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Environmental Cost of Agriculture: Soil Determines Fate of Phosphorous

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2012Environment21st century, agricultural nutrient, agriculture, alfisol, algae, algal blooms, amazon basin, Argentina, brazil, brown university, buenos aires, clean water act, environmental challenge, environmental consequence, environmental cost, farmer, fertilizer, goldilocks problem, grosso, industrial agriculture, iowa farmers, mato, modern farming, mollisol, overfertilization, oxisol, phosphorous, polluted waterways, renewable, shelby riskin, single crop, soil demand, soil ph, soil type, soybean, soybean fields, soybean harvest, stephen porder, ultisol, united states

Brazil’s soybean yields have become competitive with those of the United States and Argentina, but the soil demands a lot of phosphorous, which is not renewable. In the United States, meanwhile, historical applications of the fertilizer have polluted waterways. What accounts for these problems? It’s the soils, according to a new study comparing agriculture in the three countries.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Just 20 years ago, the soils of the Amazon basin were thought unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, but then industrial agriculture — and the ability to fertilize on a massive scale — came to the Amazon. What were once the poorest soils in the world now produce crops at a rate that rivals that of global breadbaskets. Soils no longer seem to be the driver — or the limiter — of agricultural productivity. But a new Brown University-led study of three soybean growing regions, including Brazil, finds that soils have taken on a new role: mediating the environmental consequences of modern farming. (more…)

Back to the Future: A New Science for a Changing Planet

By Guest PostSeptember 1, 2012Environment, Scienceaníbal pauchard, back, baseball game, changing planet, charles darwin, climate change, curiosity, data, ecologist, ecosystem, environmental challenge, factor, future, geographical distribution, global phenomenon, global scale, hopkins marine station, hypothesis, kristin wisneski, mars rover, monterey bay, myriad, new science, observation and ecology, organism, outdoor classroom, rafe sagarin, record, shift, species, stamp collecting, stanford university, Technology, temperature, traditional classroom, variable, water temperature, world

In a world that is changing on a global scale and faster than ever before, science should rediscover its roots of observing the natural world unimpeded by the strict protocols of experimental manipulations, UA ecologist Rafe Sagarin and co-author Aníbal Pauchard suggest in their book, “Observation and Ecology.”

Mars rover Curiosity is doing it. School children strolling through the woods with binoculars are doing it. Charles Darwin was doing it. Observing the natural world around them was how the early naturalists started what would later become known as ecology – the science of how living things interact, depend on each other and how their habitats and communities change over time.

In their book, “Observation and Ecology,” ecologists Rafe Sagarin and Aníbal Pauchard make the case that if scientists are to tackle the enormously complex problems the world is facing, researchers and funding agencies have to leave their comfort zone of well-controlled experimental manipulations. (more…)

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Environmental Cost of Agriculture: Soil Determines Fate of Phosphorous

Back to the Future: A New Science for a Changing Planet