Presenter: Vivian Owens, Chinese & Environmental Science, Global Public Health Scholars
I work for Dr. Ray Weil on the Nitrogen Team of his Soil Quality Lab. Our lab focuses on nutrient cycling in the soil of farms that typically cultivate cash crops, such as corn and soybeans during the summer season, specifically the nutrient nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient and without it plants are unable to produce proteins, which inhibits growth. Since nitrogen is a water soluble element, it tends to get washed down by rain and irrigation into the deeper depths of the soil, out of reach of many cash crop roots. In order to bring the nitrogen back into the top layers of the soil, the lab is researching the effects planting cover crops during the off season has on nitrogen levels of the soil and soil water. My duties include sampling soil water, extracting soil cores, harvesting and grinding biomass, collecting gas samples, as well as extracting nitrogen out of the samples.
@Lilli. Even on the small scale like a home garden it is always a good idea to have you soil covered year round. So when your not growing your veggies and such it could be a good idea to replant grass or something like that. There are a lot of soil health issues tied with bare soil that you could look up.
My family and I are big gardeners and that is what drew me to your poster! For being such a big gardener and with my interest and studies in science, I cannot believe I did not know the benefits of nitrogen to crops! Do you think similar techniques would be able to be applied to at home gardening?
@asbeams great question! I think this research is mainly applicable to the agriculture industry because a lot of farmers use nitrogen based fertilizers on their land. It is this excess nitrogen that would not normally be introduced to the ecosystem that causes the nitrogen pollution problems, especially if the soil is bare for long periods of time during off seasons. Typically lawns in everyday households are never bare, so there is always new vegetation (grass) growing that will want to suck up nitrogen from the soil. As the grass grows and get cut by lawnmowers you can consider not collecting the grass clippings and throwing them away. Those clipping contain a lot of nutrients (and nitrogen) that new grass plants…
I am reading a book called Letters to a Young Farmer which inspired me to check out your project. I had no idea the huge effects that nitrogen has on our water system and the positive effects certain crops can have on water quality. How can we apply the findings from your research in everyday life, can similar techniques benefit average yards and improve soil/water quality?