Posts

Schilling stands with a table in a ditch
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Road Ditches Reduce Nutrients

Keith Schilling’s recent research suggests that water quality challenges in Iowa and nationally would be even greater if it weren’t for a little appreciated feature of the landscape — road ditches.
Corn plants stretching as far as you can see on the left, and soybeans going just as far on the right
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Understanding Changes in Raccoon River Nitrate

As Iowa farmers have planted more acres of corn to meet the demand driven by the corn-based ethanol industry, many models predicted that nitrate concentrations in Iowa streams would increase accordingly. However, recent IIHR research based on water monitoring and published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation casts doubt on these predictions.
One of Iowa’s constructed nutrient-reduction wetlands, which researchers hope will reduce nutrient runoff to the state’s rivers and streams, as well as the Gulf of Mexico. Photo by Adam Kiel, Iowa Soybean Association
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Wetlands Improve Iowa’s Water Quality

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) develops wetlands designed to remove nitrate-nitrogen from agricultural drainage water in strategic locations.