This interdisciplinary project will explore the relationship between soil, climate and production variables in predicting agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. swine production. The study takes Wisconsin swine production systems as a test case for calibrating and implementing regionally appropriate predictive modeling, and will involve three phases of research. Phase I will involve collection of regional soil, climate, and production practice data, and modeling of greenhouse gas emissions associated with field application of manure under various regionally relevant combinations of environmental and production variables. Phase II will involve model validation and calibration through on-site gas flux measurement at Wisconsin farming operations. Phase III will incorporate results into development of a regionally appropriate decision support tool to facilitate farm-level improvement and innovation in sustainable practices. Results will be incorporated into a nationwide Life Cycle Assessment of the U.S. swine and pork industry.
Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas production, and significant investments have been made to quantify and model greenhouse gas production in the form of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for various agricultural products. While current LCAs provide accurate large-scale averages, they do not account for the variety of ecologies and farming practices that shape local agricultural landscapes, and therefore do not inform the management practices of individual farmers. Through collaboration with researchers in LCA modeling and in knowledge systems for sustainable landscape management, together with industry partners, this work will address the need for spatially explicit decision support capacity in the management of agricultural landscapes. The proposed Wisconsin swine production test case will serve as a model for similar approaches in other regions and other agricultural sectors.
The proposed work will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in sustainability science by aligning with the ?Ag School in Every Community? initiative, focusing on the integration of the proposed research with curriculum development in local high schools. The impact and relevance of the research will be enhanced by the civic agency approach to integrating the participation of educators, producers, and researchers in addressing the challenges of agricultural sustainability.
This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.
