This research aims to understand how conservation soil management practices can enhance the resilience of coffee production against climate variability and change in the Alto Paranaíba region of Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's most important coffee-producing areas. We combine field experiments and laboratory analyses to gather precise data for calibrating the computational soil carbon model DayCent. We use this model to explore potential impacts and mitigation strategies under future climate scenarios. This effort is becoming increasingly crucial as agricultural intensification and climate uncertainty raise the vulnerability of agroecosystems to environmental stressors and human activities. Therefore, we specifically focus this project on assessing the effects of adopting cover crops and other conservation strategies on soil organic carbon, fertility, and overall soil health.
Dr. Guzman specializes in research in the soil and water field, focusing on the critical zone and addressing both human-made and natural stressors. At the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he develops and uses advanced computational tools for environmental model simulations in data-intensive and compute-intensive environments. His research aims to improve the representation of hydrological processes and transport phenomena in models, allowing a comprehensive integration of the water cycle with human interventions on a regional scale, including feedback mechanisms.