The Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University intends to purchase a Li-Cor LI-7820 N2O/H2O and a LI-7810 CH4/CO2/H2O trace gas analyzers. The instruments enable CSU to characterize greenehouse gas emissions (GHG) to benchmark the emissions footprint of irrigated production systems, clarifying the implications and impacts of stewardshiporiented management on agricultural emissions, water resources, and climate resilience using two popular programs, Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) and Master Irrigator (MI). TAPS and MI originated respectively in 2016 and 2017 at opposite ends of the High Plains, and represent two proven methods for encouraging interactive peer learning and advanced conservation-oriented farm management. TAPS (taps.unl.edu) hosts growing season-length farming competitions to encourage and celebrate producers’ input use to analyze efficient and profitable farm management proficiency. MI is an annual, four-day highly interactive program designed to equip student irrigators with knowledge and social connections needed to pursue and achieve conservation-oriented management planning and goals. The research project requires portable and field durable soil gas flux and atmosppheric measurement equipment to gather CO2, CH4, N2O, and H2O measurements from soil under experimental field conditions. The project teams, hosted by Colorado State University are part of a five state collaboration, involving partners from Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. The collaborators will use Li-Cor trace gas analyzers to create standardized measurement protocols to collect GHG emission data from research locations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado in 2024 and future years of the project to evaluate how competitors farming practices affect GHG emissions.
Statewide