The University of Florida was awarded a $649,934 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to conduct research securing resilient food production and safeguarding ecosystem services in agroecosystems under increasing climate variability. The three-year award, made under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program, will fund determination of how precipitation variability, grazing, and land management regimes interact to affect soil greenhouse gas fluxes in subtropical grasslands managed for beef cattle production in Florida. Key products will include new greenhouse gas flux and plant-soil-microbial functional trait measurements to advance understanding of drivers and processes underlying greenhouse gas fluxes in managed grasslands. Results will be disseminated to stakeholders including ranch managers and agencies working with agricultural producers through extension activities and products. Sub-awardee Archbold Expeditions, Inc. will provide expertise in plant and community ecology and functional traits, maintaining precipitation manipulation infrastructure and measuring aboveground plant responses to support the research objectives.
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