This dissertation comprises three essays: one assessing Midwest producers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for soil health-enhancing ecosystem services (ES), another examining the impact of policy implementation locations on WTP, and a third identifying factors influencing producers' adoption of cover crops (CC). The first essay pioneers the understanding...
status: published
peer reviewed / Although agricultural intensification has generally increased crop yields, it also resulted in a range of environmental issues. These include increased erosion rates and declined soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. In order to improve our understanding on how erosion impacts the overall SOC storage capacity of croplands, this study an...
status: published
peer reviewed / A groundwater reservoir is either a solitary aquifer or a network of interconnected aquifers. A particular aquifer’s groundwater purity evaluation could be time-consuming and costly. This study quantified the properties of Na%, SO42−, Cl, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, HCO3−, K+, and pH to predict the water quality parameter known as total hardne...
Sustainable irrigation methods maximize agricultural productivity in Northern African countries like Sudan. This project evaluates soil properties to develop optimized irrigation strategies for Sudan's arid and semi-arid climate. Assessing soil characteristics such as texture, infiltration rates, and nutrient content informs the selection of modern...
status: published
peer reviewed
status: published
Published in Frontiers in Environmental Science
In the process of their formation, northern peatlands were accumulating vast amounts of carbon (C). When drained for agricultural use, a large proportion of that C is oxidized and emitted as carbon dioxide (CO2), turning those peatlands to strong CO2 emitters. As a mitigation option, setting-aside farmland on drained peat is being incentivized by p...
