Location: Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research
Project Number: 3012-12210-001-026-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Mar 22, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2031
Objective:
The information below is a current summary of a larger evolving workplan. This research is supported through an initial IAA for equipment to measuring greenhouse gas emissions from plot to field scale in agricultural lands and grasslands.
As part of ARSs contribution to the Inflation Reduction Act-National Resource Conservation Service-Greenhouse Gas Reduction (IRA-NRCS-GHG) effort’s Action Area 2 (AA#2) Cropland GHG emissions team, the Plains Area (PA) is charged with measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural management practices on croplands.
As one of the network sites, research in Colorado will focus on GHG emissions from row crops under rotational and N management conservation practices. The proposed research will facilitate the quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from practices that address multiple Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Practice Standards (CPS). Plains Area is charged with quantifying 4Rs of nitrogen management strategies (CPS 590), use of cover crops (CPS 340), reduced tillage (CPS 345), crop residue management (CPS 329) techniques, and land converted to grassland (CPS 550). Quantifying GHG emissions from these practices compared to prevailing agricultural methods in semi-arid to arid environments will help to inform decision making models for NRCS. We plan to work closely with Action Area #3: Data Management Infrastructure & Capacity and Action Area #4: Models and Tools for Assessing Outcomes to ensure relevant and useful data contributions for modeling outcomes.
Approach:
The Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research Unit (SMSBRU) has existing and historic GHG emission research studies on 4R-N management under irrigated no-tillage continuous corn rotations. In collaboration with other research Units at the Center for Agricultural Research they examine best-management N practices including fixed N applications with precision N in rainfed and irrigated (limited and full) experiments at the plot level measured with static chambers. SMSBRU also has dryland wheat research under aspirational (wheat-corn-millet-fallow-NT) versus business-as-usual (wheat-fallow-Reduced till) management under tillage winter wheat rotations monitored by eddy covariance. All locations have current infrastructure for chamber and/or eddy covariance tower measurements including static chambers, sample data pipelines, and operational in-house gas chromatographs that can analyze N2O, CH4, and CO2. New equipment will enhance molecular species (NH4, NOx), spatial and temporal coverage and scaling of management treatments.
