Carbon sequestration focus in Engineering
The College of Engineering has a number of faculty working in modeling, assessment, monitoring, measurement, or other kinds of carbon sequestration research.
Carbon sequestration and agricultural impacts
CSU faculty are leaders in measuring and modeling soil carbon and evaluating the impacts of agricultural management on carbon sequestration. Soil and Crop Sciences faculty work to integrate genetic diversity, improved soil quality, and efficient use of water resources into sustainable agroecosystems. Their research in a range of areas simultaneously tries to protect and conserve genetic and soil resources against deterioration and even improve them. This role is mandatory because the world’s rapidly increasing population places great pressure on land for food supplies and on environmental quality for human comfort and well-being.
Century Ecosystem Model
CSU faculty developed the Century Ecosystem Model, which is one of the most widely used models of soil carbon and nutrient cycling worldwide. Previous and ongoing research activities include basic studies of soil organic matter formation and cycling, analysis of soil carbon changes with different agricultural practices, field measurement and modeling of CO2, N2O and CH4 flux from soils, and modeling of soil carbon dynamics in agricultural, grassland and forest systems.
Economic and environmental assessments
CSU is collaborating on soil carbon research and modeling in Canada and in developing countries. Faculty are collaborating in combining economic models with ecosystem and soil carbon models to produce economic and environmental assessments of soil carbon sequestration potential. Research is being conducted in close collaboration with several federal agencies, including USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Economic Research Service (ERS) and the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).