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Michael Russelle feels he has the perfect job as a scientist for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). “It combines many different aspects of what I like to do,” he says, including solving problems, working outdoors, and collaborating with great colleagues. Being stationed at a major university is icing on the cake, he adds.
His job is part of a cooperative agreement that allows the USDA and the university to share resources such as grants, lab space
and, of
course, people. Michael often teams up with professors from the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate on research projects. “It’s a great opportunity for the USDA-ARS and for the university,” he maintains.
Russelle is a specialist in nitrogen cycling within livestock-cropping systems. “Nitrogen
is the most important nutrient for
plants,” he notes. But nitrogen also has the potential to pollute rivers and contaminate groundwate.
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Injecting an isotope of nitrogen into a field experiment at UMORE Park near Rosemount, Minnesota
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One of Michael’s recent studies, the perennial biocurtain project, aims to recycle excess nitrogen before it washes away and becomes a pollutant. The project focuses on tile drains (perforated pipes that a farmer installs under his field). The pipes act like underground rain gutters to carry away excess water. Unfortunately, they also carry away excess nitrogen when it leaches down through the soil.
Michael’s solution is to plant perennials such as alfalfa on strips of land over the tile drains. Over time, the roots of these perennial plants will reach deep into the soil, where Russelle hopes they will soak up part or all of the excess nitrogen.
To measure his results, Michael injected 15N, a stable isotope, into his experimental field. He tracked the isotope’s horizontal flow and then its uptake by the alfalfa. “The early results were that the alfalfa strips were amazingly effective,” he said. He hopes that the results of this experiment will someday change standard farming practices.
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Technicians harvesting corn next to Russelle's
perennial biocurtain strips at the Southern Research and Outreach
Center
in
Waseca, Minnesota |
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Although prevention is always the goal, Russelle is also called upon to help when nitrogen does reach a water supply. That was the case in Pipestone and Lincoln counties in southwestern Minnesota, where levels in an aquifer were creeping up toward the EPA-imposed limit of 10 parts per million for drinking water.
Michael and other scientists worked to discover and map sources of the nitrogen leaching. Once they identified several hotspots,
leaders knew where and how to target their prevention efforts.
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Michael notes that locating sources of contamination is much cheaper than building a water-treatment plant. Like the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Russelle feels that he has found his calling as a research scientist. He had little exposure to agriculture growing up in
suburban Portland, Oregon. But serendipity, he said, led him into the field. Like many college students, he was uncertain about his future during his undergraduate years at Oregon State. He considered journalism and worked as a photo editor. The turning point came when a friend offered him work on a small farm. “It was a revelation,” he said. “There was something really solid about the seasonality of nature.” He worked for three years on the farm, changed his major to agronomy, and graduated with a B.S. in 1976. He earned his M.S. in 1978 and then moved to Lincoln, where he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska in 1982.
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Today Michael and his wife Regula live just blocks from the St. Paul campus, allowing him to enjoy a short walk to work each day. In 2005, they celebrated their 33rd year of marriage. Their daughter, Rebecca, and her family live in Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Marking a field in preparation for barnyard remediation |
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Away from the job, Michael can be spotted walking the dog, tending his garden, or hiking one of Minnesota’s many trails. He is a member of St. Anthony Neighbors for Peace and has actively attended Quaker meetings since moving to Minnesota in 1982.
He has traveled for work or pleasure to many parts of Europe, South America, and Australia. Michael is grateful to have a career he loves and stresses the benefits of working as a USDA-ARS researcher: “You’re very independent and can choose your projects, you’re given resources to work with, and you get to think in an integrated way.”
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