Scientific Information Launching Perennial Horizons
Scientific Information Launching Perennial Horizons

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SILPH Database

The SILPH logo. A sunflower as the sun rising over the horizon with a striped green field and "SILPH" superimposed.

SILPH (Scientific Information Launching Perennial Horizons) is a database for sharing, documenting, and preserving data from agroecosystem and regenerative agriculture research conducted by partners of the Bioeconomy Institute. SILPH contains datasets published datasets available for use under an open access license, data for use only by partners, and datasets undergoing active development. 

See our Available Datasets pages for a full listing of public datasets with detailed metadata and links to publications in data repositories.

Featured Data Sets

A title card with icons for prairie biomass, laboratory experiments, and technoeconomic analysis.

This study coupled experimental and techno-economic modeling to evaluate the economic prospects of utilizing prairie biomass as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion. In addition to evaluating key anaerobic digestion parameters, four scenarios were evaluated investigating liquid digestate recirculation, as well as methane recovery from the liquid digestate in a two-stage anaerobic digestion process.

A title card with icons for co-product valorization, life cycle assessment, and technoeconomic analysis.

This dataset compiles model outputs, parameter sets, and documentation supporting a techno‑economic analysis (TEA) and life‑cycle assessment (LCA) of co‑digesting beef cattle manure with pretreated mixed prairie biomass to produce renewable natural gas (RNG), with hydroxycinnamic acids (HCA) and digestate‑derived biochar co‑products.

A title card with icons for field experiment, crop management, and greenhouse gasses.

This dataset contains data related to experimental application of liquid anaerobic digestate to crop fields through injection or broadcast. Response data was collected for the resulting corn silage yield, ammonia emissions, in-season soil nitrate nitrogen, corn stalk nitrate at harvest, and return on investment.

A title card with icons for spatial data, soils data, and crop management.

This dataset documents a long-term, field-scale study of anaerobic digestate application on commercial croplands. It includes detailed records of digestate composition, application rates, and timing, as well as soil test results collected over a 12-year period (2011–2023) from 14 agricultural fields. The dataset supports analysis of soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrient dynamics, and isotopic composition in response to digestate inputs. It contains 421 geo-referenced soil samples, digestate nutrient profiles, field management histories, and spatial boundaries.

More About SILPH

A word cloud with large words for anaerobic digestion, produce, manure, data, technoeconomic, and many smaller words.

 

SILPH (Scientific Information Launching Perennial Horizons) is an apronym referencing Silphium, the genus of several prairie plants native to the US Midwest. The genus, in turn, was named for silphium, the legendary panacea of antiquity, which was over-harvested into extinction.

SILPH was designed and is maintained by Dr. Matt Stephenson in his role as Research Data Manager at the Bioeconomy Institute. Prior to joining BEI, Matt completed his PhD at Iowa State University as a landscape ecologist on the Prairie STRIPS project.

SILPH is funded in part by Iowa State University, USDA NIFA, and USDA Advancing Markets for Producers.