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The Iowa Nutrient Research Center was established at Iowa State University by the Iowa Board of Regents in response to legislation passed in 2013. Led by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the center is meeting the need for continued research and innovation to improve Iowa's water quality.
 
Now in its fifth year, the center has funded more than  40 projects led by 76 scientists at the three regent institutions in collaboration with state and federal agencies, cities, farmers, and landowners. 
 
Center research evaluates the performance of current and emerging field practices and develops tools to help farmers and landowners adopt effective management practices. Some key results include:
  • Field and lab experiments are improving the understanding of winter cover crop management and impacts on corn yield.
  • Saturated buffers are evaluated to better assess their ability to remove nitrates from tile flow.
  • Research is evaluating the effectiveness of practices implemented around the edges of fields, such as planting strips of prairie and restoring stream banks.
  • Work is underway to better understand farm profitability impacts of precision conservation and grazing cover crops.
  • Intensive research at a watershed in Boone County is providing new insights on the contributions of stream bed and bank erosion to phosphorus transport.
  • Research is more precisely examining the movement of nutrients to surface waters.
  • How trading nutrient credits may benefit cities and farmers - and water quality - is explored in a pilot project watershed near Dubuque.
  • Work on research farms and in farmers' fields is evaluating types of native perennials for prairie strips to reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss.
  • Research is seeking to improve performance and reduce costs of bioreactors, the practice that filters field drainage water with wood chips.
Did you know?  More than 99% of state appropriations for the Iowa Nutrient Research Center go directly to research projects. 

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Iowa State's Mission:
 Create, share, and apply knowledge to make
 Iowa and the world a better place.
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The Alliance for Iowa State is a coalition of Iowa State alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends.
The Alliance advocates Iowa State University's land grant mission throughout Iowa
while focusing its advocacy on state legislators and public policy makers.

The Alliance for Iowa State is maintained by the Iowa State University Alumni Association.