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It's very hard for scientists to find the effect agriculture has had on land because of the time spand. Recently students form the University of Missouri have found a way to see the changes agriculture has had on land. Using a detailed computer model they have entered data for every year through a time spand of a 100 years to see the changes and effects. By doing this project and using this regularly farmers and scientists can see what is happening to the quality of land and water as they use the land. The students first took measurments of soil from 80 acres of Misouri farmland that had been used for ag
riculture over a centuary long, and then land that had
never been cultivated on. These would serve as before and after snapshots in their later testing. They also used silite pictures that had been taken between 1930 and 1990. When they incorperated the data into the program they were able to calculate runn off's,
erosion and flow of sediment. After the 100 year simulation the model showed that there was and 82 percent increase in herbicide atrizine in runoff. This showed that the land would be benifical to enlarge yeild crop use but also reduce non point source of pollution. All the different testes and findings can help farmers, policymakers nad conservation agents make better desicions about the land. Conservation agents can't replace soil that has been lost over time, but they can return properties such as the soil's water infiltration capacity to something closer to the original state. Through studies like this one at MU, new tools are being made to help control erosion, maintain soil productivity, protect watersheds and enhance wildlife habitat.
Reaction: I thought this was really interesting how they used this program to see how land has changed over a hundred years. Obviously it will not be perfectly acurate because they used to different places that might not be fully the same but their information still could be accurate. I believe farmers and the people who decide what is aloud to be done to the land need to make sure the land use will be good in the future. Even though over time we might have used land badly and did not the use the soil as well as we should have but we can fix that. By returning properties back to the soil after we use it we will be able to keep cultivating land for a long time and not wasting the land we use.
Questions:
1. Where did this project take place at?
2. What did they use as a before and after shot for their project?
3. Who are the three types of people that this data coud help?
4. What can conservation agents do to the soil instead of replacing it?
Wow, I never thought that technology would be advanced enough to do that. I've heard of many extrodinary things we have been able to do, but [technically] fast forward time? Thats amazing! If they continue to use this process on other fields, we may be able to prevent many disasters that we are heading towards.
ReplyDeleteANSWERS
1. University of Missouri
2. pictures taken between 1930 and 1990
3. Farmers, Policy Makers, and Conservation Agents
4. They can return properties that were previously lost in the soil
That must be an exciting accomplishment for the University of Misssouri. This technology will be helpful for future farms and our planet to control run-off levels. Scientists can now examine what will happen within 100 years of farms and decide what actions to take to prevent any more pollution.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
1. Why was this technology started?
2. What are the new tools that are being made?
3. Is there already an act trying to stop run-offs from polluting Earth?
4. How much does run-off account for all the pollution?
This farming simulation over 100 years time is an amazing use of technology, but it probably yields the best results when scientists have data available to them that has been gathered over a long period of time. So, for this to be really beneficial for farmers other than those that were part of the study, they would to have already gathered samples over time or they will have to wait for years, while data is periodically gathered. I don’t know if they have satellite data from 1930 to 1990 available to put into computer simulations for all of the land farmed in the United States. I do think it might be very useful to use this type of data to see what affect development of some land will have on the surrounding land in the future.
ReplyDelete1.University of Missouri
2.They used data from land that had been cultivated for agricultural use for over a century, and from land that had never been used for agriculture. They also used satellite pictures from 1930 to 1990.
3.farmers, policymakers and conservation agents 4.return properties such as the soil's water infiltration capacity to the original state or closer to it
I think that this was an ingenious project, and quite successful. I'm glad that someone decided to actually make a difference. There are definate positives that came out of this and this study should really improve how the farmers use pesticides.
ReplyDelete1) University of Missouri
2)they used land data from as far as a century goes and they used pictures from 1930 to 1990.
3)farmers, conservation agents, policy makers
4) return soil's water infiltration to the origional state
I think that whenever land is being lost so is money. For instance look at the beaches, every couple of years they have to add sand to the beaches because it all gets washed to sea. The same is pretty much in fields too. Eventhough the erosion is not as great. We really need to start using the other ways of farming that way we will not be loosing anymor money.
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http://en.wikipilipinas.org/images/thumb/b/bb/Soil_erosion1.jpg/250px-Soil_erosion1.jpg