Since September 2017, I have been working on grazing effects in greenhouse gas emission in the Canadian Prairies. I am using molecular techniques (soil microbial community analysis) to identify the GHG efficient grazing system in Canadian Prairie.

Agriculture, particularly cattle production is responsible for the emission of large volumes of greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to climate change. Grasslands are known to hold large amounts of carbon in their soil and are used extensively for grazing livestock. Due to the large areal coverage of grasslands globally, small management changes that enhance of carbon storage could lead to large reductions in GHG. Thus, methods to reduce and sequester GHG through cattle management are being sought to reduce the environmental footprint of beef production. Adaptive Multi-paddock (AMP) grazing, a grazing management system that places cattle in small pastures at high densities for short periods of time has been proposed as an alternative to traditional grazing practices, in which cattle are managed at lower densities, that will reduce GHG through increased plant growth and activity of soil microorganisms.  While soil microbes are a vital component of grassland ecosystems, play a major role in carbon and nitrogen cycling, and affect greenhouse gas emissions from soil. Soil microbial response and subsequent effects on GHG to AMP grazing is understudied. I will work with ranchers across the Canadian Prairies who are practicing traditional and AMP grazing systems to sample soils from their pastures. In order to evaluate the benefits of AMP for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gases and discern some of the underlying processes through which microorganisms contribute to these changes. I will examine the soil microbial community using a variety of molecular techniques and relate this data to measurements of GHG emissions from soils and carbon pools. This project will evaluate the claim that AMP grazing increases soil carbon and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. If AMP grazing successfully increases soil carbon, it will present a new management tool for reducing GHG and climate change. For cattle producers, this will likely be linked to increased cattle production and profits. For Canada, such innovation will help the country to meet its GHG reduction targets and goals.