West Virginia Universitys National Geospatial Development Center (NGDC) will host a seminar,Dynamic Soil Properties in Soil Survey: Meeting Needs for Quality Soil Management,at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, in the Shenandoah Room of the Mountainlair.

The seminar will be presented by Arlene J. Tugel, a soil scientist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Las Cruces, N.M. Tugels current areas of professional emphasis are soil survey, dynamic soil properties, and quantifying soil change over the human time scale.

In previous positions, Tugel was a founding member of the former NRCS Soil Quality Institute. She also served as soil scientist for interpretations at the West National Technical Center (Portland, Ore.) and was state soil correlator and a soil survey project leader in California.

Producers and land managers are challenged to maintain high quality soils, a productive landscape, and a healthy environment,said Tugel.

Information on how management affects soil will help support quality soil management decisions. Currently, soil survey databases do not reflect the effects of land use and management on soil properties and soil quality.

New soil survey objectives addressing management effects include providing information about how soils change over the human time scale, refining existing soil survey data to improve accuracy, and developing interpretations of land use and management effects on soil quality and soil function,Tugel said.

Tugels topic is right in line with the mission of the NGDC , according to co-director James Thompson, an assistant professor of soil science in WVU s Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences.

“The goal of the NGDC is to keep the soil survey relevant by meeting emerging and ever-changing user needs through the collection and management of soil maps, data, and interpretations that are accessible to a wide array of clientele,Thompson explained.

Hosting speakers such as Arlene Tugel is one way we are working to connect WVU faculty, staff, and students with experts from across the country to address critical needs,he said.

The seminar is free and open to the public.