Projects

This USDA-NIFA funded project is to develop a modeling framework (SWAT-DNDC) via incorporating algorithms from DNDC to enhance SWAT’s capability of simulating C/N cycling processes and GHG fluxes, to systematically evaluate the impacts of conservation practices on crop yield, water quality, and GHG emissions in the Corn Belt. We will leverage existing in situ observations, new field experiments, compiled regional-scale geospatial datasets, and in-stream hydrologic and water quality data from multiple sources to test SWAT-DNDC from site scale to CEAP watershed scale. We will perform scenario simulations of alternative conservation practices and climate change impacts in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) to inform best management practices for crop production, water quality, and GHG emissions in the Corn Belt.

Evaluating whether existing brackish groundwater resources can be used to sustain and even grow agricultural dominant economies brings to light the nexus between food, soil, and water systems in the THP. A holistic food, soil, and water assessment will help understand soil health and water quality impacts associated with augmenting water supplies with brackish groundwater resources and provide a geographic context where such augmentation is feasible for agriculture. This USDA-funded project seeks to develop a modeling framework for evaluating brackish groundwater as a nontraditional irrigation source through explicit recognition of the food-soil-water interlinkage and to evaluate the benefits of using brackish groundwater as an irrigation source, and the consequences on food, soil, and water. 

The objective of this NASA-funded project is to develop and test an Aquatic Ecosystem Carbon Monitoring System (AECMS) that integrates NASA remote sensing data, in situ measurements, and process-based modeling to monitor major organic C (OC) fluxes and stocks of inland waters. 

The Canada ECCC-funded project is to investigate the environmental factors (e.g., variable terrain, basin-wide land cover and land use practices, day-to-day weather, snowmelt rate and timing) responsible for modifying water flow and water quality dynamics in the upper St. John River basin (USJRB) to identify point and non-point source nutrient inputs and flows. Key to this study is the refinement, calibration, validation, and application of a process-based simulation of water quality accounting for both present-day and future changes in climate. 

This NSF-funded project develops, evaluates, and applies a model of the coupled Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) systems across the Corn and Cotton Belts of the Midwest, Southeast, and Great Plains. The study will evaluate food crops currently grown in these Belts as well as the potential for growing bioenergy crops on marginal land. The project will: (1) develop a FEW model framework that represents the coupled nature of food and bioenergy production and water and its responses to environmental forcings and human interventions; (2) enhance understanding of key feedback mechanisms within FEW systems; (3) determine potential thresholds in FEW systems that would indicate damage to the resilience of U.S. agriculture and water resources.