Quantification of Climate Variability, Adaptation and Mitigation for Agricultural Sustainability

Dr. Claudio Stöckle’s research is in the Land, Air, Water Resources and Environmental Engineering (LAWREE) research emphasis area. His focus is on the development and application of analytical tools to study, understand and manage the interaction between soil, weather, and crops. He is particularly interested in modeling the environmental impact of agricultural production at the field and water shed levels and in further enhancement and support of the Agricultural Crop Systems Modeling Software (CropSyst) he as developed.

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed is Assistant Professor at PMAS, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Pakistan. His research focuses on the impact of climate change on crop ecology and rainfed ecosystem management. He is involved in the use of statistical and dynamic models as risk management tools to mitigate the challenges of changing climate. Now a days he is working as Post Doctorate Research Associate in Department of Biological Systems Engineering Washington State University, Pullman in USDA NIFA-funded project “Regional Approaches to Climate Change for Pacific Northwest Agriculture”. He is involved in the regional assessment of yields, water and carbon footprint for baseline and future climatic conditions using multimodel ensemble approach. He is involved in the models (APSIM, CropSyst, DSSAT, EPIC & STICS) calibration, validation and sensitivity analysis for wheat based cropping system in PNW USA as well as regional assessment of yields, water and carbon footprint for baseline and future climatic conditions using RCP 4.5 and 8.5 under 14 GCMs. This will ultimately help to design management options for winter wheat crop yield sustainability under climate variability and provide risk management analysis. He is also interested to work on modelling biomass flows at landscape level and the dynamics of organic matter in soil.

His research interest includes studying response of cropping systems, soil water and nutrient dynamics under rainfed region to optimize crop yield under climate variability. Ahmed conducted research on abiotic stress, Si fertilization, nutrient use efficiency, forecasting using climatic drivers, dryland management, crop production under changing climate and simulation modeling. He completed one project as PI to investigate Si as potential fertilizer to increase drought tolerance in crops. He has been co PI on two HEC Pakistan projects, one completed and one ongoing, studying carbon footprints using CENTURY model. In 2011-12 he won APCC Young scientist Scholarship and worked on Climate Variability and Predictability for Rainfed Areas of South Asia