MRI: Acquisition of Gas fluxes and Analyzers to Strengthen Interdisciplinary Research and Education at Murray State University

An award is made to Murray State University (MSU) to study the effects of changing climate on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in wetland and upland ecosystems. Given the climatic importance of the production and consumption of GHGs on land, this project will raise public awareness in protecting the local environment through monitoring and model development.

The project will improve infrastructure at MSU for multidisciplinary research, training, and teaching of MSU students. This infrastructure will allow MSU faculty to conduct innovative research and increase student participation in cutting edge scientific inquiry. The system acquired through this research will be integrated into the curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate courses, including 6 courses being taught by the project team across the Earth and Environmental Sciences and Biology Departments, to provide enhanced training and teaching activities for more than 100 MSU students each year.

The acquisition of the equipment will strengthen the project team abilities to attract women, first generation, and underrepresented students to the field and provide them with opportunities to strengthen their research skills and foster the development of successful future scientists. The research results will be disseminated to the public through web-based interactive activities in local farmer’s markets and MSU national public radio to help the public understand the carbon cycle.

The equipment supported by this project will allow for real-time analysis of the soil-vegetation-atmosphere of GHGs exchanges including canopy carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and methane (CH4), and soil CO2, H2O, CH4, and nitrogen oxide (N2O). The soil CO2, O2, and CH4 sensors, co-located with gas analyzer systems and installed at different depths, yields insight into below ground reactions that produce or consume GHG.

This integrated system will be used on research projects ranging from plant physiology, ecology, climate change to combined soil-vegetation atmosphere interactions. Specifically, the system will be used to address questions related to climate change effects on GHG exchange in a wetland ecosystem, soil greenhouse emissions in hydric soils, tree stem CH4 and N2O emissions, and variability of soil greenhouse gasses concentrations.

The acquisition will allow the project team to conduct cutting-edge research projects that would be otherwise impossible at MSU. It will elevate student active learning and research experience and faculty research productivity.

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.