- BS, University of California, Riverside - 1979
- MS, Purdue University - 1981
- PhD, Purdue University - 1983
Areas of Interest
Precision Agriculture, Precision Conservation, Water Quality, Watershed Management and Modeling
Biography
Dr. Mulla received a Ph.D. degree in Agronomy from Purdue University with emphasis in soil physics (1983). From 1983 to 1995 he was Assistant to Full Professor in the Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences at Washington State Univ. Since 1995 he has been Professor and Larson Chair for Soil & Water Resources in the Dept. of Soil, Water, and Climate at the Univ. of Minnesota. From January, 2004 to June 2023 he has was the Director of the Precision Agriculture Center at the Univ. of Minnesota and organized the 7th and 8th International Conferences on Precision Agriculture. In 2007 he was appointed a Founding Fellow in the Univ. of Minnesota’s Institute on Environment. In 2011 and 2013 he was appointed to National Academy of Sciences committees on Florida water quality standards and on Mississippi River water quality assessment and monitoring. In June 2023 he was appointed as a member of the Executive Committee for the USDA-funded National Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Climate Land Interactions for Mitigation, Adaptation, Tradeoffs and Economy (AI-CLIMATE).
Dr. Mulla’s research emphasizes (1) AI- guided modeling and remote sensing in agriculture, (2) non-point source transport and modeling of water, nitrates, phosphorus, trace metals, and organic chemicals in soil, surface and ground water, (3) impacts of biofuel and alternative crop production systems, agricultural best management practices and green infrastructure practices at solar farms on ecosystem services, (4) the measurement, modeling and management of soil erosion and runoff and (5) soil spatial variability, landscape and terrain modeling for precision agriculture and precision conservation.
Dr. Mulla and his coauthors (including 50 MS and PhD students) have produced over 240 publications, and have received funding of over $57 million. Dr. Mulla and his colleagues have extensive experience in applying geostatistics, remote sensing and GIS terrain analysis in agricultural, biological and ecological systems, including applications for development of targeted BMP placement and “management zones” in precision agriculture and precision conservation. Broadly speaking, Dr. Mulla’s pioneering research on precision agriculture contributed significantly to its adoption in the US and around the world, fostering business opportunities, job growth and greater economic and environmental efficiency in agriculture.
Dr. Mulla has experience in modeling erosion, and losses of phosphorus, nitrogen, and pesticides to surface and ground waters from agriculture and solar farms. He studied pollution of Minnesota rivers, lakes, and groundwater, and effectiveness of BMPs for each resource. In 1998 he was appointed to the White House Task Force on Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1999 he led a study for the Minnesota State Environmental Quality Board on the impacts of animal agriculture on water quality. In 2004 he collaborated on a statewide study to quantify phosphorus loads exported to surface waters from point and nonpoint sources. He led a paired watershed study on the effectiveness of BMPs. In 2007 he led a study for the LCCMR to develop a long-range conservation plan for biofuel production and environmental protection in Minnesota. In 2010 he led a study for the MN state legislature on nitrogen sources to surface waters. In 2011 he was appointed to a National Academy of Sciences committee on numerical nutrient criteria (water quality standards) for Florida. From 2016-2024 he was a founding member of the University of Minnesota’s Water Council.
Dr. Mulla is an internationally recognized researcher and scholar. His research has taken him to over 20 countries. He was a consultant to the Millennium Challenge Corporation for a project to install erosion control practices and plant 8 million olive trees on 80,000 ha in Morocco. His peers elected him as a Fellow in the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and as a Fellow in the Agronomy Society of America. In 2012 he received the Pierre C. Robert Precision Agriculture Research Award from the International Society for Precision Agriculture. In 2013 he received the SSSA Soil Science Applied Research Award. He has served as Associate and Technical Editor for the Soil Science Society of America Journal, and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Precision Agriculture.
Curriculum vitae (PDF)
Teaching
- Soil 5232 Vadose Zone Hydrology
Research
My research emphasizes (1) precision agriculture; (2) modeling of nutrients, runoff and erosion; (3) the evaluation of alternative farm management strategies for improved soil quality and ecosystem services; and (4) artificial intelligence applications in agriculture.
Select Publications
- Mulla, D. J., J. Galzki, A.Hanson and J. Simunek. 2024. Measuring and Modeling Soil Moisture and Runoff at Solar Farms Using a Disconnected Impervious Surface Approach. Vadose Zone J. 23(4):e20335.
- Wilson, G.L., D.J. Mulla, N.R. Jordan, J.M. Jungers and B.A. Gordon. 2023. Simulating the effect of perennialized cropping systems on nitrate-N losses using the SWAT model. Frontiers in Agronomy, section Agroecological Cropping Systems 5: 1180232.
- Mulla, D.J., M. Tahir and J. M. Jungers. 2023. Comparative Simulation of Crop Productivity, Soil Moisture and Nitrate-N Leaching Losses for Intermediate Wheatgrass and Maize in Minnesota using the DSSAT Model. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, section Agroecology and Ecosystem Services 7: 1180232.
- Ghosh, R., P. Ravirathinam, X. Jia, A. Khandelwal, D. Mulla and V. Kumar. 2021. CalCROP21: A Georeferenced multi-spectral dataset of Satellite Imagery and Crop Labels. Proc. 30th ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management. IEEE Intl. Conf. on Big Data 1625-1632.
- Yang, W., T. Nigon, Z. Hao, G. Dias Paiao, F. Fernandez, D. Mulla, and C. Yang. 2021. Estimation of corn yield based on hyperspectral imagery and convolutional neural network. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 184: 106092.
- Prokopy, L. S., B. M. Gramig, A. Bower, S. P. Church, B. Ellison, P. W. Gassman, K. Genskow, D. Gucker, S. G. Hallett, J. Hill, N. Hunt, K.. A. Johnson, I. Kaplan, J. P. Kelleher, H. Kok, M. Komp, P. Lammers, S. LaRose, M. Liebman, A. Margenot, D. Mulla, M. J. O’Donnell, A. W. Peimer, E. Reaves, K. Salazar, C. Schelly, K. Schilling, S. Secchi, A. D. Spaulding, D. Swenson, A. W. Thompson, J. D. Ulrich‑Schad. 2020. The urgency of transforming the Midwestern U.S. landscape into more than corn and soybean. Agriculture and Human Values. 37:537–539.
- Zermas, D., V. Morellas, D. Mulla and N. Papanikolopoulos. 2020. 3D Model Processing for High Throughput Phenotype Extraction - The Case of Corn. Computers Electronics Agriculture. 172:105047.
- Wilson, G.L., D.J. Mulla, J.A. Vetsch, and G.R. Sands. 2020. Regional prediction of nitrate-N loads in subsurface drainage as a function of fertilizer application rate and timing in Southern Minnesota. J. Environ. Qual. 49:1347-1358.
- Jungers, J. M., L.H. DeHaan, D. J. Mulla, C.C. Sheaffer, and D. L. Wyse. 2019. Reduced nitrate leaching in a perennial grain crop compared to maize in the Upper Midwest, USA. Agric. Ecosys. Environ. 272:63-73.
- Dalzell, B. and D. Mulla. 2018. Perennial vegetation impacts on stream discharge and channel sources of sediment in the Minnesota River Basin. J. Soil Water Conserv. 73(2):120-132.
- Pennington, D., B. Dalzell, E. Nelson, S. Polasky, P. Hawthorne, D. Mulla, S. Taff and P. Hawthorne. 2017. Estimating the full costs of meeting pollution reduction targets. Ecol. Econ. 139:75-90.
- Vashisht, B.B., T. Nigon, D. J. Mulla, C. Rosen, H. Xu, T. Twine and S. K. Jalota. 2015. Adaptation of water and nitrogen management to future climates for sustaining potato yield in Minnesota. Agric. Water Management 152: 198-206.
- Lazarus, W., D. J. Mulla and D. Wall. 2014. A spreadsheet planning tool for assisting a state agency with cost-effective watershed scale surface water nitrogen planning. J. Soil Water Conservation 69:45A-50A.
- Mulla, D. J. 2013. Twenty five years of remote sensing in precision agriculture: Key advances and remaining knowledge gaps. Biosystems Engineering. 114:358-371.
- Nangia, V., D. J. Mulla and P. H. Gowda. 2010. Precipitation changes impact stream discharge, nitrate-nitrogen load more than agricultural management changes. J. Environ. Qual. 39:2063-2071.
- Miao, Y., D. J. Mulla, G. Randall, J. Vetsch and R. Vintila. 2009. Combining chlorophyll meter readings and high spatial resolution remote sensing images for in-season site-specific nitrogen management of corn. Precision Agriculture 10:45-62.
- Fang, F., P. L. Brezonik, D. J. Mulla, and L. K. Hatch. 2002. Estimating runoff phosphorus losses from calcareous soils in the Minnesota River Basin. J. Environ. Quality 31(6):1918-1929.
- Birr, A. S. and D. J. Mulla. 2001. Evaluation of phosphorus site index in watersheds at the regional scale. J. Environ. Quality. 30:2018-2025.
- Randall, G. W. and D. J. Mulla. 2001. Nitrate-N in surface waters as influenced by climatic conditions and agricultural practices. J. Environ. Qual. 30:337-344.
- Wollenhaupt, N. C., D. J. Mulla, and C. A. Gotway. 1997. Soil sampling and interpolation techniques for mapping spatial variability of soil properties. p. 19-54. In: (F. J. Pierce and E. J. Sadler, eds.), The State of Site Specific Management for Agriculture. ASA/CSSA/SSSA, Madison, WI.
- Mulla, D. J. Mapping and managing spatial patterns in soil fertility and crop yield. In: P. Robert, W. Larson, and R. Rust (eds.), Soil Specific Crop Management. Am. Soc. Agronomy, Madison, WI. pp. 15-26, 1993.
- Mulla, D. J., Bhatti, A. U., Hammond, M. W., and Benson, J. A. A comparison of winter wheat yield and quality under uniform versus spatially variable fertilizer management. Agric. Ecosys. Env. 38:301-311, 1992.
- Rossi, R. E., Mulla, D. J., Journel, A. G., and Franz, E. H. Geostatistical interpretation of ecological phenomena: Tools for modeling spatial dependence. Ecological Monographs 62:277-314, 1992.
Post Doctorate and Graduate Students
- Jacob Galzki, Research Fellow. Remote sensing, GIS, and modeling of erosion, runoff and agricultural conservation practices.
- Muhammad Tahir, Research Fellow. Modeling N losses to groundwater.
- Robin Sehler, PhD Grad student. Impacts of alfalfa on carbon cycling. Committee Co-Chair.
- Saliha Maqbool, PhD Grad student. Remote sensing for soil conservation. Committee Chair.