Bioenergy Crop Production and Agroecosystem Sustainability

Funded by USDA-NIFA [Award No. 2019-67024-29677]

"Sustainable Bioenergy Production and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services"

Project period: 06/01/2019 - 05/31/2023


Inquiries, question, or requests to:

Dr. Seong Yun

Project Director and Principal Investigator

seong.yun@msstate.edu

Project Summary

POLYSYS Simulation Model

Ecosystem Services Portfolio Analysis

Increasing bioenergy demand and energy security concerns have driven policy and research on bioenergy production and its link to sustainable agro-ecosystem management. Coupled agricultural production and agro-ecological systems models analyze multi-dimensional and complex processes: bioenergy production changes land use and thus reallocates ecosystem services. This project, funded by USDA-NIFA AFRI Foundational Program, aims to model spatially-explicit optimal bioenergy production systems given existing renewable fuel standards (RFS2) and emerging future demand for bioenergy as a jet fuel. We propose to extend modern portfolio theory (MPT) for use in sustainable agro-ecosystem management, agro-ecosystems are modeled as an ecosystem portfolio, landuse changes are investments, and bioenergy production and other ecosystem services are returns from these investment.This project is a collaborative teamwork with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University, the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, and the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Project Team

Agricultural Economics

Dr. Seong Yun

seong.yun@msstate.edu

Project Director and Principal Investigator

Department of Agricultural Economics

Mississippi State University

Dr. Matthew Interis

mginter@clemson.edu

Co-Principal Investigator

Colleage of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences

Clemson University

Dr. Daniel Petrolia

d.petrolia@msstate.edu

Co-Principal Investigator

Department of Agricultural Economics

Mississippi State University

Ecology

Dr. Scott Rush

scott.rush@msstate.edu

Co-Pricipal Investigator

Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Aquacuture

Mississippi State University

POLYSYS

Dr. Edward Yu

tyu1@utk.edu

Co-Principal Investigator

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Dr. Chad Hellwinckel

chellwin@utk.edu

Co-Principal Investigator

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Student Researcher

Ms. Tongtong Li

MS student

Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Mr. Tillman White

MS student

Department of Agricultural Economics

Mississippi State University

Mr. Duston Duffie

Graduate Researcher

Department of Wildlife, Fishereis & Aquaculture

Mississippi State University

Project Outputs

POLYSYS Simulation Outputs

R packages

R-package 'acdcR' designed to provide the functions to calculate the most widely-used county-level variables in agricultural production or agro-climatic and weather analyses. The recent version is directly available from the R-repository. For the developing or testing version, see: https://github.com/ysd2004/acdcR. 

R-package 'portn' is designed to provide the functions to find the efficient mean-variance frontier or portfolio weights for static portfolio (called Markowitz portfolio) analysis in resource economics or nature conservation. The recent version is directly available from the R-repository. For the developing or testing version, see: https://github.com/ysd2004/portn.