Shale Network Workshop at Penn State The Marcellus Shale region in Pennsylvania is famous for its large quantities of shale gas reserves. Fracking of these reserves has led to water quality impacts, endangering human health. To better understand the risks, scientists want more data on water quality from across the region. Picture from the 2019 [...]
Credit: Penn State Scientists have long sought ways to help reduce nutrient pollution to the Chesapeake Bay from agricultural lands, particularly in Pennsylvania. To test different methods of manure application, researchers from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) compared plots with manure injected into the soil with plots where manure was broadcasted over the soil to [...]
Penn State's Ray Najjar Penn State Contributes to North American Carbon Report Multiple Pennsylvania State University (PSU) scientists contributed to the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2), a massive collection of research on a carbon budget for North America. The first SOCCR report came out in 2007, so the recent report summarizes [...]
A team at Penn State University (PSU) is helping farmers understand how stream buffers planted with perennial grasses could be a way to make money. For example, switchgrass can be sold for a number of industrial purposes, and may even be as profitable as planting corn. But, oftentimes farmers have to see it to believe it. [...]
NOAA Research Consortium Delivers New Reports The Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (MARISA) recently published a summary of Chesapeake Bay Climate Impacts for the fall season of 2018. MARISA is a consortium of research organizations, led by the nonprofit RAND Corporation and funded by a 5-year grant from NOAA. As stated on its website, [...]
The Living Filter at Pennsylvania State University features 600 acres of agricultural land and forest, much of which is sprayed with wastewater (called effluent) from a local wastewater treatment plant and has acted as a research site for decades. Researchers recently completed a 5-year study that observed how soils in the Living Filter could act as [...]
While a warming climate in recent decades may be a factor in the waning of some local populations of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, it cannot explain the overall steep decline of amphibians, according to researchers. The spotted salamander or yellow spotted salamander is one of the species of amphibians that is way less common [...]
Farmers in Lancaster County, PA. Source A researcher at Penn State University (PSU) is investigating temperature changes in the Northeast and how these changes will impact corn growth and development. Heather Karsten, associate professor of crop production ecology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, used climate data and models from Syracuse, New York, [...]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports summer research opportunities for undergraduates across the country. Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) are programs with cohorts of 10-15 students designed to give students the opportunity to pursue independent research projects outside of their university. The students work closely with a mentor on a specific research project and are granted [...]
A researcher at Penn State University (PSU) is investigating how forests respond to elevated atmospheric nitrogen which can result from pollution. Jason Kaye, a biogeochemistry professor, has discovered that nitrogen entering forests through rainfall is leaving as a gas, helping his team understand how forests respond to pollution in the atmosphere. Previous research has shown up to 90% of [...]
