NEW HAMPSHIRE: UNH Scientists Receive $1M to Support Critical Soil Sustainability Research
University of New Hampshire scientists have received three grants totaling $1M that will support research addressing urgent questions in soil sustainability and, ultimately, resilient food production in New Hampshire and beyond. The projects range from using state-of-the-art instrumentation to determine components that help build soil organic matter, to increasing soil microbes' ability to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer, to understanding how plants extracts beneficial nutrients from soil organic matter. Funding sources include USDA and NSF.
Grandy, Paula Mouser, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and David Needle, senior pathologist with the UNH Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, have received a two-year USDA equipment grant for $323,025 to purchase an ultra-high-performance high resolution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry instrument (UHPLC-MS/MS).
How exactly plants can make withdrawals of nutrients from soil organic matter is the subject of a new project between Grandy and Andrea Jilling, Grandy’s former student who is now an assistant professor of environmental soil chemistry at Oklahoma State University. The project is funded by a three-year grant for $260,000 from the National Science Foundation.