“Understanding ICL management effects on the status and trajectory of SOC and TN stocks is important to the design and deployment of agricultural practices that maintain key soil functions and contribute to agricultural sustainability. However, quantification of SOC and TN stocks in ICL systems requires a commitment to decadal-scale research under semiarid conditions, underscoring the importance of long-term experiments. Fifteen years of residue treatment effects were evaluated for their effect on SOC and TN stocks at select depths and associated soil masses in a long- term study in the northern Great Plains of North America. Results found grazed crop residue and crop residue retained without grazing had greater SOC and TN in near- surface depths than where crop residue had been mechanically removed. Over time, SOC increased significantly where crop residue was grazed or not removed by mechanical means. Under the semiarid conditions of this study, changes in SOC and TN underscored the importance of residue retention and livestock grazing in ICL systems.”

How the fourth state of matter can make a greenhouse greener — and boost plant growth

“Many fertilizers contain ammonia, which is produced from nitrogen (necessary for plant growth) and hydrogen using a chemical reaction called the Haber-Bosch process. This process revolutionized agriculture in the early 20th century by making mass production of fertilizer possible. However, the process yields hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.

‘Ideally, we want a fertilizer that’s renewable,’ Reuter says. And to make it truly green, it should be created at the farm, making transport, another carbon emitter, unnecessary. Reuter and a growing number of chemists, physicists and engineers think they can see how to make that happen. These researchers are working toward future farms that are truly sustainable, where the energy from renewable sources like wind or solar is harnessed to make an efficient fertilizer on-site. They hope to realize this vision by exploiting plasma.”