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Lisa Ainsworth's Laboratory

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Research

Optimizing Photosynthesis for Global Change and Improved Yield

The mission of the USDA ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit is to identify factors affecting food and bioenergy crops, with emphasis on global environmental change, and to utilize this information to provide new opportunities for solving emerging agronomic problems. Research addresses the major features limiting photosynthetic productivity of food and bioenergy crops in future environments of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations, ozone concentrations, temperature, and water stress. Current experiments are mapping QTL associated with CO2 response in soybean, testing the interactive effects of drought and ozone stress, and testing the potential for elevated CO2 to enhance rock weathering.

Circular Economy that Reimagines Corn Agriculture (CERCA)

The CERCA project aims to transform US grain farmland into a net-negative component of a circular bio-economy and reduce global greenhouse gases. One component of this is to develop cold-tolerant corn that can be grown as either an early spring or a winter annual crop, as opposed to its current use as a summer crop. This earlier planting date would mean avoiding extreme drought and heat events associated with the summer months, as well as increased light interception, which has been linked to increased yields. This shifting of corn seasonality could also improve nitrogen uptake, decreasing leaching and nitrous oxide emissions. Current research involves screening corn and their wild relatives for potential cold tolerance genes and pathways. 

Manufacturing ADvanced Electronics through Printing Using Bio-based and Locally Identifiable Compounds (MADE-PUBLIC)

The goal of MADE-PUBLIC is to enable a manufacturing supply chain from precision agriculture/hydroponics to advanced biodegradable and recyclable electronics. The project will lead to major science advances in precision growth of plants, manufacturing of tailored bio-based inks, and sustainable production of printable electronics. As a convergent research program, the project will further lead to value-added transferrable and scalable scientific advancements, including novel artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) algorithms for manufacturing, a framework for designing sustainable and systematically optimized manufacturing processes, and techniques for incorporating heterogeneous data into manufacturing data systems while automatically refining the models.

Optimizing Canopy Architecture and Photosynthesis in Soybean & Cowpea

Canopy architecture varies widely among diverse genotypes of soybean and cowpea, and can alter the light environment and photosynthetic capacity of leaves as well as the source-sink balance of crops. Thus, architecture traits have been indirect targets of selection as breeders have selected for greater yields. This research, associated with the Realizing Improvements in Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project, is modifying crop canopy architecture to maximize photosynthesis.

RockFACE

As part of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation, the RockFACE project investigates the potential of enhanced rock weathering (ERW) in a maize/soybean rotation under elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations that are forecasted for later this century. ERW is a CO2 removal strategy in which natural chemical weathering is accelerated via the application of finely milled silicate-based rocks to land or ocean. As CO2 and water react with these silicate rocks, dissolved bicarbonates are formed, in essence taking atmospheric CO2 and storing it instead in groundwater, and eventually oceans, where it remains locked-away for thousands of years. Learn more about ERW here.

 

Photo Credit: James Baltz