Half of the world relies on rice for about 80% of their food intake. Unfortunately, rice is highly susceptible to the uptake of arsenic from soil and groundwater. To mitigate the uptake of poisons into the worldwide food supply, Mason Stahl, an associate professor in the environmental science policy and engineering program and the geosciences department at Union College, is utilizing machine learning and direct sampling to help mitigate dangerous levels of arsenic in our food. Join us in this...

Slope stability is unpredictable — or is it? The risk of landslides threatens roads, rails, homes, and lives. Being able to forecast where and when slopes will fail means giving communities the power to keep infrastructure and people safe. In this episode, we talk with civil engineer Dr. Ning Lu about his experience studying slope stability. Learn about the breakthrough slope stability predictive formula he helped develop in this episode of We Measure the World.

Achieving water balance isn’t easy, but it is critical. Whether you’re concerned with fields or ecosystems, understanding the balance between water, nutrients, and pollutants can be the difference between success and failure. In this episode, agricultural engineer and professor Erin Brooks discusses crop cover, the hydrological impacts of management choices, and finding the balance between field work and modeling.

Advancements in irrigation, pest management, and other grower concerns are useless if they are never adopted. How do you gain the trust and by-in from growers to test new techniques and technologies on a large enough scale to prove viability? In this episode, we talk to agronomist Saul Alarcon about his success working with some of the largest tomato-production networks and how he has helped keep his grower partners remain at the cutting edge of water conservation, pest and weed control, and...

Every 17 years cicadas emerge from the earth to mate, leaving thousands of holes peppering the landscape. Dr. Darren Ficklin and his Ph.D. students wondered what impact this monumental exodus has on the movement of water within the soil. Their findings were beyond what anyone could have ever imagined. In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Ficklin about his past and current work studying the intersection of climate and hydrology.

Colorado’s Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources (STAR) program provides a voluntary way for farmers and ranchers to assess their conservation efforts and impact on soil health. Creating a large-scale agroecosystem management comes with many funding and logistical tribulations. In this podcast, we talk to the founders of this program, Drs. Jim Ippolito and Steve Blecker, about what impacts soil health, how it’s measured, and the hope of a nationwide soil health rating scale.

Discussions around land use for cattle grazing versus solar panels have valiant proponents on both sides, but some question the debate altogether. Why can’t land be used for both raising cattle and renewable energy sources such as wind or solar? Ph.D. student at Colorado University, Taylor Bacon, joins us to discuss aviation biofuel, the colocation of agriculture and solar photovoltaic energy production, and the healing powers of running.

Should you be measuring water content or water potential? Like all good scientific questions, the answer is, “It depends.” In some applications, water content measurements will tell you everything you need to know, in others, water potential will get to the root of the issue. Still others require measuring both. So how do you make sure you’re making the measurements you need? In this episode, METER research scientist, Leo Rivera and METER’s ecology and plant physiology specialist, Chris...

25 years ago Drs John Norman and Gaylon Campbell co-authored An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics, the preeminent environmental biology textbook still internationally used in classrooms today. Their ability to work across disciplinary lines brought new understanding to countless scientists and taught us how to conduct better research through collaboration. Join us as we discuss the past, present, and future of Environmental Biophysics.

Champions of water potential, Drs. Kim Novick and Jessica Guo, team up to discuss the vital role water potential measurement plays in both plant and soil sciences and the work they are doing to establish the first-of-its-kind nationwide water potential network. Join their discussion to understand how a communal knowledge of these measurements could impact what we know about climate change and ecology as a whole.

Soil amendments may boost biomass production, but could they be having an adverse effect on the health of your soil? Dr. Dedrick Davis, Assistant Professor in Soil Physics at Alabama A&M University, explores sustainable agriculture practices and their effect on soil hydrology, near surface soil, the local water supply, and the longevity of the farms themselves.

The only thing certain in crop science is change. The varietal of wheat that stood strong against disease, rallied from extreme temperatures, and survived the water conditions of five years ago is not the variety that will be the most successful five years in the future. In this episode Dr. Arron Carter, professor and OA. Vogel Endowed Chair of wheat breeding and genetics at Washington State University, discusses the 10-year process that thousands of varietals of wheat go through to determine...

Like a silent battle cry, plants call out to signal they are under siege as a warning to other plants and to call in reinforcements to fend off the invasion. How does this communication work? What else are plants doing to protect themselves from disease and predators alike? In our latest podcast, Natalie Aguirre, a PhD candidate and plant physiology and chemical ecology researcher at Texas A&M University, dives into her research on pathogen infection, water stress, and how plants...

Travel on a journey with Pete Tereszkiewicz, Ph.D. candidate at the University of South Carolina, as he battled COVID restrictions, nor’easters, and hurricane Ian to understand how wind, water, sediment interactions, and seasonal vegetation affect beach dune creation, deformation, and erosion.

Dr. David DuBois, New Mexico State Climatologist, Director of the New Mexico Climate Center, and Associate Professor at New Mexico State University, discusses the latest in climate observation and air quality research. Learn about the ZiaMet Agricultural Weather Station Network, how researchers in New Mexico fight dust storms and desertification, how machine learning can help climate prediction, and much more.

In vineyards, too much water can be as bad as too little. Jaclyn Fiola, hydropedologist at Virginia Tech, shares her research on the influence of soil and precipitation in U.S. Mid-Atlantic vineyards. Discover how fruit quality and water management best practices are changing. Plus, learn cutting-edge techniques researchers are using, such as stearic acid, to mitigate the effects of too much precipitation.

Dr. Bruce Bugbee, professor of Crop Physiology and director of the Crop Physiology Lab at Utah State University, discusses his space farming research and what we earthlings can learn from space farming techniques. Find out what happens to plants in a zero-gravity environment and how scientists overcome the particular challenges of deploying measurement sensors in space. He also shares his research on the efficacy of LED lights for indoor growing.

Dr. Colin Campbell discusses his collaborative research efforts controlling water on potato farms in southern Idaho. In potatoes, overwatering impacts disease and reduces critical nutrients in the root zone. He and other researchers discovered that combining measurements helped them better understand the impacts of management and the interplay between variables like evapotranspiration and soil water.

METER research scientist Leo Rivera discusses the ups and downs of his hydrology research in the shrink-swell clays of Texas, why the collapse of a video store got him interested in hydrology, how he got caught on camera by Google Maps, the interesting development story behind the SATURO infiltrometer, and more.

“We all live or die by soil, literally. We just have to remind people that it's about quality of life. It's about the food that you eat. It's about the safety and welfare of your children.” Dr. Cristine Morgan, one of the US’s premier soil scientists and chief scientific officer at the Soil Health Institute shares her views on soil health: what it is, how to quantify it, what’s the payoff, and why it’s so critical to our success as a society.

Kevin Hyde, manager of the Montana Mesonet, discusses his views on predicting and mitigating the effects of flood and drought, how to build a robust weather network with high-quality data on a small budget, why setups should include other measurements such as soil moisture and NDVI, and the genius way he handles maintenance over such a large geographical area.

What really happened the day radiation snowed on Iitate village near Fukushima? Why were the ecological consequences even more far reaching than people realized? What’s the future of the farmland there? Dr. Colin Campbell gives a behind the scenes look at the cool science going on right now in the herculean effort to rehabilitate the land near Fukushima.

Dr. Neil Hansen, BYU professor of environmental science, discusses water conservation, the latest research on getting more crop per drop, exciting applications of remote sensing, and the challenges we face trying to meet changing water demands in a growing population.

What does a world-renowned turf scientist think about artificial turf? How about xeriscaping? You might be surprised. In our latest podcast, Dr. Bryan Hopkins shares his latest experimental results using the newest techniques in water management for both turf and row crops. Get his views on the latest advancements in irrigation technology in both urban and agricultural settings.