Nuria Gomez Casanovas
Research Scientist
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Plant Biology and Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
ngomezca@igb.illinois.edu
CV
Nuria’s Research
Terrestrial natural and agricultural ecosystems critically regulate the concentration of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) in the atmosphere, the water and energy cycles, and they provide food, energy, and fiber through biogeochemical cycles. These systems are in turn strongly affected by changes in the environment.
My research focuses on addressing these major unsolved questions:
How are terrestrial ecosystems affected by changes in land use and climate, and how do ecosystems interact with the global environment?
How can we improve the environmental and ecological sustainability of agroecosystems and managed ecosystems?
To answer these questions, I use empirical, modeling, and synthesis approaches and integrate knowledge across disciplines (plant and soil sciences, ecology, agronomy, and environmental science). My research uses a variety of tools including plant, soil, and ecosystem methods (stable isotopes, canopy and soil chambers, eddy covariance) to measure an array of processes across multiple temporal (past, present, and future) and spatial (local, regional, global) scales.
Areas of Expertise:
-
- Influence of changes in land use and climate in biogeochemical processes
- Land cover and management strategies to improve the sustainability of agricultural systems including fire, grazing, and water management
- Biosphere-atmosphere exchanges of CO2, CH4, N2O, water, and energy
- Interactions between the C, N, and water cycles
- Plant-soil interactions and the global C cycle
- Physiological adjustments of plant C metabolism to a changing environment