This research responds to the need to make rice growing more sustainable. Globally rice is the staple food of over 3 billion people yet consumes significant water resources and contributes 10% of anthropogenic methane to the atmosphere. The PI has the long-term career goal to develop sustainable, climate-smart irrigation strategies for rice production while significantly contributing to the education of the next generation of scientists and agricultural professionals. The research objective is to quantify the climate impact of water-saving irrigation strategies, to test their potential scalability, and to encourage more wide-spread implementation of these practices.
The irrigation practices to be studied create less frequent field inundation, thus they significantly reduce methane that would be produced under flooded conditions (33-98% reductions in methane emission). The research aims to integrate micrometeorological flux observations, rice harvest data, and irrigation practice information to optimize (1) the net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over a growing season and (2) rice yields, with net reduced costs. The education objective of this proposal is to advance the Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) initiative, which is a regionally important project-based, service learning program at middle and high schools. The PI will work with three EAST school programs to collect data useful to the research objectives and to generate a state map to model how changes in land cover can impact groundwater levels and greenhouse gas emissions. This program will help students engage with geospatial science, provide awareness of food and agriculture-related careers and higher education opportunities, and expand perceptions of the food-energy-water nexus.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
