Laurie Drinkwater

My research group conducts studies of soil nutrient cycling processes in agroecosystems at scales ranging from the rhizosphere to farm and watershed scales. We investigate mechanisms within the plant-soil-microbial continuum that control ecosystem processes such as energy flows and nutrient cycling. Current research projects are focused on achieving a better understanding of the biotic and abiotic mechanisms regulating linkages between carbon and nitrogen cycles, with particular emphasis on the following processes: 1) symbiotic biological N-fixation, 2) decomposition and mineralization and 3) microbially-mediated N transformations such as nitrification, denitrification. Our work is also geared toward the development of management practices that improve soil quality while optimizing carbon and nitrogen cycling in intensive horticultural systems. Most of our research involves some degree of interdisciplinary collaboration. We are currently working with colleagues from molecular microbial ecology, resource economics, environmental sociology, biogeochemical modeling and weed ecology.

Selected Journal Publications

Full publication list at Google Scholar

• Drinkwater, L.E. and S.S. Snapp. 2022. Advancing the science and practice of ecological nutrient management for smallholder farmers. Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 15. doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.921216
• Drinkwater, L.E., C.A.O. Midega, R. Awuor, D. Nyagol, and Z.R. Khan. 2021. Perennial legume intercrops provide multiple belowground ecosystem services in smallholder farming systems. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 320:1-12.
• Emmett BD, Buckley DH, Drinkwater LE. 2020. Plant species and temporal variation in plant growth and nitrogen uptake shape rhizosphere bacterial community composition and activity in an agricultural field. New Phytologist, 225: 960–973.
• Emmett, B. E., Buckley, D. H., Smith, M. E., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2018). Eighty years of maize breeding alters plant nitrogen acquisition but not rhizosphere bacterial community composition. Plant and Soil. 431:53-69.
• Reiss, E.R. and L.E. Drinkwater. 2018. Cultivar mixtures: a meta-analysis of the effect of intraspecific diversity on crop yield. Ecological Applications. 28:62–77.
• Han, Z., Walter, M. T., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2017). N2O emissions from grain cropping systems: a meta-analysis of the impacts of fertilizer-based and ecologically-based nutrient management strategies. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems. 107:335-355.
• Vanek, S. J., Jones, A. D., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2016). Coupling of soil regeneration, food security, and nutrition outcomes in Andean subsistence agroecosystems. Food Security: the science, sociology and economics of food production and access to food. 8: 727–742.
• Berthrong, S. T., Buckley, D. H., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2013). Agricultural management and labile carbon additions affect soil microbial community structure and interact with carbon and nitrogen cycling. Microbial Ecology. 66:158-170.
• Hufnagl-Eichiner, S., Wolf, S. A. and L. E. Drinkwater. 2011. Assessing socio-ecological coupling: Agriculture and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Global Environmental Change. Special Issue on The Politics and Policy of Carbon Capture and Storage. 21(2): 560-539.
• Vitousek, P. M., Naylor, R., Crews, T., David, M. B., Drinkwater, L. E., Holland, E., Johnes, P., Katzenberger , J., Martinelli, L. A., Matson, P., Nziguheba, G., Ojima, D., Palm, C. A., Robertson, G. P., Sanchez, P., Townsend, A., & Zhang, F. (2009). Nutrient Imbalances in Agricultural Development. Science. 324:1519-1520.
• Gardner, J. B., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2009). The fate of nitrogen in grain cropping systems: a meta-analysis of N-15 field experiments. Ecological Applications. 19:2167-2184.
• Drinkwater, L. E., & Snapp, S. S. (2007). Nutrients in agriculture: Rethinking the management paradigm. Advances in Agronomy. 92:163-186.
• Tonitto, C., David, M., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2006). Response of crop yields and soil N to diversified rotations: A meta-analysis. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 112:58-72.
• Puget, P., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2001). Short-term dynamics of root and shoot-derived carbon from a leguminous green manure. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 65:771-779.
• Drinkwater, L. E., Wagoner, M. W., & Sarrantonio, M. (1998). Legume-based systems have reduced losses of nitrogen and carbon. Nature. 396:262-265.

• Lifetime Achievement Award in Organic Agriculture 2018 Agronomy Society of America
• Fulbright Scholar (2017) Kenya and Malawi
• Frosty Hill Fellowship (2015) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Alianza de Mujeres en Agroecología-Alliance of Women in Agroecology (2013) Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology, Annual Conference
• Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering (2011) Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute, University of Wisconsin

The graduate and undergraduate courses I teach integrate ecological and agricultural knowledge. My over-arching goal in teaching and mentoring students is to contribute to the development of scientists who will be equipped to address the global challenges we face in agriculture and environmental management. In my classes we engage in participatory, independent and collaborative learning and work to improve key life skills including critical and synthetic thinking, verbal and written communication. Graduate seminars that I have offered include 1) Decomposition, 2) Sustainability: Ethical, socioeconomic and biophysical dimensions, 3) Agroecosystems: Research and design.

• PLSCI 4730/6730: Ecology of Agricultural Systems
• PLSCI 8900: Thesis Research, Master of Science