My Story
Hi, I am Xiangmin (Sam) Sun, a research assistant professor at the School of Natural Resources. My research involves measuring greenhouse gases from agricultural ecosystems (corn and soybean) and pasture sites. Modern high-frequency analyzers are deployed to measure wind speed and gas CO2, CH4, and N2O concentrations at high frequencies. This micrometeorological technology is called eddy covariance.
My primary studies are conducted at the MEAD site, one of the Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) Network sites. https://ard.unl.edu/research-teams/long-term-agro-ecosystem-research-ltar-network/ My research goals include data visualization of the environmental variables and greenhouse gas flux measurement. Agriculture Accounts for 9.4% of total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2022 and is the dominant driver for potent non-CO2 gas emissions. Agriculture soil management practices (including fertilizer/manure application) contribute 75% of U.S. N2O emissions, and enteric emissions from livestock production contribute 25% to total US CH4 emissions. Accurate and consistent measurements of these greenhouse gases are indispensable for developing sustainable agricultural practices and mitigating climate change's consequences.
In addition to eddy covariance, my research covers isotopic hydrology, ecology, and climate science. I am also interested in programming/coding in open-source languages (such as R) and have a passion for reproducible research (namely, sharing code and data) and typesetting with Latex.
Before I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, I lived in Texas, Illinois, and Arizona. My hobbies include playing badminton and table tennis.