Jie Zhuang - US grants

ABSTRACT
0757267 ZHUANG, Jie, China-U.S. Workshop on Bioenergy Consequences of Global Environmental Change

This award supports the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) to convene a workshop and planning visit to be held in the fall of 2008 in Beijing in order to develop research collaborations around the multi-disciplinary themes of sustainable production of bioenergy crops, land-use change, carbon sequestration, water resources and ecological restoration. The U.S. PI is Dr. Jie Zhuang, Assistant Research Professor in the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) at UTK. The Chinese counterparts are Dr. YU, Guirui, Professor at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. JIANG, Guibin, Professor at the Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences (RCEES) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, both located in Beijing.

The proposed workshop follows a September 2007 workshop and a newly formed partnership between the UTK, IGSNRR and RCEES under the auspices of the China-U.S. Joint Research Center for Ecosystem and Environmental Change at UTK. The joint workshop is expected to catalyze new research relationships among partner institutes on ecosystem processes and management, environmental sustainability of bioenergy production, ecological foundations of water resources, and technologies for improvement of eco-environmental systems.

In addition to research, the workshop is expected to spur the establishment of a mechanism to bring students and junior researchers into cross-cultural, international research addressing bioenergy and environmental change. Other than UTK, the workshop includes a mix of U.S. representatives from Dartmouth, Purdue, the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The workshop includes five graduate students with related research interests.

0939920
Saylor

This award is for partial support of a U.S.-China Workshop on the Climate-Energy Nexus. The funds will be used primarily to support the travel and lodging of invited U.S. scientists to participate in the workshop, and also for publication costs. ORNL and the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) will host the workshop, which is to be held in November 2009 near UTK. Leading researchers from China have agreed to participate in this workshop. The workshop is targeted to facilitate the development of a U.S.-China partnership by establishing joint research and education programs that will explore (a) critical research and collaborative opportunities in global climate change, bioenergy sustainability, ecosystem management, and technologies and strategies for mitigating carbon dioxide emissions, (b) mechanisms for engaging students and junior researchers in cross-cultural international research on global climate change and renewable energy, and (c) preparation of a joint white paper to help guide future efforts to mitigate climate change and develop bioenergy resources.

1220731 (Zhuang). In agricultural food production, organic farming practice is an engineering approach that applies various methods, such as crop rotation, crop residue return, no-tillage and others, to realize goals of nutritional food, ecosystem health, and high soil productivity. This project will provide insightful information and evidence including evaluation criteria that helps farmers make optimized decisions on what agricultural engineering practices or their combinations should be adopted to maximize soil carbon sequestration and how climate and soil properties affect the effectiveness and potential of organic practices. Soil organic carbon sequestration has many benefits to soil health and food productivity. Due the dependence of agricultre on soil health, this resource is vital important to society. Adoption of organic or conservation practices in crop production can increase the input of organic matter (OM) into soil and thereby create great potential for prioritizing soil quality and preserving organic carbon (OC) in soils. Unfortunately, the mechanisms controlling the rate and capacity of OC accrual remain unclear. This research will use a novel integrated approach to examine an untested but potentially very important mechanism that controls the capacity and stability of carbon sequestration in nano-/micro-sized soil pores. It is hypothesized that a pore-mediated feedback between soil organic colloids, water, and nitrogen dominates the fate and storage of soil carbon in organic farming systems. Research objectives are to: (1) quantify the extent of OM pore-filling (encapsulation) under different organic or conservation practices as well as water hysteresis as affected by the size distribution of OM-filled soil pores; (2) evaluate the biodegradation of encapsulated OM and its contribution to soil respiration at different temperatures, nitrogen availabilities, and water contents; and (3) incorporate OM pore-filling, water hysteresis, and carbon-nitrogen interactions into a soil respiration model. Studies will be conducted using soil samples collected from two organically-managed agricultural sites that have different climatic and soil conditions. Research will focus on soil microaggregates because of their critical role in protecting OC against decomposition over the long term. Also examined will be bulk soil and silt/clay fractions for comparison. Pore-filling very likely represents a critical mechanism governing the potential of soil carbon sequestration in ecological systems (particularly in biomass-productive systems). This study will be the first to characterize pore-mediated carbon-water-nitrogen interactions in soils by using the complementary advantages of state-of-art small-angle scattering (SAS) technique and isotope-based molecular signature technique. The obtained results will clarify whether a feedback effect between soil OM and water with respect to the accessibility of biochemical agents that play a key role in controlling long-term soil carbon preservation in nano-/micro-sized pores. Data on dynamic changes of OM distribution in differently sized pores under different environmental conditions (e.g., temperature and water) will reveal relative susceptibility of soil OM to decomposition. Evaluation of the relationships between OM pore-filling and soil respiration will add new mechanistic information to a latest soil respiration model and clarify the conditions under which soil carbon accrual can be expected within affordable production costs. Comparative analysis of results obtained from a spectrum of agricultural sites in the U.S. and China will make this research applicable beyond the borders of the particular study sites. The research will benefit farmers by providing strategic guidance on adoption of organic or conservation practices for the purpose of simultaneously optimizing food production and quality, soil carbon sequestration, and resistance of crops to adverse environment. The project will provide education and technical training opportunities to at least three undergraduate students through bold thinking and hands-on experience in using novel techniques at national laboratories and in China. The multidisciplinary, international aspects of this research will prepare undergraduate students for graduate study and enhance their capacity and commitment in developing scientifically-sound strategies for sustainable agriculture and climate change mitigation. The project will facilitate future large-scale US-China collaboration on environmental sustainability research.

1649510
Zhuang, Jie

Food production is closely linked to energy consumption, water/soil resources, and ecosystem conditions. This workshop aims to develop an integrative research, education, and industry agenda for securing food production, producing clean energy, protecting water resources, and improving soil productivity while developing economy and social wellbeing. Conference sessions and panel discussions will address important issues from an international perspective.

Specific workshop topics include: (1) Food Security and Safety - The workshop will overview the existing problems and potential risks associated with food production in terms of the demands of food quantity and quality. New methods of characterizing the cycling processes of matter and energy in agroecosystems will be discussed; (2) Energy Efficiency and Impact - Workshop participants will discuss specific technologies and policies that offer the greatest possibility of high efficient utilization of fossil fuels and renewable energy resources including biomass and water. The workshop is expected to create international joint research teams to further investigate these issues from life cycle and multi-dimensional perspectives; (3) Water Efficiency and Recycling - Workshop participants will exchange technologies and perspectives on water-saving agriculture and wastewater utilization. In particular, urban storm water management will be addressed; (4) Soil Productivity and Remediation - The workshop will address the latest approaches to promoting soil fertility and productivity and safe use of contaminated arable lands for food or non-food purposes. A joint team is expected to be establish for developing modeling tools that could predict threshold values of contaminants (especially heavy metals) for ensuring food quality and ecosystem health.

Food production and quality are closely linked to use of energy and water and overall ecosystem health. As demand for food, energy, and water all increase due to increased population and changes in diet, it is essential to consider the balance of energy, water, and land resource uses to achieve food and nutrition security, economic goals, and essential ecosystem functions and services. Typical research projects are rather narrowly-focused and carried out by individual disciplines. However, in order to address broad challenges and enable sustainable solutions, collaboration among different disciplines is essential. This grant aims to increase the understanding among different academic disciplines in the US and China of approaches for addressing increasingly important challenges related to competition among food, energy, and water systems (FEWS). Typically, development of technologies, policies, and management systems for food, energy, and water systems are done without considering various tradeoffs that may occur, competing demands for resources for each of these basic human needs, and potential conflicts in policies that regulate each of them. The goal of this project is to enable networking and meetings among different science and engineering disciplines to identify food, energy, and water systems to be studied holistically so that increases in productivity and efficiency can be achieved for systems that provide for increasing demands for these resources. The project will enable scientists and engineers to develop teams to address specific FEW systems and to develop interdisciplinary concepts.

This project will support activities that will enable innovative ideas to be developed through interactions among different disciplines involved in various aspects of food, energy and water research. These will range from technological to social and policy innovations for FEWS program development beyond national borders, and contribute concepts for local, national and global solutions to achieve sustainable intensification of natural resource exploitation and use. The project will establish a US-China crosscutting research coordination network to (i) identify transdisciplinary environmental grand challenge research opportunities at the FEWS nexus, (ii) develop a framework to overcome hurdles to interdisciplinary research both between and among collaborating US and China researchers, and (iii) establish model platforms for education, training, communication and efficacy evaluations of the outputs of international cooperation. Over a 2-year period of strategic research planning, identification of grand challenges, and teaming workshops, FEWSTERN will generate technical whitepapers and guidance documents supporting international collaboration and research. US and Chinese graduate students will communicate project outcomes and goals via social media outlets. Novel system level research will generate opportunities for academia-industry partnerships at the FEWS nexus.

2021956 (Zhuang). Environmental change, population growth, and accelerating consumption of food, energy, and water (FEW) resources bring grand challenges for urban sustainability worldwide. Often lost in the challenges is the environmental relation to the FEW nexus and the environmental consequences of uncoordinated decision making due to lack of systems understanding of science and technology. Despite dramatic differences in economic and political structure, many countries share common FEW trajectories, a strong science and technology base, and a perceived commitment to urban environmental sustainability. Evolving global change merits the creation of a transdisciplinary international network to develop a global research agenda that addresses the impacts of regional and global FEW systems on urban sustainability as the world transitions from natural ecosystems to managed ecosystems at accelerating rates. The goal of this international Research Coordination Network (iRCN) is to chart a new path forward in developing urban sustainability and resiliency within the framework of the FEW nexus. This iRCN merges research networks existing among countries of different urbanization and income levels, including Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Netherlands, Tanzania, Uganda, Uruguay, and the U.S. The objectives of this iRCN are to (1) build a comprehensive FEW-system database to support global urban sustainability; (2) create a focused FEW network to inspire urban outreach and engagement programs; (3) facilitate the formation of multinational transdisciplinary research teams to address the interests of urban stakeholders; and (4) educate and train a future FEW workforce capable of implementing sustainable urban development.

Urban FEW networks are complex systems and emergent, and unpredictable properties are expected. No single group of disciplines can generate comprehensive understanding of the feedbacks and impacts of urban FEW manipulations and variations on the environment. This iRCN will bridge existing international and domestic FEW-system and relevant networks and partnerships in an effort to identify and refine urban FEW challenges, harmonize perspectives, generate opportunities for collaboration, and realize synergies of currently siloed and uncoordinated work for advancing a FEW-focused global agenda of sustainable urban development. The iRCN will facilitate transdisciplinary, multinational communications and accelerate the development and transfer of multisectoral data, standards, analysis tools, new technologies, and a trained workforce among differently urbanized countries. The iRCN will tackle the challenge of communicating science and technology to multinational stakeholders and policy-makers within a complex urban FEW network. Feedbacks from practitioners and the public will be incorporated into research agenda design and planning in order to converge on potential solutions to local problems with global scale implications. The network established through this iRCN will serve as a template for budding FEW-urban research initiatives in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia and help the less urbanized countries avoid traps and negative experiences during the transition to sustainable development. The iRCN will provide unique opportunities for international education, which include an honors student research program on the University of Tennessee campus, multiple study abroad programs for U.S. students, and an annual summer school in China, where U.S. students will interact with students from more than 20 countries. These efforts will contribute to developing a diverse, competitive, and globally engaged workforce, which can effectively communicate FEW-system grand challenges and solutions to the public and stakeholders and translate research innovations into practice across international borders. The iRCN will also provide a structured rationale for economic and environmental policy making.

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.