Blog
Jun 18

Robert A. Moore Endowment Fund Finances Study Aimed at Reducing Salinity in Golf Course Fairways

The Robert A. Moore Endowment Fund, established in the name of Aquatrols’ late founder, is currently financing a two-year study of cultivation practices and products to reduce salinity in golf course fairways.

Dr. Joseph Young, Dr. Theophilius Udeigwe, and Masters student Li Li (all of Texas Tech University), are conducting the study at two golf courses in Lubbock, Texas.  The objectives of the study are to:

  1. Evaluate the effectiveness of treatment combinations on soil salinity reductions through soil testing.
  2.  Incorporate digital image analysis and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with NDVI camera to demonstrate improved turf health with reduced salinity.
  3. Develop predictive relationships for rapid soil salinity evaluations using a handheld portable x-ray fluorescence (PXRF) instrument.

According to Dr. Young and his team, golf course superintendents in the Southern, Western, and Southwestern United States are facing unique challenges related to poor irrigation water quality. As drought persists in these regions, the quality of groundwater continues to decline as withdrawals from groundwater sources outpace recharge rates.

A lack of adequate rainfall to leach salts through the rootzone can result in high salt accumulations in the soil that “could alter the chemical and hydrological properties of soil, such as hydraulic conductivity, permeability, water holding capacity, and thus water availability to turfgrass, undermining water conservation efforts.”

While researchers expect the most success in reducing salinity levels to come from a combination of product applications and cultivation practices, they will also look at product treatments in non-cultivated areas. If successful on their own, these products could greatly benefit lower-budget golf courses that may not have the equipment or manpower to conduct salinity-reducing cultivation practices on a regular basis.

This study is directly in line with the vision of the Robert A. Moore Endowment Fund, which was established to support applied research for optimizing the growing environment for golf course turf, with specific goals for increasing the effectiveness of applied water, fertilizers, and pesticides. The United States Golf Association is supplying additional funding for the study.

<<< Related: Aquatrols Donates $10,000 to the Environmental Institute for Golf >>>

You can connect with Texas Tech Turf Sciences on Twitter at @TTUturf and Dr. Joseph Young at @bulldawg3155.

Aquatrols

About The Author

More than 60 years ago, Aquatrols introduced the world’s first commercially available soil wetting agent. Since creating an entirely new product category to address water management challenges and opportunities, the company has remained a top innovator and producer of high-performance soil surfactants and related technologies. Aquatrols’ advanced product suite optimizes soil-water-plant interactions in agricultural, professional turfgrass, and horticultural industries in more than 40 countries. Headquartered in southern New Jersey, Aquatrols also has offices in the United Kingdom and conducts business on six continents.