Farmers and agronomists must continue to focus on yield when creating their management plans, as the world’s population keeps growing. However, environmental quality–especially water and soil quality–deserve as much focus as yield. How are scientists focusing on this interconnected system?
The “Cross Cutting Issues in Environmental Quality” symposium at the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society annual meeting will address these topics. This year’s meeting will be held Nov. 4-7, 2018, in Baltimore, MD. The theme of the meeting is “Enhancing Productivity in a Changing Climate.” It is held in collaboration with the Canadian Society of Agronomy.
“There are many factors going into maintaining or improving yields and how that impacts environmental quality,” says Jeppe Kjaersgaard, coordinator of the symposium. “It is a very complex interconnected system and many of the factors are not clearly understood yet. What is clear though is that we can’t just look at each factor individually. We need to look at them in combination to see how they impact each other and the environment.” Kjaersgaard is an agronomist with the State of Minnesota.
Philip Haygarth, University of Lancaster, will discuss “Enhancing Productivity and Environmental Quality in a Changing Climate.” Kjaersgaard says, “Nutrient management is one of the most complex and challenging areas when talking about environmental quality. It is an area of great interest and continues to be discussed extensively around the world. We wanted an international perspective to bring in discoveries and methods from overseas. Philip Haygarth is an outstanding scientist from the UK. I look forward to his presentation as I am sure he will inspire and challenge us to think about nutrient management and environmental quality in new ways.”
Other speakers include:
- David Huggins, USDA-ARS: Soil Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes: Linkages to Productivity and Environmental Quality Under a Changing Climate
- Sanjai Parikh, UC-Davis: Deciphering Biochars for Agronomic and Environmental Applications
- Laura Christianson, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign: Innovating through Barriers to Improve Bioreactor Performance in a Changing Climate
- Lisa Schulte Moore, Iowa State University: Prairie Strips as an Innovative Agroecosystem Practice to Enhance Ecosystem Services from Farmer’s Fields
- Warren Dick, Ohio State University: Crop and Environmental Benefits of Gypsum as a Soil Amendment
- Samuel Fuhlendorf, Oklahoma State University: Animal Agriculture, Rangelands and the Environment: Limitations and Opportunities from a Socio-Ecological Perspective
For more specific information about this symposium, visit https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2018am/meetingapp.cgi/Session/18086K. Media are invited to attend the conference. Pre-registration by Oct. 15, 2018 is required. Visit https://www.acsmeetings.org/media for registration information.
To speak with one of the scientists, contact Susan V. Fisk, 608-273-8091, sfisk@sciencesocieties.org to arrange an interview.