OPE3 is an interdisciplinary research project started in 1998 addressing major environmental and economic issues facing U.S. agriculture. Specific questions include:
- The fate of natural and man-made crop inputs
What happens to water, plant nutrients, and pesticides once they are applied to an entire field? How much is retained by the plants and soils? How much is evaporated upon application? How much runs off the surface of the field? How much flows beneath the surface? What conditions and processes cause and control these events? How can we adjust farming methods to better control the fate of inputs?
- The impact of chemical inputs on adjacent lands and waterways
What happens to excess chemicals from a field of crops once they reach adjacent wooded riparian wetlands and streams? How do these chemicals affect the soils and vegetation of the wetlands and streams? How can we adjust farming methods to better control these impacts?
- The economic and environmental consequences of different farming methods
What are the long-term environmental consequences of conventional and precision farming systems? What are the long-term environmental and economic consequences of using animal manure as fertilizer? What is the long-term economic profitability of precision farming versus that of traditional farming practices? How can we adjust farming methods for better long-term environmental and economic consequences?
- The technology of gathering and analyzing spatial information on crops and soils for better management
How can remote sensing, geographic information systems, the Global Positioning System (GPS), periodic soil and plant measurements, geostatistics, and computerized crop models be used to better manage the spatial variability of crops and soils? How can we adjust farming methods to incorporate these new technologies? Which of these technologies will benefit farmers and the environment the most?
These questions are especially important to maintaining and improving the environmental quality of the Chesapeake Bay watershed where the OPE3 research site is located. However, research conducted for OPE3 has applications to farms in many parts of the USA and the world.
Major Objectives of the project:
- determine watershed-scale fluxes of agricultural chemicals from three crop production systems
- determine the behavior and environmental impact of chemicals on a wooded riparian wetland and a first-order stream
- develop remotely sensed data products and analytical techniques for measuring and managing the spatial variability of crops and soils
- determine long-term economic and environmental impacts of these crop production systems and evaluate their tradeoffs using integrated economic and biophysical simulation models
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