Agriculture in the SW is a challenge due to high temperatures and limited water resources, problems that are expected to intensify with climate change. We think that measuring and modeling agriculture at the edge of plant physiological limits can be predictive of future agro-ecosystem conditions, as well as inform sustainable use of water and nitrogen.
Sorghum is not a major food source for humans in the US, but it is a staple in its arid, native East Africa. Indeed, the fact that sorghum precursors evolved in the high elevation, arid plains of Ethiopia is evident today as drought hardiness traits in modern varieties. Growing arid adapted crops would seem to be a reasonable starting point to address concerns about food security and climate change.
Longer-term goals with my sorghum research include quantifying "sustainability" using greenhouse gas and water use metrics, and interacting with New Mexico producers to encourage sorghum grain production for human consumption. More immediately, we are using sorghum to ask basic questions about C storage in arid systems, and the importance of plant roots to soil C pools:
Can soil C stocks be increased with low intensity agriculture that is resilient to climate change?
Can an arid adapted crop like sorghum be leveraged for such a purpose?
I am working with researchers at Sandia National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University to understand within plant C dynamics that lead to increased root architecture and potentially increased soil C. There are many open questions related to what makes C persist in soils, the role of microbes in degrading or stabilizing soil C, and the influence of management practices like irrigation and N fertilization on roots and C inputs. We are trying to answer these questions with field measurements and modeling approaches.
Sorghum is not a major food source for humans in the US, but it is a staple in its arid, native East Africa. Indeed, the fact that sorghum precursors evolved in the high elevation, arid plains of Ethiopia is evident today as drought hardiness traits in modern varieties. Growing arid adapted crops would seem to be a reasonable starting point to address concerns about food security and climate change.
Longer-term goals with my sorghum research include quantifying "sustainability" using greenhouse gas and water use metrics, and interacting with New Mexico producers to encourage sorghum grain production for human consumption. More immediately, we are using sorghum to ask basic questions about C storage in arid systems, and the importance of plant roots to soil C pools:
Can soil C stocks be increased with low intensity agriculture that is resilient to climate change?
Can an arid adapted crop like sorghum be leveraged for such a purpose?
I am working with researchers at Sandia National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University to understand within plant C dynamics that lead to increased root architecture and potentially increased soil C. There are many open questions related to what makes C persist in soils, the role of microbes in degrading or stabilizing soil C, and the influence of management practices like irrigation and N fertilization on roots and C inputs. We are trying to answer these questions with field measurements and modeling approaches.
