Belinda Smith
speaker
2,605 appearances
27 recordings
4 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 2d ago
Belinda Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 27 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.
Appearances
Nitrogen is found in the air we breathe that makes up the largest components of the atmosphere, but plants get it from the soil, not the air, right?
Can we just talk a little bit about what happens to the ammonium that is not used by the plants?
Where does that end up and does that have any effect on the environment?
Sort of shading the crop that it's come off of, perhaps.
What about some of the other pathways that the ammonium might take?
Another cake that they can't eat.
And what does it do when it gets in water?
Okay, so 50% of nitrogen fertilizers that are spread onto agricultural land, not actually taken up by the plants, but instead they end up in the atmosphere, in the air, or in waterways or the ocean where they can have terrible effects.
So how do you stop that 50% from leaving the soil, wreaking all this damage elsewhere, and just keeping it there so the plants can continue to use it?
And what form is the fertilizer in?
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
But I guess you also want a polymer that's not going to affect the soil around it.
It makes me think of microplastics, for instance.
Or, you know, we're just adding more stuff to the soil that may have perhaps unforeseen consequences.
Yeah, I was going to say, there's no one soil that everything is grown in.
It's not like everyone's buying the same potting mix and putting that on their paddocks.
Yes, exactly.
Everything is different.
And then you've got all the other stuff, rainfall and local conditions and erosion, that kind of thing, that would all contribute to exactly what happens to that slow release fertiliser.
Showing 2201–2220 of 2,605 · page 111 of 131
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