An Integrated Socio-economic and Biophysical Framework for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under Agricultural Water Management Systems in Eastern Canada

Presentation Outline and Workshop Objectives What is the AGGP Phase II project? Research team members Background to the project – Phase I Purpose of today’s workshop and what we wish to achieve – Present the Work Plan Wrap-up and summary Next steps

AGGP Phase II An Integrated Socio-economic and Biophysical Framework for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under Agricultural Water Management Systems in Eastern Canada This project addresses the Agricultural Water Use Efficiency priority of the AGGP. It aims to investigate the effects of different beneficial water management systems in Eastern Canada on GHG emissions and the adoption of these BMPs by farmers in the region. The principal objective is to identify, develop and disseminate information for beneficial water management practices which simultaneously reduces GHG emissions, increases agricultural productivity and produces environmental co-benefits. The project is driven by Canada’s commitment to reduce GHG emissions and in order to adapt to global climate change. It builds on a successful Phase 1 where we developed very extensive partnerships with agricultural producers, producers’ organizations, universities (McGill, Dalhousie, Saskatchewan and Guelph), and federal and provincial stakeholders in the Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario.

Research Team: C. Madramootoo, Principal Investigator (McGill) J. Whalen (McGill) V. Adamchuk (McGill) Abdolhamid Shafaroud Akbarzadeh (McGill) Zhiming Qi (McGill) C. Tan, T. Zhang (AFFC-Harrow) A. Fredeen, Y. Papadopoulos (Dalhousie and AAFC-Truro) S. Kulshreshtha (Saskatchewan) Asim Biswas (Guelph)

Bolstering the Socio-Economic Component Professor Nicoleta Uzea (McGill-TBC) Professor Aurelie Harou (McGill-TBC) Professor Suren Kulshreshtha (Univ. Saskatchewan) Mfon Essien (PhD student, McGill) Rene Roy (McGill)

Phase I Emphasis on Biophysical Monitoring Provided an extensive database on GHG emissions under various soil, water and crop conditions

Experimental Sites (2012-2016) Phase I Experimental Sites (2012-2016) Québec CANADA St. Louis de Blandford Ontario Macdonald Campus Truro St. Emmanuel Harrow Hallow Marsh Sherrington Nova Scotia U S A Leamington

Research sites and treatments – Phase I St Emmanuel (QC) Free drainage, Controlled drainage Corn Sherrington (QC) Surface irrigation, No irrigation Mineral soil, Intermediate soil Onion St-Louis-de-Blanford (QC) Well drained field, Flooded field Natural bog Cranberry Leamington (ON) Tile drainage Surface drip, Buried drip irrigation Tomato Harrow (ON) Water table management Variable fertilizer/manure application Corn/soya Truro (NS) Free drainage, controlled drainage, irrigation Pasture

Collaborating Producers - Phase I

Collaborating Agencies – Phase I

Field data collection – Built an extensive georeferenced database in CenterStage

N2O Emissions - 2014

CO2 Emissions - 2013

CH4 Emission - 2013

CH4 Emission - 2014

Key Findings From Phase I Precipitation, fertilizer rates and timing, and soil type highly influenced emissions of N2O and CO2. Method of irrigation had lesser of an impact on gas fluxes. We found large variances in gas emissions from adjacent chambers in irrigated vegetable fields located on organic soils. CH4 fluxes remained close to zero, indicating a balance of methane production and oxidation processes. An economic analysis revealed that water management systems, increased crop yield, crop and soil quality, and has the potential to reduce both atmospheric GHG emissions (N2O and CO2), and nutrient loading in watershed which improves water quality by over 50%. Reduction of GHG emissions alone are not sufficient for farmers to implement water management BMPSs.

Impacts: Total number of papers and journal articles = 32 Total number of presentations given at conferences or meetings = 36 Total number of students trained (BSc, MSc, PhD) = 29 Total number of methodologies and BMPs developed = 11 Numerous presentations at national and international conferences and workshops

Going from Phase I to Phase II In order for farmers to adopt water management BMPs, it is imperative to evaluate the water management systems and present results of all the co-benefits (improved water quality, farm profitability, increased agricultural productivity, increased water availability, and reduced farmer vulnerability).

The Phase II Study will have three well defined components: Socio-economic and modelling components which will build upon biophysical and other measurements in the following agro-ecological zones of eastern Canada: St. Emmanuel (Quebec), Harrow (Ontario), Holland Marsh (Ontario), Truro (Nova Scotia), Sherrington (Quebec), and Macdonald Campus Farm (Quebec). Using the biophysical database from Phase 1, we propose to develop a rigorous process-based model relating GHG emissions to water use, agronomic practices, soil properties, and environmental parameters. This model will be used to better understand and explain spatial and temporal GHG emissions and to advise an improved GHG sampling strategy for the field based measurements in the different water management systems A more in-depth field study on soil microbial processes will be conducted in order to understand how these processes influence C:N cycling and carbon sequestration in the soil profile and their impact on N2O and CO2 production under different water use (sprinkler irrigation and controlled drainage/sub-irrigation), crop (vegetable, cereal and dairy pasture) and soil type (mineral and organic).

Need to achieve impact and satisfy AAFC goals A multidisciplinary and collaborative approach will establish links between stakeholders, and build a world-class research and technology transfer network along the knowledge continuum. Integrate more closely with agricultural producers in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario to achieve broader impact and to determine the policy drivers for technology adoption

Work Plan Activity # Description 1 Project start-up and inception 2 Recruitment, retention and training of HQP –2017 3 HQP training and knowledge dissemination completed -2019 4 Recruitment, retention and training of HQP – 2019 5 HQP training and knowledge dissemination completed -2021 6 Socio-Economic model development - 2017-2020 7 Biophysical computational model development -2017-2021 8 Annual installation of field equipment – 2017-2020 9 Annual Biophysical data collection – 2017-2021 10 Annual Socio-economic data collection -2017-2021 11 Analyze biophysical data – 2017-2021 12 Analyze socio-economic data – 2019-2021 13 Annual meeting with producers, stakeholders to review data 14 Annual implementation and testing of refined BMPs with producers 15 Prepare and present final report to AAFC - 2021

Milestone 3. Socio-Economic model development Activity 3.1 Data collection to model and develop whole farm budget (January 2017-March 2018) 3.2 Hold farmer and stakeholder workshops (January 2017-March 2018) 3.3 Developing life cycle analysis model using data collected in Phase 1 and in the first two years of the project (January 2017-December 2018) 3.4 Developing multi-criteria analysis model (January 2018-December 2018) 3.5 Developing DSSAT model (January 2019-March 2020) Deliverable 3. Robust economic and environmental evaluation of beneficial water management systems

Milestone 4. Computational model development Activity 4.1 Spatio-temporal analysis of GHG emissions data collected in Phase 1 (January 2017- December 2019) 4.2 Developing a biophysical-based GHG emission management tool using the findings in the Phase 1 (January 2017-December 2020) 4.3 Developing a robust hybrid metamodel for the prediction of GHG emissions (January 2018-December 2020) 4.4 Determining BMPs to mitigate GHG emissions while maximizing economic crop yields (January 2018-March 2021) Deliverable 4. Development of a robust hybrid deterministic-statistical methodology to analyze the experimental data of GHG emission measurements, precisely predicting agricultural GHG emissions in both temporal and spatial domains, and development of a biophysical model to simulate GHG emission under alternativemanagement practices. The developed computational model will not only analyze and predict the GHG emissions, but will also analyze the economic impact of the proposed technologies/methodologies for the mitigation of GHG emissions.

Milestone7. Socio-economic data gathering Activity 7.1 First season of economic data collection (January 2017-March 2018) 7.2 Second season of economic data collection (April 2018-March 2019) 7.3 Third season of economic data collection (April 2019-March 2020) 7.4 Fourth season of economic data collection (April 2020-March 2021) Deliverable 7. Collection of farm level data (i.e., farm size, farm characteristics, farmers opinion, farm practices)

Milestone 9. Analyze socio-economic data Activity 9.1 Distribution of questionnaires and surveys and the analysis of the data collected (October 2019-March 2021) Deliverable 9. Results of regression analysis leading to the understanding of the adoption determinants in each region of the beneficial water management practices under each specific crop.

Picarro model G2201-I Dual Carbon Isotope Analyzer (δ13C in CO2 and CH4). The Picarro G2508 gas concentration analyzer radically simplifies soil flux studies by simultaneously measuring five gases―N2O, CH4, CO2, NH3 and H2O―in real-time to provide a complete picture of greenhouse gas soil emissions.

Workshop Objectives What is the AGGP Phase II project? Research team members Background to the project – Phase I Purpose of today’s workshop and what we wish to achieve – Present the Work Plan Wrap-up and summary – Need detailed budgets for April 2017-March 2018 Next steps – Partnership agreements with Guelph, Sask, Dalhousie

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