RESEARCH AREAS
Global
Change
The spatial and time-scale impacts of global change on agriculture, particularly
in arid regions of the world, are not well understood. Yet this information
is a fundamental requirement for future land and water use planning. Current
research topics include
- The investigation
of how climatic and soil factors impact on agriculture in arid and semiarid
regions. Specifically, this research addresses how agriculture systems
affect the global environment through the release of trace gases and
altered carbon cycles, as well as soil-plant-atmosphere boundary effects
on the global environment, including evapotranspiration (Matthias).
- A large
NASA project aimed at monitoring changes in the Earth's environment
through the use of satellite-based sensors. Specific impacts under investigation
include deforestation processes, land-use changes, and desertification
processes in semi-arid regions (Huete).
- Satellite
technology is also being used to monitor the surface energy and water
balance of rangelands and agricultural lands on semi-arid regions (Moran,
(adjunct faculty)). These data will be coupled with plant growth models
to better understand water usage and plant production in such systems.
- The operation of AZMET which has collected weather and rainfall information for southern Arizona for the last 20 years (Brown). This database is a potentially useful tool in studying global change.