Professor Emeritus at NC State University, Prof. Udo Blum is interested in characterizing and identifying the mechanisms by which allelopathic compounds, specifically phenolic acids (e.g., ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, vanillic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid), released into the soil environment may impact soil chemistry (e.g., soil nutrition, organic pools, sorption and desorption), soil microbiology (e.g., population biology, natural selection, carbon utilization), rhizosphere ecology (e.g., microbial population biology) and population biology (e.g., germination, seedling emergence) and physiology (e.g., mineral nutrition, carbon allocation, water relations, growth) of dicot weeds in no-till agroecosystems.