Every 17 years cicadas emerge from the earth to mate, leaving thousands of holes peppering the landscape. Dr. Darren Ficklin and his Ph.D. students wondered what impact this monumental exodus has on the movement of water within the soil. Their findings were beyond what anyone could have ever imagined. In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Ficklin about his past and current work studying the intersection of climate and hydrology.

Colorado’s Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources (STAR) program provides a voluntary way for farmers and ranchers to assess their conservation efforts and impact on soil health. Creating a large-scale agroecosystem management comes with many funding and logistical tribulations. In this podcast, we talk to the founders of this program, Drs. Jim Ippolito and Steve Blecker, about what impacts soil health, how it’s measured, and the hope of a nationwide soil health rating scale.

Discussions around land use for cattle grazing versus solar panels have valiant proponents on both sides, but some question the debate altogether. Why can’t land be used for both raising cattle and renewable energy sources such as wind or solar? Ph.D. student at Colorado University, Taylor Bacon, joins us to discuss aviation biofuel, the colocation of agriculture and solar photovoltaic energy production, and the healing powers of running.

Should you be measuring water content or water potential? Like all good scientific questions, the answer is, “It depends.” In some applications, water content measurements will tell you everything you need to know, in others, water potential will get to the root of the issue. Still others require measuring both. So how do you make sure you’re making the measurements you need? In this episode, METER research scientist, Leo Rivera and METER’s ecology and plant physiology specialist, Chris Chambers discuss what you need to know to choose the right measurements.

25 years ago Drs John Norman and Gaylon Campbell co-authored An Introduction to Environmental Biophysics, the preeminent environmental biology textbook still internationally used in classrooms today. Their ability to work across disciplinary lines brought new understanding to countless scientists and taught us how to conduct better research through collaboration. Join us as we discuss the past, present, and future of Environmental Biophysics.

Champions of water potential, Drs. Kim Novick and Jessica Guo, team up to discuss the vital role water potential measurement plays in both plant and soil sciences and the work they are doing to establish the first-of-its-kind nationwide water potential network. Join their discussion to understand how a communal knowledge of these measurements could impact what we know about climate change and ecology as a whole.

Soil amendments may boost biomass production, but could they be having an adverse effect on the health of your soil? Dr. Dedrick Davis, Assistant Professor in Soil Physics at Alabama A&M University, explores sustainable agriculture practices and their effect on soil hydrology, near surface soil, the local water supply, and the longevity of the farms themselves.

The only thing certain in crop science is change. The varietal of wheat that stood strong against disease, rallied from extreme temperatures, and survived the water conditions of five years ago is not the variety that will be the most successful five years in the future. In this episode Dr. Arron Carter, professor and OA. Vogel Endowed Chair of wheat breeding and genetics at Washington State University, discusses the 10-year process that thousands of varietals of wheat go through to determine the best wheat products each year in the ever-changing climate conditions.

Like a silent battle cry, plants call out to signal they are under siege as a warning to other plants and to call in reinforcements to fend off the invasion. How does this communication work? What else are plants doing to protect themselves from disease and predators alike? In our latest podcast, Natalie Aguirre, a PhD candidate and plant physiology and chemical ecology researcher at Texas A&M University, dives into her research on pathogen infection, water stress, and how plants communicate and defend themselves.

Travel on a journey with Pete Tereszkiewicz, Ph.D. candidate at the University of South Carolina, as he battled COVID restrictions, nor’easters, and hurricane Ian to understand how wind, water, sediment interactions, and seasonal vegetation affect beach dune creation, deformation, and erosion.