We are pleased to invite you to participate in the 6th International Conference on  "Earth observation & Geoinformation Sciences in Support of Africa’s Development" to be held in Cairo, Egypt 30 Oct. – 2 Nov., 2006

Associate professor and CSU Cooperative Extension specialist receives international recognition
Rajiv Khosla, an associate professor and Colorado State University Cooperative Extension specialist, recently received international recognition at the annual American Society of Agronomy meeting. The annual award, the 2005 American Society of Agronomy Syngenta Crop Protection Recognition Award, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the agronomic profession. Khosla's work in innovative teaching, research and outreach education earned him the honor.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today support of a new program that will include development of an instrument for testing deep Soil samples on Mars in a European mission called ExoMars. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara will direct the development of the instrument.

Agronomy, crop, Soil Science societies present awards, scholarships
Dozens of awards and scholarships, including the selection of 2005 Fellows were presented as part of the 2005 International Annual Meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) held on Nov. 6 to 10 in Salt Lake City, UT.

A type of rice which produces its own Iron, even if it is grown in iron-deficient Soil, has excited scientists at a world Food conference in Morocco. It is a working example of the trend to try to deliver food with an in-built nutrient boost. Australian scientist Duncan Macintosh from the International Rice Research Institute says the 'super rice' was tested on nuns at nine convents across the Philippines.

What would the Earth be like if one fine day all the snow melted away?  Obviously, it would be a much warmer place. But what's interesting is how much warmer, says Stephen Vavrus, an associate scientist at the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Working with computer-generated simulations, Vavrus found that in the absence of snow cover, global temperatures would likely spike by about eight-tenths of a degree Celsius. That increase represents as much as a third of the warming that climate change experts have predicted, should levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases double.

Scientists studying the effects of carbon on climate warming are very likely underestimating, by a vast amount, how much Soil carbon is available in the high Arctic to be released into the atmosphere, new University of Washington research shows. A three-year study of soils in northwest Greenland found that a key previous study greatly underestimated the Organic carbon stored in the soil. That's because the earlier work generally looked only at the top 10 inches of soil, said Jennifer Horwath, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.

Donald Tanaka has received the honor of Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy for 2005. The prestigious award was presented at the 2005 ASA Annual Meetings held in conjunction with the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) on Nov. 6-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Scientists are looking to the ground in their efforts to fight deadly Soil pollution in China. For more than a decade the phytoremediation system which uses plants to help absorb pollutants has become a major part of clean-up programmes across the world. By 1998, some 400 natural plants able to absorb materials, such as Heavy Metals, arsenic or fluoride, had been identified worldwide.

But none were Indigenous to China. Experts, however, now believe there are several native species that can be used to remove pollutants. One particular ferny plant caught the attention of Chen Tongbin, a senior biologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), eight years ago. Today the plant has become the centre of Chen's academic life.

The researchers say they will take Soil samples from four sites above 4,000 feet, where acid rain and polluted cloud water cause some of the worst acid deposition problems in the Smokies.
The study -- funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation -- will target sites examined by the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1980s. The results will enable scientists to determine how the soils have changed.