Brian B Grant

Image Brian 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. 
 

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

Key publications

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. He, W., Grant, B.B., Smith, W.N., VanderZaag, A.C., Piquette, S., Qian, B., Jing, Q., Rennie, T.J., Bélanger, G., Jégo, G., Deen, B. (2019). Assessing alfalfa production under historical and future climate in eastern Canada: DNDC model development and application. Environmental Modelling and Software, [online] 122 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104540

    2019 - View publication details

  8. Kritika Kothari, Montse Salmeron Cortasa, 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. AgMIP Soybean Phase 1: Multi-Model Sensitivity Analysis to CO2, Temperature, Water, and Nitrogen. ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meetings, San Antonio, Texas, Nov 10-13, 2019.

    2019 - View publication details

  9. Smith, W., Z. Qi, B. Grant, W. He, A. VanderZaag, C. Drury, C. Tan, M. and Helmers. Towards improving the DNDC model for simulating soil hydrology and tile drainage. 2019 ASABE Annual International Meet, Boston, Massachusetts, July 7–10, 2019. DOI:https://doi.org/10.13031/aim.20

    2019 - View publication details

  10. Qian, B., Zhang, X., Smith, W., Grant, B., Jing, Q., Cannon, A.J., Neilsen, D., McConkey, B., Li, G., Bonsal, B., Wan, H., Xue, L., Zhao, J. (2019). Climate change impacts on Canadian yields of spring wheat, canola and maize for global warming levels of 1.5 °c, 2.0 °c, 2.5 °c and 3.0 °c. Environmental Research Letters, [online] 14(7), http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab17fb

    2019 - View publication details

  11. Farina, R., Ehrhardt, F., Bellocchi, G., Chenu, C., Soussana, J.-F., Abd-Alla, M., Álvaro-Fuentes, J., Brilli, L., CLIVOT, H., De Antoni Migliorati, M., Di Bene, C., Dorich, C., Ferchaud, F., Fitton, N., Francaviglia, R., Franko, U., Giltrap, D., Grant, B., GUENET, B., Harrison, M. T., Kirschbaum, M. U. F., Kulmala, L., Kuka, K., Liski, L., Meier, E., Menichetti, L., Moyano, F., Nendel, C., Smith, W., Taghizadeh-Toosi, A., Tsutskikhr, E., Recous, S. (2019). Poster: Multi-metric evaluation of an ensemble of biogeochemical models for the estimation of organic carbon content in long-term bare fallow soils. Presented at International conference "Food security and climate change: 4 per 1000 initiative new tangible global challenges for the soil", Poitiers, FRA (2019-06-17 - 2019-06-20).

    2019 - View publication details

  12. Smith, W., B. Grant, W. He, Z. Qi, A. VanderZaag, Kamaljit Banger, Craig Drury, and Claudia Wagner-Riddle. Modelling approach for identifying management practices that reduce GHG emissions from cropping systems in Canada. Proceedings of the workshop on “Climate change, reactive nitrogen, food security and sustainable agriculture”, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 15-16 April, 2019. https://mopga.imk-ifu.kit.edu/workshop-presentations

    2019 - View publication details

  13. Sandor, R., Bellocchi, G., Ehrhardt, F., Bhatia, A., Brilli, L., de Antoni Migliorati, M., Carozzi, M., Doltra, J., Dorich, C., Doro, L., Fitton, N., Fuchs, K., Gongadze, K., Grace, P., Grant, B., Giacomini, S., Klumpp, K., Léonard, L., Liebig, M., Martin, R., Massad, R. S., Merbold, L., Newton, P., Pattey, E., Rees, B., Rolinski, S., Sharp, J., Smith, P., Smith, W., Snow, V., Soussana, J.-F., Zhang, Q., Recous, S. (2019). Poster: Quantification of modelling uncertainties in an ensemble of carbon simulations in grasslands and croplands. Presented at 3rd Agriculture and Climate Change Conference, Budapest, HUN (2019-03-24 - 2019-03-26). https://prodinra.inra.fr/record/472277

    2019 - View publication details

  14. He, W., Smith, W.N., Grant, B.B., VanderZaag, A.C., Schwager, E.A., Qi, Z., Reynolds, D., Wagner-Riddle, C. (2019). Understanding the fertilizer management impacts on water and nitrogen dynamics for a corn silage tile-drained system in Canada. Journal of Environmental Quality, [online] 48(4), 1016-1028. http://dx.doi.org/10.2134/jeq2018.11.0414

    2019 - View publication details

  15. Smith, W., Qi, Z., Grant, B., VanderZaag, A., Desjardins, R. (2019). Comparing hydrological frameworks for simulating crop biomass, water and nitrogen dynamics in a tile drained soybean-corn system: Cascade vs computational approach. Journal of Hydrology X, [online] 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hydroa.2018.100015

    2019 - View publication details

  16. Smith, W., Grant, B., Qi, Z., He, W., VanderZaag, A., Drury, C.F., Vergè, X., Balde, H., Gordon, R., Helmers, M.J. (2019). Assessing the impacts of climate variability on fertilizer management decisions for reducing nitrogen losses from corn silage production. Journal of Environmental Quality, [online] 48(4), 1006-1015. http://dx.doi.org/10.2134/jeq2018.12.0433

    2019 - View publication details

  17. Del Grosso, S. J., Ogle, S. M., Parton, W. J., Nevison, C. D., Smith, W., Grant, B., Wagner-Riddle, C., Tenuta, M. Comparing Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions Simulated by the New Freeze-Thaw Version of DayCent with Fluxes Inferred from Atmospheric Inversion. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, abstract #B24C-06, Washington, D.C., December 2018

    2018 - View publication details

  18. Jarecki, M., Grant, B., Smith, W., Deen, B., Drury, C., VanderZaag, A., Qian, B., Yang, J., Wagner-Riddle, C. (2018). Long-term trends in corn yields and soil carbon under diversified crop rotations. Journal of Environmental Quality, [online] 47(4), 635-643. http://dx.doi.org/10.2134/jeq2017.08.0317

    2018 - View publication details

  19. Carozzi, M., Ehrhardt, F., Brilli, L., Bellocchi, G., Bathia, A., De Antoni Migliorati, M., Bregon, J.D., Dorich, C., Doror, L., Fitton, N., Grace, P., Grant, B., Giacomini, S.J., Leonard, J., Loubet, B., Massad, R.S., Mula, L., Pattey, E., Sharp, J., Smith, P., Smith, W., Zhang, Q., Recous, S. 2018. GRA affiliated presentation: Multi-Model Assessment of Mitigation Options for GHG Emissions in Croplands. 20th N Workshop and Side event, 25-27 June, 2018, Rennes, France

    2018 - View publication details

  20. Banger, K., C. Wagner-Riddle, B.B. Grant, W.N. Smith, C.F. Drury. Modeling and scaling up of gaseous nitrogen loss from corn production systems of Ontario. 2018 Joint Meeting of the CGU-CSSS-CIG-CSAFM-ESSSA. June 10-14, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada.

    2018 - View publication details