Marisol Berti, professor of plant sciences, was selected to receive a Soil and Water Conservation Society 2021 Conservation Research Award. The award honors members whose research has led to exceptional improvements in soil conservation, water conservation or related natural resources research.
In the award nomination, Berti is credited with helping to make cover crop seeding and management practices more widely accepted across the northern Great Plains.
Berti has led the forages and biomass crop production project in the Department of Plant Sciences since 2009. The project works to improve forage production practices, introduce biomass crops for bioenergy production and evaluate the impact that annual and perennial forages used in intercropping, as cover crops and as living mulches have on crop productivity and soil quality in North Dakota.
In 2016, Berti was awarded a multi-state, multi-researcher USDA-NIFA-AFRI grant. The goal of the grant was to increase the use of cover crops in the upper Great Plains to reduce soil erosion. Twelve researchers from four universities and agencies participated in the four-year, $3.7 million grant.
In 2019, Berti was awarded a $429,011 USDA-NIFA grant to study alfalfa management practices and their effect on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi populations. The objectives of the study are to improve health, productivity, and sustainability of alfalfa production. The research will continue through August 2022.
Berti also mentors graduate students and teaches courses in principles of forage production, sugarbeet production and professional development. She has led summer study abroad courses, which provided students the opportunity to observe and understand sustainable management practices in agriculture, cropping systems management, and renewable energy production in European countries.
The Soil and Water Conservation Society is an international organization for professionals who practice and advance natural resource conservation.
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