BEYOND ROCKET SCIENCE: SEEKING SOLUTIONS TO COMPLEX, GLOBAL CHALLENGES THROUGH LIFE SCIENCE RESEARCH

Joe Colletti is the senior associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and associate director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station.

By Joe Colletti

There’s no doubt we face complex, global challenges in food, environment, bioenergy and human health and nutrition. Solutions will rely on new ways of thinking, new technology and analytics, new partnerships and new transdisciplinary teams.

It’s not rocket science, folks. It’s more complex than that. Solutions must be economically viable, environmentally sound, socially acceptable and resilient. They must make sense for the time and for the place.

For anything new to have impact and endure, it needs to be built upon a strong foundation. For the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, that foundation is life sciences.

We have more than 150 years of success focused on crops, livestock, food,  environment, nutrition and socioeconomics related to agriculture. What you may not know is that life sciences—including biology, biochemistry, ecology and genetics—have been and continue to be key to our success in science. It enriches our research portfolio, which today is both broad and deep, spanning so-called “basic science” to “applied science.”

In 2009, a National Research Council report, “A New Biology for the 21^st Century,” outlined an approach to addressing major societal challenges of food, environment, energy and health. A key to this approach was the integration of knowledge across the life sciences, mathematics and engineering. The report stressed that the “New Biology” would build upon, not replace, “fundamental and curiosity-driven” research.

A few examples of our “beyond rocket science” work shows how we are tackling global challenges through life sciences:

Research on zebrafish using advanced genetics called TALENS is poised to enhance food production and address human health concerns (see page 22).

Breakthroughs in understanding plant-parasitic interactions at the genetic level may lead to new ways to thwart a $1 billion annual loss nationally in soybean production (see page 25).

Double haploid technology allows corn breeders to more quickly produce corn inbred lines that better resist pests, respond better under extreme climatic conditions and have enhanced nutritional value.

New understanding of components involved in plant cell wall development is central to biorefineries producing the next generation of fuels and renewable products.

Scientists are learning more about a naturally occurring enzyme that converts glucose in plants directly into isobutene, a valuable, green fuel additive and  industrial chemical.

A blend of molecular virology, computational modeling, protein structure and function and veterinary pathology drives new vaccine strategies to combat a horse lentivirus and may shed light on a close cousin of the disease in humans, HIV.

Capturing genetic and biochemical blueprints of medicinal plants may lead to advances in drug discovery and development for improved human health.

Using biology and enzymology to understand how plants and animals repair DNA damage can benefit human health, including new options for cancer treatment.

Ecology and evolutionary biology using a unique eye model in mollusks could advance therapies for human diseases causing vision loss.

You get the idea. The college’s fundamental work in life sciences is the basis for solving complex, global challenges. It’s a key part of how we are engaged in learning, discovery, translation and service for the benefit of Iowa and the world.

It’s not rocket science, folks! It’s more complex, and more meaningful!

GOING THE DISTANCE FOR AGRICULTURE

By Barbara McBreen

The summer of 2012 was a hot one, but that didn’t stop Bethany Olson from training for competitive cross-country.

Bethany Olson

“You have to love running—whether it’s 100 plus degrees or 21 below—you have to work out,” says Olson, a senior in agricultural business and international agriculture.

As a member of the Iowa State University Women’s Track and Cross Country teams Olson trained hard this summer to reach her mileage total of 85 miles per week. An important goal because she believes cross- country competition is about teamwork.

“If you don’t put your time in, you are letting your team down,” Olson says. “There are no timeouts when you compete in cross country because it’s an individual contribution to the team.”

The teamwork paid off last year when Iowa State University’s Women’s team brought home Iowa State’s first Big 12 Championship trophy. Corey Ihmels, Iowa State University director of men and women’s track and cross country, says it’s because of athletes like Olson.

“The easy part is doing the hard work, the hard part is balance. I ask students to manage life, school, get enough rest and eat well,” Ihmels says. “Bethany is very involved academically and she’s a committed athlete. She’s doing things right.”

Olson’s a team player in everything she does, but balancing all her interests is a challenge. Along with Cyclone athletics, Olson is a member of the Agricultural Business Club, Alpha Zeta, the Honors Program, Collegiate FFA, Lyrica (an Iowa State women’s choir), the Student Athlete Advisory Council and serves as a student ambassador for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

One of Olson’s interests is travel. In grade school Olson listed traveling the world as one of her lifelong goals. She started her college travels in Argentina as part of an agronomy and economics travel course during spring break. The twelve-day trip was packed with farm and ag industry tours along with a few tourist stops.

Olson wrote an 80-page report summarizing the trip and credited Sergio Lence’s connections for making the trip a hands- on tour. Lence, a professor of economics and course adviser, grew up on a farm near Carlos Casares in the Province of Buenos Aires.

“Students like Bethany make the effort of leading travel courses worthwhile and motivate me to continue doing them,” Lence says.

Nathan Johnston, a senior in agricultural business, also went to Argentina with Olson. The two grew up four miles apart from each other near Jewell, Iowa. They both have similar career plans. Johnston says the long-standing joke between them is who will be the other one’s boss.

“In high school we were involved in 4-H, cross country and FFA co-presidents together. We followed each other to Iowa State and both went into the ag business program,” Johnston says. “It’s been great to have a friend like Bethany at Iowa State.”

In June, Olson continued her international studies and traveled to Southeast Asia after being selected to participate in the International Collegiate Agricultural Leadership Program sponsored by the U.S. Grains Foundation and the National FFA. She and Karl Kerns, a junior in animal science, were among twelve students nationwide to participate in a trip to Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The group toured an aquaculture farm on the Mekong River in Vietnam and met with commodity representatives in Saigon. Olson says the experience emphasized Iowa’s global connection to agriculture, especially when they visited the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade in Singapore.

Both study abroad opportunities fit Olson’s plans to pursue a career in marketing and with an agricultural business or organization that includes international connections.

“I hope to have a career that is focused on furthering the productivity of farmers and their agricultural practices around the world, while helping consumers under- stand that agriculture is an important and necessary part of their lives,” Olson says.

Olson is co-chair of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Ag Career Day. Her past awards include recognition as a Foreman Scholar and the Branstad-Reynolds Undergraduate Scholar. She was raised on a fifth-generation family farm and graduated valedictorian of the South Hamilton High School Class of 2009

DEALING WITH DROUGHT: ISU EXTENSION AND FARM SERVICES AGENCY’S RAPID RESPONSE

ISU Extension and Outreach joined with Farm Services Agency (FSA) and other organizations to address drought issues in Iowa this summer. ISU field agronomist Paul Kassel and fellow ISU alumni farmer Kurt Christensen, Les Zobrist with the FSA, farmer Kent Christensen and ISU beef specialist Beth Doran touch base about management and feed options.

By Willy Klein

Jim Larson, a northern Iowa beef cattle breeder, called Beth Doran in mid July with an urgent message. Larson (’69 animal science) looked to Doran, an Iowa State

University Extension and Outreach beef specialist, for answers to cattle producers’ drought-specific questions. Weeks of triple digit temperatures and little, if any, rainfall had contributed to the significant decline in crop and pasture conditions—and herds needed feed. What were their options?

His calls followed conversations Doran and her colleagues were having with county office and campus staff and put into motion a regional extension response that included 10 emergency meetings reaching over 660 producers and agribusiness staff.

“I was concerned about nitrates in my silage, so were my clients,” says Larson. “Beth sent me information about getting silage tested and many of my clients went to the meetings where extension tested for the presence of nitrates.”

Similar scenarios were happening across the state. The extension network ramped up communications, updated resources, contacted partners and began providing educational events and distributing materials.

Drought-stricken Iowa producers needed to make decisions quickly, but university research and expertise alone could not answer all their questions. Within a few days, Extension and Outreach joined with crop insurance agents and adjusters, agribusinesses and Farm Services Agency (FSA) directors across the state to hold meetings addressing drought issues.

“In July, we didn’t have disaster assistance to talk about, but we attended the extension-led meetings and encouraged producers to keep good records in the event assistance became available,” says Jeff Davis, Plymouth County FSA director.

FSA and ISU Extension and Outreach response continued around the state. Carol Groen, Lyon County FSA director, attended an Extension and Outreach webinar in Sheldon in late July, responding to question and providing agency fact sheets.

Trevor Kerr, Sioux County FSA director, invited Doran and staff from the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Rural Development to a late-July county emergency board meeting to document losses in crops, pasture and hay. He completed, filed and updated U.S. Department of Agriculture reports needed to trigger USDA response to the drought. Similar county emergency board meetings  were held around the state.

By the end of July, Iowa FSA authorized emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program acres in 26 counties, freeing up forage and feed for producers.

Haying and grazing of cover crops without impact to insurability of planted 2013 spring crops was announced by Risk Management Agency in August.

USDA designated all Iowa counties as primary or contiguous natural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by the drought by August 15, making emergency loans available to producers.

Looking back, Doran sees partnerships worked for the benefit of producers, especially with FSA.

“The agency with the capacity to offer emergency relief and the university with agricultural experts will continue to anticipate needs and respond to continuing drought conditions,” she says.

RESTORATION PRODUCES RIPPLE EFFECT AT CLEAR LAKE

Professor John Downing leads long-term regeneration research at Clear Lake in north central Iowa. Downing says the lake’s recovery has been “phenomenal,” with much improved water clarity and lake function.

By Ed Adcock

Clear Lake is getting closer to living up to its name after a restoration plan created by limnologist John Downing and his Iowa State team.

It began with a two-year study he compares with a medical diagnosis.

“We basically took that lake and the watershed apart and determined what wasn’t working right and then helped the community find a way to put it back in better shape,” says Downing, a professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology and agricultural and biosystems engineering.

He credits the City of Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo County, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and dozens of citizen volunteers with making the restoration successful.

“It’s a community that really threw a lot of energy into it, worked hard and did many special things to increase the chances of success,” Downing says.

The lake became a classroom for many of Downing’s students.

One became the coordinator of the Clear Lake Enhancement and Restoration (CLEAR) Project. David Knoll (’99 animal ecology) worked for Downing as an undergraduate. He collected samples at the lake, analyzed them and performed GIS work during the diagnostic and feasibility study preceding the restoration.

The work convinced him to pursue a career in water resources. In 2001, he joined the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship as an environmental specialist with responsibility for the CLEAR Project.

Although much progress has been made, Knoll says, the community around Clear Lake is still working on implementing the recommendations of the feasibility study.

“The fact that this is a relatively small watershed (about 8,500 acres) makes it easier, but it takes a lot of maintenance work and requires consistent attention,” Knoll says.

The lake’s recovery has been “phenomenal,” much better than expected. “The water clarity is substantially improved, the function of the lake is much, much better,” Downing says.

One of the concerns when they started the restoration was heavy nutrient and sediment loading from agricultural and developed areas in the lake’s watershed. Row-crop agricultural land represents 51 percent of the land in the watershed, and about 80 percent of the lake shoreline is developed. This meant that a lot of improvements needed to be made in the land around the lake to cut down on nutrient run-off.

Phosphorus coming into the lake was the main problem and is now down to a quarter of pre-restoration levels. Likewise,  suspended sediment in the lake has been reduced by more than 80%.

The Department of Natural Resources is managing the carp, which stir up the bottom when nutrients are rich and outcompete other fish. Restoring surrounding wetlands and Ventura Marsh was another factor, and dredging the small lake west of Clear Lake helped protect it from sediment and nutrient deposition.

Downing said Clear Lake became a model for about a dozen lake restoration projects. “We, as a state, learned a lot—how to do the studies and how to do the restoration—from the work at Clear Lake,” Downing says. “We also learned a lot about the value of water, which was very important.”

He collaborated with Iowa State economists Catherine Kling and Joseph Herriges from 1999-2005 on surveys of Iowans seeking to understand the return of investments in Clear Lake and other waterways. Water clarity was a prime factor in how Iowans decide to visit lakes and clean lakes were called extremely valuable to the 80 percent of Iowans who visit lakes each year.

The Lakes Valuation project found that 12 of Iowa’s 132 lakes generate spending of more than $40 million annually. Overall, Iowans spent more than $9 million on average per lake.

Lake visitation increased 33 percent from 2002–2009, the years in which lake usage surveys were conducted. Of the four lakes with the largest increase in usage, three had undergone major restoration efforts.

“I grew up around water and studied to be a limnologist,” says Downing, an Iowa native. “It’s a great thrill for me to give something back to society.”