AgBioResearch

Michigan Turfgrass Industry Research Priorities

• Water Movement and Nutrient and Pesticide Fate
  • Surface water quality
    • Nutrient and pesticide BMP’s
    • Assessment and tracking tools for nutrients and pesticides within a containing area.
    • Nitrate movement in established turf.
    • Phosphorus movement off established turf areas.
    • Phosphorus loading in surface waters.
  • Water Quantity, Land Use, and Climate Change
    • Integrating turfgrass areas into land-use planning.
    • Integrating non-turfgrass areas to provide sustainable turf development & research spaces.
    • Assessing and maximizing carbon sequestration in turfgrass systems.
    • Assessing regeneration of water usage and tracking nutrient / chemical use.
    • Water Conservation.
    • Cool season turfgrass adaptation to potential climate change and limited irrigation conditions in Michigan.
• Turfgrass Physiology
  • Abiotic Stresses
    • Plant-microbial interactions
    • Utilizing microbes for plant growth promoting responses/fertility alternatives
    • Plant responses to insects
    • Developing new management strategies to deal with fungicide resistance, especially for dollar spot and anthracnose
  • Tolerance of Abiotic Stresses
    • Water (Drought/Salt/Flooding)
    • Temperature (Heat/Cold)
    • Light (Quantity/Quality)
    • Wear (general wounding and traffic)
    • Winterkill stresses (ice encasement, hypoxia or anoxia, spring freeze/thaws, crown hydration)
    • Responses to stresses relevant to climate change (carbon dioxide levels and others)
  • Physiological responses to chemical treatments
    • Plant growth regulators
    • Other exogenous chemicals to improve abiotic and biotic stress tolerance
• Integrated Pest Management
  • • Turfgrass production systems
      • Irrigation programming / turf establishment – non-soil areas
      • Improved turfgrass / sod production systems
      • Improved turf product availability
      • Subsurface irrigation and fertility of sand-based putting surfaces
      • Refining soil testing recommendations for turfgrass systems
      • Stabilizing technologies for performance/athletic turf systems
    • Pests and Fertility
      • European chafer and Japanese beetle management
      • Fertilizer programming and use within contained areas
      • Weather-based IPM systems.
      • Tools and templates to implement IPM programs.
      • Granular pesticide alternatives to liquid (spray application) of pesticides (efficacy and environmental impact and fate).
• Education, Job Training and Career Development
  • • Develop educational / recruitment programs for grade school and high school individuals with inner city and minority aligned areas to raise awareness of career opportunities in the turfgrass industry.
    • Workforce training.

Updated September 2024