A long concern about the environment in the state

My family has been in the state for over a century. I have heard stories and seen much of the state in at least 3 water basins. A lot of my family has been engaged in agriculture. My involvement with agriculture has not been as deep but my interest in ecosystems has been lifelong. I have spent much of my life involved in biomedical research.

I have been following science most of my life a believe we have local and global environmental problems. Aridification is certainly one that should concern us. It is strongly related to global warming which we can control but that system is so large it will take decades before the warming will stop even if we do a lot now.

I have seen ecosystems changed by attempts at water conservation. Lining of ditches has reduced plant an animal life by the ditches and lowered the water table in shallow aquifers.

I wondered if there was not a way to restore natural systems and improve the environment while improving agriculture, and reducing environmental problems and global warming.

My work in biomedical research involved work with things like algae and genetic modification. Algae bioreactors seemed to be a solution to reducing large areas of monoculture by reducing water use by significant amounts of 50-90% and ensuring reliable yields in spite of weather. I see very little about work in this area which seems to me the only solution to over allocated water resources in a warming world.

Does some on have more on this idea?

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We farm a little over 2000 dryland acres in Northeast Colorado. Precipitation for the year has ra...

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mholcomb about 4 years ago

Thank you for your story, background, and informed concern. Still getting familiar with this platform so apologize about the response delay. 1) Are you referring to algae bioreactors as a biofuel source or as a feed ingredient for livestock? 2) Do you have any papers/articles that connect to algae cultivation to water conservation? Its definitely an interesting research area!

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P.seibold almost 4 years ago

@consilience2 I'm very interested in learning more about algae bioreactors and how they can be used. I'd love to chat with you and if you have any resources that I could use to learn more that would be wonderful. Could you email me at parker.seibold@gmail.com?

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