Restoration Ecology Volume 10, Number 1, March 2002

The journal of the society for ecological restoration

Nitrogen Farming: Harvesting a Different Crop

Donald L.Hey

This journal is about the streams of “North America that convey excessive amounts of nitrate-nitrogen, and the effects which range from eutrophication of local surface waters to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. An alternative solution is needed. One possibility is “nitrogen farming”. Nitrogen farms could employ restored wetlands in flood plains and on bottomlands to remove the excess nitrate-nitrogen and, at the same time, provide the landowner an alternative crop”.  So, the topic is nitrogen and the harm it can do to the earth.  While the research question is “What is a solution to the excessive amounts of nitrate-nitrogen in American river?” The different types of data that would be needed would be expert knowledge, opinions, reports of acts, and economic figures. The data gathering methods we see in this journal are public and private records. In this journal, there are a lot of graphs and maps showing the effects of the nitrogen. The data analysis method that the author uses is numeric data to tell how much nitrogen is being put into our soil.   Overall I think the author did a great job following the six steps he had a topic he wanted to research so he came up with a research question he also picked what type of data he needed and where he was going to get this data. Finally, he chose what data analysis method he would use. Something useful I got out of this is his use of maps and bar graphs makes his research clearer.  The images help me understand what he is trying to portray with his research. I will try to do that in my research.