Research Highlights:
Soil and Water Quality
- Exploring soil health, crop production, and water quality in sustainable agroecosystems.
- Developing a rapid field test for determining soil nitrogen availability for crops. Improving abiotic stress tolerance and crop production through sulfur fertilization and chemical inducing.
- Developing a holistic photocatalytic method to mitigate agriculturally induced algal blooms and cyanotoxins. Identifying site-specific indicators to predict edge-of-field loss of dissolved phosphorus.
- Utilizing growth regulators and Oxifertigation to enhance yield and phytochemical properties of specialty crops. Investigating the interconnectedness of soil, food, and health systems.
- Using biochar with NPK fertilizers to improve crop production with enhanced nutrient and water use efficiency.
BioEnergy Materials
- Improving marginal land for bioenergy feedstock production by recycling municipal and industrial recyclables.
- Evaluating growth and yield performance of warm-season perennial grasses, shrubs, oilseed crops, and specialty crops as sources of alternate fuels.
Organic Agriculture
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Ceres Trust- Maximizing ecosystem services of the soil food web in organic farming systems
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USDA Organic Transition Grant- Assessing, modeling, and maximizing ecosystem services in long-term organic and transitioning farming systems
Additional Projects and Trials
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Native Warm Season Pernnial Grass BioEnergy Experiment 1999-present
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Hybrid Willow Tree Variety Trial
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Miscanthus Trials
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Giant Reed Grass (arundo donax)
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Continuous Cover Cropping & Tillage Experiment