In the News

New York agriculture has the capacity to mitigate its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Soil and Crop Sciences researchers Jenifer Wightman and Peter Woodbury say in a state-funded report commissioned by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

In an article published July 27 in Nature Geoscience, Soil and Crop Science’s Johannes Lehmann and others wrote that scientists should develop new models that more accurately reflect the carbon-storage processes beneath our feet, in order to effectively draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Kirsten Kurtz shared with the John Deere Magazine her perspectives on how art can be used as a universal language to draw attention to the soil beneath out feet
 

A team of researchers led by Dan Buckley, professor of microbial ecology, has identified a new bacterial species that helps reveal how carbon is cycled through the soil. This discovery was featured in the UK publication, Geographical, the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society.

Alumnus Nathaniel Stern ’99 combined scientific experimentation with artistic exploration to create a traveling exhibition that envisions what our everyday electronic waste will look like millions of years in the future. He collaborated with professor Johannes Lehmann to apply pyrolysis techniques to burn and artificially age the items.

Johannes Lehmann's program together with soil scientists at Rice University have dug around and found that although adding carbon organic matter to agricultural fields is usually advantageous, it may muddle the beneficial underground communication between legume plants and microorganisms.

Several awards are given out within the School of Integrative Plant Science at the end of each fall semester.  Among these are the MacDonald and Musgrave Awards, given to persons demonstrating exceptional performance and professional contributions and/or service to the disciplines of soil and crop sciences. Recipients were announced on Friday December 13.

Thomas W. Scott, an emeritus professor of agronomy who specialized in soil fertility, died Aug. 22 in Ithaca. He was 89.

Bram Govaerts, director of the Integrated Development Program and regional representative for the Americas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has been appointed as a Cornell Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large in recognition of his contribution to sustainable agri-food systems in Mexico and globally.

Three collaborative New York City-based projects, designed to inspire cross-campus research partnerships, have been awarded grant funding totaling approximately $500,000 from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Cornell and the Atkinson Center helped organize a workshop, “Helping NYS address its climate goals through thermochemical conversion,” on July 16 to develop opportunities for New York to meet its climate goals.

Congratulations to the 36 graduate students and 58 undergraduates recognized by SIPS as part of the 2019 Commencement Ceremonies. Soil and Crop Sciences graduate students Angela Possinger and Sonam Sherpa were awarded PhDs and Sabrina Kelch received an MS, in addition to the many undergraduates with advisers and mentors in the Section.

Eight SIPS graduate students have been awarded predoctoral fellowships from the USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. Among them are Taylor Cyle in the Martínez program, whose thesis research focuses tracking the fate of low molecular weight organic substrates in solution-microbe-mineral systems.

Hariharan received the the Exemplary Service – Early Graduate Career Award for exemplary leadership in creating inclusive spaces at Cornell, engagement with various organizations promoting diversity on campus, and deepening of connections among graduate students.

Madison J. Wright, professor emeritus of agronomy whose efforts helped establish soybean production in New York, died April 27 in Ithaca. He was 95.

New faculty member Andrew McDonald is an associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, Soil and Crop Sciences Section with a focus on cropping systems ecology and sustainable agricultural development.

Enid Martínez in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, was officially promoted to full professor, effective April 1, 2019. Martínez is a soil and environmental chemist whose research focuses on deciphering the mechanisms and rates of reactions that mediate elemental fate and cycling in soils.

 Johannes Lehmann and former graduate student Rachel Hestrin, along with collaborators from Canada and Australia, have shown that charcoal can mop up large quantities of nitrogen from the air pollutant ammonia. The results were published Friday in Nature Communications.

Congratulations to Toni DiTommaso, Professor & Chair of the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, for receiving the 2019 Fellow Award from the Northeastern Weed Science Society (NEWSS).

An international group of scientists and other professionals, co-led by SCS professor Johannes Lehmann, have offered solutions for sequestering atmospheric carbon.

Nitrogen (N) management is one of agriculture's great enigmas. But web-based management tools like Harold van Es's Adapt-N (now owned by Yara International) have revolutionized growers' ability to monitor and adjust N inputs throughout the season.

Christine Yao-Yun Chang, Post-Doctoral Associate with the Sun research group, Amy Collins, Assistant to the Chair, and Eugene Law, PhD candidate, were recognized December 7 at the annual MacDonald Musgrave Awards ceremony. Awards were presented by Soil and Crop Sciences Chair, Professor Antonio DiTommaso.

Annual greenhouse gas emissions from all U.S. vehicles could be absorbed by forests, wetlands and agricultural lands – erasing a fifth of all greenhouse gas pollution, according to new research by Peter Woodbury and others.

Ann Bybee-Finley, graduate student with Matt Ryan in the Soil and Crop Sciences Section, has been named as the 2018 recipient of an award from the Crop Science Society of America.  The Crop Science Graduate Student Scholarship is provided to a meritorious graduate student in crop science and will be presented during the upcoming CSSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD.

How is climate change affecting agriculture? How can we prepare ourselves for expected challenges in weed management?  These are some of the questions addressed by Toni DiTommaso, professor and chair in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, in his keynote address to the 2018 Australasian Weed Congress.

Cornell students excelled at the Northeastern Collegiate Weed Contest held July 24 at the BASF Research facility in Pine Level, NC. Undergraduates Aleah Butler-Jones and Jonathan Berlingeri placed second and third place, respectively, in the individual undergraduate category.

A recent episode of SciTech Now, a production of WCNY, included discussion of research conducted by Soil and Crop Sciences professor Olena Vatamaniuk in collaboration with staff at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS).

Johannes Lehmann, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Soil and Crop Sciences Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science, was elected in May to the German National Academy of Sciences.

Housed in Bradfield Hall, Cornell’s Soil Health Lab is a pioneer in its field. The first facility to offer an exhaustive array of tests to assess soil health— Kirsten Kurtz, manager of the lab, calls it “the most comprehensive soil health lab in the world”—it’s the busiest in the business, conducting some 50,000 individual tests per year.

Olena Vatamaniuk in SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences and Mark Sorrells in the SIPS Plant Breeding and Genetics are working to better understand what is required for the uptake and delivery of copper in wheat. Copper deficiency in alkaline, sandy, or organic soils compromises plant fertility and reduces grain and seed yield.

Johannes Lehmann and his team in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section led the official opening of the Cornell pyrolysis kiln with an open house at the facility in Leland Laboratory.  The pilot-plant kiln will be used to produce biochar under highly controlled and monitored conditions for research on its use as a soil amendment, contributor to carbon sequestration, and component of sustainable fuel production.

Angela Possinger, in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section was among twenty eight CALS graduate students to receive an outstanding teaching assistant award for 2018.

Toni DiTommaso (Soil and Crop Sciences) and John Wallace (Horticulture) recently discussed the need for new approaches to weed control with Good Fruit Grower. Emphasizing the importance of a long-term systems based approach, DiTommaso and Wallace emphasized the importance of understanding weed biology and ecology and the power of targeted approaches and decision support tools.

Matt Ryan, faculty in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, describes strategies to integrate and manage the perennial grain Kernza in a recent publication. Ryan, whose research focuses on sustainable cropping systems and perennial grains, finds that in order to offset Kernza’s relatively low yields, it’s important to take advantage of its strengths.

DanoneWave, maker of dairy and plant-based products, coffee creamers, and beverages, has announced the launch of a soil health initiative in partnership with Harold van Es in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section and other soil scientists. DanoneWave is committing up to $6M for research on soil regeneration and enhancement of organic matter and soil fertility over the next five years.

Toni DiTommaso, Professor in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, receiving the 2018 Outstanding Researcher Award from the Northeastern Weed Science Society at the 3rd Northeastern Plant, Pest, and Soils Conference (NEPPSC 2018) held January 8 - 11. Eugene Law, graduate student in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, was awarded First Place in the Student Research Poster Competition.

Mark Sorrells, Johannes Lehmann, Jim Giovannoni, and Jean-Luc Jannink are among 23 Cornell affiliated scientists identified by Reuters and Clarivate Analytics whose publications are in the top 1 percent in their fields for journal citations. Sorrells is a members of the SIPS Plant Breeding & Genetics Section, and Lehmann of Soil & Crop Sciences, while Giovannoni and Jannink are adjunct faculty of the school.

Kirsten Kurtz, manager of the Cornell Soil Health Lab, organized a public painting event event Dec. 5, 2017 as part of World Soil Day and with financial support from the SIPS Soil & Crop Sciences Section. Their creation captured first prize in the university division of the global soil painting competition sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Adapt-N, a team from Cornell, was awarded the $1 million grand prize from the Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge Dec. 14 in New Orleans.

SIPS graduate students Breanne Kisselstein and Eugene Law are among 36 students, staff, and faculty in the Cornell community recommended to serve on the Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate.

A recent paper co-authored by Peter Woodbury, SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section, is receiving widespread attention in the popular press, including the magazine Newsweek. The study outlines options for mitigating climate change such as carbon sequestration, reduced emissions, and environmental restoration.

Norway-based Yara International has acquired Agronomic Technology Corporation, holder of the license to the Adapt-N technology developed by Harold van Es and colleagues in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section. Yara International is the largest global manufacturer of synthetic nitrogen and will be making significant further investments in Adapt-N, enhancing its global reach.

A global soil painting competition Dec. 5 organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was inspired by a Cornell event in 2015.

More than 170 researchers, educators, farmers, and agricultural service providers attended the Northeast Cover Crops Council’s (NECCC) Annual Meeting at The Statler Hotel on November 8, coordinated by SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section faculty Matt Ryan.

Johannes Lehmann, Professor in the SIPS Soil and Crop Sciences Section was among the US delegation to the UN Climate Conference in Bonn Germany, November 6 - 13.
 

Susan Hoskins, senior extension associate in the Soil and Crop Sciences Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science, was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York GIS Association.  Susan was recognized for her more than 20 years’ experience in aerial photo interpretation and mapping, and for her service with youth education.

The retreat culminates a series of meetings aimed at finding synergies between Cornell researchers as they develop technologies that optimize key food systems components.

The fellowship awards, announced by President Martha E. Pollack Oct. 20, are among Cornell’s highest honors for outstanding, exemplary teaching.

When it comes to measuring photosynthesis, green is not all that counts. A Cornell researcher is using a NASA satellite to measure photosynthesis in high resolution at the global scale, advancing how we measure plant health and its impact on food production and atmospheric carbon dioxide.

More than 70 Environmental and Sustainability Sciences (ESS) majors turned Minns Garden into an ephemeral art gallery Sept. 29, as part of a class led by Soil and Crop Sciences professor Johannes Lehman

In a recent review, Dan Buckley, SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Sciences, proposes "genome surfing" as a driver of microbial genomic diversity. He describes the general concept in a Cell Press Video abstract.

Cornell brought a graduate team and two undergraduate teams to the Northeastern Collegiate Weed Science Contest held on July 25 in North Rose NY. Undergrad Team #1 place third overall and Patty Chan (Plant Sciences) placed placed second in the individual undergraduate category.

Harold van Es, SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Sciences, has been named 2017 Educator/Researcher of the Year for his role development of high resolution climate data and a model-based nitrogen management tool, Adapt-N.

Technological advances making it possible to image micronutrients in plant tissues are giving Olena Vatamaniuk, SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Sciences, additional tools to develop crops that thrive in marginal soils.

Alexander, emeritus professor in the SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Sciences, was a world leader in the study of the microbial decomposition and the effects of aging on bioavailability of toxins in the soil environment.

Harold van Es, SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Sciences, delivered a presentation on digital agriculture to House and Senate staff and agency personnel on June 12th. Van Es was invited by the National Coalition for Food and Agricultural Research to highlight the value of federally funded food and agricultural research, extension, and education.

Congratulations to the 15 graduate students and 36 undergraduates recognized by SIPS as part of the 2017 Commencement Ceremonies. Among these were Kiera Crowley, earning an MS in Soil and Crop Sciences.

SCS grad student organizes letter-writing campaign targeting a coal company executive convicted in the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion.  Bybee-Finley is motivated by concerns over soil and watershed contamination as well as fundamental issues of sustainable resource use and social justice. Details of the campaign are described in an LA Times article.
 

Johannes Lehmann, SIPS Section of the Soil and Crop Sciences, and international colleagues assert that sequestering organic carbon in soils can provide numerous benefits for future global climates, agriculture, and food security.

Dig into digital agriculture, comprehend plant breeding biotechnology, and learn out how the microbiome may solve food production problems at an agricultural technology and partnership forum June 7.

Doctoral candidate Jeff Liebert called on Canadians to boldly reimagine agriculture and food systems in a manner that reflects the diversity of Canadian cultures and landscapes.

Research and outreach protect urban gardeners from compromised soils. Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities project led by Murray McBride and Hannah Shayler.
 

In a recent publication in Nature Communications, Cornell soil biogeochemists report they have identified a biogeoconductor network in pyrolyzed organic matter of potential importance in suppression of greenhouse gas emissions and decontamination. Drs. Tianran Sun and Johannes Lehmann, and colleagues, show that the contribution of pyrogenic carbon to electron fluxes could be considerable.

Daniel Buckley and Angela Douglas presented microbiome research to influential leaders at the World Economic Forum.  

Ann Bybee-Finley, a second-year doctoral student at Cornell studying cropping systems resilience with a focus on Northeastern dairy producers, has been named a 2017 Future Leader in Science.

Olena Vatamaniuk in the SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Sciences and Olga Terek at the Avan Tranko National University of Lviv have been awarded a $90,000 grant from CRDF Global to develop innovative breeding strategies with the goal of boosting yield and mineral content of bread wheat.

On February 10, SCS held a Friday coffee celebration to welcome our newest member, Dr. Ying Sun, assistant professor of geospatial sciences.

Professor Dan Buckley, soil microbiologist in the SCS Section at Cornell University, will lead IdeasLab sessions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

An immunologist, a molecular biologist and Olena Vatamaniuk, plant scientist in the SIPS Section of Soil and Crop Science, have each received awards from the Schwartz Research Fund for Women in Life Sciences.

Reuters and Clarivate Analytics identified scientists whose publications are in the top 1% of their fields for journal citations from 2004 to 2014. Professor Lehmann is one of 16 faculty at Cornell to receive this distinction, and one of 5 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Adapt-N, an initiative of Professor van Es, Soil and Crop Sciences, is one of the five finalists! The purpose of the challenge is to find in-field solutions to hypoxia that reduce nitrogen runoff from crop fertilizers into rivers. Such runoff from the nation's farmlands is considered the primary cause of annual dead zones. (Best of luck to the Adapt-N research team!)

Cornell experts Harold van Es, Soil and Crop Sciences section, and Joshua Woodard, Applied Economics and Management, issued a report “Digital Agriculture in New York State” highlighting the opportunities and challenges facing the state's farmers and food producers as emerging digital technologies shape the agricultural industry.

Farmers looking to reduce reliance on pesticides, herbicides and other pest management tools may want to heed the advice of Cornell agricultural scientists: Let nature be nature – to a degree.

In a presentation to global leaders battling climate change and feeding a burgeoning world population, Dawit Solomon, senior research associate in the Soil and Crop Sciences section, presented food security ideas to stave off the Earth's atmospheric warming.

A project led by Cornell researchers Dan Buckley and Johannes Lehmann, Soil and Crop Sciences section, to better understand soil microbes and their role in the carbon cycle has received a three-year, $3.59 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
 

The tri-societies, including the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) are presenting national awards at the national meetings in Phoenix, AZ on November 6-9, 2016. Cornell professor Janice Thies will receive the fellow award from SSSA and the fellow award from ASA. Cornell will also be well represented as Harold van Es is the President of SSSA in 2016.

Using a technique similar to composting – but with a twist – West African farmers create rich soil that absorbs global-warming carbon dioxide. Hear the Yale Climate Connections radio spot with Dawit Solomon, faculty member in Cornell’s Soil and Crop Sciences section.

New Cornell research by Dominic Woolf and  Professor Johannes Lehmann, from Cornell’s Soil and Crop Sciences section, suggests an economically viable model to scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to thwart runaway, point-of-no-return global warming. (Click here for the article.)

Professors Matt Ryan and Laurie Drinkwater were recently awarded a grant from the USDA NIFA to study "New Cover Crops for Better Organic Farming."

Professors Enid Martinez and Christine Goodale were recently awarded a grant from the USDA NIFA to study "Toward Forest Growth: Understanding Nitrogen in Soils."

Harold van Es, Professor of Soil Science, addressed the World Economic Forum in Beijing describing the development and applications of nitrogen recommendation software.

We have it easier than cows. When we want to know how much fat, sodium, or carbohydrates are in the food we are eating, we can usually check the nutrition label on the food’s package. But cows haven't had access to detailed nutrition facts about their forage. Until recently.

Organic dairy farmers in the Northeast have taken a beating over the last several years due to extreme weather, but a new grant will support a project that aims at solutions.

For one day only, Brooklyn-based artist James Leonard is putting up his “Tent of Casually Observed Phenologies” between Bradfield and Rice Halls, on October 14, 2016. Between 10am and 5pm, visitors can probe climate futures and get tarot readings to help them grapple with today’s environmental issues. His readings do not replace hard facts and scientific data on climate change. The tarot readings serve as a framework to talk about anxieties of an increasingly uncertain and rapidly changing future.

The event is organized and part of the Environmental and Sustainability Science Colloquium (Riha and Lehmann), co-organized by the Johnson Museum, and supported by the Department of Natural Resources. More information about the artist and his project under http://jamesleonard.org/work/

Ann Bybee-Finley, graduate student in the section of Soil and Crop Sciences, researches intercropping at Cornell University. Intercropping is a complex practice of farming where different plant species are grown in the same space.

The benefits of Adapt-N, a nitrogen management tool developed by Professor van Es and his research group at Cornell, are explained in two Corn and Soybean Digest articles: Farmers apply science to optimize nitrogen on corn and Corn and soybean producers find retailer who supports sustainable farming.

If two words could sum up Toni DiTommaso’s qualities as professor of weed science at Cornell University, “unbridled enthusiasm” — words from a nomination letter — fit the bill.

Susan Hoskins, Senior Extension Associate, Soil and Crop Sciences section, pilots the Drone Discovery curriculum with youth on campus for 4-H Career Explorations.

As New York's dairy farms get larger and store more manure, methane emissions have doubled in the last two decades. To reduce this potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, Cornell researchers advocate combustion.

“There were piles of bones that nobody was using at the time,” says Cornell University soil scientist Dawit Solomon, a native of Ethiopia. Solomon and colleagues decided to turn the mountains of slaughtered cattle, sheep and goat carcasses into a local fertilizer source.

In the face of climate change and inevitable sea level rise, Cornell scientists studying the Hudson River estuary have forecast 33 percent more wetland area by the year 2100.

Faculty members Harold van Es, Carla Gomes and Joshua Woodard will present their innovative research at the intersection of computation, food and sustainability at the World Economic Forum June 26-28 in Tianjin, China.

Cornell faculty member Dr. Dawitt Solomon, and colleagues, explain the value of studying traditional African methods of soil enrichment in a recently published scientific paper and a National Geographic feature

Cornell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future has given $1.5 million from its Academic Venture Fund to 14 new university projects, marking the third year the grants are over $1 million.

Four Cornell projects were awarded more than $1.65 million in total by the United States Department of Agriculture for research on plant health, production and resilience.

A recent article in USNews & World Report concludes that education in agriculture sciences provide STEM education that can lead to exciting career opportunities. For example, Cornell professor DiTommaso points out that “airborne multi-spectral imagery allows for remote sensing to differentiate weeds from crops in a field, for more effective and targeted control.”

The dietary preferences of deer may be promoting the spread of such invasive species as garlic mustard, Japanese barberry and Japanese stiltgrass, according to a new study, by Kristine Averill, research associate in Soil and Crop Sciences and the article's lead author in the Journal Biological Invasions.

Harold van Es, Professor in the Section of Soil & Crop Sciences, and Hannah Swegarden, PhD candidate in the Graduate Field of Horticulture, traveled to Washington DC March 14-15 to participate in the 2016 Congressional Visits Day.

Professor Murray McBride, Soil and Crop Sciences, and Hannah Shayler, Cornell Waste Management Institute, along with researchers from NYS Department of Health, estimate that some gardeners who toil in urban gardens and children at play in them could be exposed to lead levels that exceed FDA thresholds, as reported in Environmental Geochemistry and Health.

Johannes Lehmann, Cornell professor of soil and crop sciences, explains how soil can help reduce greenhouse gas emission in a co-authored article published in Nature, April 6, 2016.

One of the two cover stories published in Chemical & Engineering News highlights Professor Johannes Lehmann's research.

Johannes Lehmann, one of nine Cornell professors named to a list of the most influential scientific minds for 2015 compiled by Thompson Reuters and based on how often faculty members' research is cited.

A new video from the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program features Cornell’s Soil Health Program, based in Soil and Crop Sciences.

Cornell professors Matt Ryan and Neil Mattson describe the new Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture (CICCA), which aims to strengthen agriculture in the face of a changing climate.  The project will to help train and educate farmers on how to adapt to a changing climate and reduce their impact on the environment.

On Dec. 10, the public can try soil painting as part of a soil celebration led by the Soil and Crop Sciences Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science on World Soil Day.

Nyle Brady, a professor and leader in soil science, died Nov. 24 in Colorado at age 95. He joined Cornell in 1947 and held leadership roles in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Nyle was the Chair of Soil and Crop Sciences from 1955-1963.

In the fight to protect the environment, achieve food security and promote sustainable development, agricultural scientists, Professor Johannes Lehmann, Soil and Crop Sciences Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University and Professor Markus Kleber, Oregon State University, advocate for new and improved soil research models that accurately forecast climate change.

A new method that allows geoscientists to tease out the exact inputs from three different sources, with implications for modeling and predicting climate change.
The study, published in Nature Communications, is authored by Thea Whitman, Ph.D. '14 a former graduate student of co-author Professor Johannes Lehmann.

The tri-societies, including the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) are presenting national awards at the national meetings in Minneapolis, MN, November 15-18, 2015. Cornell award recipients include professors Tim Setter, Peter Hobbs and Tony DiTommaso. Harold van Es is the President-Elect for SSSA. Read more about the national awards.

Susan Hoskins, Senior Extension Associate in the SCS Section, was presented the award by the New York Geographic Alliance in recognition of her distinguished service to geographic education in NYS. Susan has taught many mapping workshops for educators through the Alliance and has contributed to NOAA/National Geographic educator professional development grants for mapping the Susquehanna River watershed and other river basins in New York. Susan is a faculty-member in the Soil and Crop Sciences Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science and member of Cornell’s Institute for Resource Information Sciences.

Professor Kochian, adjunct professor in Soil and Crop Science and in Plant Biology at Cornell University, has been named to the Agricultural Research Service Science Hall of Fame. The award honors USDA-ARS senior agency researchers for outstanding, lifelong achievements in agricultural science and technology. His work has unraveled the strategies that plants use to tolerate acid soils which are high in toxic soluble aluminum. This environmental constrain is especially prevalent in the highly weathered soils of the tropics and subtropics. His work has also elucidated plant processes involved in mineral nutrition.

The Cornell Weed Science Teaching Garden gives students and the public a chance to recognize species that might harm people or animals, and reduce crop yields.

In his 16 years of teaching at Cornell University, Antonio DiTommaso has taught more than 1,000 students in his weed science and integrated pest management courses. The evaluations of many of these students contributed to the decision of The Crop Science Society of America award.

Congratulations to Jiapei Yan, graduate student in the section of Soil and Crop Sciences, chosen as one of the 2015 Outstanding Teaching Assistants!

Faculty and graduate researchers from Cornell’s Soil and Crop Sciences section spread the dirt on the power – and vulnerability – of soil at an April 29 event.

In recent celebration, chair Tim Setter unveiled the section’s new name “Soil and Crop Sciences.” In 2014, the department joined with four other CALS departments to form the School of Integrative Plant Science, and changed its name to Section of Soil and Crop Sciences.  An updated history of soil and crop departments at Cornell can be found at this link: http://scs.cals.cornell.edu/about/history. Photos of the event can be seen at: https://cornellcropsoilsciences.shutterfly.com/pictures/45.

Is there a universal science? Carmen Enid Martínez, a new associate professor in the Soil and Crop Sciences section of the School of Integrative Plant Sciences, thinks there is: chemistry. She might be biased, as a soil and environmental chemist herself, but she says the work she is doing in her lab is certainly universally applicable. Read the full article in CALS Notes.

Jean Bonhotal was awarded the distinguished Rufus Chaney Award by the US Composting Council at the USCC Annual Conference and Trade Show in January 2015 in Austin, TX. The award goes to recipients who excel in research and education over a period of many years. Jean has dedicated her career at the Cornell Waste Management Institute to research and technical assistance to a range of audiences, including youth, college students, extension, farmers and solid waste managers.

In a recent article in the journal Nature, Cornell’s professor of soil science, Johannes Lehmann, is quoted as saying that different types of biochar “have unique potential to mitigate some of the greatest soil-health constraints to crop productivity.” The article is in the January 14, 2015 issue of Nature.

The nitrogen recommendation system Adapt-N, which originated in the lab of soil science professor Harold van Es, has ‘graduated’ from Cornell’s venture development center.  ATC, a technology startup at Cornell, which makes the system available to corn growers, has obtained capital investment and will expand on its own.

Cornell soil scientist Johannes Lehmann speaks about climate change mitigation strategies for the UN COP 20 Climate Change Conference held December 2014 in Lima, Peru. Lehmann addresses the potential of biochar for sequestering carbon and improving soil health.

December 5th has been designated "World Soil Day 2014" by the International Union of Soil Sciences, the FAO, and the UN General Assembly. World Soil Day will serve as a celebration of "the importance of soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to human well-being."
In support of World Soil Day 2014, the Section of Soil and Crop Sciences invites faculty, staff and students to drop by a display in Mann Library foyer from 9-5 on December 5th, 2014. We will be using posters, hands on displays and video clips to educate observers about the importance of soils from multiple perspectives.  Come see what all the excitement is about!

The 2014 growing season started slowly for corn and soybeans in New York because of wet conditions during the first 20 days of May in most grain corn and soybean growing regions.

Adapt-N is an on-line tool that provides location-specific, weather-adjusted nitrogen (N) recommendations for corn. At sidedress time, critical early-season weather that strongly influences actual N needs is incorporated into the recommendation.

To help introduce new members of the university's faculty to the Cornell community, the Cornell Chronicle is publishing brief new-faculty profiles for the 2014-15 academic year.

For the first time in New York or the northeastern U.S., a serious disease called ‘northern stem canker’ was confirmed in New York soybean fields.  Reported yield losses in the Midwest have ranged from minor to in excess of 50%, so the presence of the pathogen is considered a significant factor for soybean production.

A collaborative project has been initiated among partners at NH NRCS, Cornell, Greenstart, NH Conservation Districts, and NH farms in four counties. The goal was to develop a framework for a soil health test-informed Soil Health Management Plan (SHMP), analogous with the NRCS’s Nutrient Management Plan, but with biological and physical test results to be considered, in addition to standard soil test results.

A campus workshop held Aug. 12-15 attracted domestic and international participants who learned about health concepts and management strategies.

Adapt-N, a software program from Cornell researchers, aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save farmers’ crops. Now the big seed companies are taking notice.

The full version of What's Cropping Up? Vol. 24, No. 4 is available as a downloadable PDF.

All perennial weeds can be troublesome, however “deep-rooted”, creeping perennial broadleaf weeds such as field bindweed, hemp dogbane, horsenettle, and common milkweed are among the most difficult to control.  Like annual and biennial weeds, these perennials reproduce by forming seed.  In addition, they spread by rhizomes (underground stems).

Corn acreage for grain in NY, as of June 1, is expected to total 660,000 acres in 2014, a decrease of about 4% from 2013 (690,000 acres). Corn acreage for silage production in NY, as of June 1, is expected to total 500,000 acres in 2014, down about 2% from 2013 (510,000 acres). Only 58% of the corn in NY was planted by June 1, however, so grain acreage could decrease further because of maturity concerns for June-planted corn, especially on dairy farms.

Most agronomists agree that growers should plant soybeans at the 1.5 inch depth because the seed is vulnerable to drying out at shallower depths and crusting problems at deeper planting depths, both which result in reduced emergence.

Most agronomists agree that a ~2.0 inch planting depth is usually optimum for corn establishment in northern latitudes that receive ample rainfall during the spring. A shallower planting depth, especially less than 1.5 inches, may lead to early-season root lodging associated with shallow nodal root development or corn injury from pre-emergence herbicides.

The full version of What's Cropping Up? Vol. 24, No. 3 is available as a downloadable PDF.

Professor Antonio DiTommaso, Cornell Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, in cooperation with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Invasive Species Statewide Program, held a one-day hands-on workshop on weed seedling identification for PRISM partners. Scott Morris, Kathy Howard, and Courtney Stokes, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, assisted with the workshop.

Imbibitional chilling injury to corn purportedly occurs when recently planted corn seed imbibes water at temperatures less than 41oF (although some say 50oF) during the first 48 hours after planting. 

Five departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences – Plant Biology, Horticulture, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Crop and Soil Sciences, and Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology – have been consolidated into the School of Integrative Plant Science.

Adapt-N is an on-line tool for weather-adjusted precision nitrogen management in corn that has been available to growers in the Northeast and several Midwestern states since 2010 (http://adapt-n.cals.cornell.edu). In 2013, with an uncharacteristically wet spring, the tool successfully adapted N recommendations to account for early-season N dynamics, and further demonstrated its ability to improve farmer profits.

Arnold Richardson has had his eye on Adapt-N since 2009, when the tool for weather-adapted sidedress nitrogen recommendations first became available. Of a self-described “competitive nature,” the Red Creek, NY farmer is constantly seeking and testing new strategies that can improve his farm system and boost yields and profits. After several years of watching the development of Adapt-N and its success in early on-farm trials, Richardson conducted strip trials of the Cornell nitrogen management tool in three fields in 2013.

Professor Olena Vatamaniuk and colleagues have discovered that a transporter protein is involved in iron as well as cadmium partitioning.  The work, which is reported in a recent article in Plant Cell, is a multidisciplinary collaboration including current PhD student Sheena Gayomba, as well as several other current and former students, and colleagues at the USDA, Purdue University, University of Aberdeen, and Dartmouth College.

Alan Collmer will direct the new School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The school will integrate five current departments.

Professor Johannes Lehmann suggests in a recent issue of Nature Geoscience that “Rather than thinking of biochar as a one-size-fits-all soil enhancer, we need to focus on developing tailor-made biochar systems for individual applications that take into account soil type, climate and social setting.”

With as much as 40 percent of the world’s potentially arable land unusable due to aluminum toxicity, a solution may be near in the form of a rice gene.

As invasive Pale and black swallow-wort vines spread across the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, Cornell researchers lead efforts to understand these pernicious plants.

Professor Peter Hobbs is the 2014 recipient of the National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Teaching Award. This award is presented to a faculty member who has demonstrated a commitment to teaching in agricultural sciences. Hobbs was presented with this award at the Dean’s Awards Reception on April 21.

What's Cropping Up? Vol. 24, No. 2: Wheat yields have continued to increase and wheat acrage remains stable in New York state, while oat and dry bean acrage plummets.

What's Cropping Up? Vol. 24, No. 2: NY corn growers typically plant 1.15 million acres annually, making NY the 17th leading state in the USA in corn acres. NY is unique, in that planted corn acreage fluctuates between an approximate 50:50 ratio of grain corn and corn silage.

What's Cropping Up? Vol. 24, No. 2: Soybean is the agricultural commodity in New York that has increased the most in both acreage and value over the last 25 years. The $195M value of soybean in 2012 ranked the crop as the 6th leading agricultural commodity in New York.

What's Cropping Up? Vol. 24, No. 2: Acetochlor herbicide products received registration approval in New York in February 2013 providing New York growers with a valuable new tool and an expanded array of options for weed control.

Literally digging up the dirt, Cornell researchers have found that burgeoning deer populations forever alters a forest’s natural future by disrupting the soil’s seed banks.

The combination of natural enemies, such as ladybeetles, with Bt crops, delays a pest's ability to evolve resistance to the crops' insecticidal proteins, according to new research.

Ph.D. student Leliah Krounb is studying how to turn human waste into soil nutrients in Kenya by using pyrolysis – thermal combustion in the absence of oxygen.

What sets associate professor Russell Hahn apart is his enduring commitment to educating growers and other stakeholders all across the region on herbicides and their proper application.

Weeds, those unwanted, unloved and annoying invasive plants that farmers and gardeners hate amid their plantings, are expanding to northern latitudes, thanks to rising temperatures.

Symposium to showcase program that trained students to use interdisciplinary approaches to food systems and agriculture issues that contribute to extreme poverty.

The Cornell University Weed Team sends graduate student Courtney Stokes to the 2013 North Central and Northeastern Collegiate Weed competition in Illinois for two days of brutal, mind-bending, grueling agronomic combat on July 24-25.