Fall Post Harvest Wrap-Up

This year's corn has all been harvested.  Corn is no longer is green like the picture below.  We can once again see across all the fields.  To celebrate the end of Field Season 2013........ we took some soil samples.



(Above) Peyton pushes wet soil through the sieve to get them ready for Microbial Biomass Fumigation extractions.



(Right) Amanda samples fields for Nitrous Oxide Emissions.

How did a caterpillar get in the lab?

Spring Sprung

A rapid fire look at photos I've snapped from March and April.  Getting ready for new greenhouse gas research, corn planting, and celebrating our rainy and productive North Carolina Spring.  

Wheat before a spring storm, Goldsboro, NC.

Hurry up, finish soil sampling....

Sean eating some weeds.  A constant battle.  

Angel Cruz, Mary Parr, Sean Bloszies, Aaron Fox, Sarah Seehaver, and other members of Sustainable Ag Grad student assoc. celebrate Spring by stomping on some mud, sand and straw to make cob for an oven.  

 The base for a new cob oven at the Agroecology Farm at Lake Wheeler.

Back in the lab.... microbial biomass fumigation extractions.

 The Easter Bunny hid some eggs for all the good little soil science students this spring....

 We have partners in crime - Chris Reberg-Horton with the Organic Cropping Systems Lab helps direct our tractor driver, Todd, at the CEFS research farm.

 Spring means MANURE!! And lots of it.  Try weighing out 5 tons to the acre....

 Driving over a tarp, to create a manure-free zone, for greenhouse gas research.

 Fields of amber grains..... these fields are amber, because they are getting ready for CORN.

 Nitrogen gets applied at CEFS for the greenhouse gas study.  Spring is a busy season for planting and fertilizing.

Moisture and temperature sensors are installed to continuous loggers, so we can track moisture every few minutes all season long.  

Ciencia con Microbios!!

Amanda Roth ('14) working with Rhizobia cultures in the lab.  Congrats, Amanda!! She was just been accepted into her study abroad program in Valencia, Spain.  This summer she will study Spanish Art History.  Have fun in Spain!

Pretend Science?

We do a lot of real science.  But once in a while we have to do some "pretend science" for a photo shoot.  Our students are so popular that they are featured in magazines and articles all the time. I got a chance to photograph one recent lab photo shoot.  Our lab is very photogenic!

Suzi O'Connell (on the left) - a PhD student in Horticulture and Soil Science - was recently featured in the CALS Student Perspectives for her participation in a study abroad partnership with the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Agriculture in Croatia.  For some amazing photos of her trip to Croatia see:  NCSU Ag goes to Croatia

In the picture above:  Suzi O'Connell, her paparazzi, some actual Congo Red dye used in our petri dishes, and some real-life dirty lab dishes (not pretend)!

Arun Jani

Welcome to our newest grad student, Arun Jani, who will be studying root dynamics of legume cover crops. Welcome, Arun!

JiJY Sooksa-nguan

We welcome back our post-doc Thanwalee ‘JiJY’ Sooksanguan from Thailand to work with us on our molecular evaluation rhizobia associating with legume cover crops. Welcome back to NC!

Matthew Brown

And yet another one joins the team! Welcome to Matthew Brown, coming to us from NYC where he was a soil scientist in Central Park. Matthew will be studying decomposition of legume covers killed using different termination methods such as rolling, herbicide, and incorporation.