Crop Biology, Agricultural Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship

In pursuing our mission and advancing programmatic themes, we conduct scientific inquiry and convey knowledge to academic and professional stakeholders both locally and globally.  Many faculty conduct programs focusing on local-scale issues both domestically in New York and the northeastern USA region as well as in many countries around the world under temperate, sub-tropical, and tropical environments.

Theme 1: Crop Biology

Global population is expected to reach 7 billion by the year 2013. This will severely strain the ability to meet food supply needs. Use of crops as biofuel feedstocks is creating additional demand for crop products and increasing prices of cereal grains, thereby altering the economics of dairy and other sectors of the food system. As developing countries gain greater affluence, demand for food crops will be further increased. In addition to the quantity of food, the ability to improve the concentration of heath-promoting constituents such as essential vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals is also of great concern.

Crop biologists address these challenges by identifying the underlying biological processes that have the greatest impact on crop performance and developing approaches for improving such performance. By operating at the interface between basic plant biology and applied crop management, crop biologists are able to focus their efforts on problems for which newly discovered information and methodologies from fundamental biology can be utilized to have the greatest impact in solving food supply needs. Crop biology addresses problems of broad scope and international applicability. Often knowledge gained at the basic level for a crop species growing in temperate conditions can provide insight in solving analogous problems in another crop in the tropics. The opportunities for forming interdisciplinary collaborations and making meaningful impacts internationally are abundant. This is particularly true in the case of problems involving stress tolerance, which is desperately needed by farmers in many of the poorest regions in the world, and those involving malnutrition which is a chronic problem in the poorest regions.

A large proportion of agricultural production is from grains and forages that are grown on extensive land areas where the possibility of environmental stress is inevitable. Drought, flooding, soil acidity, salinity, mineral nutrient deficiencies, heat and cold stresses are key factors limiting agricultural yields. As global climate continues to change, more frequent and extensive periods of drought and flooding and changes in temperature regimes will have major impacts on the sustainable functioning of agricultural and environmental systems. Since the middle of the 20th century production and concomitant emission of pollutants (e.g. heavy metals) into ground water and soils has steeply increased, posing a threat to agricultural crops and thereby human health. Crop biology must stay abreast of and adapt to these changes in order to maintain productivity and quality, which are critical for sustaining supplies of food, feed, and bio-fuel nationally and globally.

Society has increasing interest in health-promoting qualities of food. The future holds expanding opportunities for improvement of the quality of crop products and introduction of new quality attributes. Advances in our understanding of functional genomics, synthetic pathways and their regulation, and new approaches to use this knowledge to improve the levels of quality constituents have the potential to add value to crop products and contribute to society’s health and well-being. As the enzymes for synthetic pathways for health-promoting components become known, they represent well-defined targets for translating knowledge gained through study of model-system plants into success-stories for rational improvement of crop products.

With genomics and other technological advances in the field of molecular biology, there has been, and will continue to be, ever-expanding knowledge of crop biological systems, and techniques for utilizing such knowledge in the improvement of crops. Genomics approaches are identifying pathways that control stress tolerance mechanisms, synthesis and storage of desired constituents, and performance attributes. Computational tools of bioinformatics, genetic transformation, and quantitative genetics are enhancing the ability to translate new biological discoveries into practical outcomes, both on-farm and in the marketplace.

New technologies are advancing crop management and production capabilities, using precision agriculture and information agriculture approaches, GIS, remote sensing, and biosensors. Social and economic pressures, as well as the need for sustainable and socially acceptable solutions, will determine what approaches will have meaningful, useful impact in solving our food security problems.

Faculty Expertise and Leadership: Core: Obendorf, Setter, Vatamaniuk, Welch (USDA), Kochian (USDA) Contributing: Cherney, Cox, Duxbury, Lauren

Theme 2: Agricultural Sustainability

Grain and forage crops are the major crops in New York State, as well as in most of the world. In NY, they occupy 92% of cropland and their value exceeds $700 million annually. As such, their sustainable management is vital to controlling environmental impacts and sustaining the economic livelihood of NY communities. A recent development that signals changes yet to come is acute interest in corn and other crops for biofuels production. In addition to directly affecting the economics for biofuel crops, these developments have a ripple effect throughout the farm sector as land use is altered and other products become in short supply. Furthermore, such developments alter environmental impacts. For example, the rise in corn price due to its use for biofuel is predicted to increase the production of continuous corn which can increase pest problems, diminish soil quality and lower corn yields.

The three fundamental resources that support life processes are air, water and soil. While soil quality is of paramount importance to agricultural sustainability, soil quality degradation is often an outcome. The standard agricultural soil tests focus on a limited number of soil chemical indicators that are useful to crop nutrition. In a more holistic soil health paradigm that addresses broader ecosystem processes, tests are needed. The most critical research needs are in the area of soil ecology as complex interactions between soil organisms, plants, and the environment remains inadequately understood. New research methodologies that we are investigating allow for molecular level understanding of such processes and provide exciting opportunities to identify management practices that increase soil health and thereby agricultural and ecological sustainability.

Nutrient management is an important component of integrated crop production systems. Application of recommended amounts of nutrients is crucial to optimum yields and profitability, whereas over-application may degrade the environment and lessen profitability. Livestock farms often have an excess of nutrients. Composting of these resources and their appropriate application to cropland provides sustainable way to use them. Faculty research programs are underway to research and develop educational approaches to implement improved strategies for field crop nutrient management.

Recent and long-term trends are increasing the need for improved soil management. Conservation agriculture aims to reverse soil degradation and reduce environmental impacts through the use of no-tillage, cover cropping, organic amendments, and improved rotations.

Weed management is also an important component of an integrated crop production system. Faculty research weed management technology and incorporate research results into management guidelines. Evaluation and understanding of the biological underpinnings of the impacts of herbicides and biological control agents, as well as their interacting management factors, need further study. Control of weed populations for both conventional and genetically modified crop varieties are part of the package of integrated weed management and herbicide resistance management strategies that our research seeks to develop.

Rural America has a tremendous capacity for biofuels production, but it should be done sustainably. We are developing systems of grass pellet biofuel production as a sustainable, nearly carbon neutral cropping system that can be a completely closed energy loop, with production, processing and utilization all on a local level. Crop and Soil Science faculty are in a particularly strong position to contribute to the development of systems for biofuel production. Existing expertise in forage production and composition can be utilized while related expertise in soil management, soil fertility, weed control and GIS are readily available within the department, and links with crop producers and industry stakeholders have been firmly established through many years of serving these clients via our extension work.

Faculty Expertise and Leadership: Core: Cherney, Cox, DiTommaso, Duxbury, Fick, Hahn, Hobbs, Ketterings, Mohler, Lauren, Rao, Thies, van Es
Contributing: Bonhotal, Harrison, Melkonian, Setter

Theme 3: Environmental Stewardship

Agricultural landscapes are inherently linked with the environment. Land management decisions have powerful impacts on local ecosystems and agriculture is a tremendous driver of global environmental change. The Department of Crop and Soil Sciences seeks to maintain and expand its role as a global leader in efforts to examine and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture while maintaining the productivity and profitability of agricultural systems.

Environmental drivers, such as spatio-temporal changes in gas/energy/water fluxes, directly impact agroecosystems. There is a consensus that these environmental conditions are changing as a result, in part, of human activities, and that the pace of these changes has increased over recent decades. In order to investigate and characterize the effect that these changes will have on agroecosystems, it is critical thatwe focus faculty programs on global change in managed ecosystems, the interface of agriculture and the environment, and information science and modeling.

Faculty Expertise and Leadership: Core: Bonhotal, Buckley, DeGloria, DiTommaso, Grantham, Harrison, Hoskins, Ketterings, Lehmann, McBride, Melkonian, Mohler, Russell-Anelli, Smith, Thies, van Es