The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) articles

Producers sometimes face challenges that go deep into the soil. They need answers to help the soil, on site. A portable field sensor can accurately measure minerals in soils more easily and efficiently than existing methods. And a research team, including a middle school student and her scientist father, can confirm it.

Calcium, like other minerals, is necessary for healthy plant growth.

Blooming salts may clean up after brine spills

North Dakota`s oil boom can have a salty side-effect. Wastewater from oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – is often laden with salts and can spill, contaminating soils. In 2014, for example, 42 such brine spills per week, on average, were recorded in North Dakota.

Brine spills introduce so much salt into the soil that local vegetation cannot survive. The salts stay around