A group of researchers at WSU is moving forward on a multi-million dollar project aimed at enhancing efficiency for farmers while helping the environment.

At the head of the project is David Brown, an associate professor of crop and soil sciences at WSU.  

Brown intends to develop models on the hilly terrain of the Palouse that distinguish zones with varying levels of water, nitrogen and soil densities beneath crops. He said he hopes farmers will then employ the models to their fields to cut back on the amount of nitrogen-rich fertilizer they use in areas that need less.

“The goal is to be as efficient as possible in how we apply nitrogen,” Brown said, “because we do need nitrogen to grow a healthy crop. If we told farmers to stop using nitrogen, our yields would collapse.”

He said nitrogen in croplands can become harmful to the environment when it ascends into the atmosphere after microbes transform it into the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

“Nitrous oxide is a really powerful greenhouse gas,” Brown said. “So, even a small amount of that makes it one of the top four greenhouse gases.”

The majority of human-produced nitrous oxide in the atmosphere comes from agriculture, said David Huggins, a soil scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and one of Brown’s colleagues on the project.  

“And it all comes back to fertilizer,” Huggins said. “One of the upshots is that if we can use nitrogen more efficiently, then less ends up going into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide.”

Taking that into consideration, Brown hopes the study will help farmers control how much of the greenhouse gas they release into the atmosphere from the nitrogen-rich fertilizer used on their crops.

“But that won’t happen if it isn’t profitable (for farmers),” he said, noting a key aspect of the project.

In identifying which areas need more or less fertilizer, Brown believes farmers should eventually be able to improve their yields and cut wasted costs on excess fertilizer.

The models could also apply to seed density, or how much seed farmers need to plant, in varying layers of soil throughout their fields, Huggins said.

“The way we’re doing it now, we may be actually applying— in some cases— too much fertilizer and seed that results in real reductions (in yields),” Huggins said.

The project started in April and will continue for the next five years. Brown put together a group of several professors and researchers from WSU and the University of Idaho to collaborate on the extensive study.

Brown gained steam for his work recently when the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded him and his colleagues a $4.6 million grant to fund the study.

Most of the work will take place at the Cook Agronomy Farm, just outside Pullman, where researchers will monitor 64 automated cylindrical chambers planted in the ground. Each chamber will track nitrous oxide rates in the soil.

“These test fields we have will map very accurately, both (for) how much total biomass and how much nitrogen is in a plant,” Brown said, “because that will tell us if there is a shortage of nitrogen in a certain location.”

Several farmers in the area have also agreed to allow the researchers to use their lands for geographic mapping. Brown plans to map out clay layers within the hills to help farmers understand how water moves beneath the soil surface.

Erin Brooks, a landscape hydrologist at the UI and a researcher on the project, said the study is still in its first phases. But the researchers have already begun installing their monitoring equipment.

The next step is to finish installation.

“It’s a huge amount of work to get everything in the ground to start making measurements,” Brown said.

Even so, he and Huggins said they are excited to move the project along.