Each year DWFI leverages Robert B. Daugherty Foundation funds and additional donor funds to support graduate and undergraduate student research and creative activity. Funds are matched one-to-one by their DWFI Faculty Fellow advisors. This year we had to cancel our annual research forum, scheduled for April 2, and missed seeing the students present their work in person.To celebrate the incredible research being done, students have shared a brief summary of their work and its impact. We’re excited to share their work with you here.
WHEAT RESIDUE MANAGEMENT TO ENHANCE SOIL WATER CONSERVATION
Student: Luana Machado Simáo, for a M.S. in Agronomy
Advisor: Cody Creech, Assistant Professor, UNL Agronomy & Horticulture
Luana Machado Simão is a DWFI supported student whose research centers around the wheat stem sawfly and its destructive ability to eat wheat from the inside out in Western Nebraska. Unlike hollow-stem wheat, solid-stem wheat is less susceptible to these saw flies. Through early observation, they found that solid-stem wheat varieties stood longer after harvest with the added benefit of holding snow, providing extra soil water content after it melts for the next season.
After their study, Luana and her advisor, DWFI Faculty Fellow Cody Creech, found that during dry conditions, solid-stem wheat had lower yields than other varieties and did not stand any longer. So, they advise to only use solid-stem wheat if risk of impacts from the sawfly is high.
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ADOPTION OF SENSOR-BASED NITROGEN FERTILIZATION OF CORN THROUH NE ON-FARM RESEARCH NETWORK
Student: Jackson Stansell, for a M.S. in Agricultural & Biological Systems Engineering
Advisor: Joe Luck, Associate Professor, UNL Biological Systems Engineering
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UG-LORAWAN: LONG RANGE UNDERGROUND WIDE AREA NETWORKS FOR RURAL CONNECTIVITY IN AGRICULTURAL FIELDS
Student: Baofeng Zhou, for a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering
Advisor: Mehmet C. Vuran, Professor, UNL Computer Science and Engineering
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ANALYSIS OF OPTIMALITY OF AUGMENTATION PROJECTS IN REPUBLICAN RIVER WATERSHED USING DATA & MODELING
Student: Khulan Batsukh, for a M.S. in Earth Sciences, Specialization: Hydrogeology
Advisor: Vitaly Zlotnik, Professor, UNL Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
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NEAR EARTH SENSING OF CROP CANOPY AT PRODUCTION FIELD SCALE ENABLED BY UNMANNED AIRCRAFT
Student: Suresh Pradhyun Kashyap, for a M.S. in Biological Systems Engineering
Advisor: Wayne Woldt, Associate Professor, UNL Biological Systems Engineering
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EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES TO INCORPORATE CLIMATE INFORMATION INTO STAKEHOLDER DECISION MAKING
Student: Azariah Ovie Lawal, for a M.S. in Natural Resource Sciences, Applied Climate & Spatial Science Specialization, also Graduate Assistant within the UNL International Business Program
Advisor: John Kalu Osiri, Associate Professor of Practice, UNL Department of Management, College of Business, and Michael Hayes, Professor, UNL School of Natural Resources
Resilience is the ability of socio-ecological systems to bounce back after an upheaval — like the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been argued that agricultural systems are perhaps the most impacted during these upheavals. The pandemic has reshaped the character of global food security, and its impact is particularly severe in countries that are net importers of food.
It is imperative to improve agricultural systems' resilience. The work of DWFI supported student Azariah Lawal and his advisors, Faculty Fellows John Kalu Osiri and Michael Hayes, examines the resilience of agricultural systems in two core regions of the world: Africa and the midwest United States. Preliminary results indicate 80% resilience in West Africa about 50% in Nebraska. The ultimate goal is to conduct a shared learning experience that will improve agricultural resilience in this regions and track progress.
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GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF MALE TRAITS FOR HYBRID WHEAT SEED PRODUCTION
Student: Nicholas Garst, for a Ph.D. in Agronomy (Plant Breeding and Genetics Emphasis)
Advisor: P. Stephen Baenziger, Professor, UNL Agronomy & Horticulture
Nicholas Garst is a DWFI supported student studying plant breeding and genetics, specifically related to hybrid wheat. Currently, we gain about 1% in wheat yields per year without using hybrids, but need to achieve about 1.7% to meet the future demand. Hybrids can increase yields by about 15% over pure lines, equating to roughly 15 years of traditional plant breeding. Hybrids especially shine under sub-optimal conditions like drought, where they typically outperform pure lines.
The biggest challenge to using hybrids is that the cost to produce them is still too high. But by selecting for those genotypes that produce the most pollen — something that Nicholas and his advisor, DWFI Faculty Fellow Stephen Baenziger are currently working on — using hybrids becomes much more feasible for producers.
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EAR ABNORMALITIES IN CORN: MYTH OR REALITY?
Student: Osler Antonio Ortez-Amador, for a Ph.D. in Agronomy
Advisor: Roger Elmore, Professor, Agronomy & Horticulture, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
- In 2019, about 10.1 million acres of corn were planted in Nebraska, a production value of $6.78 billion.Optimizing productivity and closing yield gaps require an improvement in the use of resources.
- The development of abnormal ears has been reported across Nebraska and the region (Texas, Colorado, Iowa, and Illinois) in recent years.
- Abnormal ears translate into productivity losses in corn.
- Despite 70+ years of basic understanding in corn, causes of ear abnormalities remain a question.
- We study the causes of ear abnormalities and their implications for productivity losses in corn.
PRE-HARVEST WATER TREATMENTS TO MITIGATE E-COLI CONTAMINATION IN CHILEAN RASPBERRIES
Student: Constanza Avello, for a M.S. in Food Science
Advisor: Bing Wang, Assistant Professor, Food Science & Technology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Chile is one of the major countries of raspberry production and exportation. E. coli is a contamination indicator commonly verified by importing countries for compliance with their food standards. In our preliminary study, the water for pesticide application on raspberry farms was identified as the top contamination source. There is an urgent need to identify effective treatments to mitigate E. coli in water.
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THE ANALYZATION OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS AND BACILLUS PUMILUS FOR INDUCED SYSTEMATIC RESISTANCE IN CORN
Student: Katie Bathke, Robert and Karla Baltzell Student Innovation Award recipient and UNL undergraduate student studying plant biology
Advisor: Gary Yuen, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
My research for the past four years has been focused on working to understand the bacterial disease, Bacterial Leaf Streak that affects many types of corn. This disease originates from Nebraska and has been present for approximately 5 years in field all across the corn belt of the United States. There is still no known control method for this disease. Therefore, I have been working to understand how effective probiotic, bacterial strains can be against the disease when integrated into the environment of the corn.
Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus Pumilus are probiotic bacterial strains naturally found in the soil environment. Both strains show to be effective biological control agents against various diseases in agriculture. Therefore, to test this against the disease, I treated the seeds with the Bacillus strains and grew the corn plants to late V3 stage. Then inoculated the plants with the disease to study the incidence and severity of the disease in a greenhouse setting.
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TREATING NON-POINT SOURCE COCKTAILS: PESTICIDE REMOVAL UTILIZING IN-STREAM BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Student: Josephus Borsuah, Ph.D. in Natural Resource Sciences
Advisor: Tiffany Messer, Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Neonicotinoids class of insecticides are emerging contaminants that were introduced in the global market in the early 1990s. Since then, the use of neonicotinoids class of insecticides continues to increase globally. Today, over 120 countries around the world have registered the use of these insecticides. This chemical substance is used by farmers to help control crops insect, pests, and fungi and increase crop yield, but some studies have shown otherwise. For example, studies have shown that neonicotinoids
are harmful to non-target insects such as honeybees, etc. Also, it has been investigated that once
these insecticides are applied in the environmental, they can undergo various forms of environmental interaction that could result to the formation of possible byproducts that are harmful to human, terrestrial species, and aquatic organisms. In this respect, our studies are focusing on investigating the fate and transport of neonicotinoids in rivers adjacent to agricultural intensive regions especially in Midwestern and Southeastern rivers like Elkhorn river in Nebraska and Neuse river in North Carolina are limited.
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NEAR EARTH SENSING OF CROP CANOPY AT PRODUCTION FIELD SCALE ENABLED BY UNMANNED AIRCRAFT
Student: Suresh Pradhyun Kashyap, for a M.S. in Biological Systems Engineering
Advisor: Wayne Woldt, Associate Professor, Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Early detection of crop stress has always been a challenge for the researchers and farmers in the field. By the time it displays visible symptoms of stress, a plant can already be adversely affected. These affects could lead to irreversible damages to the crop and yield loss. The irrigation events that are planned beforehand, will result in poor performance on the crops.
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UNCERTAINTIES OF ATRAZINE LEACHING AND ACCUMULATION IN THE VADOSE ZONE UNDER FUTURE CLIMATE SCENARIOS
Student: Chuyang Liu, for a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering
Advisor: Yusong Li, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
As one of the most widely used herbicides to control weeds on agricultural lands, atrazine is commonly detected in groundwater and threatens public health as an endocrine-disruptor. With increasing demands on food production systems and depleting groundwater resources, it is essential to understand the impact of future climate change on the leaching and accumulation of atrazine beneath agricultural production areas. Predictions of atrazine leaching and accumulation in the future will be subject to uncertainties related to transport and reaction processes, as well as uncertainties from various future climate scenarios.
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AGPOCALYPSE 2050: INTEGRATING RESEARCH, EXTENSION, AND EDUCATION TO ENHANCE UNDERSTANDING OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS SUSTAINABILITY
Student: Luke Monhollon, for a M.S. in Biological Systems Engineering
Advisor: Deepak Keshwani, Associate Professor, Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Improving agricultural sustainability is a complex and spatially dependent effort. Beneficial policies and farm operations are tied to local environments, transportation infrastructure, and available markets. Spatial modeling of environmental impacts will expand the understanding of sustainability in agricultural systems.
Connecting data driven models to an immersive videogame, Agpocalypse 2050 offers a unique educational experience for youth, improves perceptions of STEM careers relevant to Agriculture, and cultivates an understanding of the agricultural systems.
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TRANSFORMING MANURE TO CEDAR MULCH, FROM “WASTE” TO “WORTH”
Student: Agustin Olivo, M.S. in Biological Systems Engineering
Advisor: Amy Schmidt, Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering & Animal Science, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
In areas of intensive livestock production like Nebraska, animal feeding operations generate significant amounts of manure that are sometimes considered a “waste” product. Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) encroachment has become a real economic and ecological threat in Nebraska. Removal of trees can help control its expansion, but this can be expensive and creates an additional challenge in determining how to dispose the “waste” wood. Manure and cedar mulch have shown potential to be used as soil amendments to improve soil properties, as well as crop productivity.
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POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF NITRATE CONTAMINANTS IN NEBRASKA WATERWAYS ON HUMAN HEALTH
Student: Balkissa Ouattara, Ph.D. in Public Health, UNMC, College of Public Health
Advisor: Eleanor Rogan, Professor, UNMC College of Public Health Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Nebraska is an agricultural state with the widespread use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Runoff
after precipitation or inappropriate irrigation can drive the nitrogen compound into drinking water. The ingestion of high concentrations of nitrate above the maximum contaminant limit can cause adverse health outcomes, including methemoglobinemia in infants, birth defects, thyroid disease, and cancers (colorectal, gastric, bladder and non-Hodgkin lymphomas). We are investigating the relationship between the high incidence of pediatric cancer observed in Nebraska and the nitrate concentration in surface and groundwater.
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FABRICATION OF NOVEL AZO-LINKAGE ION-EXCHANGE ADSORBENT BASED ON GREEN POLYMERS FOR NITRATE REMOVAL
Student: Elham Tavakoli, for a Ph.D. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Advisor: Siamak Nejati, Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Nitrogen-containing fertilizers play a crucial role both in the crop yield and quality. The nitrogen-containing compounds convert to nitrates in the soil. Thus, the excess amount of nitrogen in the soil can result in high nitrate accumulation in plants, especially in most vegetables, or may lead to ground and surface water contamination through nitrate leaching and soil erosion. The high concentration of nitrate in our water supply can cause potential risks to human health.
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MODELING GROUNDWATER FLOW AND TRANSIT TIME DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE UPPER MIDDLE LOUP RIVER BASIN, NEBRASKA
Student: Caner Zeyrek, for a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Sciences
Advisor: Troy Gilmore, Assistant Professor of Groundwater Hydrology, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Groundwater age-dating tracers have been used by many researchers for the investigation of hydrological systems. They can be utilized to estimate groundwater transit time distributions (TTDs) in catchments using standard-lumped aquifer models. TTDs are especially useful tools to assess the non-point source pollution to groundwater wells and rivers. Numerical groundwater flow models and particle tracking simulations can also be used to simulate the TTDs in different field scales.
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