Around the world, land suitable for crops has become increasingly limited due to industrialized agricultural practices that deplete soils of carbon and nutrients needed for sustained crop productivity. Our scientists are developing new approaches to ensure the ‘agro ecosystem’ is resilient in a changing climate.

CESD scientists are investigating soil-plant-climate interactions in agro-ecosystems at multiple scales, from the microscopic to the regional. Our researchers are developing new sensors and experimental platforms designed to characterize root-soil interactions and other processes associated with agricultural soil-microbe-plant systems. 

In agricultural research, geophysical and remote sensing tools are providing new insights about soil-plant-microbe interactions that can be difficult to quantify using traditional sampling methods. To measure the impact of environmental and land-management change on these interactions, CESD scientists are also studying key dynamics important for understanding agriculture yield, soil health, root-growth dynamics, water demand and stress, and  the carbon footprint of different agricultural practices. Our focus is on the development of new sensing strategies and machine learning approaches to facilitate data fusion and integration, discovery, and predictive analysis.