MRI: Acquisition of a Soil Greenhouse Gas Flux Measurement System to Support Research in Coastal Ecology and Sustainable Agriculture

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An award is made to Clemson University to support the acquisition of a soil greenhouse gas flux measurement system. This system will fill needs for rapid, accurate, in-situ measures of important greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes. The instrument measures concentrations and soil efflux of water vapor, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and the especially potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide. Based at Clemson University's Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, the system will be deployed in field experiments designed to elucidate the role of sea level rise on coastal wetland ecosystem functioning and potential for feedbacks to climate. It also will be deployed at agricultural research stations across South Carolina to augment research on air and water pollution, fertilizer loss, and sustainable agriculture. This system will allow researchers to generate datasets and science with greatly improved accuracy, applicability, and scalability. The system will be used in projects that include undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers across a diverse team of researchers including women, first-generation college graduates, and underrepresented minorities in science. The instrument will also be used in new graduate classes that cover wetland ecology, coastal ecology, and biogeochemistry.Methane and nitrous oxide are powerful greenhouse gases that exert a significant radiative forcing on Earth's climate. Wetlands and agricultural systems are major sources globally, but the mechanisms driving their sources, sinks, and sensitivity to environmental drivers are poorly understood. This gap can be attributed largely to the difficulty in measuring these trace gases at the very low concentrations at which they occur in the environment and by barriers to sampling without artifacts. The acquisition of this soil gas flux measurement system will overcome these obstacles by providing excellent sensitivity and time resolution in a field deployable configuration. An array of multiplexed, automated soil flux chambers will allow for replicate measures of treatments in situ, thus enhancing statistical rigor and the strength of conclusions. Initial use of the system will be to augment ongoing, funded projects that assess the effects of saltwater intrusion on coastal forested wetlands, the rates and types of nitrogen losses from agricultural systems, the effects of restoring impounded wetlands and old rice fields on greenhouse gas emissions, and life cycle analysis of switchgrass production for biofuels. Data and analyses from these studies will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, presented at scientific meetings, and used in both educational and public outreach activities.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.