Regen CoPd Marshall McDaniel headlines seminar

McDaniel Seminar Flyer

RegenPGC CoPd Marshall McDaniel will be giving a talk, “Mapping Soil-Root Interactions to Advance Understanding of Perennial Groundcover Systems,” featuring the work of RegenPGC Postdoc Cole Dutter and graduate students Max Enness and Yusef Mbackes (Yusuf St Cyr) on the project next Wednesday, 10/21, at 4:25 in 1420 MOL BIO Bldg at Iowa State University.* For those of you not on campus, the seminar can be viewed via Microsoft Teams at:

https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/2842096024583117?p=fUI01WnSpuXTE4ZxYP
Meeting ID: 284 209 602 458 311 7
Passcode: jG3fF3RD

The talk is part of the Iowa State University Faculty Seminar Series – Interdepartmental Plant Biology Major 2026 Fall Seminar Series.

Abstract
Growing row crops in between perennial plants, also known as living mulch or perennial groundcover, shows much promise as a conservation practice but still faces many agronomic challenges. One of those challenges is the yield penalty that often occurs when having plants growing in close proximity competing for light, water, nutrients, or other resources. Marshall will talk about the RegenPGC project and some recent research looking into mapping belowground soil properties and root-to-root competition between maize and perennial groundcovers like bulbous bluegrass (Poa bulbosa) and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis).

*McDaniel, Marshall. (2026, October 21). Mapping soil-root interactions to advance understanding of perennial groundcover systems [Seminar]. Iowa State University Faculty Seminar Series – Interdepartmental Plant Biology Major 2026 Fall Seminar Series. Ames, IA, United States.

Big news from RegenPGC PostDoc researcher Memiş Bilgici!

Memis Bilgici Headshot

Big news from RegenPGC PostDoc researcher Memiş Bilgici and his writing team regarding their latest publication:

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine how shade avoidance responses have changed over the past 100 years of maize breeding. Low red/far-red ratio light induced shade avoidance responses in maize seedlings. Seedling plant height increased, while stem diameter decreased under low R/FR conditions. Maize hybrids released from 1920 to 2022 differed in key physiological traits. Long term-breeding of maize affected leaf area, root length, SPAD index, and stomatal traits”

The article is available in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

Bilgici, Memis, Lira, Sara, Borras, Lucas, Ebrahimi Elnaz, Moore, Kenneth J., Raman, D. Raj, & Lübberstedt, Thomas. (2026). Shade avoidance responses in seedlings of maize hybrids representing 100 years of breeding history. Front. Plant Sci., 17- 2026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2026.1939000

Erosion pads?

Tuyi Olowoyeye headshot

Former RegenPGC Ph.D. student and current PostDoc at Texas A&M, Dr. Oluwatuyi (Tuyi)  Olowoyeye has published a peer-reviewed article in collaboration with his graduate Advisor and RegenPGC CoPd, Dr. Amy Kaleita. The open-access article, Quantifying sediment deposition with erosion pad techniques under different cropping systems, was published in the September 2026 edition of the journal Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment*

*Olowoyeye, Oluwatuyi S. & Kaleita, Amy. (2026) Quantifying sediment deposition with erosion pad techniques under different cropping systems. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, 9, e70445. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70445. Open Access

Plain Language Summary (Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment)
The new perennial groundcover (PGC) system allows the growth of corn and perennial grass simultaneously all year round. This study tested the sediment deposition (SED) reduction of different grass combinations under this system compared to the conventional corn system. PGC with Poa bulbosa has the highest SED compared to other grasses tested within PGC.AbstractContinue reading

Economists get their say…

Sagar Dahal Headshop

Yes, it’s true, we have another OPEN ACCESS publication for you. RegenPGC graduate student Sagar Dahal and RegenPGC CoPD Amani Elobeid, and Iowa State University colleague John Crespi collaborated on the article “Integrating Perennial Groundcover in Corn and Soybean Acres: Impacts on U.S. Agriculture.” The article was published in the  in the July 2026 issue of the journal Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy.

ABSTRACT

Sustainable agricultural practices such as cover cropping can improve soil health, water quality, and carbon sequestration, yet U.S. adoption remains limited due to economic and operational barriers. We evaluate market and economic impacts of integrating perennial groundcover into U.S. corn and soybean production under six yield and cost scenarios. Results show that impacts depend on whether yields are maintained and costs remain stable. Under the most optimistic scenario, long-term outcomes remain close to or slightly above baseline levels. In contrast, scenarios involving yield losses or sustained cost increases generate negative economic outcomes, highlighting the importance of agronomic performance and cost control.

Following the PGC Story

Ralp Story Book p 1

By Ralph Danquah-Acquah, RegenPGC Graduate Student. Originally published on LinkedIn, Aug. 21, 2026. See this story in a video format

I went into the Perennial Ground Cover literature looking for answers to my own research.
Somewhere along the way, I realized I was following a much bigger story.

The idea sounds simple: keep a living perennial cover between the rows of an annual crop instead of leaving the soil exposed for much of the year.
But making two plants share the same field without compromising the main crop is anything but simple.

Early living-mulch experiments showed the promise of keeping the soil covered, but they also revealed one of the biggest challenges: competition.
And that challenge kept moving the science forward.

  • Which perennial species are most compatible with the crop?
  • How should the groundcover be managed?
  • When should it be suppressed?
  • Could plant traits and seasonal growth patterns help separate the demands of the two plants?
  • Could a perennial grow when the annual crop needs it least, then slow down or become dormant when competition matters most?

As I moved from paper to paper, I began to see how the research evolved.

  • From living mulch to species selection.
  • From species selection to management.
  • From management to plant traits, seasonal growth, and dormancy.

And eventually, from simply asking whether the system “works” to asking what it is doing to soil, water, nutrients, erosion, and crop productivity.

Soybean is part of this story too. Recent work suggests that, in some settings, soybean may be less sensitive than maize to an established perennial groundcover. Maize, however, has remained a more difficult compatibility challenge, which helps explain the strong research attention on maize management, plant traits, suppression, and breeding.

And the story is still moving.

The more I read, the more I found myself asking questions that are difficult to answer from a few field seasons alone.

  • How stable are PGC outcomes from year to year?
  • How does the system respond under different soils and weather conditions?
  • What happens during dry, normal, and wet years?
  • And what do these interactions look like over longer timescales?

That is where my own research enters the story.

As part of RegenPGC, with guidance from Dr. Amy Kaleita, I am working to establish the maize–PGC system in ALMANAC and use process-based modeling to investigate soil water, runoff, erosion, and maize productivity across different environmental conditions and longer periods of time.

Field experiments provide the evidence we need to understand these systems. Modeling gives us another way to extend those questions across combinations of soils, weather, management, and time that are difficult to examine experimentally.
I put this carousel together because I wanted to step away from my own results for a moment and follow the scientific journey that made my own research questions possible.

From living mulch

  • To competition
  • To species
  • To management
  • To plant traits and dormancy
  • To ecosystem services
  • To the questions still in front of us

Swipe through the story.

“What if the cure for a dying Gulf was a nap?”

Vipul Kumar Video Splash

Guest Post: Vipul Kumar, RegenPGC Graduate Education Community

“What if the cure for a dying Gulf was a nap?”

That’s how I opened my FFAR Fellows 3-minute lightning talk, which you can watch here. The talk, part of the FFAR Fellows program: three minutes, one slide, no jargon, and my entire PhD for a general non-scientific audience. (a framework I owe to Melissa Marshall!)

The idea: a cool-season grass that goes dormant in summer could grow beneath corn as a perennial groundcover — holding the soil and reducing nitrogen runoff that feeds the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone, without competing with the crop.

Distilling it down to one throughline —”a grass that sleeps so the Gulf can breathe” — taught me more about communicating science than almost anything else this year.

The best part was my cohort (2024-27). A genuinely talented group I learned so much from. Their talks are all in the playlist below, and every one is worth a watch – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKI-vxiS7cmo

Please watch it and let me know how it landed for you in the YouTube comments section!

I am grateful to Corteva Agriscience for sponsoring my fellowship and to my mentor, RegenPGC Co-Pd Sara Lira, for two-plus years of guidance, as well as the
Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and RegenPGC.

Our mission… sharing knowledge across many dimensions

Perennial groundcover

RegenPGC is a research project, for sure, but we are more than that. We want to make sure that our work is accessible beyond academia. Iowa State University, our primary home, is a land-grant university. In fact, Iowa was the first state to take on the challenge of creating a land-grant institution under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862, and on March 29, 1864, Iowa State was designated as the first US land-grant institution.

As a land-grant university, Iowa State University is focused on continuing to promote the foundational land-grant principles of education, research, and public service. That’s why our research team produces fact sheets like this one, Environmental constraints, spring suppression, and perennial ground cover systems: a 25-year analysis of spreadable hours for glufosinate, sawlufenacil, and paraquat across the U.S. cornbelt (https://www.regenpgc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/fact_sheet_revised_June19.pdf).

This fact sheet provides information to help understand the challenges behind adopting perennial groundcover in the US Midwest since: “A key management challenge in PGC systems is balancing the benefits of the perennial groundcover with the need to produce a productive corn or soybean cash crop. Consequently, early-season suppression is often necessary to reduce competition between groundcover and emerging crops.” Check it out and grow your knowledge!

(*) Jezus, Gabriel,  Schlautman, Brandon, Kocak, Kyle, & Raman, Raj, D.  (2026). Environmental constraints, spring suppression, and perennial ground cover systems: a 25-year analysis of spreadable hours for glufosinate, sawlufenacil, and paraquat across the U.S. cornbelt [Fact sheet]. https://www.regenpgc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/fact_sheet_revised_June19.pdf.

We report, therefore we exist…

We believe in the adage that unless work is memorialized, it doesn’t really exist (except in the dark recesses of someone’s mind). This is why you can follow the investment made by our funder, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, in our perennial groundcover research right here in our latest quarterly report, which you can find here.
Check it out. Visit our website. Send us questions to https://www.regenpgc.org/contact/. That way, we won’t think our work shot out into an unfathomable void!

Poa secunda, a Promising Perennial Groundcover?

RegenPGC Graduate Education Community member Vipul Kumar has been showing his poster, “Vernalization response and freezing tolerance of Poa secunda, a promising perennial groundcover” far and wide, from Texas to Wisconsin. You can check his poster out right here! https://www.regenpgc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Kumar_Vipul_Poster_FINAL-2.pdf.

Working with RegenPGC Co-Project Director Dr. Shui-zhang Fei, Vipul is investigating the feasibility of using Poa secunda as a perennial groundcover. With support from RegenPGC and USDA NIFA, Vipul has presented his work at numerous professional gatherings, where he has received feedback on his research and presentation skills. Learn more about the RegenPGC Graduate Education Community at https://www.regenpgc.org/theme-3-education/graduate-education-copy/.

Mapping priority areas for runoff and erosion control in Iowa corn landscapes

Floyd River Watershed

Ralph Danquah-Acquah, a member of our RegenPGC Graduate Education Community, shares his research in this guest post, which previously appeared on LinkedIn (July 2026).

I completed my CRP 5510 GIS final project at Iowa State University, where I developed a GIS-based workflow to map runoff and erosion risk in corn landscapes in Floyd County, Iowa.

The motivation for this project came directly from my ongoing work with the RegenPGC project. My ALMANAC simulation work is connected to the Iowa State University Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm, and since that research location is in Floyd County, I chose Floyd County as the study area for this GIS project.

RegenPGC is exploring how perennial groundcover systems can help make corn production more resilient by reducing runoff, erosion, and other environmental losses. That made me think beyond the field scale and ask a broader spatial question:

If runoff and erosion are major concerns in corn systems, which places should be targeted first?

That question shaped the direction of my project. Instead of only looking at whether a conservation practice can reduce runoff and erosion, I wanted to explore where conservation practices may be most needed across the surrounding agricultural landscape.

The project focused on three main questions:

  • Where is runoff risk highest in corn areas?
  • Where is erosion risk highest in corn areas?
  • Which HUC12 subwatersheds contain the largest risk and high-risk corn land?

Using ArcGIS Pro, I worked with open geospatial datasets including USGS 3DEP DEM, USDA SSURGO soils, USDA NASS Cropland Data Layer, USGS NHD flowlines, and WBD HUC12 boundaries. I created runoff and erosion risk indices, mapped erosion hotspots, and summarized high-risk corn areas by HUC12 to develop a combined priority score.

One key finding was that runoff risk was more widespread than erosion risk across corn areas, while erosion risk appeared in more focused patches and hotspot clusters. The final HUC12 priority map helped identify subwatersheds where field verification and conservation planning could begin first.

See the visual in these six poster images: