Agroecology Research Page at UNH

 Please visit the Agroecology Lab at our University of New Hampshire Website

Photo Guide to Northeastern US Silvopasture

A current interest of our lab and others at UNH are silvopasture systems: the simultaneous production of livestock, trees and forages on a plot of land. 

We wanted to share that a new photo guide depicting silvopasture systems in the Northeast is available. Joseph Orefice and co-authors have assembled a "...photographic resource for farmers, foresters, and extension professionals to utilize when considering silvopasture practices in the region."

Joseph is an Assistant Professor at Paul Smith's College and the owner of North Branch Farm. He received his PhD from UNH where he studied silvopasture systems, and is currently collaborating on silvopasture research with UNH. The photoguide is based on their previously published research, which contains more details on the project.  

UNH 3MT - Three Minute Thesis

Congratulations to Lesley Atwood and the other participants of UNH's inaugural 3 Minute Thesis Challenge. Lesley’s talk was awarded both First Place and the People's Choice Award. Click here to see her and the other winners in action.  

3MT competitions started at the University of Queensland and challenge graduate students to present their research to a lay audience within 3 minutes using one un-animated slide. If you want to learn more about the 3MT competition check out the University of Queensland 3MT website.

ESA Graduate Student Policy Award

Congratulations to our former technician and current UNH graduate student, Samantha Werner for receiving the ESA Graduate Student Policy Award!

"Offered each year, this award gives graduate students hands-on science policy experience including interacting with congressional decision-makers, federal agency officials, and others engaged in science and public policy." - GSPA Website

More information and the announcement can be found here.

Welcome Carolyn! Agroecology Postdoc

The UNH Agroecology Lab welcomes a new member to our group: Carolyn Lowry. Carolyn is here on a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and will be studying how soil spatial heterogeneity and root foraging influence crop and weed competition.

Carolyn is originally from coastal New Jersey, and received her Bachelor’s in Biology at the University of Delaware, where her experience with undergraduate research sparked her desire to become a scientist. Carolyn’s interest in agroecology began while working at the Small Farm Unit at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) in North Carolina. The Small Farm Unit is an educational demonstration farm, where students, farmers, educators, and others can come to learn about sustainable agriculture principles and practices. At CEFS, Carolyn gained experience with common production practices used on an organic diverse vegetable farm, but became especially interested in reduced tillage practices, and developing strategies to make reduced tillage work for organic production systems.

Carolyn received her PhD in 2015 working with Daniel Brainard in the Sustainable Vegetable Systems Lab at Michigan State University. As part of the Brainard Lab, Carolyn’s research focused on strip-tillage, which is when tillage is confined to a narrow strip directly in-line with the future crop row, and the between row area is left undisturbed. Strip-tillage retains some of the benefits of no-till (e.g. improved infiltration and water holding capacity) while providing some of the benefits of tillage to the crop row (e.g. improved seedbed and incorporation of plant residues). Carolyn’s research examined strip-tillage effects on nitrogen cycling and weed competition in a cover-crop based organic system. Additionally, Carolyn examined using strip-intercropping of cereal rye and hairy vetch cover crops to improve N availability and crop productivity within an organic strip-tilled vegetable system.

When Carolyn is not working she enjoys being outdoors... including hiking, skiing, and running. However, Carolyn is most interested in traveling and experiencing new cultures and places. Her interest in travel has taken her on many unique and exciting adventures, from learning to scuba dive in the Galapagos Islands, all the way to standing on the very bridge where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo (the shot heard round the world that started the First World War). More recently, Carolyn spent six months conducting research in the state of Bihar, located in Eastern India on a USAID Borlaug Fellowship.

Recent Publications

Jennifer Wilhelm has recently co-authored "Farm, Fish, & Food Enterprise Viability in New Hampshire" as part of her work with the New Hampshire Food Alliance. "The Viability Initiative outlines challenges and opportunities for farmers, fishermen, and food entrepreneurs, and describes how the NH Food Alliance will collaborate within a network structure to support food enterprises and promote a growing, healthy food system that benefits all residents in New Hampshire."

A pdf of the full document document is available.

2015 Conference Recap

‘Tis the season for Conferences

This past summer and fall our lab had the pleasure of attending and presenting at both the Ecological Society of America’s 100th Annual Meeting held in Baltimore, Maryland and the joint meeting between the Entomological Society of America and Tri-Societies held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Lesley Atwood presented work from her Pesticide Seed Treatment experiment at both national meetings. She was invited to speak in the Systems Approach to Agroecology organized by Drs. Randa Jabbour (U. Wyoming) and Mary Barbercheck (Penn State). Lesley’s talk “Disrupting the network? Assessing the impacts of pesticide seed treatments on multi-trophic interactions in the soil system” included field data which suggests pesticide seed treatments can unintentionally and adversely affect non-targeted populations of the soil microbial, soil invertebrate, and weed seedbank communities. Lesley also presented some of her Pesticide Seed Treatment data at the Ecological Society of America meeting: Effects of pesticide seed treatments on soil food webs in agroecosystems (COS 57-6).

Nick Warren and Sam Werner along with Liz Hogdon (UVM) presented a poster at ESA: Weed community assembly in cover crops: What is the relative importance of niche processes? PS 43-40, outlining some of Liz’s work with cover crops while at UNH as a Master’s student.

And Rich Smith presented a poster: Evidence of indirect effects of pesticide seed treatments on weed seed banks in corn and soybean agroecosystems PS 43-26.

We really enjoyed our time in Baltimore and Minneapolis. It was especially nice to learn about other agroecological work and to meet others in the agroecological community.

Recent Publications

Together with PSU's David Mortensen and BYU's Roger Koide our lab has been investigating the unintended or "indirect" effects of treating crop seeds with pesticides. This recent publication outlines how pretreating corn and soy seeds with insecticide and fungicides, may actually have an important impact on the weeds in the seedbank.

Evidence for indirect effects of pesticide seed treatments on weed seed banks in maize and soybean. Smith, R.G., L.W. Atwood, M.B. Morris, D.A. Mortensen, & R.T. Koide (2016). Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 216 (2016): 269-273.

Living Mulch Research on EurekaAlert!

One of the Agroecology Lab's recent papers was summarized on EurekAlert!, an AAAS site for science news: "Living mulch, organic fertilizer tested on broccoli".

The press release was distributed by the publishing journal HortScience (American Society for Horticultural Science) and is also available on their website.

Recent Publications

Our group is happy to announce two recent publications:.

Cover-Crop Species as Distinct Biotic Filters in Weed Community Assembly.
Weed Science 2015. 63:282-295. 

We grew several cover crops species individually and together in mixture, and we discuss how cover crops may influence the composition of the weed community (their potential to "biologically filter" certain weed species). For more info, the abstract can be found here. Or contact us, if you are unable to access the full-text.

and

Effects of Living Mulch and Fertilizer on the Performance of Broccoli in Plasticulture.
HortScience 2015. 50(2):218-224.

Here we present the results of establishing a living mulch in a broccoli production system. December's post has a short write up about the field experiment, or please visit HortScience for more details.