What's good for crops is not always good for the environment. Nitrogen, a key nutrient for plants, can cause problems when it leaches into water supplies.

Now, scientists have developed a model to calculate the age of nitrogen in corn and soybean fields, which could lead to improved fertilizer application techniques to promote crop growth while reducing leaching.

Researchers Praveen Kumar and Dong Kook Woo of the University of Illinois published their results today in the journal Water Resources Research, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. The National Science Foundation (NSF) supported the research through its Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) for Intensively Managed Landscapes, one of 10 such NSF CZOs.

Read the full news release on from the NSF here.