b'NITRATE MONITORING, ENLIGHTENED LOOKING TO THE FUTUREThe NitraLED\'s light sourcea small UV-LED ratherFor many nitrate monitoring programs, the primary than a bulky xenon, mercury, or deuterium lampgoal is to track the contamination source(s) and figure is the secret sauce of the sensor. out what to do about it. This requires more than just a new type of nitrate sensor and a massive dataset. Data What I think is so revolutionary about NitraLEDmodeling is the next step, explained Dr. Smith. is that it\'s not only a deployable technology on amultiparameter platform, it\'s less expensive, Any programespecially nutrient monitoring notes Dr. Smith. programsshould have a modeling component to it. Getting a lot of data is great, but extracting not only Dr. Smith added that until the NitraLED, the high costbackwards but also forward-looking meaning from the of UV nitrate sensors prevented researchers fromdata is the future. deploying a large number of them, hindering their ability to build a more comprehensive understandingWith NitraLED, researchers can continuously monitor of aquatic systems. for days, weeks, and months, and with these enormous data sets and the power of machine learning, they Making UV nitrate sensors more affordable is the mostcan not only do source tracking but also do predictive recent and exciting step in the evolution of nitratemodeling that might prevent future contamination. monitoring, Dr. Smith said. What people need is notModeling takes monitoring programs to the next level just to be able to do continuous measurements in situ,because it will yield actionable information, rather than they also need continuous measurements at multiplejust information," added Dr. Smith. points in a watershed. The lower cost of LED-based nitrate sensors makes this possible.Nitrate sits squarely at the nexus between agriculture and water quality. Monitoring and modeling solutions Sensors like the NitraLED may be the latest evolutionare needed to better understand this connection of nitrate monitoring, but NitraLED is not the last step. and ultimately find creative solutions to the issue of nutrient enrichment.SOURCES 1 American Rivers, 5 Chemical & Engineering News,Americas Most Endangered RiversIndustrial ammonia production emits more #9: Raccoon River, IACO 2than any other chemical-making reaction2 Iowa Capital Dispatch,6 Science History Institute, Water Works pays for Saylorville waterFritz Habertoo polluted to use, eyes $50Mplant expansion7 Nobel Prize,Carl Bosch Biographical3 University of Nebraska-Lincoln, A Historical Overview of Fertilizer Use 8 Nature,Widespread phytoplankton blooms4 BBC,triggered by 20192020 Australian wildfiresHow fertiliser helped feed the world46 MISSION: WATER'