Land and Water Resources

Researchers are working to enhance sustainable land use management practices, water resources, water quality and ecological restoration techniques.

Challenges being addressed 

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Controlling Water Pollution by Mimicking Mother Nature

Working with stakeholders to capture pollutants from both natural and urban landscape and reduce the ecological impact to aquatic life.

Dissemination of the Impacts of Climate Change on Animal Agriculture

Providing on-demand web access to science-based information, educational resources, and decision-support tools to extension personnel, stakeholder groups and the public on climate change mitigation and adaptation related to animal agriculture.

Forest Health

Assessing effects of CO2 emissions on carbon cycles, microbial communities dynamics and their role in biodegradation.

Getting to the Source

Reducing pollutants - especially phosphorus - from non-point sources, runoff from agricultural land and urban landscapes. 

Impact of Land-use on Water Resources and Water Quality

Impacting land-use and hydrologic changes on streamflow and the role of wetlands in improving water quality, particularly in agricultural watersheds.

Irrigation Water Management Practices for Food Crops

Matching irrigation systems and management to specific soil types, crops, and management systems to maximize water use efficiency and preserve water resources for down stream users.

Is Our Groundwater Supply Safe?

Investigating the effects of human activities on groundwater supplies and examining possible ways to provide incentives to enhance groundwater protection strategies.

Milk House Wastewater Treatment Systems

Developing design guidelines for low cost, effective and robust milk house wastewater treatment systems including irrigation systems, bark beds and aerobic treatment systems with subsurface infiltration areas.

Monitoring and Reducing the Environmental Impact of Construction Projects

Designing tools to predict, control and implement portable, cost effective sediment control practices including measuring the sediment in runoff, erosion control blankets, detention ponds and grass buffers.

Protecting Freshwaters and the Gulf of Mexico

Field experimentation and computer modeling are minimizing the loss of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from the agricultural landscape, reducing the negative impacts on freshwater bodies and the Gulf of Mexico.

Restoration and Protection of Watersheds

Working with local, state and federal agencies to develop assessments of the health of watersheds in Minnesota, and developing strategies for improving watershed health overall.

Size Does Matter

Best management practices that are used on the land to improve water quality are known to have benefits at the level of the individual farm or community, but what is the effect of these practices in the big picture, at the large scale?

Stormwater Management Performance and Effectiveness

Stormwater water management performance, effect of climate change, and training effectiveness for professionals.

Sustainable Waste Management and Utilization

Preserving groundwater and surface water from sustainable use of manures, wastes, and by-products from animal, human, and food processing using land treatment systems for cycling nutrients and organics.

Using Irrigation Water Management to Minimize Nitrate Nitrogen Contamination of Drinking Water

Developing and implementing real time soil moisture monitoring and accounting tools so farmers are able to meet crop water demands and curtail in-season leaching of nitrate-N below the plant root zone.