Erika J. Foster

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of two organic amendments on soil moisture and nutrients was evaluated in an experimental maize field in northern Colorado, where they tilled in conventional steer manure and fast-pyrolysis pine-wood biochar (30 Mg/ha−1) and quantified impacts on gravimetric soil moisture, total carbon and nitrogen, mineral nitrogen, available phosphorus, microbial biomass, and seven extracellular enzymatic activities.

TL;DR: In this paper, a maize field trial in northern Colorado under deficit irrigation treatments with a woody biochar amendment was conducted to evaluate the impact of biochar in improving water stress, improving crop N uptake and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

TL;DR: In this article, the enzyme activity of β-glucosidase (BG) and acid PHOS was quantified at pH 6, 7, and 8 using a Bradford protein assay, and measured the immobilized enzyme activities via high-throughput fluorometric analysis.

TL;DR: The development, deployment, and validation of an Internet-of-Things (IoT) system for continuous monitoring of soil health, called soil health monitoring units (SHMUs), are solar powered and can be installed on a field for extended periods of time using long-range wide-area network (LoRaWAN) radio technology.

TL;DR: In this article, the effects of coupled biochar amendment and limited irrigation on belowground food web structure and function in an irrigated maize agroecosystem were investigated, and the negative impact of long-term conventional agricultural management outweighed the impact of limited irrigation.