Project Number: 5409-11000-002-12
Project Type: Specific C/A

Start Date: Aug 01, 2002
End Date: Jul 31, 2007

Objective:
As large areas of CRP land approach the end of 10-year contracts, farmers may look to alternative options for their land. What are the consequences of these various options, in terms of seasonal and long-term carbon and water balance of shortgrass prairie ecosystems and interactions with the regional atmosphere?

Approach:
Specific aims of this proposal include: To measure and contrast the carbon and water dynamics, at hourly to inter-annual time-scales, associated with a range of CRP land use trajectories in shorgrass prairie ecosystems; to determine the impacts on carbon sequestration, hydrological dynamics and water use efficiency associated with grazing of shortgrass prairies and conversion to low-till agrilcutural systems; to examine the effect of alternative land-use options in the Great Plains on the 2-way interactions between terrestrial ecosystems and the regional atmosphere in an integral modeling system; to contribute to, and benefit from, parallel research activities focused on regional and continental carbon balance and the mechanisms of carbon sequestration in managed ecosystems.

Project Team

Morgan, Jack Reeder, Jean Keith Paustian - Professor 307-772-2433

Project Annual Reports

FY 2003

Related National Programs

Global Change (204)   Rangeland, Pasture, and Forages (205)