Xia Zhu-Barker
Soil health, compost, greenhouse gas emissions, nitrate leaching, agricultural sustainability, nutrient and manure management, NOx and NH3 emissions, and use of isotopic tracers
Assistant Professor, Soil and Environmental Sciences College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Work: 608-263-2795 zhubarker@wisc.edu Home page
Topics
- Land management practices (e.g., compost, fertilizer, cover crops, irrigation, and tillage) that change soil health, nitrogen use efficiency, crop productivity, nitrogen losses, and carbon turnover
- Microbial and abiotic processes involved in the production and consumption of nitrogen and carbon gases (N2O, NOX, NH3, CO2, CH4)
- Environmental changes on the sustainability and resilience of agricultural ecosystems especially dairy production systems
- Process oriented modelling of carbon/nitrogen turnover in agricultural ecosystems.
Achievements
- Built statewide soil health database for organic grain systems
- Promoted fertilizer N soil retention using manure solids
- Built water quality monitoring station