The new structure of C-MASC, recently affirmed by the CFAES College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, organizes its efforts through the constitution of working groups with a substantive focus through which work across all mission areas will be integrated and acted upon. The working groups ‘Agricultural Soils’ and ‘Forest Carbon’ have been established at the end of 2020 with both aiming at considerable shared research, teaching and outreach overlap. The working group activities will create opportunities to provide services to stakeholders interested in investing in, supporting and implementing carbon sequestration and management practices. Working group meetings are held monthly with a focus on identifying research needs and priorities also in preparation to identify funding opportunities with joined development and submission of proposals.
Agricultural Soils
Chair: M. Scott Demyan (SENR) Co-chair: Steven W. Lyon (SENR)
Members: David Barker (HCS Department of Horticulture and Crop Science), Marilia Chiavegato (HCS/Animal Science), Steve Culman (SENR), Matt Davies (SENR), Rachel S. Gabor (SENR), Jeff Hattey (SENR), Dennis R. Heldman (Department of Food Science and Technology), Laura Lindsey (HCS), Vinayak Shedekar (FABE Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering), Ajay Shah (FABE), Christine Sprunger (SENR), R. Mark Sulc (HCS), (ex-officio: Rattan Lal, Klaus Lorenz)
Research priorities: Importance of the soil organic carbon-soil health-water quality nexus; Extension and outreach activities towards enhancing carbon sequestration in agricultural soils; Establishment of new long-term field experiments to identify soil organic carbon sequestering practices; Assessment of the carbon sink capacity of soils under agricultural land use; Interaction between agronomy and soil carbon sequestration; Importance of agricultural carbon policy and carbon markets; Modeling of changes in soil organic carbon stocks; Research on soil inorganic carbon
ForestRy Carbon
Chair: Roger Williams (SENR), Co-chair: Sayeed R. Mehmood (SENR)
Members: Rachel S. Gabor (SENR), Matthew Hamilton (SENR), Jeff Hattey (SENR), Stephen Matthews (SENR), Brian Slater (SENR), Katy Smith (SENR), Brent Sohngen (AEDE Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics), Eric Toman (SENR), Kaiguang Zhao (SENR), (ex-officio: Rattan Lal, Klaus Lorenz)
Research Priorities: Assessing carbon stocks in Ohio’s forests; Identifying forest management practices for sequestering and storing carbon; Potential of silvopasture systems in Ohio for carbon sequestration and storage; Feasibility of carbon offset projects in Ohio
Steering Committee
The C-MASC Steering Committee will work with Jeff Sharp, Director SENR on matters of planning, policy and other management issues, including priority setting and identification of resources. Steering Committee members are appointed by the Director and Gary M. Pierzynski, CFAES Associate Dean of Research and Education, with each working group having at least one representative on the Steering Committee.
Steering Committee Members: Nick Basta (SENR), Marilia Chiavegato (HCS/Animal Science), M. Scott Demyan (SENR), Brent Sohngen (AEDE), Eric Toman (SENR), Steven W. Lyon (SENR)