This is the final webinar in the 2022 Earth Science Week webinar series that highlights the importance of maintaining soil quality and how to do so sustainably, such as by incorporating organisms into the soil food web to enhance soil quality. The speakers also showcase the use of GIS in mapping soils, with a case study on a project in Kansas that focuses on the Keith soil series.

Browse the Earth Science Week 2022 webinar series.

About our speakers

Dr. Tiffany Carter, Research Soil Scientist, USDA-NRCS National Soil Survey Center

Dr. Carter is a native of Kansas City, MO. She holds a BS in Biology from Lincoln University (MO), a MS in Grain Science from Kansas State University, and a PhD in Agronomy from Kansas State University. She is a research soil scientist at the USDA-NRCS National Soil Survey Center. Her research focuses on soil biology, and her current research interests include soil biodiversity, soil ecology, dynamic soil properties, genomics, and linking soil health to biological indicators. She is also interested in soil biological method development and improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in agriculture.

Dr. Skye Wills, National Leader for Soil Science Research, National Soil Survey Center, USDA-NRCS

Dr. Wills is the National Leader for Soil Research at the National Soil Survey Center. The NSSC provides national leadership to NRCS's soils program and the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) Program. The research branch is working to develop new techniques in dynamic soil survey including soil health, soil moisture, and other properties and interpretations that change over time. Her previous work includes the Rapid Carbon Assessment project (a national soil carbon inventory) and the Dynamic Soil Properties for Soil Health project (cooperators using soil survey and ecological sites to organize soil health measurements). She’s a proponent of reproducibility and open science to maximize the impact and accessibility of soil data. She holds degrees from Kansas State University in Agronomy and Iowa State University in Soil Morphology and Genesis.