Sean Smukler

Installing anion exchange resin bags
Installing anion exchange resin bags

Research Interests: I’m interested in working with growers, and other land managers to find ways to better protect and enhance landscape ecosystem services. These services include food and fiber production, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat and clean water. My current research is focused on the ecosystem services provided by an organic tomato farmscape in Yolo County, California. This is landscape level nutrient cycling project looking at losses and storage of carbon and nitrogen particularly in non-production areas of the farmscape.

            My recent work includes a survey of the effects of brassica cover crops on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization of various production crops and an analysis of the transition of a large-scale cool season vegetable grower from conventional to organic production. I am also working on wildland ecological restoration projects in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state, looking at the use of residuals in the re-establishment of native vegetation.

 

Other Interests: I am actively involved in sustainable agriculture education and outreach with the Students for Sustainable Agriculture. I mentor high school and undergraduate students through Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship (SLEWS) and the Career Discovery Group (CDG). I love to cook, eat, backpack, garden and do Aikido... among other things.

Smiling Tomato
Smiling Tomato

Sean Smukler's CV