Bruce Kimball Research Leader

Natural plant communities and domesticated agriculture face unknown challenges caused by man-made changes in the global environment.  Rapidly rising concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and increasingly stringent restrictions on the quantity and quality of water available for crop production raise legitimate concerns about potentially harmful changes in water supplies and global climate.  Commercialization of new crops to provide renewable raw materials for industry is desirable to strengthen the farming community's economics.  The Environmental and Plant Dynamics Research Unit is structured to solve critical problems caused by water supply shortages and global environmental changes and how they affect agriculture now and in the future.  The aims of the multidisciplinary thrust are to increase plant water use efficiency and to conserve and improve agricultural water supplies.  The Environmental and Plant Dynamics Research Unit has three main research programs:  Remote Sensing, New Crops, and Carbon Dioxide-Climate.