Benefits and Costs to Fertilizer Use

Presenter: Alana Holland

Co-Presenter(s):
Allison Blakey, Sarah Agajanian, David Minor

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Department: Biology

Funding Source/Sponsor: Class Project

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1RxGfJV8BR4tbrr4R0CW53A4ZvLXwum5K

Abstract:
In the last few decades, cover crops and manure have been replaced by synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture. This adds more nitrogen to the soil than plants can absorb, putting excess nitrogen into the environment potentially causing habitat degradation elsewhere in the watershed. This could also improve the growth of plants during drought conditions. Our case study involved investigating how the use of synthetic nitrogen in agriculture affected plants in the surrounding environment and how it affects other organisms including humans. We found that use of synthetic nitrogen can increase nitrate levels in nearby water bodies. Fertilizer only slightly improves growth of plants under drought stress. Furthermore, fertilizer can reduce the nutritional quality of crop plants and increase the risks of human diseases like cancer. Our findings suggest that there are unexpected negative consequences to fertilizer use and that other methods of improving soil may be more effective and safe.