 Hi, my name is Lilian, I'm a postdoc research fellow at the Animal Science Department and for the Alfalfa in the South series, I'll be talking about environmental benefits of Alfalfa introduction into forage systems. Generally, when we talk about forage systems, we tend to focus on yield. But with proper management, they can also contribute to increase surfer tillage and water quality, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. Generally, when we talk about these examples, we tend to be talking about ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are defined as benefits people obtain from ecosystems. And for example, we have here provision of food including and tourism. So management practices can help to improve ecosystem service delivery. And among of them, we have the incorporation of legumes, which can decrease nitrogen fertilizer input and improve forage yields and quality. Alfalfa is a perennial legume with high yields and forage quality that requires more intensive management than most grass use in the South. And Alfalfa generally uses hay, halogen silage, and under grazing management. In the South turn U.S., there are challenges associated with Alfalfa stands persistence due to prolonged droughts, passing disease pressure, and competition with C4 grasses. So the main benefits that we see from Alfalfa stands, one of them is nitrogen fixation, which happens through an association that legumes are able to make with rhizobium, which is a soil bacteria. This bacteria forms nodules in the roots, which are here just represented by those little black dots. And this bacteria can convert inaccessible nitrogen from air from the atmosphere to farms that plants are able to use. Then nitrogen can be available for neighbor plants when they are in mixture with grasses, could remain on soil when legumes are in rotation with other crops, or could be incorporated into soil, increasing its fertility. So one of the major ways of nutrients enter the soil is to plant litter. Plant litter is just senescent material that plants deposit throughout a period into the soil surface. So here we can see enough Bermuda stands in beginning to middle fall period. And we can see just math, just denth math, of senescent material that has been deposed throughout summer and beginning of fall. And also we can see that some of that material has already started being incorporated on the soil surface. So plant litter acts as a nutrient pool in grasslands specially for those systems under low fertilizer input. And in this case, those systems would have generally low nitrogen concentration on litter, which could compromise the composition process. So that's why legumes can help to increase the quality of this material going back to soil, which would help to release nutrients on soil for plants. Besides the organic nitrogen input, the crisis costs associated with nitrogen fertilizer purchase start transportation and application, while can also decrease losses during application. So through this process, the input of nitrogen increase for quality and quantity and improve diet quality reflecting on animal performance. Then animals generally can retain approximately 30% of nutrients and help to some of those that nutrient to go back to soil through excreted composition, which we call nutrients. It's a part of the nutrient cycling. So on this figure, we see what is happening on the system that plants capture soil energy through thought synthesis to grow. Then animals are consuming this forage in putting nutrients back through the position of feces and urine throughout the area, which is part of the nutrient cycling. While animals provide products that are going off-farm to be sold on the market as milk and meat, and this is a provision of animal products. Some places, some farms are also associated with tourism. So these are some examples of ecosystem services you can have on a forage system. And if you have legumes included on the system, they can also contribute to nitrogen fixation, as we just mentioned. Another service that it's very important from forage plants is that especially perennial forages, because they have limited soil disturbance, can improve plants, the plant material that goes back to the soil, which contributes to increase carbon sequestration. And in the case of legumes that help to improve forage quality, these have a direct impact on carbon sequestration and soil fertility, increasing them while helping to mitigate greenhouse gases because plants are able to sequester more carbon from atmosphere and deposit on soil. Besides, there's an increase on soil organic matter, which is just the incorporation of plant material that happens into soil. And this is important because it helps with water infiltration, water holding capacity, soil fertility, decreases soil compactation, compaction, and can increase pull of nutrients and their availability to plants. Another important service that Alpha Alpha stands and it's incorporation forage systems can have is to increase biodiversity. Here we see, we will see a little video that I recorded recently on our Alpha Bermuda grass system and see how wildlife is very active on them. On this case, we saw an increase of pollinators and wildlife in general, for example, bird star. And generally, Alpha Alpha stands can serve as habitat, shelter, and food for many animals and beneficial insects, including pollinators, which has been a general concern due to their decrease on some areas of the world. And for example, in the US, approximately a third of honey comes from Alpha stands. So moving forward, we, as I just mentioned, we have been conducting an Alpha Bermuda grass research project, which is a multi-state research with three US universities on the southeast area. And we will also be focusing on these systems and in Alpha Alpha programs and workshops through the Alabama Extension program. And we will hopefully soon have an opportunity to visit the demonstration sites we have ongoing on the state. Also, we will be releasing an Alpha Alpha survey to aim to address main challenges related to its establishment in the southeast region, which is going to become available on May 13th. So in summary, the incorporation of Alpha Alpha can help decrease nitrogen fertilizers input, increase forage yields and quality, improve soil fertility and health, and increase biodiversity. Now I would like to thank you for your time and please get in contact with me through my mail or my phone number here on the bottom in case you have any questions. Thank you.