UC Davis experts: Nitrogen in agriculture and nature

UC Davis faculty members from a variety of disciplines are available to discuss issues related to nitrogen in agriculture and nature. If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Patricia Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu or Sylvia Wright, News Service, (530) 752-7704, swright@ucdavis.edu.

Nitrogen use by crops

Sham Goyal, a UC Davis Cooperative Extension agronomy specialist, is an authority on how crop plants take up and make use of nitrogen. Nitrogen is the single most important factor that determines how crops grow, develop and produce. Goyal also studies the biochemical and physiological secrets behind the enormously superior productivity of a group of plants known as C4 crops. These plants, including corn, process atmospheric carbon dioxide into four-carbon molecules during photosynthesis. He also is an expert on conservation tillage, a farming method that minimizes soil cultivation, and on the effects of soil salinity on crop growth and development. Contact: Sham Goyal, Agronomy and Range Science, (530) 752-2473, ssgoyal@ucdavis.edu.

Nitrogen fertilizer management

Bill Rains and Bob Travis, both professors of agronomy, have a combined 60 years of experience studying the mineral nutrition of plants. They are currently studying the potential impact of fertilizers on the environment of California's San Joaquin Valley. Nitrate concentrations in well waters from the valley have increased over the last two decades, mostly due to non-point source pollution, suggesting that agricultural production may be contributing to the excess nitrate found in groundwater. For example, cotton, which occupies 1 million acres in California and has nitrogen fertilizer application rates of 150-200 pounds per acre, can account for 20 percent of all agricultural nitrogen use in the San Joaquin Valley. It is vital that nitrogen fertilizer application guidelines be tailored to new cotton varieties and cultivation practices in order to minimize nitrate pollution of groundwater. Contacts: Bill Rains, Agronomy and Range Science, (530) 752-1711, derains@ucdavis.edu; Bob Travis, Agronomy and Range Science, (530) 752-6187, rltravis@ucdavis.edu.

Plant-soil-microbe interactions and nitrogen cycling

Alison Berry, a UC Davis professor of environmental horticulture, focuses her research on the biology and applications of nitrogen fixation, a key ecosystem process. She is currently assessing legume cover crops as sources of fertilizer in orchards and vineyards, nitrogen fixers in natural ecosystems, and urban impacts on soil processes. Ongoing investigations are also concerned with the development and function of nitrogen-fixing root nodules. Contact: Alison Berry, Environmental Horticulture, (530) 752-7683, amberry@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts:

• Patricia Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu
• Sylvia Wright, News Service, (530) 752-7704, swright@ucdavis.edu

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