A groundbreaking ceremony for a new research facility at a university in Alabama was held earlier this week to celebrate a partnership between the school and an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Nov. 28 event at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. was hosted by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Auburn University's College of Agriculture and the Auburn Research and Technology Foundation, USDA reported at the time. The National Soil Dynamics Laboratory (NSDL) will have two buildings at the university's Research Park and two at another location near the university, according to the report.

"With these new buildings and the continuing cooperation with our research partners at Auburn University, we believe that the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory will continue to have a substantial positive impact on agriculture all over the world," Simon Liu, acting administrator for the ARS, said at the event, the announcement reports.

Conservation cropping systems, environmentally sound animal-waste management and global climate change will be studied in buildings "expertly designed for current research efforts," according to the USDA. Research will focus on improving poultry-production practices, controlling disease in cotton, upgrading forage production and using biochar in agriculture, the USDA reports.

"The National Soil Dynamics Laboratory and Auburn University scientists are considered national leaders in the development of economical and environmentally sound crop management systems for production agriculture in the Southeast," Allen Torbert, supervisory research soil scientist and research leader for the NDSL, said at the event, "and are leading the way in the new national focus on soil and water quality to maintain the productivity of our nation's farms."