203 US Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Lab.
(607) 255-8808
BS 1964 (Cornell University)
MS 1968 (Colorado State University)
PhD 1970 (Colorado State University)
Wendell A. (Bud) Norvell is a Soil Scientist with the US Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory. He has been an associate (courtesy) professor of soil science in the Department of Soil, Crop, and Atmospheric Sciences since 1987. His research interests are in the solubility and plant-availability of micronutrients in soil, the rhizosphere, and hydroponic solution. Before joining the USDA in 1981, he was a research scientist in the Department of Soil and Water at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, CT (1970-1981), where his research emphasized the eutrophication of lakes and the chemistry of nutrients in sediments.
My research concerns the chemistry of micro-nutrient and trace metals in soil solution and hydroponic solutions. Using chelating agents as indicators of metal ion concentrations, it has been possible to measure the solubility of Fe, Zn, and Cu in soil solutions, even when their solubility is very low. Similar chelate equilibria allow us to buffer the concentrations of micronutrient metals at desired levels in plant nutrient solution. The computerized chemical speciation program "GEOCHEM-PC" was improved and its database was expanded for use in evaluating these metal equilibrium reactions.
Studies of the uptake and interactions of micronutrient metals in chelate-buffered nutrient solution have established the critical concentrations of Fe3+, Zn2+, and Mn2+ for normal development of barley and the concentration of Fe2+ needed by garden pea. In related work, a resin-buffered hydroponic system was developed to regulate the concentrations of macronutrient cations, micro-nutrient cations, and phosphorus for controlled studies of plant nutrition.
Courses Taught
Presents several lectures in Plant Mineral Nutrition
Selected Publications
Wu, J., W.A. Norvell, D.G. Hopkins, D.B. Smith, M.G. Ulmer, and R.M. Welch. 2003. Improved prediction and mapping of soil copper by kriging with auxiliary data for cation-exchange capacity. Soil Science Society of America Journal 67:919-927.
House, W.A., J.J. Hart, W.A. Norvell, and R.M. Welch. 2003. Cadmium absorption and retention by rats fed durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) grain. British Journal of Nutrition 89:499-508.
Hart, J.J., R.M. Welch, W.A. Norvell, N.A. Bello, and L.V. Kochian. 1999. Cadmium partitioning and phytochelatin response in near isogenic lines of durum wheat that differ in grain cadmium accumulation. Plant Biology Rockville 1999:122.
Hart, J.J., W.A. Norvell, R.M. Welch, and L.V. Kochian. 1998. Cadmium uptake and translocation in Cd-accumulating and non-Cd-accumulating, near isogenic lines of durum wheat. Plant Biology Rockville 1998:138.