The potential of neonicotinoid insecticides to initiate algal blooms will be tested by measuring the
occurrence of neonicotinoids and their breakdown products in Minnesota’s surface and ground waters.
This project will establish a surveillance system to monitor wildlife health in Minnesota through development of information management and analytical systems utilizing wildlife rehabilitation data.
This project is to develop a small cheap purification system for community drinking water facilities to remove toxic contaminants. The technology is highly efficient to improve current drinking water quality.
Solar windows are a disruptive photovoltaic technology that virtually invisibly integrates with buildings. This renewable energy technology will increase photovoltaics adoption, reduce air pollution, and ameliorate climate change.
This project is to develop cheap clean solar energy by simple roll-to-roll manufacturing. Perovskite is a new photovoltaic material, very economical while maintaining high power conversion efficiency.
A biodegradable product will be developed to replace non-degradable petroleum based plastic used in vegetable and fruit production. This project, if funded, will revolutionize horticulture in Minnesota, and potentially worldwide.
Develop strategies and practical tools to identify conditions that minimize impacts to soil across a wide range of conditions to promote regeneration of diverse forests, wildlife habitat, and timber availability.
Evaluate effective ways to protect soil from erosion in sugarbeet production, with the long-term goal of slowing soil degradation, nutrient loss, and water quality.
Energy storage systems for farms will be developed using wind-generated ammonia. Novel ammonia fuel systems will be tested in a farm grain dryer and engine generator displacing fossil fuels.
Minnesota’s natural resource professional workforce is much less diverse than its citizenry and many other professional fields. The benefits of a more diverse workforce are many, including the ability of organizations to increase innovation and creativity, attract higher qualified candidate pools, and ensure services that meet the diverse interests and needs of all citizens.
Mine stockpiles are unproductive due to soil deficiencies of organic matter, nutrients, and soil organisms, which are essential to supporting healthy plant growth, diversity, and succession. Waste products, including biosolids, composts, and dredged materials, have the potential to be used to address some of these deficiencies and make the lands productive again.
Utilize ongoing experiments to determine impending EAB impacts on water, vegetation, and wildlife; optimal replacement species and practices for forest diversification; develop indicators and criteria for prioritization of mitigation activities.
We will reduce environmental pollution from plastics by creating eco-friendly replacements using lignin from the pulp mill in Cloquet. The lignin plastics will be similar in strength to polystyrene.
The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has been decimating ash throughout the Great Lake States and is currently advancing into Minnesota, threatening the future of the ash forests that occur across much of the state. Of particular concern is the impact EAB will have on the ecology and functioning of black ash swamps, which cover over one million acres in Minnesota and represent the state’s most common ash forest type. Black ash trees grow and thrive in swamps and occupy a unique wet niche where few other tree species grow.
Pollinators play a key role in ecosystem function and in agriculture, including thousands of native plants and more than one hundred U.S. crops that either need or benefit from pollinators. However, pollinators are in dramatic decline in Minnesota and throughout the country. The causes of the decline are not completely understood, but identified factors include loss of nesting sites, fewer flowers, increased disease, and increased pesticide use. Fortunately, there are known actions that can be taken to help counteract some of these factors.
Minnesota has 9.5 million acres of public forest lands that play an important role in sustaining Minnesota’s environment and economy. The policies and programs used by public timber sale programs can impact post-harvest ecological conditions and have pronounced effects on the composition, structure, and productivity of the forest in the future. Additionally, timber harvesting revenues play an important role in economic activity, employment, and tax revenue.
Over 527,000 acres of unmanaged woodlands are being used for livestock grazing throughout Minnesota. Managing these grazed woodlands based on the use of best management practices can provide environmental and economic opportunities, including improved water quality, maximized forage production, and higher-quality timber. The best management practices involved are commonly used in other parts of the country with other types of ecosystems, but have not been widely adopted in Minnesota due to a lack of knowledge and experience with implementing them within the ecosystems of Minnesota.
This project primarily involves the design and optimization of cost-competitive, thermally enhanced and compact heat exchanger systems for deep thermo-active building foundations for Minnesota?s space heating and cooling industry
Wastewater treatment plants discharge effluent that contains contaminants of emerging concern, such as estrogens. Estrogens have been shown to cause ecological effects such as fish feminization and fish population collapses. Presently the treatment and discharge of estrogens into the environment via wastewater treatment is not regulated. However, it has been found that the extent of estrogen discharge from wastewater treatment correlates with how and how well nitrogen, which currently is regulated and will likely be more so in the future, is removed during the treatment process.
This research project will provide critical information regarding how to treat surface water (used by 25% of Minnesota's population) to prevent outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease and infections by Mycobacterium avium.
