{"id":13828,"date":"2020-09-24T16:42:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T20:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=13828"},"modified":"2023-04-21T11:05:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:05:32","slug":"maggie-payne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/research-profiles\/maggie-payne\/","title":{"rendered":"CELS Alumna Titled Top Soil Scientist in the Country for Contributions to Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Gabriella Placido, CELS Communications Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n

Maggie Payne was going through a difficult time at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when she received some of the best news in her professional career. Like many parents, she had to suddenly transition to working from home while simultaneously taking on the new home-schooling duties of her two young sons.\u201cAfter a temper tantrum from my eight year-old, I had just told a friend that I felt like I was failing at being a good employee, a parent, and a teacher all at once,\u201d explains Payne.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when she got an unexpected call informing her that she had received the Soil Scientist of the Year award. The annual award recognizes exceptional achievement of a scientist in the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a federal agency that is heavily involved in soil science work. An alumna of the University of Rhode Island College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS), Payne says the recognition was \u201cvery affirming and has helped me stay motivated through these trying times. It\u2019s a big honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne\u2019s studies have greatly contributed to science by expanding soil maps and helping to identify several new categories and classifications of underwater soils, fostering greater understanding of this emerging area of science.<\/p>\n

She had no prior professional experience in soil science when she enrolled in the Master\u2019s of Environmental Sciences program in CELS. The program provided an opportunity for Payneto research underwater soils and determine how they relate to water quality.\u201cThis research was an ideal blend of my interests in wetlands, water quality, and soils,\u201d states Payne.\u201cI found it interesting to ask \u2018what\u2019s under our feet\u2019, and how it relates to our everyday lives and previous areas of environmental science that I had studied.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The position, funded partially through the NRCS, enabled Payne to network with the organization, which led to her current position as a resource soil scientist.\u201cI had a great experience in CELS. My professor, Dr. Mark Stolt, was very supportive and my position blended well with my past experiences,\u201d states Payne, who credits CELS with helping to advance her career.\u201cI was able to take soil classes that really caught me up to speed,\u201d she adds. \u201cWithout this influence, I probably wouldn\u2019t have gotten involved in soil science and would not be where I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne collects data on soil and assists farmers, town planners, and many other stakeholders in improving soil health in Wareham, Massachusetts for NRCS. She also teaches them sustainable practices to use in the future. As part of a coastal zone survey with NRCS, she\u2019s also helping to map coastal soils. \u201cUnderstanding coastal soils has many important applications, including where to restore and plant eelgrass beds, or where to grow shellfish and other aquatic organisms.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of these achievements, Payne developed a location-specific erosion index for Rhode Island, an important tool for the Ocean State that helps predict how much erosion might occur based on the type of soil present.<\/p>\n

Payne has also taken on other leadership roles. She is currently chair of the Coastal Zone and Subaqueous (underwater) Soils Committee for the Northeast region of the National Cooperative Soil Survey, which is led by NRCS as well as other state, federal and university partners. With this position, she continues to develop new descriptions and interpretations of complex and poorly-understood soils. She is also regional coordinator of the National Rapid Carbon Assessment, another NRCS initiative that explores the potential of soils to capture carbon and mitigate climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many important aspects of soils that people don\u2019t think about. Soils hold onto carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere, act as a filter for pollutants, play a role in preventing flooding, and provide a functioning habitat for microorganisms resulting in agricultural production,\u201d explains Payne. \u201cWe need to start thinking of soil as a functioning system that is going to work for us as long as we take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maggie Payne was going through a difficult time at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when she received some of the best news in her professional career.Like many parents, she had to suddenly transition to working from home while simultaneously taking on the new home-schooling duties of her two young sons.\u201c…[Read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles","category-research-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17444,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13828\/revisions\/17444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}