Research Focus Area: Sustainability
Posted on Apr 29, 2009 in Uncategorized | Comments Off
For a bioenergy economy to positively impact the United States, we must address complex issues in agricultural, industrial, environmental and behavioral systems. Within this area, the GLBRC will take a holistic approach to evaluating the economic and environmental sustainability of transforming biomass to biofuel.
G. Philip Robertson
Professor of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
A crop and soil scientist and ecosystem ecologist, Robertson focuses much of his research on the role that agriculture plays in greenhouse gas dynamics, and he is internationally known for his expertise in this area. Robertson has been the director of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) at the Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners, Mich., the only site in the national LTER network to focus on agriculture, for almost 20 years.
Assistant Professor of Agronomy, UW-Madison
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Ane is an expert on plant-microbe symbiotic interactions such as legume nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhiza. His goal is to dissect symbiotic signaling pathways in monocots that control the establishment of arbuscular mycorrhiza but also plant development and plant defense reactions. This research will allow us to improve the sustainability of biofuel production by taking a better advantage of symbiotic associations to reduce fertilizer inputs and pesticide applications.
University Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a sustainable Bioenergy economy
Gross’ research focuses on causes and consequences of plant diversity in grasslands and she is currently exploring these questions in native prairie-savannahs, restored prairies and agricultural systems. Much of her research has focused on experiments examining on variation in soil resources affect diversity in these communities. She is the Director of the Kellogg Biological Station and is overseeing the development of a pasture-based dairy program there and working to develop linkages between the research programs at KBS focusing on sustainable agriculture production for row crops (the KBS LTER), biofuels and pasture-based dairy production.
Professor, Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University
Focus area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Hamilton is interested in the biogeochemical and hydrological implications of alternative biofuel production systems. Soil water fluxes, nutrient cycling and export, and greenhouse gas exchanges with the atmosphere are among the primary topics of investigation, in the context of field-scale experiments at Kellogg Biological Station.
Laboratory Fellow, Joint Global Change Research Institute
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Univ. of Maryland
Focus area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Izaurralde is a soil scientist with research experience in areas of sustainable agriculture, soil fertility, biogeochemical modeling, and climate change impacts modeling. The goal of the modeling efforts is to develop a comprehensive framework that enables the analysis of biomass cropping in reference to land use requirements and competition, environmental consequences (e.g., water balance, nitrogen balance, carbon balance, and soil quality), and competing energy technologies.
Assistant Professor of Grassland Ecology, Agronomy Department, UW-Madison
Focus area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Jackson is examining how ecosystem services are influenced by diversity at many trophic levels. He is interested in finding ways to match biofuel cropping systems to environmental settings such that ecosystem services are optimized.
Associate Professor, Statistics in Agriculture Laboratory, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Kravchenko studies spatial variability of soil properties and plant characteristics relating carbon sequestration and agricultural sustainability. Her areas of expertise are spatial statistics and design and planning of experiments for agricultural research at multiple scales.
Professor of Entomology, Center for Integrated Plant Systems, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Landis is an expert on insect ecology and use of predators and parasitoids to enhance biological control of pests. His goal is to understand how different biofuels production systems may impact ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. His research examines the biodiversity responses of arthropod communities to biofuel production and the implications for the system sustainablity.
Assistant Professor of Plant Biology, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Lau’s research bridges community ecology and evolutionary biology to explore how plants respond to anthropogenic environmental changes. Her work uses environmental perturbations, such as biological invasions and climate change, as tools to study how abiotic and biotic selective agents affect the population biology of native species, species interactions, and the evolution of plant populations. She is particularly interested in studying indirect effects that occur when changes in the biotic or abiotic environment alter interactions between community members.
Assistant Professor, Kellogg Biological Station and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University
Focus area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
The Lennon Lab focuses on the biotic and abiotic factors that help maintain microbial diversity, along with the consequences of this diversity for ecosystem processes. His lab’s research uses a combination of simulation modeling, culture-based microbiology, molecular biology, and environmental sensors to elucidate linkages between microbial community structure and ecosystem functioning in aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
Associate Scientist, Engineering Physics
Director, UW-Madison Energy Institute, UW-Madison
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Meier is an environmental engineer who specializes in full life-cycle assessment of energy systems to evaluate economic feasibility, greenhouse gas emission, and the impacts of policy. Meier has authored multiple long-term resource planning models which uniquely account for net benefits from both supply-side and end-use technology investments.
Senior Research Scientist, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Post develops models of terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling and relationships of ecosystem dynamics to environmental, edaphic, and biological conditions. He is particularly expert on soil carbon dynamics, nutrient relationships between soil and vegetation, and the impact of species composition on ecosystem biogeochemistry. He has developed new approaches to representing the impact of land-use change, and climate change in terrestrial biogeochemistry models and also developed global data sets for the evaluation of global terrestrial biogeochemistry models.
Professor of Biological Systems Engineering, UW-Madison
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Reinemann directs the University of Wisconsin Milking Research and Instruction Lab (www.uwex.edu/uwmril). His research and teaching interests include issues at the interface of energy and agriculture, machine milking, biomechanics and electro-pathology. He is affiliated with the Agro-ecology Program and the Dairy Science Department in the College of Agriculture and Life Science, the Energy Analysis and Policy Program in the UW’s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Professor of Plant Biology, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Schemske studies the ecological genetics of adaption and speciation. His work addresses the ecological factors that contribute to adaptation and speciation, and the genetic basis of these factors. He is also interested in conservation biology, the role of habitat restoration in biofuels production systems and the management of invasive species.
Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Schmidt’s research is focused on ecosystem services provided by microbial communities in soil, and understanding the factors that drive the composition of these communities. Metagenomics, molecular surveys and novel culture-based approaches are all incorporated into this research program. Particular attention is being directed to the subset of the microbial community involved in the production and consumption of greenhouse gases.
Professor of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Swinton specializes in the economics of agricultural and ecosystem management. The foci of his GLBRC research are 1) to predict how cellulosic ethanol processing technology will affect the production decisions of agricultural and forest managers, 2) to assess how those changed decisions will affect the value ecosystem services from these landscapes, and 3) to evaluate how policy interventions can enhance sustainable management and societal welfare.
Associate Professor, Crop & Soil Sciences, Crop Systems Agronomist Laboratory, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Thelen’s research program is focused on applied issues pertinent to the North Central Corn-Belt. As a cropping systems agronomist, Thelen has conducted research on a wide range of crop production aspects including: bioenergy crop production, utility and assessment of marginal lands for biofuel crop production; management, landscape and soil affects on biofuel crop quality; development of an NIR calibration equation for quantifying ethanol yield from corn grain; carbon cycling in complete biomass removal cropping systems; integrating canola into Michigan cropping systems; tillage systems, weed control, rotational aspects, in-field plant arrangement, soil variability affects on yield, environmental aspects, and precision agriculture.
University Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University
Focus Area: Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Economy
Productive, low cost, and sustainable biofuel crops will require supportive soil microbial communities. This is especially the case for their growth on marginal lands, the most likely to be used for biofuels. Tiedje’s goal is to identify the genetic composition of such beneficial communities and eventually to learn how to manage the soil-plant system to ensure this benefit. Initially Tiedje’s lab will use metagenomics and metatranscriptomics of switchgrass rhizospheres growing in different soils and climatic conditions to determine the gene and expression sets selected by productive plants.
View an alphabetical list of GLBRC project leaders here
