Researcher Spotlight: Marshall McDaniel

July 19, 2023

_{By Kara Berg, ISRC}

ISRC affiliate Marshall McDaniel is an associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. With a background in soil carbon and nutrient cycling, his outreach, research and teaching program focuses on soil-plant interactions.

Research in the McDaniel Lab focuses on the "give-and-take" relationship between soils and plants, and how land management or global change (like climate change) might affect this relationship. Research from his lab informs agricultural management that helps to balance this relationship. Management practices such as crop rotations, cover cropping, no-till (or reduced tillage) and increased residue can enhance soil-plant relationships by increasing soil health and sustainability.

McDaniel said he appreciates the science and outreach ISRC helps to provide to faculty and students. “I have worked with the Iowa Soybean Research Center and Iowa Soybean Association on managing soils to make soybean production systems more sustainable and increase soil health. Recently, we’ve been looking at how increasing soil health can also add benefits to growers by making soybean production systems more climate resilient. In other words, making soil healthy can reduce yield hit from too much or too little water. This growing season is off to a bad start, being one of the driest on record, and emphasizes the importance of healthy soils to help reduce the hit farmers will take in dry years,” said McDaniel.

McDaniel also teaches three classes at Iowa State: AGRON 354 - Soils and Plant Growth, a junior-senior level soil fertility class; AGRON 496 - Agricultural Travel Course, a travel abroad course touring agriculture in Australia, Argentina and Spain; and AGRON 553 - Soil-Plant Relationships, a graduate-level soil fertility class focusing on plant nutrient uptake and soil organic matter. McDaniel also is co-advisor of the undergraduate Agronomy Club with Mindy DeVries.

Originally from the Chicago area (Naperville, IL), McDaniel earned a BS in environmental science at the University of Oklahoma, a MS in natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in Soil Science and Biogeochemistry at Penn State University. He traveled to Australia for postdoctoral work, but returned to the Midwest upon accepting a position at Iowa State. When asked how he decided to become a soil scientist, McDaniel responded, “I couldn’t decide between majors of chemistry, biology and physics. It all happens in the soil!”