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 The
new database, which includes crop hybrid, rotation, planting
density, and yield, as well as fertilizer type and amount, came
together thanks to the Morrow Plots Data Curation Working Group,
an interdisciplinary team from the College of Agricultural,
Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and the University
Library at U of I.
Data scientists and curators not only had to find the historical
data, including in an ancient notebook held by the Department of
Crop Sciences, they had to standardize it through time so that
year-to-year comparisons could be made. For example, some data
were missing for certain years and yield wasn’t recorded at all
until 1888. Thankfully, the working group was up for the
challenge.
Sandi Caldrone, assistant professor and University Library
research data librarian, says, “The data were all in slightly
different formats and needed a lot of finagling to get them to
line up. My role was doing the coding required to clean up and
combine those data sets and get it ready to publish. I also did
a lot of the accompanying documentation that explains how we did
it for folks who want to use the data or reproduce our work.”
Josh Henry, associate director of information technology for
ACES, initially kickstarted the project in 2018 as an example
for faculty wanting to curate their own research data. As few
faculty have such long and complex datasets, he knew if the
working group could pull it off with the Morrow Plots data,
anyone could do it.
“We learned a lot of lessons about how to deal with really messy
data,” Henry says. “We now feel confident explaining what
challenges have to be met in order to take something that was
perhaps less useful and turning it into something that will be
valuable for the future.”
Prior to the database’s publication, Andrew Margenot was
fielding dozens of requests for the Morrow Plots data each year.
Now he can direct those requests to the Illinois Data Bank.
“I’ve gotten requests from government and
university researchers, both in the U.S. and abroad. They’re
mainly modelers trying to link weather patterns with yield and
soil data; a lot of modelers salivate at the Morrow Plots data,”
says Margenot, assistant professor in crop sciences. “We also
get requests from folks trying to understand how their long-term
trials compare with ours.”
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Margenot says the data can also be used to understand
how soil fertility is influenced by management practices of crop
rotation and nutrient inputs, and how this relates to crop yields.
After discovering a trove of historic soil samples from the Morrow
Plots and other sites around Illinois, Margenot is eager to analyze
long-term trends.
Caldrone hopes the data can also be used for educational purposes.
“Students in every field need to learn how to work with data now,”
she says. “As instructors need to find datasets to work into their
classes, I would love to see people using the Morrow Plots data.
It's a longitudinal data set, and I think students in any field can
get a grasp of the basics of planting, fertilization, and yield. And
then, for U of I students, they learn a little bit more about their
university history.”
The Morrow Plots started as an experiment to test the
effects of crop rotation on soil quality, but along the way, they
helped establish a number of farming basics we take for granted
today, including that crops require nitrogen, phosphorus, and
potassium; hybrid corn can boost yield, especially when planted at
close spacing; and crop rotation can mean less need for fertilizers.
“The lesson of the Morrow Plots is clear: conserve the soil and
maintain proper soil fertility to sustain food production for future
generations,” says Robert Dunker, ACES agronomist and field trials
coordinator. “Results from the Morrow Plots have given insights on
how crop production systems respond to rotation and soil fertility,
shaping farming practices to this day. While the Morrow Plots have
become a significant historical site, they remain a continuing
opportunity for researchers and student education.”
[Sources: Sandi Caldrone, Josh Henry,
Andrew Margenot
News writer: Lauren Quinn]
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