EPSCoR Research Fellows: NSF: Advancing Modeling of Crop-Atmosphere Interactions with Dynamic Representation of Photosynthetic Capacity

This Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) EPSCoR Research Fellows project provides a fellowship to an Assistant professor and training for graduate students at the Louisiana State University AgCenter. This work is conducted in collaboration with Cenlin He at National Center for Atmospheric Research. Through the fellowship, the PI will develop and implement a dynamic representation of photosynthetic capacity within the Noah-MP land surface model. The project integrates plant physiology, satellite remote sensing, machine learning, and land surface modeling to advance understanding of how crop physiological processes regulate exchanges of water and energy between croplands and the atmosphere. The fellowship will strengthen Louisiana's research capacity and education programs in digital agriculture, artificial intelligence, and process-based environmental modeling through collaboration with NCAR. It will provide interdisciplinary training for graduate students and contribute to the broader scientific community by producing openly available datasets, and modeling tools that facilitate continued advances in crop and land–atmosphere modeling. This project will develop and evaluate a dynamic representation of photosynthetic capacity within the Noah-MP land surface model to improve simulations of crop–atmosphere interactions. The project will advance crop–atmosphere modeling by introducing an observation-informed framework that represents spatial and temporal variability in photosynthetic capacity rather than treating it as a static crop parameter. Satellite observations, combined with machine learning and eddy covariance measurements, will be used to quantify photosynthetic capacity and derive dynamic parameterizations. Experiments will be conducted to evaluate impacts of dynamic representation on simulated evapotranspiration and surface energy fluxes in soybean systems. The fellowship will strengthen research infrastructure at the Louisiana State University AgCenter by expanding faculty expertise in land surface modeling and establishing new capabilities in artificial intelligence and land surface modeling. Through collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the project will enhance graduate student training, expand institutional research capacity, and establish long-term partnerships supporting future externally funded research in crop and Earth system modeling. This project is supported by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: EPSCoR Research Fellows (ERF). The ERF program supports early- and mid-career investigators in eligible jurisdictions to develop collaborations at the nation’s private, government or academic research institutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.