Faculty Profile

David Paul Belesky, Ph.D.

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Dr. Belesky

Adjunct Professor of Agronomy

Appointment

Teaching :0%

Research : 100%

Extension : 0%

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Education

  • B.S. Agronomy, Penn State University, 1973
  • M.S. Agronomy-Animal Nutrition, Penn State University, 1975
  • Ph.D.Plant Sciences West Virginia University, 1978
 

Link to recent CV

Professional Activities and Interests

  • I serve as Research Program Leader and Research Agronomist at the USDA-ARS, Appalachian Farming Research Center, in Beaver, West Virginia.   After completing formal university training, I gained research experience in forage-livestock mineral nutrition at Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland (1975) and was awarded a USDA-OECD research fellowship to study mechanisms of stomatal function in endophyte-infected grasses at Stirling University, Stirling, Scotland (1986).  My career began with USDA-ARS at University Park, Pennsylvania where I worked as a Biological Aide during my student years.  Upon completing my formal education I was fortunate to join the research team at the Southern Piedmont Conservation Research Center at Watkinsville, Georgia (1978-1988) during the early years of exciting research opportunities exploring tall fescue - fungal endophyte interactions.  Early research accomplishments included defining plant host-endophyte interactions in pasture, defining the influence of endophyte on tall fescue nutritive value, and establishing a basic understanding of how endophyte is involved in abiotic stress tolerance and avoidance in tall fescue.  I relocated to the Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center, Beaver, West Virginia in1988, where I work with my colleagues to discover forage resources, specifically grass-legume mixtures and cool- and warm-season grass mixtures to extend the duration and distribution of forage production, and improve forage nutritive value of pasture and silvopasture.   We continued some of our work on tall fescue - endophyte interactions and discovered that the association modified the root environment to minimize the deleterious effects of limited nutrient availability.
  • I served as Associate Editor of Agronomy Journal (1991-1996), the Journal of Range Management (1997-2001), and currently serve as an Associate Editor with Grass & Forage Science (2004-present).

Current Projects

  1. Identify and assemble forage combinations that can provide specific agroecosystems functions (dry matter and nutritive value for small ruminants, carbon capture and storage, plant biomolecules) as a function of microsite capabilities.  The specific goal is to determine the influence of forage plant community composition and microsite on seasonal patterns of herbage production and nutritive value for land-use and pasture management options in Appalachia. Our hypothesis is that forage arrays composed of different adaptive strategies or plant functional groups provide herbage mass and nutritive value required for small-ruminant production, while simultaneously improving resource-use (water, nutrients, light) efficiency.

Recent Publications

  1. Belesky D P, DM Burner & JM Ruckle. 2008. Does Endophyte Influence Resource Acquisition and Allocation in Defoliated Tall Fescue as a Function of Microsite Conditions? Environmental and Experimental Botany, 63(1-3):368-377.

  2. Belesky DP, JM Ruckle & AO Abaye. 2007. Prairiegrass (Bromus catharticus Vahl) production and nutritive value.  Grass and Forage Science, 62(3):301-311.

  3. Belesky DP, DW Koch & J Walker. 2007. Forbs and browse species. pp. 257-273. In: RF Barnes et al (eds). Forages: The science of grassland agriculture. Vol. II. 6th ed. Blackwell Publishing.  Ames, Iowa.

  4. Belesky DP, WB Bryan, WM Murphy & EB Rayburn. 2007. pp. 43-55. Cool-season grass and legume pastures. In: EB Rayburn (ed). Forage utilization for pasture-based livestock production. NRAES-173. Ithaca, NY.

  5. Belesky DP & JM Ruckle. 2006. Stockpiled prairiegrass – brassica hybrid mixtures tolerate repeated defoliation in autumn. Forage & Grazinglands.  Online, doi: 10.1094/FG-2006-1117-01-RS.
  6. Belesky DP, JPS Neel & JM Ruckle. 2006. Prairiegrass-brassica hybrid swards for autumn dry matter production. Agron. J. 98:1227-1235.
  7. Malinowski DP & DP Belesky. 2006. Ecological importance of Neotyphodium spp. grass endophytes in agroecosystems. Grassl. Sci. 52:1-14.

  8. Belesky DP, NJ Chatterton & JPS Neel. 2005. Dactylis glomerata growing along a light gradient in the central Appalachian Region of the eastern USA: III. Nonstructural carbohydrates and nutritive value. Agrofor. Sys. 67: 51-61.

  9. Belesky DP. 2005. Dactylis glomerata L. growing along a light gradient: II. Mechanisms of leaf dry matter production for plants establishing in spring or late summer. Agrofor. Sys. 65:91-98.
  10. Belesky DP. 2005. Dactylis glomerata L. growing along a light gradient: I. Dry matter production and allocation in plants establishing in spring or late summer. Agrofor. Sys. 65:81-90.

Personal Activities and Interests

 

My Work Groups

Keywords

  • forage
  • silvopasture
  • tall fescue
  • endophyte
  • abiotic stresses
  • nutritive value
  • pasture
  • grazing