Discussion with Prof. Thomas Black
- Shubhleen Kaur
Meeting with Prof. Thomas Black:
Thomas Andrew Black: Professor at Applied Biology, UBC Faculty of , andrew.black@ubc.ca
His research interests are relevant to our project: Soil Science, Land and Water systems, Atmospheric Science.
Meeting discussion:
Went over the LiteFarm project, its user base in Canada, Latin America and the rest of the world. Discussed the “why” behind our search for a GHG emission calculation tool.
Broadly talked about tools under consideration: Cool farm , Comet farm - Carbon Benefit Project and HOLOS.
Mathieu went over his python script that looks at N emission calculations using data from LiteFarm: focusing on the top 16 most grown crops based on area allocated (top ~80%)
Discussed the research datasets used in this calculation:
Variables used/required:
Crop
Moisture_content
Above Ground Residue
Below Ground Residue
Yield Ratio
Above Ground Residue ratio
Below Ground Residue ratio
Discussed concerns over lack of updated crop data for calculations:
The csv that Mathieu is using at the moment is from a Canadian research paper from 2003
Prof. Thomas Black hypothesized that these values could be extended to farms all over Canada but may not apply for farms elsewhere in the world.
We asked if he knew of any database that could hold such variables for global farms
Suggestions from Prof. Thomas Black:
Had attended HOLOS Model Workshop at Sustainability of Canadian Agriculture 2023 Virtual Conference: link , but did not recall the details.
Speakers:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada : Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Roland Kroebel – Researcher, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Sarah Pogue - Holos Model Developer, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Aaron McPherson – Software Developer, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Roland Kroebel:
Contact: roland.kroebel@canada.ca https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/roland-krobel-phd
Post about making HOLOS open sourced and its extension to other countries: link
Linkedin: link
Sarah Pogue:
Linkedin: link
Suggested that Hannah should email them with a research request, emphasizing LiteFarm’s users and recent growth in Canada and globally. We should seek access to their source code and data sources used for calculations if possible.