Preserving the environment and developing agricultural products that do not harm unintended targets are top priorities for many scientists and farmers, as well as environmentalists. It's a new era of crop management known as precision agriculture. It maximizes productivity while minimizing energy use and environmental impacts. One of the major challenges being addressed by precision agriculture is over-fertilization. About 30 percent of nitrate fertilizer applied to U.S. crops simply washes away. This wastes the fertilizer and the energy used to make it, in addition to posing possible harm to the environment. Support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) has led to the development by start-up SupraSensor Technologies of a novel sensor to detect nitrate fertilizer in soil. The SupraSensor device is designed to give farmers a highly accurate, virtually constant stream of data on nitrate levels. The device is an excellent example of highly applied science with roots in basic research -- in this case supramolecular chemistry at the University of Oregon. Credit: Science Nation, National Science Foundation
As money-makers, trees stand tall. The U.S. forest industry is an economic powerhouse. Southern states alone grow more commercial wood than any country in the world.
The Center for Advanced Forestry Systems is using forestry science and collaborations among universities, industry and governments to make commercially grown forests more productive and sustainable. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), research teams at Virginia Tech, North Carolina State University and the University of Washington have teamed up through the center to study how new, slow-release fertilizers could improve growth and go easier on our waterways, and to look more closely at the role of forests in storing carbon.
Credit: NSF
With an abundance of produce and meat in our markets, Americans may consider a cheap, reliable food supply to be a challenge only for developing countries. But a changing climate and booming population will stretch the resources of even the most tech-savvy nations. In the U.S., extreme Western droughts and Midwestern floods test the resilience of our agricultural systems. Engineers have long provided ways to raise agricultural production and efficiency, harkening back to the plow and irrigation systems. They continue that work today. The potential payoff: a high-tech harvest of new tools and understanding of increasingly complex agricultural systems. Credit: Jessica Hochreiter/Arizona State University
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Video: Fertilizing sustainable growth in the forest industry (2016, March 29)
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