December 20021 cover

News & Perspectives

Women in science

Mentorship can help spread educational privilege more equitably. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock/insta_photos.

A legacy of educational privilege

November 28, 2021

Presidents messages

This year’s Congressional Visits Day saw 114 members, students, Certified Crop Advisers, and staff meeting online with 131 congressional offices to advocate for increased USDA research funding programs in 2022. Pictured here are Chelsea Obeidy, Julie McClure, Matthew Polizzotto, and Jack Karlin meeting with Richard Parker and Katie Lample from the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR).

Year in review

November 28, 2021

Current portfolio for the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator.

National Science Foundation’s Convergence accelerator accelerates solutions for societal challenges

November 28, 2021

Members forum

Inside the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Dag Terje Filip Endresen.

Can the world food prize be posthumous?

November 21, 2021

Publications

cover

New books

November 8, 2021

2026 Sustainable Agronomy Conference

December 2021 issue

Volume 66, Issue 12

Inside this issue

Grapevines, and the grapes they produce, are an important specialty crop in the California landscape. In 2005, the primary pre-planting fumigant to control soilborne pathogens, methyl bromide, was phased out of use. Two USDA-ARS scientists studied alternative fumigants and their long-term impacts on soil microbes and grapevine health, publishing their findings in the Soil Science Society of America Journal. See p. 8. Cover photo, courtesy of Sadikshya Dangi, shows soil sampling in the vineyard at the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center in 2018.

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People

In memoriam

In memoriam

November 21, 2021

Science

Features

The puffball-type fungi sampled by the students in the Environmental Sampling and Analysis Training Program, with the help of Ryan Bergin, showed elevated levels of mercury concentrations compared with other plant and fungi species. Photo by Ryan Bergin.

Arctic puffballs tell the story of global mercury transport

November 8, 2021

Barley on a long-term conservation agriculture trial plot at CIMMYT’s headquarters in El Batán, Mexico. Here, barley grows in rotation with maize, under zero tillage on the flat, with removal of wheat residues for fodder and retention of maize residues. Photo courtesy of CIMMYT/Flickr.

Conservation agriculture, condensed

November 8, 2021

The long-term impact of fumigants on vineyard microbes

November 8, 2021

Science briefs

The D415 camera is mounted anterior to the heat reflective wrapped RGB and infrared camera housing on the PlotCam. The HeightStick is a single-point LIDAR aimed down to a vertically movable paddle set at the top of the canopy; data are stored on a tablet via Bluetooth. Inset: A 3D plot of 480- x 640-pixel soybean canopy heights and a 2D overlay of the heights over a nadir RGB image at the beginning of flowering. Courtesy of Soybean Phenomics Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, 2021. Volume66, Issue12 Decemb

Using a depth camera to measure canopy height

October 3, 2021

Seeds at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Ft. Collins, CO are safeguarded in a 0°F storage vault. Photo by Steve Ausmus, USDA-ARS.

Germplasm exchange must be improved

October 3, 2021

First author Matthew Woore in the field evaluating corn varieties. Photo by Jim Holland. Volume66, Issue12 December 2021 Page 20 Related Information Recommended Breeding Potential of Intra‐ and Interheterotic Group Crosses in Maize Rex Bernardo Crop Science Heterosis and Combining Ability of CIMMYT's Quality Protein Maize Germplasm: II. Subtropical Surinder K. Vasal, Ganesan Srinivasan, F.C. González, David L. Beck, José Crossa Crop Science Genetic Variation within Maize Breeding Populations M.

Breeding maize to expand low-protein diets

October 3, 2021

Soybean genomicists and co-authors of the Crop Science article Martine Jean (right) and François Belzile are working with Canadian soybean breeders to assist in the identification of the most promising combinations of parents to maximize yield potential within the different maturity groups grown in Canada. Photo by Caroline Labbé.

Genomic predictions identify superior soybean crosses

October 3, 2021

Left: Deployment of a YSI EXO 3 sonde in a drainage water management control structure. Right: Researcher at a USDA-ARS edge-of-field monitoring station. Photos courtesy of Saeid Nazari.

A new framework for partitioning tile hydrographs

October 3, 2021

In this greenhouse experiment, researchers evaluated more than 80 combinations of N sources, rates, and application frequencies on three soil types in order to identify the best treatments resulting in high quality turf and low nitrate-N losses. Photo by Guillaume Grégoire.

Reducing impact of lawn fertilization on groundwater

September 25, 2021

Common bean roots collected in field experiments showing large amounts of nodules. Photo by Damiany Pádua Oliveira.

Selecting rhizobium strains for inoculating common bean

September 25, 2021

Researchers conducting crayfish fishing at the in Hubei province of China during the flooding period. Photo by Pengli Yuan.

Using a rice-crayfish model to increase production on waterlogged land

June 29, 2021

Students

Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock/Maridav.

Navigating mental health in graduate school

November 8, 2021

Top five individuals (l to r): Lilly Stults (fifth), Katie Jansson (fourth), Austin Wildman (third), Jonathan Brye (second), and Lauren Gwaltney (first).

Region IV soil-judging contest results

November 8, 2021

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