Robert F Grant, PhD

Full Lecturer, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sci - Deans Office

Contact

Full Lecturer, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sci - Deans Office
Email
rgrant@ualberta.ca
Phone
(780) 492-6609
Address
430B Earth Sciences Building
11223 Saskatchewan Drive NW
Edmonton AB
T6G 2E3

Overview

About

Job/Research Area: Ecosystem Modelling. The Ecosys Modeling Project - An Interview with Robert Grant

Awards

  • Alberta Emerald Awards Order of Excellence - Finalist (2009)
  • Ed and Peggy Tyrchniewicz Award for Innovation in Teaching (2008)
  • McCalla Professor (2005)

Research

Major Responsibilities/Research Interests: Simulation modeling of physical, chemical and biological processes in soil-plant-atmosphere systems as a means of studying resource management and conservation in agricultural ecosystems under current or future climates.

Dr Grant is a participant in the Land Reclamation International Graduate School (LRIGS) program sponsored by NSERC CREATE.

Process-based ecosystem simulation models are needed to predict changes in terrestrial C and water cycles and in greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange under changing climate and land management. The development of such models is a stated objective of interdisciplinary research projects in which I participate, such as the Canada Carbon Project (CCP), the North America Carbon Project (NACP), the Climate Impacts on Canadian Arctic Tundra (CICAT - IPY), Arctic Development and Adaptation to Permafrost in Transition (ADAPT - NSERC) and NitroEurope. My research program is intended to meet these objectives by constructing and testing a comprehensive mathematical model (ecosys) of natural and managed ecosystems. 

The long-term objectives of my program are to provide a means to anticipate ecosystem response to hypothesized changes in environmental conditions (soils, climates and land management practices). These objectives require well-constrained testing of model response functions to changes in air temperature (Ta) and atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca) under diverse site conditions (soil types, plant species, disturbances and climates). I therefore propose during the next five years to test model hypotheses for responses of ecosystem-atmosphere GHG exchange and ecosystem productivity to changes in climate against measurements recorded during controlled changes in Ta and Ca as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE) managed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of the US Dept. of Energy. These experiments include NGEE Arctic on arctic tundra in Alaska, Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change (SPRUCE) on a spruce bog in northern Minnesota, and NGEE Tropics.

Featured Publications

Grant, R.F. Baldocchi, D.D. and Ma, S.

Agric. For Meteorol.. 2012 January; 152


Grant, R.F., Kimball, B.A., Conley, M.M, White, J.W., Wall, G.W., and Ottman, M.J.

Agron. J.. 2011 January; 103


Grant, R.F., Humphreys, E.R., Lafleur, P.M. and Dimitrov, D.D.

J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci.. 2011 January; 116


Dimitrov, D.D., Grant, R.F., LaFleur, P.M. and Humphreys, E.

JGR – Biogeosciences. 2011 January; 116


Richardson, A.D., Anderson, R.S., Arain, M.A., Barr, A.G., Bohrer, G., Chen, G., Chen, J.M., Ciais, P., Davis, K.J., Desai, A.R., Dietze, M.C., Dragoni, D., El Maayar, M., Garrity, S., Gough, C.M., Grant, R., Hollinger, D.Y., Margolis, H.A., McCaughey, H., Migliavacca, M., Monson, R.K., Munger, J.W., Poulter, B., Raczka, B.M., Ricciuto, D.M., Ryu, Y., Schaefer, K., Tian,H., Vargas, R., Verbeeck, H., Xiao, J. and Xue, Y.

Global Change Biology. 2011 January;


Wang, Z., Grant, R.F., Arain, A., Bernier, P., Chen, B., Chen, J., Coops, N., Govind, A., Guindon, L., Hember, R., Kurz, W.A., Peng, C., Price, D.T., Stinson, G., Sun, J., Trofymow, J.A. and Yeluripati, J.

Ecol. Model. 2011 January; 222


Grant, R.F., Jassal, R.S., Black, T.A. and Bruemmer, C

J. Geophys. Res.. 2010 January;


Dimitrov, D.D., Grant, R.F., LaFleur, P.M. and Humphreys, E

Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J.. 2010 January;


Dimitrov, D.D., Grant, R.F., LaFleur, P.M. and Humphreys, E.

Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J.. 2010 January; 74


Grant, R.F., Margolis, H.A., Barr, A.G., Black, T.A., Dunn, A.L., Bernier, P.Y. and Bergeron, O.

Tree Physiology. 2009 January; 29


Metivier, K.A., Pattey, E. and Grant, R.F.

Soil Biol. Biochem.. 2009 January; 4


Grant, R.F., Hutyra , L.R., de Oliveira, R.C., Munger, J.W., Saleska, S.R. and Wofsy, S.C

Ecological Applications. 2009 January; 79 (3):445–4638


Grant, R.F., Barr, A.G., Black, T.A., Margolis, H.A., Dunn, A.L., Metsaranta, J., Wang, S., McCaughey, J.H. and Bourque, C.P.-A.

Agric. For. Met.. 2009 January; 149


Grant, R.F. and E. Pattey

Global Biogeochem.. 2008 January; Cycles 22


Grant, R. F., and L. B. Flanagan

Geophys. Res.. 2007 January; 112


Grant R.F., Arkebauer T.J., Dobermann A., Hubbard K.G., Schimelfenig T.T., Suyker A.E., Verma S.B. and Walters, D.T.

Agronomy Journal. 2007 January; 99


Grant, R.F., Barr, A.G., Black, T.A. Iwashita, H. Kidson, J., McCaughey, H., Morgenstern, K., Murayama, S., Nesic, Z., Saigusa, N., Shashkov, A., and Zha, T.

Global Change Biol.. 2007 January; 13


Grant, R.F., Black, T.A., Humphreys, E.R., and Morgenstern, K

Tree Physiology.. 2007 January; 27