Francisco Munoz-Arriola, along with four other professors, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Training (NRT) to establish a graduate training program focused on understanding the resilience of agricultural systems.
The project, “Training in Theory and Application of Cross-scale Resilience in Agriculturally Dominated Social Ecological Systems,” aims to better understand the Platte River Basin's ability to resist damage from outside threats such as pollution, pests and drought.
"The engineering perspective of this project will contribute to design strategies for rapid recovery of water-stressed and energy-demanding agricultural landscapes," Munoz-Arriola said. "Also, we will utilize resilience and panarchy theory, adaptive management, novel sensing technologies and modeling, and policy interventions."
The program is designed to train doctoral and master's students from Natural Resources, Environmental Science, Agronomy, Entomology, Plant Sciences, Geosciences, Biological Systems Engineering, Computer Sciences and Public Policy.
"Trainees will engage with external partners from the agricultural industry, government agencies and other organizations that have an interest and stake in maintaining productive agricultural systems," Munoz-Arriola said. "This broad graduate training will help develop a workforce and agricultural industry better capable of managing future demands on food, energy and water systems."
Principal investigators of the project are Craig Allen, Sebastian Elbaum, Nancy Shank, Dirac Twidwell and Munoz-Arriola.
UNL was one of six institutions leading NRT-INFEWS awards this year.