CFAES Give Today
South Centers

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Research and International Activities

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

  • Ceres Trust- Maximizing ecosystem services of the soil food web in organic farming systems
  • USDA Organic Transition Grant- Assessing, modeling, and maximizing ecosystem services in long-term organic and transitioning farming systems

Additional Projects and Trials

  • Native Warm Season Pernnial Grass BioEnergy Experiment 1999-present
  • Hybrid Willow Tree Variety Trial
  • Miscanthus Trials
  • Giant Reed Grass (arundo donax)
  • Continuous Cover Cropping & Tillage Experiment