Brenton Sharratt

Brenton Sharratt is a soil scientist with the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. He is located at the North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory in Morris, Minnesota. He was born in Wisconsin and completed graduate studies in soil physics/climatology at Utah State University under the direction of Dr. R. John Hanks and at the University of Minnesota under the direction of Dr. Donald G. Baker. As a post- doctoral research associate at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia, he assessed the impact of soil amendments on the occurrence of radiation frost in orchards.

Brenton began his career in 1986 with the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, located in Fairbanks, Alaska. While stationed at Fairbanks, he identified soil and straw management strategies that optimize the physical growing environment of plants. This work aided in understanding the response of plants to water and low temperature stress, straw properties that affect near-surface heat and water transfer, and soil physical properties altered by land management practices. Brenton transferred to Morris, Minnesota in 1993 to support research initiatives aimed at assessing impacts of frozen soil processes on soil and water quality. His interests include developing management strategies for the northern Corn Belt that enhance water quality and optimize the physical environment of the seed zone.

Brenton has served as special editor for the Frozen Soils edition of the Minnesota Academy of Science Journal, co-organized (with Dr. Jerry Radke) a national frozen soils workshop in 1994, and is current serving on the Agriculture and Forest Meteorology Committee of the American Meteorological Society. He is a member of the American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, American Meteorological Society, and American Geophysical Union. He has over 25 referred publications.