“Soil has a lot going on.”

Dr. Shalini Prasad
Professor of bioengineering
UT Dallas
.…on how high-tech soil health sensors can help gardeners and farmers alike, via the Dallas Morning News.

In March, Dallas Innovates told you about Dr. Prasad and her bioengineering team at UT Dallas, who are developing “groundbreaking” new soil health sensors that could help improve soil productivity on a global scale.

“This is the equivalent of having a wearable health sensor on your body that tells you in real-time what’s happening,” Prasad said in a statement at the time. “Think of it as a wearable for the soil.”

The technique developed by the UTD team uses sensors that apply electrical stimulation to soil and measure chemical reactions to the voltage. The technology measures pH, moisture, volumetric bulk density, and the two main soil carbon pools—levels of soil organic matter and carbonaceous soil minerals — as well as total soil carbon.

From Phoenix to Las Vegas to Europe and beyond this week, record-shattering heat is reinforcing concerns about climate change. Prasad says that’s putting pressure on agricultural ecosystems.

“[We need] to provide meaningful, actionable data to a global community,” Prasad told the Dallas Morning News’ Lila Levinson in a story published Tuesday. “Change has to be coming … from everybody.”

You can read the DMN story here.

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