A Tennessee State University agriculture professor has received almost $1 million to study how crops adapt to climate change.
Jianwei Li plans to use the funds from the National Science Foundation to study the effects of high temperatures on cropland soils in Middle Tennessee. Li said the research will help scientists better determine how much carbon dioxide is being emitted.
He said there is little data in the area.
The project also seeks to train minority students in global environmental change issues. An undergraduate student will be chosen each year to receive formal training for two months at the University of California, Irvine.
Li sees the grant as seed money to help build a permanent experimental infrastructure and develop an interpretive display on climate change to educate farmers and schoolchildren throughout the state.