Ingenious: Crop Rings
The 80-acre field features multiple octagonal rings, each more than 65 feet in diameter. (Image by James Baltz) If you drive to the university’s Crop Sciences and Education Center, commonly referred to as South Farms, you’ll find a historic 80-acre field that was the first of its kind in 2001—and it’s still making history today.
The field comprises multiple octagonal rings, each more than 65 feet in diameter, inside which scientists manipulate microclimates to determine how carbon dioxide, ozone and other climate factors affect corn and soybean production. Known as SoyFACE, or Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment, what made this facility revolutionary in 2001 was its launch in an open-air field rather than a greenhouse.
“In the beginning, there was a mixture of excitement and fear,” recalls Evan DeLucia, G. William Arends Professor Emeritus in Illinois’ Dept. of Plant Biology. “Would this system actually work?” Almost a quarter-century later, it’s not only working, it’s flourishing. “It’s a well-oiled machine,” he affirms. DeLucia is one of the facility’s co-creators, along with crop scientists Steve Long and Don Ort.
They initially used the rings to manipulate carbon-dioxide (CO2) levels blowing across soy and corn crops, but soon began testing the effects of ozone as well. Today, the world-renowned facility looks at a range of climate-change factors, including increasing temperatures and drought, says SoyFACE Director Lisa Ainsworth, PHD ’03 ACES.
The octagon rings are constructed of perforated pipes that spray the crops with varying levels of CO2 and ozone. A sensor in the center of each ring continually monitors the two greenhouse gases, while also measuring wind speed and direction. As the wind direction changes, different segments of the ring release the gases to move with the wind.
SoyFACE scientists also have mounted infrared lamps in the field to adjust temperatures and simulated drought using retractable awnings that can manipulate the amount of rain falling into the rings. Today, the Midwest sees wetter springs, which delay planting, as well as drier weather in late summer and fall, which produces smaller harvests.
Although scientists did not begin paying serious attention to CO2 levels until the second half of the 20th century, those levels have been increasing since the Industrial Revolution.
And even though higher CO2 levels can lead to modest increases in soybean yields, ozone does the opposite, reducing yields.
Beyond measuring these climate-change-induced problems, SoyFACE has been studying solutions, including Ainsworth’s investigations into developing crops that are more responsive to high CO2 levels.
However, in the face of the extensive agricultural losses anticipated by climate change, crops with a higher CO2 tolerance are only a part of the solution, DeLucia says. “We need to find ways to breed crops that are more tolerant to drought and other changing climate factors.”
SoyFACE is encircling—and accelerating—those efforts.
