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ARS Home » Plains Area » Mandan, North Dakota » Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory » Research » Research Project #426791

Research Project: Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Effectiveness through the GRA Croplands Greenhouse Gas Network (MAGGnet)

Location: Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory

Project Number: 3064-21660-004-001-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement

Start Date: May 1, 2014
End Date: Apr 30, 2019

Objective:
This project will quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of cropland management practices throughout the world using an established and expanding database coordinated by the Global Research Alliance (GRA) Croplands research group. To meet this goal, a Project Team of research scientists from seven countries has been assembled, each representing GRA member countries. The team will work collectively to gather, analyze, and disseminate relevant published GHG data from major agroecoregions throughout the world in order to identify promising mitigation strategies, potential ecosystem service tradeoffs associated with such strategies, and critical research gaps. Outcomes from this collaborative effort will also serve to improve predictive capabilities of process-based models. Specific objectives of this project include: 1) quantify the effectiveness of specific mitigation practices (e.g., fertilizer type/rate, tillage, crop rotation, residue management, cover crop, livestock integration, etc.) for arable-annual crops throughout the world using meta-analysis, 2) quantify potential tradeoffs in GHG mitigation and crop yield, 3) identify and communicate critical data gaps, and 4) facilitate communication and cooperation among member countries in GRA research groups to improve predictive capabilities of process-based models. Proposed activities will contribute key validation data to the GRA C/N Crosscutting Research Group, focused on modeling soil C and N dynamics in agricultural systems.

Approach:
The project will be conducted in phases: 1) retrieve additional data from member countries, 2) validate data and conduct analyses, 3) disseminate results, and 4) interface with C and N modeling objectives of the GRA Croplands research group and C/N Crosscutting research group to validate models and improve their predictive capabilities in a wide range of agroecoregions. Using input from partners in North and South America, Europe, and East Asia, a data entry spreadsheet encompassing background characteristics (e.g., climate, soil attributes, experimental treatments), major findings (e.g., soil C stocks, GHG flux, crop yield, etc.), and citations of journal articles associated with experimental sites will be the foundation of this project that will serve to provide meta-analysis, model validation, and incorporation into the developing Research Data Alliance (http://rd-alliance.org/).