Texas A&M University

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Participants from the Texas A & M University System include researchers at the Blackland Research Center (BRC), Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Department of Agricultural Economics and Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management. The Blackland Research Center staff focus on crop and environmental simulation modeling. EPIC, developed at the Blacklands, is widely used by other researchers and by a variety of federal (USDA-NRCS, USDA-ERS, U.S.EPA) and state agencies for estimating soil erosion, water quality, soil nutrient dynamics, yields and economics for different agricultural management systems and policy scenarios. Tools estimating pesticide runoff and leaching loss, incorporating Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are currently used in several state water plans. The Department of Soil and Crop Sciences has conducted research on managed and natural ecosystems across Texas, elucidating the impact of conservation tillage, crop species, intensity of cropping, and fertilization on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics. Studies of the movement of soil inorganic carbon into groundwater have provided comparative estimates of long-term carbon sequestration by organic and inorganic modes in Texas and Ohio. These foundational studies provide the framework for development of more precise carbon sequestration models under diverse soil, climate, and crop management systems. The Department of Agricultural Economics and the BRC have worked together to connect physical models to economic models for analysis of economic impacts and have devoted substantial effort to the investigation of the impacts of greenhouse gas mitigation on agriculture. Faculty there and at Iowa State and Colorado State are working together to place soil sequestration within the total array of agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation options including tree planting, and management of fertilization, cattle feeding, animal waste and rice cultivation. The Department maintains both a US-wide agricultural sector model (ASM) and a agriculture/forestry sector land use model (FASOM) which have been repeatedly used in government-sponsored greenhouse gas mitigation studies. The Texas Institute of Applied Environmental Research has worked closely with CARD and the BRC to analyze the impacts of agricultural and environmental policy on the environment and the agricultural economy. The Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management has studied grazing and fire effects on soil carbon and developed decision tools to estimate their impacts on rangeland productivity and health.

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CASMGS is funded by: