New extension publication: How can we best measure nitrate leaching from ag systems?

Nitrogen is a critical nutrient for agriculture that can have adverse impacts on human health when it makes its way into groundwater by “leaching” from the soil. There are so many ways to measure nitrate leaching in agricultural systems and Dr. Nocco has the fortune (or misfortune?) of having worked with many of these methods including lysimeters. It can be really challenging for scientists, growers, CCAs, and agency folks to figure out the tradeoffs in cost, labor, and accuracy across different nitrate leaching approaches. Dr. Nocco teamed up with experts in the UW–Madison Ag Water Program to release a new peer-reviewed extension publication on measuring nitrate leaching led by Dr. Izze McNamee. Check it out here!

Mallika using a sledgehammer (!) during her PhD to collect an undisturbed soil monolith.

Installing a very heavy passive capillary wick lysimeter w/friends of the lab Kevin Masarik and farm partner Justin Isherwood.

Common ways to quantify nitrogen leaching. Credit: Holly Bobula. See McNamee et al., 2026 for context.