Research Activities and Interests:
Environmental Soil Physics
Water Quality
Geographical Information Systems
Precision Agriculture
Background: Nate is a Research Specialist working under Dr. Frank Casey. He was hired in 1990 to work on the Best Management Practices for Improved Irrigation and Fertilizer Nitrogen Use Efficiencies project near Oakes, ND where his primary responsibilities included maintaining a complex of lysimeters, wells, tile drains and fertility plots on the BMP quarter section to monitor leachate and groundwater quality under irrigated corn production. After completion of the BMP project in 1995, work was started on a remote sensing project also in the Oakes area. Nate's resposibilities on the Remote Sensing Project included image analysis of aerial photographs, yield monitoring, and low altitude aerial photography with an RC plane, of which you can view an short video produced by NDSU Ag. Communications. A Precision Ag project to study delineation of nutrient management zones was also conducted on the Oakes BMP site. A project investigating the fate and transport of hormones from swine waste is currently underway. He is also the Webmaster for the Soil Science Department.
Nate finished his MS degree in Soil Science in May 1997. The project dealt with depression focused ground water recharge and solute movement. Some of the posters and papers that he has written are included in the NDSU Soil Physics publications pages and below.
Publications:
Casey, F.X.M., N.E. Derby, R.E. Knighton, D.D. Steele, and E.C. Stegman. 2002. Initiation of irrigation effects on temporal nitrate leaching. Vadose Zone J. 1:300-309.
Casey, F.X.M., and N.E. Derby. 2002. Improved design for automated tension infiltrometer. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 66: 64-67.
Derby, N.E., Francis X. M. Casey, and Raymond E. Knighton, 2008. Long-Term Observations of Vadose Zone and Groundwater Nitrate Concentrations Under Irrigated Agriculture. Vadose Zone J. 8:290-300.
Derby, N.E., Francis X. M. Casey, and David W. Franzen. 2007. Comparison of Nitrogen Management Zone Delineation Methods for Corn Grain Yield. Agron. J. 99:405–414.
Derby, N.E., D.D. Steele, J. Terpstra, R.E. Knighton, and F.X.M. Casey. 2005. Interactions of nitrogen, weather, soil, and irrigation on corn yield. Agron. J. 97:1342-1351.
Derby, N.E., F. X. M. Casey, R. E. Knighton, and D. D. Steele. 2004. Midseason Nitrogen Fertility Management for Corn Based on Weather and Yield Prediction. Agron J. 96: 494-501.
Derby, N.E. 1997. Depression-focused recharge and solute transport to a shallow aquifer in Southeastern North Dakota. M.S. thesis, North Dakota State University.
Derby, N.E. and R.E. Knighton. 2001. Field-Scale Preferential Transport of Water and Chloride Tracer by Depression-Focused Recharge. J. Environ. Qual. 30:194-199.
Derby, N.E. and R.E. Knighton. 1997. Frozen soil effects on depression focused water and solute movement. P. 113-119. In I.K. Iskandar, E.A. Wright, J.K. Radke, B.S. Sharratt, P.H. Groenevelt, and L.D. Hinzman (ed.) International symposium on physics, chemistry, and ecology of seasonally frozen soils. Fairbanks, AK. June 10-12, 1997. CRREL, Hanover, NH, USA.
Derby, N.E., Raymond E. Knighton, and Bruce R. Montgomery. 2002. Construction and Performance of Large Soil Core Lysimeters. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 66:1446-1453.
Derby, N.E., R.E. Knighton, D.D. Steele, and B.R. Montgomery. 1997. Methods for Monitoring Leachate Losses Under Irrigated Corn Best Management Practices. P. 243-257. In J. Schaak, A.W. Freitag, and S.S. Anderson (ed). Best management practices for irrigated agriculture and the environment. Fargo, ND. July 16-19, 1997. USCID, Denver, CO, USA.