Episode #150
Biochar, buffers, and the fight against flooding
Christy Gibson, an Illinois Distinguished Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, kept noticing the same thing on her research travels: farm fields across the Midwest standing in water after increasingly intense storms. That observation led to more questions: How do farmers work with or around waterlogged fields? How do mitigation tactics, like replanting, create inefficiencies? And what solutions can actually make a difference? Guest host Trey Allis talks with Christy about her decision to study field inundation and her work helping farmers expand their toolbox for managing wet fields. They dig into one amendment getting a lot of attention, biochar, and discuss what it would take to use it at a farm scale. Christy also shares why a water management plan matters and what her research team hopes to learn next. Note: This episode was recorded on June 8, 2026. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:43 What it means to be a distinguished postdoc 02:32 From the Bahamas to Midwest ag research 08:22 Defining field inundation 09:46 How farmers cope with wet fields today 12:11 A tiered approach to water management 14:34 Expanding the toolbox for every landscape 16:37 Biochar as a targeted soil amendment 20:58 What exactly is biochar? 25:05 The challenge of scaling up biochar 28:22 Storms rolling in 31:00 What's next for the research Related Content: #142: Minnesota's coolest drainage plots #110: Bridging the gap between water management research and application #55: How changing weather patterns impact the stability of your farm Find us on social media! Facebook X Instagram Listen on these podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music YouTube Visit our website to explore more episodes and water management education .
