Mark Walbridge, national program leader for the USDA/Agricultural Research Service's Water Availability & Watershed Management national research program, will present "Long-term Agro-ecosystem Research: Sustainably Intensifying Production to Meet Future Demands for Agricultural Products" at 3:30 p.m., Oct. 1 in the Hardin Hall auditorium (room 107).
As the 21st century unfolds, agriculture faces significant challenges, both in the U.S. and throughout the world, to: produce enough food, fiber, feed and fuel to support a global population now estimated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, to do so without depleting our natural resources or degrading our environment, and accomplish these goals against a background of changes in climate that are expected to alter the very patterns of temperature and precipitation on which the world’s food production systems depend. It’s estimated that the amount of agricultural production needed over the next 35 years to meet these challenges is larger than the total amount of agricultural production over the course of human history in the past. These challenges threaten our food security and the availability of fresh water for a variety of needs. One component of effectively meeting these challenges is to improve our understanding of the long-term dynamics of agricultural sustainability.
In 2012, using existing long-term research infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Agriculture established a Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network comprised of 10 sites, adding eight additional USDA and non-USDA sites to this network in early 2014. This seminar will describe the LTAR network in detail, discuss recent progress and future plans for the LTAR network, and explore ways that the LTAR network can help agriculture meet the significant challenges it faces over the next 30 – 50 years.
Since October 2006, Walbridge has served as the national program leader for the USDA/Agricultural Research Service’s Water Availability & Watershed Management national research program, Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Office of National Programs. He directs research at approximately 25 ARS laboratories throughout the U.S. He manages the Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research network (LTAR), ARS’s Benchmark Research Watersheds and research activities associated with the Conservation Effects Assessment Project.
From November 2008 to September 2009, he served as division chief for renewable energy, natural resources and environment in the Research, Education, and Extension Office (REEO) at the Office of the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics (REE), USDA, where he coordinated relevant research and science-based activities across REE mission agencies. Before coming to ARS, Walbridge was a program director for the National Science Foundation’s ecosystem studies program, professor and chair of the Department of Biology at West Virginia University and assistant/associate professor of biology/environmental science & policy at George Mason University. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Urban Ecosystems.
Walbridge holds bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of North Carolina. His research career focused on the ecology and biogeochemistry of freshwater wetland and forest ecosystems, with particular interest in the cycling of phosphorus and associated elements. He has published more than 25 papers in peer-reviewed literature.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/beui