Brian B Grant

Agroecosystem Model Developer

Research Interests

I primarily work as an agroecosystem model developer on the farm GHG model DNDCv.CAN. The DNDC model is farm field and facility model that is used to estimate carbon, nutrient, water and trace gas dynamics at the field/farm scale. An extensive knowledge of agronomy and soil processes, along with a collaborative partnership with other measurement researchers helps to ensure the model can effectively replicate the complex interdependent processes that are present in agroecosystems. It is one of a few models worldwide that can assess complex integrated management such as 4R and cover cropping impacts.

Using this tool, I work to investigate ag-management impacts on crop productivity and environmental sustainability as well as the long-term impacts of climate change on cropping system resilience.

The farm facility branch of the DNDC model (Manure-DNDC) is useful for the investigation of nutrient and water dynamics of full-farm livestock waste management systems.

Much of our work is focused on international partnerships between other institutions and through AgMIP and GRA initiatives to enhance and incorporate the current understanding of crop-soil-atmospheric processes into modeling frameworks.

The overall aim is to help develop and integrate new approaches into AAFC activities to help Canada meet it's international commitments towards reducing GHG emissions from agriculture and ensuring producers future market competitiveness

Background
20+ years focused on the application and development of process-based agroecosystem models. DNDC, Century, DayCent, Campbell, Epic, RZWQM2.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa Ontario, K1A 0C6

Current research and/or projects

Development of advanced assessment tools to account for the current GHG footprints associated with agricultural practices along with identifying future opportunities for producers and policy decision makers on the future resiliency and sustainability of these practices.

Research and/or project statements

•   A modelling tool to quantify mitigation potentials for liquid manure management technologies and practices in Canada.
•   Integrated modelling approach for identifying efficient and resilient BMPs for diverse cropping systems across Canada.
•   Towards field scale evaluation and modelling of commercial inhibitors’ impact on crop productivity and emissions of nitrous oxide following urea application.
•   Enhance the sustainability of field crops by quantifying and modelling N2O & NH3 emissions and N&P leaching in response to beneficial management practices.

Professional activities / interests

•   Agroecyosystem Model Application and Development
•   AgMIP & GRA collaborator on model benchmarking and improvement
•   Ongoing Model Support coordinator with other Research Facilities in USA and Canada

Education and awards

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Biology/Chemistry Carleton University/Laurentian University.

International experience and/or work

AgMIP, FACCE-JPI, WMO, GRA

Additional links

ResearchGate

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brian-Grant-2

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.ca/citations?hl=en&user=OcxV3v0AAAAJ

DNDCvCAN wiki

https://github.com/BrianBGrant/DNDCv.CAN/wiki/CANADA-DNDC-(DNDCv.CAN)

DNDCvCAN Development Task List.

https://github.com/BrianBGrant/DNDCv.CAN/projects/1

Current Issues in DNDCv.CAN

https://github.com/BrianBGrant/DNDC-Guelph/issues/2

Key publications

Ward Smith and Brian Grant. 2023. Using models to help ensure farmers receive credits
for sustainable management. Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario Conference, Presentation and panellist. London, Ontario, February 15-16, 2023.
2023 - View publication details
Ward Smith, Budong Qian, Brian Grant, Qi Jing, Guillaume Jego, Marianne Crepeau (2022) How may a changing climate impact cropping systems in Canada? Invited Speaker, Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society - Ottawa Executive Seminar, (Virtual) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. October 20, 2022
2022 - View publication details
Ward Smith, Budong Qian, Brian Grant, Qi Jing, Guillaume Jego, Marianne Crepeau (2022) Cropping system resiliency under a changing climate in Canada. Invited Speaker, STB National Seminar Series, (Virtual) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. September 21, 2022
2022 - View publication details
Chih-Yu Hung, Kristina Mjöfors, Timothy Rennie, Ward Smith, Brian Grant, Andrew VanderZaag. 2022. Modelling shadow and cover effects on manure temperature. 2022 Joint Canadian Society of Soil Science (CSSS) Annual Meeting-Alberta Soil Science Workshop (ASSW), Edmonton, Alberta. May 23-27, 2022. https://csss-assw2022.ca/CSSS_ASSW_2022_Proceedings.pdf
2022 - View publication details
Budong Qian, Ward Smith, Yong Min Kim, Qi Jing, Brian Grant, Guillaume Jego, Scott Duguid, Ken Hester, Alison Nelson (2022) What will projected near-term climate mean for soybeans in Canada? Invited Keynote Speaker, Northern Soybean Summit, (Virtual) Toronto, Ontario, Canada. January 25, 2022..
2022 - View publication details
Ward Smith, Brian Grant, Ray Desjardins, Andrew VanderZaag, Craig Drury, Claudia Wagner-Riddle, Elizabeth Pattey, Budong Qian, Mervin St. Luce, Brian McConkey, Wentian He, Rong Jiang. 2021. Canada DNDC, a full farm agroecosystem model for identifying sustainable and resilient agricultural management. Workshop on Soil Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation Modeling in Agriculture. AAFC, Agricultural Climate Solutions. Nov. 3-4, 2021.
2021 - View publication details
Jing, Q., McConkey, B., Qian, B., Smith, W., Grant, B., Shang, J., Liu, J., Bindraban, P., Luce, M.S. (2021). Assessing water management effects on spring wheat yield in the Canadian Prairies using DSSAT wheat models. Agricultural Water Management, [online] 244 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106591
2021 - View publication details
Smith, W., Grant, B., Qi, Z., He, W., Qian, B., Jing, Q., VanderZaag, A., Drury, C.F., St. Luce, M., Wagner-Riddle, C. (2020). Towards an improved methodology for modelling climate change impacts on cropping systems in cool climates. Science of the Total Environment, [online] 728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138845
2020 - View publication details
Qian, B., Jing, Q., Smith, W., Grant, B., Cannon, A.J., Zhang, X. (2020). Quantifying the uncertainty introduced by internal climate variability in projections of Canadian crop production. Environmental Research Letters, [online] 15(7), http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab88fc
2020 - View publication details
Banger, K., Wagner-Riddle, C., Grant, B.B., Smith, W.N., Drury, C., Yang, J. (2020). Modifying fertilizer rate and application method reduces environmental nitrogen losses and increases corn yield in Ontario. Science of the Total Environment, [online] 722 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137851
2020 - View publication details
Smith, W., B. Grant, Z. Qi, W. He, B. Qian, Q. Jing, A. VanderZaag, C.F. Drury, M. St Luce, and Claudia Wagner-Riddlee. Towards an improved methodology for modelling climate change impacts on cropping systems. The 54th Congress of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS), Virtual session, May 27, 2020.
2020 - View publication details
He, W., Dutta, B., Grant, B.B., Chantigny, M.H., Hunt, D., Bittman, S., Tenuta, M., Worth, D., VanderZaag, A., Desjardins, R.L., Smith, W.N. (2020). Assessing the effects of manure application rate and timing on nitrous oxide emissions from managed grasslands under contrasting climate in Canada. Science of the Total Environment, [online] 716 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135374
2020 - View publication details
Montse Salmeron Cortasa, Kritika Kothari, Rafael Battisti, Kenneth J. Boote, Sotirios Archontoulis, Adriana Confalone, Julie Constantin, Santiago Cuadra, Philippe Debaeke, Babacar Faye, Brian Grant, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Qi Jing, Michael van der Laan, Fernando Macena, Fabio Marin, Alireza Nehbandani, Claas Nendel, Larry C. Purcell, Budong Qian, Alex Ruane, Evandro da Silva, Ward Smith, Afshin Soltani, Amit Srivastava, Nilson Vieira. 2019. Soybean multi‐model sensitivity analysis for prediction of seed nitrogen, biological N fixation, and N cycling. ICROPM 2020, Montpellier, France, Feb 3-5, 2020
2020 - View publication details
GN Falconnier, M Corbeels , KJ Boote , F Affholder , M Adam, DS MacCarthy, Alexander C Ruane, C Nendel, AM Whitbread, E Justes , LR Ahuja, F.M. Akinseye , IN Alou, KA Amouzou , S.S. Anapalli , C Baron, B Basso, F Baudron , P Bertuzzi, AJ Challinor , Y Chen, D Deryng , ML Elsayed , B Faye, T Gaiser , M Galdos , S Gayler , E Gerardeaux , M Giner , B Grant, G Hoogenboom , ES Ibrahim, B Kamali , KC Kersebaum , SH Kim, M van der Laan , L Leroux , JI Lizaso , B Maestrini , EA Meier, F Mequanint , A Ndoli , CH Porter, E Priesack , D Ripoche , T Sida , U Singh, W Smith, A Srivastava, S Sumit , F Tao, PJ Thorburn , D Timlin , B Traore , T Twine, H Webber. Modelling climate change impacts on maize yield under low N input conditions in sub Saharan Africa. Crop modelling for Agriculture and Food Security under Global Change. ICROPM 2020, Montpellier, France, Feb 3-5, 2020.
2020 - View publication details
Kritika Kothari, Montserrat Salmeron, Rafael Battisti, Kenneth Boote, Sotirios Archontoulis, Adriana Confalone, Julie Constantin, Santiago Cuadra, Philippe Debaeke, Babacar Faye, Brian Grant, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Qi Jing, Michael van der Laan, Fernando Macena, Fabio Marin, Alireza Nehbandani, Claas Nendel, Larry Purcell, Budong Qian, Alex Ruane, Evandro da Silva, Ward Smith, Afshin Soltani, Amit Srivastava, Nilson Vieira Jr. Poster: First Soybean Multi-model Sensitivity Analysis to CO2, Temperature, Water, and Nitrogen (CTWN). ICROPM 2020, Montpellier, France, Feb 3-5, 2020.
2020 - View publication details
Budong Qian, Qi Jing, Ward Smith, Brian Grant, Alex Cannon, Xuebin Zhang (2020) Quantifying the uncertainty introduced by internal climate variability in the projected Canadian crop yield changes. Oral presentation, iCROPM2020, February 2-5, 2020, Montpellier, France.
2020 - View publication details
Carozzi M Bellocchi G., Ehrhardt F., Brilli L., Bathia A., De Antoni Migliorati
M., Doltra J., Dorich C., Doro L., Fitton N., Grace P., Grant B., Giacomini S.,
Leonard J., Loubet B., Massad Raia S., Pattey E., Sharp J., Smith P., Smith W.,
Zhang Q., Recous S. 2020. Evaluation of mitigation practices to reduce N2O and increase soil C; multi-model assessment in five croplands worldwide. Proceedings of ICROPM 2020, Montpellier, France, Feb 3-5 2020, 547-548
2020 - View publication details
Nasielski, J., Grant, B., Smith, W., Niemeyer, C., Janovicek, K., Deen, B. (2020). Effect of nitrogen source, placement and timing on the environmental performance of economically optimum nitrogen rates in maize. Field Crops Research, [online] 246 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2019.107686
2020 - View publication details
Budong Qian, Qi Jing, Ward Smith, Brian Grant, Alex Cannon, Xuebin Zhang (2020) Uncertainty introduced by internal climate variability in the projected climate change impacts on Canadian crop yields. Oral Presentation, American Meteorological Society Annual Meetings 20202, January 10 -16, 2020, Boston, USA.
2020 - View publication details
Smith, W., Grant, B., Qi, Z., He, W., VanderZaag, A., Drury, C.F., Helmers, M. (2020). Development of the DNDC model to improve soil hydrology and incorporate mechanistic tile drainage: A comparative analysis with RZWQM2. Environmental Modelling and Software, [online] 123 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104577
2020 - View publication details