The Landscape Flux Group
This research group, led by Associate Professor Benjamin Runkle, is housed at the University of Arkansas in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Office: ENGR 230
Phone: xx5-2878
Twitter: DrBenRunkle
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drbenrunkle.bsky.social
Email: brrunkle@uark.edu
Mission: To advance food system sustainability and understanding of coupled carbon-water-energy systems, while learning together in a supportive, inclusive, collaborative, and friendly environment.
Research: Our group researches sustainability-relevant connections between the carbon and water cycles in agricultural and wetland environments. This field-based research involves long-term measurements of key environmental fluxes (e.g., evapotranspiration, surface water flows, carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the landscape to the atmosphere). This research also provides the basis for sustainability analysis, process studies, and computer modeling approaches to environmental systems.
Research projects are based in rice agriculture in Arkansas and in bottomland hardwood swamps of the Mid-South. I also have past experience in low-lying Arctic permafrost tundra wetlands and boreal peatlands. Projects use flux budgeting methods to understand the landscape’s ecological and hydrological functioning. This research connects site dynamics and climate drivers with the goal of feeding simplified process representations used at the scale of the global climate model and to improve management opportunities for sustainability. The overall aim is to design sustainable, climate- and water-smart management strategies for the earth’s surface, air, and water resources.
Press: A news article from the University of Arkansas about my research interests is here (2014). And a news release about NRCS funding is here (2017), with more recent funding described here (2024). A profile “Reducing Rice’s Carbon Footprint” is linked below; I also discuss these ideas in a podcast: https://researchfrontiers.uark.edu/the-land-calls-out-runkle-discusses-rice-production-in-arkansas/
I was quoted in the NY Times in May 2023 discussing methane emissions measurements in rice production systems (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/20/climate/rice-farming-climate-change.html) and was also highlighted in a DW article on emissions reductions strategies (https://www.dw.com/en/how-to-stop-rice-fields-producing-so-much-methane/a-65331307).
In 2021, we received a Carbon Monitoring System grant from NASA, highlighted here; in 2022 we are part of a team awarded a Climate Smart Commodities grant from USDA, highlighted here. In 2022, post-doc Beatriz Moreno-García was honored as the Field to Market Trusted Advisor of the Year, highlighted here. We are also very interested in Nature-based climate solutions; work in this area has been highlighted here.
DEI: Our group is committed to EO/AA principles and a diverse workplace. We aim to do work and reflection on creating a more intentionally inclusive and diverse scientific and educational community. We follow, as a starting point, the Diversity and Inclusion statement of the home department (here) and campus (here).
Video presentations:
https://researchfrontiers.uark.edu/reducing-rices-carbon-footprint/
Our research was also featured in Dawson Oakley’s 2022 Honors thesis: