fertilizer – Aquarius-Systems

Harvesting Invasive Plants for Fuel and Fertilizer

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 17:40:29 +0000

Researchers who work in wetlands in Michigan are taking a new approach to invasive plants. They’re harvesting them for fertilizer and fuel.

When you’re in the middle of the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, you don’t realize how massive it is. It’s 10,000 acres of marshes and bogs, forest and farmland. To put the size in perspective, Manhattan is roughly 15,000 acres.

Brendan Carson is a researcher from Loyola University Chicago. He’s working on a project at the wildlife refuge centered around harvesting cattails. Carson says the project is designed to let the cattails grow all summer, absorbing the nutrients like a sponge, before the harvesting takes place.

Carson says harvesting invasive plants is more cost effective than spraying them with chemicals.

Demand for Carp Skyrockets as Consumers Seek Fertilizer

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 21:26:19 +0000

Commercial fishermen and fish fertilizer suppliers are struggling to keep up with a demand for carp as people spend more time gardening and growing their own food during the pandemic.

The impacts of carp include a reduction in water quality, riverbank damage, and potential contribution to algae blooms which comes at the expense of native fish species and aquatic vegetation.

While the high demand for fish fertilizer has introduced some challenges, it is great that more of the invasive carp are being taken out of rivers.

Weed Harvester Removes 265 Dump Truck Loads From Black Hawk Lake

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 22:21:22 +0000

In its second year of operation at Black Hawk Lake in Iowa, the Aquatic Vegetation Harvester cut through some very dense underwater foliage this summer and removed an estimated 265 dump truck loads from the lake.

The Aquatic Vegetation Harvester is part of the community’s lake project which is striving to increase Black Hawk Lake’s water quality. This fall two area farmers will spread the tons of vegetation harvested onto their land as fertilizer once it’s been dried.

Black Lake Weed Harvester Removes 6,000 Pounds of Invasive Milfoil to Improve Boating Access

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 21:14:47 +0000

In the last few decades, the lake’s weedy, northern-most portion has clogged hulls and deterred boaters from entering the lake from the Oswegatchie River. Patches of weeds greet the water’s surface near every dock, and nearly invisible from a distance on a windy day, matted greenery creates a basin of weeds seven-feet-deep in some spots.

As part of a summer-long effort to cut a channel in Black Lake (New York), the Black Lake Association used an aquatic weed harvester to cut and remove invasive Eurasian watermilfoil. On one September afternoon, the Black Lake Association harvested roughly 6,000 pounds of invasive wet weeds in less than two hours.

The harvested vegetation was taken to a local dairy farm to be used as fertilizer.

Can a Plant Fight Climate Change & Reduce Fertilizer Use?

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 01:06:00 +0000

The Azolla filiculoides fern— with leaves the size of gnats, is considered a wonder-plant that played a pivotal role in cooling our planet 50 million years ago. Among its many properties, the Azolla can capture CO2 and nitrogen from the air and has genes that provide insect resistance.

Some 50 million years ago, however, the planet was a much hotter place and Azolla grew as far north as the Arctic Ocean. Fossil records show that, fueled by abundant nitrogen and carbon dioxide, the fern formed thick mats across the entire ocean and crept onto the surrounding continents. Over the course of 1 million years, the plant pulled an estimated tens of trillions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, which scientists believe helped cool the planet to a climate more similar to what Earth has today.

Azolla filiculoides is a water fern and has been used as “green manure” in rice paddies in Asia for well over 1,000 years because of its symbiotic relationship with the cyanobacteria Nostoc azollae. The fern and the bacteria work together to capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into something the fern and other surrounded plants can use. This eliminates the need for nitrogen-added fertilizers.

Scientists are hopeful that they will be able to use genomes from the natural bio fertilizer of the plant to help lead to future sustainable agricultural practices.