow a diversity of crops, so that you can break up the pest and pathogen carryover problem,” Montgomery said. “Those three principles 鈥� ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity 鈥� were common among the farmers that had restored degraded soils and returned profitability to their farms.”

He intentionally did not seek out “alternative” or “environmental” practices. Except for the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, the farms he visited were not certified organic. Most farmers were strongly motivated by economic worries and the skyrocketing costs of herbicides, pesticides and diesel. By nurturing healthier soils that can retain water, suppress pests and don’t require as much fertilizer, pesticides or work of diesel-powered machines, they reduced their costly inputs by at least 50 percent and up to 90 percent.

Beyond the economic payoff for farmers, adopting these practices also produces environmental benefits by reducing chemical use and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere to help counter climate change, Montgomery says.

“I think there鈥檚 a big opportunity to make conventional agriculture more ‘organic-ish’ by adopting this suite of practices,” Montgomery said. “By moving away from high-disturbance, high-input agriculture you can reap many of the benefits of soil health without necessarily going fully organic.”

Montgomery’s most recent book, “,” co-written with his wife, Anne Bikl茅, looked at the power of microbes in the soil and in human health. That book told the story of how Bikl茅 nurtured microbial life to restore the soil in their home’s yard, seeing results more quickly than they had imagined was possible.

“This new book was my attempt to ask the question: Can soil be restored at scale? On real farms, not in some little yard in Seattle. Could it be done on real, commercial farms in the developed world, as well as on subsistence farms in the developing world?”

His answer is a strong argument for yes.

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For more information, contact Montgomery at 206-685-2560 or bigdirt@uw.edu.

A published this week in Science finds evidence to support stories that a huge flood took place in China about 4,000 years ago, during the reign of Emperor Yu. The study, led by Chinese researcher Qinglong Wu, finds evidence for a massive landslide dam break that could have redirected the course of the Yellow River, giving rise to the legendary flood that Emperor Yu is credited with controlling.

An accompanying by , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, discusses how this finding supports the historical basis for traditional tales about China’s Great Flood. It even explains some details of the classic folk story.

“A telling aspect of the story 鈥� that it took Yu and his followers decades to control the floodwaters 鈥� makes sense in light of geological evidence that Wu et al. present,” Montgomery writes.

The study showed that an ancient landslide dammed the Yellow River on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. When the dam broke in about 1922 B.C., the authors found, it created an enormous flood that coincided with a period of major social disruption, suggesting that the Yellow River overflowed its banks and had to set a new course.

“It would have taken considerable time for a large river to adjust to such a change and the associated sustained flooding would fall in the right time and place to account for Yu’s story 鈥� including the long time it took to control the floodwaters,” Montgomery commented.

The discovery is the latest in a series of efforts to link geologic and oral histories, including the biblical tale of Noah’s flood.

“Great floods figure prominently in some of humanity’s oldest stories,” Montgomery said. “In researching my book, ‘,’ I found that while the idea of a global flood was soundly refuted almost 200 years ago, many of the world’s flood stories have their roots in real catastrophic events 鈥� like tsunamis, glacial dam-break floods and disastrous flooding of lowland valleys and areas along major rivers.”

The Pacific Northwest is home to one prominent example. Montgomery notes that has linked Native American tales about shaking and flooding to the 1700 earthquake and tsunami along Washington’s coast, for which no written records exist.

“Now it appears that we can add China’s story of a great flood to the growing list of legends of ancient catastrophes that may be rooted in real events,” Montgomery said.

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For more information, contact Montgomery at 206-618-9220 or bigdirt@uw.edu.

The society announced this week that the 鈥� the society’s highest prize for engineering geology 鈥� will go to the seven authors of a published in July 2014 on the causes, behavior and potential implications of the slide, which killed 43 people. The report compiles findings of an that began just days after the disaster.

UW faculty members , associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and , professor of Earth and space sciences, are among the co-authors of the award-winning paper. All are members of the , an organization funded by the National Science Foundation to collect data in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster or extreme event.

The Burwell Award is given each year to authors of a recently published paper that advances the principles or practices of environmental and engineering geology. It is named for Edward B. Burwell, Jr., the first chief geologist of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This year’s citation recognizes the Oso report’s “comprehensive nature and high technical level,” while noting that the authors did an exceptional job summarizing the event and publishing the report quickly. The report was released on the four-month anniversary of the landslide.

“Events like the Oso landslide cause a scientific leap in applied geology,” the committee wrote. “The authors have decades of experience, which translated into the meticulous report capturing this extreme event. This is an outstanding publication, meeting the criteria of a publication that advances knowledge in the engineering geology field.”

“The award was a wonderful surprise,” Wartman said. “As a team, we put much work into the research under very challenging conditions, so it was deeply gratifying for us to receive this recognition from the professional community.”

The report found that the along the banks of the Stillaguamish River. As well as doing a forensic analysis of the event, the authors made recommendations on how to reduce future risks.

“Our hope is that by better understanding how this landslide disaster happened, it will help us prevent future tragedies,” Montgomery said. “We’re all deeply moved to be recognized for our efforts in this regard.”

The geological society’s Environmental & Engineering Geology Division will present the award in late September at the society’s annual meeting in Denver.

The other co-authors are Jeffrey R. Keaton at Amec Foster Wheeler in Los Angeles, Scott Anderson at the Federal Highway Administration in Colorado, Jean Benoit at the University of New Hampshire, John deLaChapelle at Golder Associates and Robert Gilbert at the University of Texas at Austin.

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For more information, contact Wartman at 206-685-4806 or wartman@uw.edu and Montgomery at 206-685-2560 or bigdirt@uw.edu.