The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture: An Overview

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture was established in the 1987 Groundwater Protection Act. CH. 225, Sec. 230. The legislation defines sustainable agriculture as the appropriate use of crop and livestock systems and agricultural inputs supporting those activities which maintain economic and social viability while preserving the high productivity and quality of Iowa\u27s land

Agricultural Contribution of Nitrate-N to the Des Moines River: 1945 vs. 1980

Recently, intensive water quality monitoring has demonstrated the presence of nitrate (N03-N) in surface and groundwater throughout the Midwestern U.S. (Hallberg, 1989)

Wrap-up: What We Have Learned

We\u27re excited that so many producers have been willing to spend the day talking about these issues with us. I learned today that there are many more ways to grow a pig than I have previously appreciated. We\u27re going to hear some wrap-up from LeRoy Stoltenberg and David Topel. LeRoy is on the family farm; he\u27s from Scott County. He says that traveling is a major part of his job as IPP A President. He\u27s served in a number of capacities for the IPP A. He and his wife Alice operate a farrow to finish swine operation that produces 1800 head a year, and he produces 160 of com and 60 acres of soybeans. He\u27s no stranger to the technologies we\u27ve talked about today. He\u27s used some of them for several years

The Wisconsin-IIASA Set of Energy/Environment (WISE) Models for Regional Planning and Management: An Overview

This report presents an overview of the analytical framework and quantitative methods used in the IIASA case studies on Regional Energy/Environment Management and Planning. Its purpose is to summarize the structure of the models, to provide a complete listing of the sources of more detailed model and data descriptions, and to indicate how the models are integrated to provide a foundation for regional energy/environment policy maker analysis. The audience for the report includes managers, planners, technical advisors, and modelers. The set of models used in the research project encompasses socioeconomic links to the energy system; energy demand in the residential, industrial, commercial/service, agricultural and transportation sectors; the energy supply sector, environmental impacts associated with the energy system; and policy makers' preferences. The report gives a brief description of the purpose and general structure of each model, data requirements, examples of input and output, and model limitations. As a whole, the models integrate information about energy flows in a region to simulate the energy system and its relationship to other regional variables, e.g., demographic and economic trends and the environment

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is a moderate-resolution spectrograph with unprecedented sensitivity that was installed into the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in May 2009, during HST Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125). We present the design philosophy and summarize the key characteristics of the instrument that will be of interest to potential observers. For faint targets, with flux F(sub lambda) approximates 1.0 X 10(exp -14) ergs/s/cm2/Angstrom, COS can achieve comparable signal to noise (when compared to STIS echelle modes) in 1-2% of the observing time. This has led to a significant increase in the total data volume and data quality available to the community. For example, in the first 20 months of science operation (September 2009 - June 2011) the cumulative redshift pathlength of extragalactic sight lines sampled by COS is 9 times that sampled at moderate resolution in 19 previous years of Hubble observations. COS programs have observed 214 distinct lines of sight suitable for study of the intergalactic medium as of June 2011. COS has measured, for the first time with high reliability, broad Lya absorbers and Ne VIII in the intergalactic medium, and observed the HeII reionization epoch along multiple sightlines. COS has detected the first CO emission and absorption in the UV spectra of low-mass circumstellar disks at the epoch of giant planet formation, and detected multiple ionization states of metals in extra-solar planetary atmospheres. In the coming years, COS will continue its census of intergalactic gas, probe galactic and cosmic structure, and explore physics in our solar system and Galaxy