Field, Lab, Earth

"Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Saturated Riparian Buffers: Are We Trading a Water Quality Problem for an Air Quality Problem?" with Dr. Morgan Davis and Dr. Tyler Groh. Riparian buffers are areas of perennial vegetation planted around stream banks and other riparian zones to protect against soil erosion and nutrient leaching. However, tile drainage systems—piping laid under fields to keep them from...

"Effects of Biomass Removal Levels on Soil Carbon and Nutrient Reserves in Conifer-Dominated, Coarse-Textured Sites in Northern Ontario: 20-Year Results" with Dr. Dave Morris Forest harvesting varies greatly from annual harvests of agricultural crops, with extended times between harvests, the amount of harvested material removed, and the degree of site disturbance. Trees can grow to impressive siz...

Happy birthday to us! In honor of our first birthday, we've put together a blooper reel. And to keep the good times rolling, we've developed a short, five minute survey to help us improve. Please take the time to fill it out, and enjoy some of our favorite flubs! Thank you to all of our amazing guests from year one! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N8V2YSL If you would like to sign up for our newsle...

"A Low-Cost Automated System for High-Throughput Phenotyping of Single Oat Seeds" with James Clohessy. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine intentionally designed to complete a simple task using overly complicated steps. James Clohessy and his team are doing just the opposite. Using machine learning, web cameras, open software, and photogrammetry techniques, they're developing low cost, high-throu...

"Vadose Zone Gas Migration and Surface Effluxes after a Controlled Natural Gas Release into an Unconfined Shallow Aquifer" with Olenka Forde. Olenka Forde thinks a lot about a world that we'll never see – the world existing right underneath our feet. Olenka's research is related to hydraulic fracturing and she is interested in how we can safely extract oil and gas resources without negative impact...

"Color, Transfer, and Application Parameters of Turfgrass Colorants" with Garland (Drew) Pinnix. In kindergarten, we're taught that colors can be one of seven colors of the rainbow. Later, we learn fun colors like purple mountain majesty and get excited when our friend brings a 50-pack of crayons. In reality though, color is much more complex, a mixture of hue, brightness, and saturation. Drew Pin...

"Toward Better Understanding of Terrestrial Processes through Long-Term Hydrological Observatories" with Dr. Heye Bogena. Hydrology, put plainly, is the study of water: how it moves, where it goes, and what's inside it. Hydrologists gather as much information as they can about water in order to understand current water trends and to predict potential water patterns in the future. In a changing cli...

Precision Agriculture Basics with Dr. David Clay Dr. David Clay, along with the precision agriculture community, are working like codebreakers to crack the secret to more efficient, more environmentally friendly farming. The key? Understanding variability. Across any given farm field, there are many discrepancies in how given points of the field react to similar management practices. If farmers un...

"Hand Planter for the Developing World: Factor Testing and Refinement" with Dr. Bill Raun Across Central America, South America, and Africa, there are thousands of acres of land with slopes and landscapes that will never be suitable for mechanized agriculture. For hundreds of years, they have been planted by hand, a practice that continues today. The problem is, as technology in chemical seed trea...

"Review: Sediment-Related Controls on the Health of the Great Barrier Reef" with Dr. Peter Hairsine. In 2016, a catastrophic bleaching event killed off around 30% of the Great Barrier Reef's coral. The reef has been in a precarious spot for decades, but climate change and human-caused pollution have amplified the threats to its existence. Dr. Peter Hairsine is a scientist with The Fenner School of...

"Pyramiding of Alleles from Multiple Sources Increases the Resistance of Soybean to Highly Virulent Soybean Cyst Nematode Isolates" with Dr. Brian Diers. One of a farmer's greatest enemies is a nemesis that they never even see. A nematode sounds like a ghastly swamp monster – in reality, it's a microscopic worm that does some big time damage to soybean fields. These little guys love living in the...

"Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Mercury Unaffected by Wildland Fires in Northern Minnesota" with Dr. Randy Kolka and Trent Wickman. We often hear of the dangers of mercury to pregnant women and children that require them to restrict fish consumption. For good reason – even at low concentrations, mercury can do serious damage to neural networks and reproductive systems. However, we talk little of...

"An Inventory of Crop Wild Relatives of the United States" with Dr. Stephanie Greene. Crop Wild Relatives week is September 22 – 29, 2018! Crops are vital to feeding an expanding world – and like anything incredibly important, they need to be protected from things like disease, environmental disaster, and anything else that can pose a real threat. The key to their protection? Unexpected heroes tha...

The Farm Bill with Dr. Julie McClure and Dr. Elizabeth Stulberg If you have ever eaten food in the United States, you've been impacted by The Farm Bill, a mega-bill that is due for renewal in Congress this September. Although it heavily affects farmers, the Farm Bill covers a huge swath of topics: wildlife conservation, rural affairs, agriculture research, food stamps, and a lot more. If it seems...

"Simulated Canola Yield Responses to Climate Change and Adaptation in Canada" with Dr. Budong Qian. Canada really cares about the future of canola. It has surpassed spring wheat as the dominant crop in Canada, covering 8.5 million ha of Canadian agricultural land. It is even named after Canada, as the word canola itself is a contraction of "Canada" and "oil". However, climate change and increasing...

"Benefits of Insect Pollination to Confection Sunflowers Differ Across Plant Genotypes" with Dr. Rachel Mallinger. Sunflowers are a hallmark of an American summer. They're grown for beauty, but they are also important industrial crops in America, grown for sunflower oil, for fresh eating (of the seeds), and for bird seed. And although we've slowly bred them to be more independent of pollinators, s...

"Artificial Sweeteners Reveal Septic System Effluent in Rural Groundwater" with Dr. John Spoelstra. Dr. John Spoelstra is something like a wastewater detective. If there is secret wastewater that is contaminating groundwater and putting health outcomes at risk, he wants to know. To trace the path of wastewater, he uses a special set of tools: tracer compounds. These are compounds that are not foun...

Rapid soil formation in engineered soils, as highlighted in the article "Soil Evolution Par for the Golf Course" with Glen Obear. Not all of us who go golfing think about what is happening underneath the green. Glen Obear has always been that kind of guy. Since his high school days, he has wanted to be a golf course superintendent – even though he doesn't play that much golf! What fascinates him i...

"Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (Vis-Nir-Swir) as a Promising Tool for Blue Carbon Quantification in Mangrove Soils: A Case of Study in Tropical Semiarid Climatic Conditions" with Dr. Gabriel Nuto Nóbrega. Mangrove forests are some of the most important forests in the world. Mangroves are uniquely adapted to acting as a middleman. They can deal with very high salinity and hide tides, but when th...

"Assessment of Selected Antibiotic Resistances in Ungrazed Native Nebraska Prairie Soils" with Dr. Lisa Durso. Antibiotic resistance has revealed itself as one of the great public health threats of our lifetimes. It currently causes 23,000 deaths per year and $55 billion of health costs in the U.S. Those numbers are predicted to skyrocket in coming years without major change. However, there's a ca...

"Achieving Diverse Cover Crop Mixtures: Effects of Planting Date and Seeding Rate" with Dr. Ebony Murrell and Dr. Mac Burgess In fall, organic farmers across the country will start spreading seeds for crops that they won't ever harvest. The reason? They're cover crops ! The secret agents of the crop game, these are crops that are planted in between plantings of cash crops like corn or wheat becaus...