Jen Pierce taking soil cores and showing the silt rich loess of Kimberly.

The fields are flood irrigated. Irrigation channels surround the fields and have a pH of 8.

Kimberly is located in south-central Idaho, a region dominated by agriculture. The semi-arid climate has hot summers, cold winters, and receives ~300mm of annual precipitation. Only 14% of the the water added to this site is from precipitation, the rest is from flood irrigation. The Kimberly site provides an ideal combination of irrigated fields and adjacent native soils. Irrigated agriculture offers a lens to detect changes in SIC signals in soil and understand the fate and mechanisms controlling these losses.


Knowing whether inorganic carbon is being stored or released with irrigation has major implications for society and the health of the planet.  Implications include fluxes in the global carbon cycle and the rate and magnitude of global warming. 

12 Dust traps were set up around the field to measure the Ca content of the dust.

Fields of Kimberly were historically tilled using a moldboard plow. In the last 20years the farming techniques on the fields of focus have changed to conservative tillage. The estimated soil cover loss on the field studied is 6-12inches. The amount of C lost from erosion is a question of focus.

Visit Earth Wind and Fire Page for additional information.

Kimberly Research Site