Agronomy and Horticulture
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture instructors will offer many online courses this spring in agronomy, horticulture, soil science, biological sciences, grassland studies, natural resources and range science. Some courses still have available spots. See course descriptions below.
Go to myred.nebraska.edu to register.
AGRO 403/803 Scientific Writing and Communication
3 credit hours
Instructor: Christine Booth
The ability to write about your science is an important skill to develop regardless of your career trajectory. With the proper training, you may even find that scientific writing can be enjoyable. The key is to build your confidence by getting to know your audience, developing good writing habits, building some writing momentum, and getting feedback from others. In this course, we will practice all of these skills. There is still time to register for the course, but you need to act fast! Please contact Dr. Christine Booth to obtain a permission code and secure your spot in the course.
*This class meets in-person, limited contact, from 2 to 2:50 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from January 25 – May 7, 2021. Please contact Dr. Christine Booth at cbooth2@unl.edu with any questions or to obtain permission code.
AGRO/GRAS/NRES/RNGE 440/840, Section 001*: Great Plains Ecosystems
3 credit hours
Instructor: Daniel Uden
This course engages with the diversity of Great Plains ecosystems, the forces that have shaped them, their current trajectories, and their potential futures with an emphasis on the continuing role of people in determining those futures. Furthermore, the characteristics of Great Plains ecosystems, interrelationships of ecological factors and processes (and their application in the management of grasslands) and interactions of fire, vegetation, grazing animals, and wildlife are examined.
Prerequisites: Junior standing. BIOS 101 and 101L, or equivalent recommended.
*This class meets online via Zoom from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These Zoom meetings will be recorded for students who are unable to join, and these students can arrange individual solutions that fit their schedule with the instructor. Please contact Dr. Daniel Uden at duden2@unl.edu with any questions.
AGRO/NRES/SOIL 455/855, Section 001*: Soil Chemistry and Minerology
3 credit hours
Instructor: Michael Kaiser
This class deals with chemical and mineralogical properties of soil components, the inorganic colloidal fraction, structures of soil minerals as means of understanding properties such as ion exchange and equilibria, release and supply of nutrient and toxic materials, and soil acidity and alkalinity, and with forms and functions of organic matter in soil.
Prerequisites: AGRO/HORT/SOIL 153 or GEOL 101, CHEM 109 and 110, CHEM 221 or 251, or equivalent
*This class meets online via Zoom from 1:00 to 1:50 p.m. on Mondays (occasionally), Wednesdays (occasionally), and Fridays (weekly). These Zoom meetings will be recorded for students who are unable to join, and these students can arrange individual solutions that fit their schedule with the instructor. Please contact Dr. Kaiser at mkaiser@unl.edu with any questions. Learn more at agronomy.unl.edu/agro-nres-855.
AGRO/HORT 462/862, Section 700: Cannabis Growth, Production and Breeding Basics
2 credit hours
Instructors: Ellen Paparozzi and Ismail Dweikat
History, breeding, and production of cannabis for medicinal marijuana and hemp for fiber use when grown using a growth room, greenhouse, high tunnel, and/or field. Clarification between scientific evidence and casual information.
Prerequisites: AGRO/HORT 131 or LIFE 121; AGRO 215 or BIOS 206. (Completion of HORT 221 is recommended, but not required.)
AGRO/BIOS/NRES/SOIL 460/860, Section 001*: Soil Microbiology
3 credit hours
Instructor: Rhae Drijber
Learn about soil microbes and their role in agronomic and environmental sustainability. Topics include microbial growth and survival strategies in soil, methods to study soil microorganisms and their processes, biological underpinnings of decomposition and the formation of soil organic matter.
Prerequisites: Senior standing. Strong science background (including courses from the agronomic, environmental, microbiology, engineering or medicine disciplines) is recommended.
*This class meets online via Zoom from 11:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. These Zoom meetings will be recorded for students who are unable to join, and these students can arrange individual solutions that fit their schedule with the instructor. Please contact Dr. Rhae Drijber at rdrijber1@unl.edu with any questions.
AGRO 896, Section 791: Network Science Applied to Agronomical and Biological Sciences
(Spring Mini Session) March 1–April 21
1 credit hour
Instructors: Aristoteles Goes-Neto, Daniel Carvalho and James Schnable
Network science has been widely used in different fields (social, computer and biological sciences). The goal of network science is model systems as a connected group, being able to create connections between different components (i.e. plant pathogens, genes, metabolites, plant varieties, and so on). The goal of this class is show students how to model the system they are studying as part of their program as networks to provide a fresh perspective to their research questions.
Topics covered: Concepts and terminology. Topology and mathematical principles (graph theory). Examples using networks in different fields of agronomy/biological sciences (plant pathology, entomology, genetics, field experiments, plant pathogen-host interactions, ecology). Network dynamics (perturbations and resilience). By the end of this course, students should be able to model their research question using complex networks, plot and know how to interpret their resulting networks.
AGRO 896, Section 795: Mixed Model Methodologies & Design, Analysis, and Reporting of Field Research
(Spring Mini Session) March 29–April 30
1 credit hour
Instructor: Blaine Johnson
This course is designed to address the practical needs of field experimentation while exploring statistical and data analysis theory. Based on Dr. Johnson’s extensive experience in academia as well as his track record of developing practical tools for designing experiments and analyzing data in applied field research in the agronomy industry, this course will help you develop an understanding of mixed model methodologies and the flexibility and practicality that they can provide in answering the following questions:
- How do I design a field experiment that doesn’t seem to fit traditional textbook experimental designs?
- How do I evaluate plant materials over a broad range of environments despite insufficient resources to plant all entries at all evaluation locations?
- How do I analyze data that are unbalanced, with the lack of balance being either planned or unplanned?
- How do I predict the expected future value for entries or treatments in agricultural research experiments, as opposed to merely reporting what was observed using means and other descriptive statistics?
- How do I manage to prepare data for analysis using data management software other than spreadsheets?
- How do large seed companies manage, analyze and summarize large data sets when entries numbers in the hundreds or even thousands?
Available software options (i.e. ASReml, Enchidna, MS Access, etc.) are introduced and used for example analyses, and for creating output files and summary sheets.
AGRO 816E, Section 791: Genotype by Environment Interaction
(Spring Mini Session) February 22–March 26
1 credit hour
Instructor: Diego Jarquin
The analysis of the genotype by environment interaction {GxE) is a key factor in the development of improved cultivars in breeding programs. Traditionally, data for GxE analyses involve phenotypic information from multi-environment trials. Currently, vast amounts of different data types {genomic, remote sensing, weather, etc.) are routinely collected in fields, processed and measured with specialized instruments. The incorporation of these multiple layers of information potentially can enhance our ability for selecting stable genotypes under biotic and abiotic ( unpredictable environments) stressors.
Topics include linear and bilinear models for studying GxE (classical and Bayesian), methods to estimate genetic correlations between environments, GxE Genomic Selection models (GS-GE} using environmental covariates, high-throughput phenotyping data for enhancing GS, multi-trait models, sparse testing designs among others.
Prerequisites: AGRO 815A, B, and D, STAT 801A, 802 or equivalent course work
AGRO/HORT/NRES 835, Section 700*: Agroecology
3 Credit Hours
Instructor: Charles Francis
Agroecology describes human activity system that link natural resources, production, processing, marketing, and consumption. We explore systems in natural resource, biological, economic, environmental, and social terms, including complex interrelationships in agricultural and social landscapes. For rural, peri-urban, and urban landscapes, agroecology principles guide study of nutrition, health and vitality on farms, for people and in communities. We go beyond single mechanisms, components, practices, and issues to explore structure and function of systems, consequences of agriculture, and distribution of benefits. Agroecology explores elements/design of farming systems incorporating ecological perspectives, human motivations, values, and long-term perspectives for humans and other species.
Completing the Agroecology course will build students capacities in:
- Knowledge: Define and understand meaningful, integrated concepts and interactions in agroecological production and food systems.
- Application: Evaluate and compare the resilience of conventional and regenerative farming and food systems today and develop your vision for the future.
- Research skills: Internalize essential information including current news relevant to agroecology and develop skills to evaluate sources and opinions.
- Communication: Articulate complexities of production and food systems through written and oral communication with a variety of formal and informal audiences.
- Critical thinking: Embrace holistic analyses of agricultural production and food systems and relate them to economic, environmental, socio-political sectors of society today and in the future.
Prerequisites: 12 hours of biological or agronomic sciences or equivalent.
*This class is presented online with recorded lectures, assignments due each week include summaries of literature readings and quizzes, and through the semester there are outside-of-class interviews with farmers and food system specialists, a mid-term exam, and a semester team project.
AGRO/HORT 839, Section 001*: Organic Farming and Food Systems
3 Credit Hours
Instructor: Charles Francis
Organic Farming and Food Systems was started in response to student interests and requests from organic farmers in Nebraska who urged the university to offer science-based and farmer-informed education on organic production and food systems. Our class includes lectures, literature readings and reports, virtual farmer visits to class, interviews with farmers and food systems specialists, writing on key topics, with special focus on practical discussions about emerging issues in organics. We value science-based research results as well as farmer experiences as complementary resources for learning about practical, integrated, resource-efficient, environmentally sound, and socially-relevant production systems. In this course we identify and validate multiple sources of information, and integrate science with experience.
Completing the course prepares students to:
- Discuss historical roots and current state of organic farming and food systems and current information on integrated organic crop, and crop/animal systems.
- Describe key elements of organic production systems and how components interact, using scientific principles from ecology, crops and soils, and plant protection.
- Discuss organic certification, history and applications, importance of standards for production and sales, and differences in organic standards among countries
- Describe how to implement organic methods to maintain soil fertility, protect against pests, and design efficient production systems unique to each agro-ecozone, temperate and tropical.
- Discuss organic processing, marketing, food consumption patterns, food safety and quality, explore unique methods used in the organic sector of the food industry; describe the magnitude of the organic food sector in the U.S. and elsewhere and its potential for the future.
- Explore key contemporary issues in organic farming and food systems such as GMOs, hydroponic systems, permaculture, future changes in certification, global organic food systems
*Organic Farming meets online on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 3:30–4:45 with several activities accomplished outside of class in preparation for lecture/discussions. Class time is for brief lectures and farmer videos, and discussing material found on Canvas, in textbooks, or on key web sites.
Register for courses at myred.nebraska.edu.
