Included in the October 30, 2025, biweekly update

This week’s articles by MSU faculty, specialists, and students making a difference feature smarter farm technology, biodiversity in vacant lots, and new evidence linking lead in food to health risks.

Cost-Effective voltage and current sensing technique for smart agricultural systems

Varadharajan et al. (2025) developed an affordable method for monitoring electricity use in farm equipment, including irrigation pumps and motors. Many modern farms rely on automated or remotely controlled systems, but small and mid-sized farms often lack the tools to detect power waste or equipment failure before it becomes a costly problem. Traditional monitoring devices exist but are usually expensive and designed for industrial settings.

The system introduced in this study was built to be low-cost while still highly accurate. It can detect fast changes in voltage and current, which are signals that can reveal when a machine is failing, struggling, or wasting energy. Farmers could use it to track the quality of their power in real time, spot early signs of malfunction, or schedule equipment more efficiently to reduce costs. It can also be added to existing systems without major upgrades or expert installation.

This research supports smarter, more efficient agricultural infrastructure by making precise electrical monitoring accessible to everyday farm operations. It also helps bridge the technology gap between large industrial farms and smaller farms.

By making energy monitoring affordable for irrigation systems, this research helps farmers use both electricity and water more efficiently.

Varadharajan, R., Lee, W., Dong, Y. (2025). “Cost-Effective voltage and current sensing technique for smart agricultural systems.” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. Advance online publication. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168169925011512

Corresponding author: Younsuk Dong, dongyoun@msu.edu. 

The role of vacant lots in promoting avian species diversity and occupancy in a post-industrial city

Dennison et al. (2025) examined how vacant lots shape bird life in Detroit. Using hundreds of audio recordings and spatial data, the researchers compared bird diversity and occupancy across neighborhoods, focusing on where birds are most likely to live and how they use urban space.

They found that vacant lots, when they include trees, shrubs, or other natural cover, support higher bird diversity than many built-up areas. In contrast, road density and other hard infrastructure were linked to lower diversity. This study shows that even small, unmanaged lots can act as mini-habitats or steppingstones that help birds move through the city. Importantly, the benefits weren’t uniform: vegetation structure and surrounding land uses influenced whether a vacant lot served as a quality habitat.

The takeaway for city planners and community groups is that not all “empty” land is ecologically empty. Managing some vacant lots as green spaces—by keeping plants, adding native vegetation, and limiting paving—can increase urban biodiversity without major costs. 

Beyond their value for birds, greened vacant lots help cities manage stormwater naturally, allowing rain to absorb instead of flooding streets.

Dennison, C. J., Pearson, A. L., Hanson, J. O., Brown, C. D., & Buxton, R. T. (2025). “The role of vacant lots in promoting avian species diversity and occupancy in a post-industrial city.” Landscape and Urban Planning, 265, 105518. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204625002257

Corresponding author: Christopher J. Dennison, ChristopherDennison@cmail.carleton.ca. 

Assessing causal relationships between lead exposure and non-cancerous health effects through the Bradford Hill Criteria

Hsu et al. (2025) applied a structured framework (the Bradford Hill criteria) to evaluate whether dietary lead exposure can cause different health problems beyond its well-known neurological effects. They looked at cardiovascular disease, reproductive outcomes, neurodevelopmental issues, and kidney damage, using published human studies and a scoring system to rate the strength of evidence for each outcome.

The researchers found that while cognitive/neurodevelopmental effects remain the most strongly supported link, there is meaningful evidence that dietary lead also plays a causal role in cardiovascular, reproductive, and renal health. For example, scores out of 32 were 28 for neurodevelopmental effects, 25 for cardiovascular, 24 for reproductive, and 25 for renal. This suggests lead’s risk from food sources may be broader than typically recognized.

This study concluded that limiting lead exposure via diet matters not only for children’s brains but for multiple organ systems across the population. It also showed that using a transparent scoring method to assess causation can help guide policy and future research priorities.

While this study focused on dietary exposure, its findings complement efforts to eliminate lead from all sources, including drinking water.

Hsu, P., Scott, C. K., & Wu, F. (2025). “Assessing causal relationships between lead exposure and non-cancerous health effects through the Bradford Hill Criteria.” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2025.2564892

Corresponding author: Felicia Wu, fwu@msu.edu.