On a blistering August morning, UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences Associate Research Scientist and lead of the UF/IFAS Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) project Dr. Rosvel Bracho pours ice cold water over his head. Then, he puts his wide-brimmed hat back on and he and his research team finish the task at hand of activating another Eddy Covariance research site.
No trees are in view at UF/IFAS DeLuca Preserve to provide shade, just an angled solar panel adjacent to a 12-foot-tall tower that is about to host several measuring devices donated by the Kennedy Space Center/NASA after one of the space center research sites was decommissioned.
The preserve spans more than 27,000 rural acres near Yeehaw Junction in Florida’s southern Osceola County and is one of the last natural areas of its kind now serves as a living classroom and laboratory for UF students and faculty.
On this day, the main Eddy Covariance sensors (carbon dioxide and water vapor, and methane) and a sonic anemometer, along with meteorological sensors, data collection, and power systems for the DeLuca Preserve are being installed and made operational.
The equipment donation exceeds $50,000 and will become an invaluable part of Bracho’s research which he is carrying out with his team members Post-Doctoral Associate Dr. Temnotfo (Tenzy) Mncube, and Biological Scientist Mike Trevino.
Data collected from this site is collected continuously and will provide information on the carbon dioxide dynamics (productivity), water used and water yield, but also on methane emissions as related to cows’ presence. In short, it provides information on ecosystem functioning across daily, seasonal, yearly, and multiyear timeframes.
Florida is one of the top States in the cow-calf industry in the country. To increase cow-calf production native ecosystems are replaced with intensively managed areas, creating a gradient in land use that goes from native, semi-native, improved −unfertilized, and fertilized− pastures, and to a lesser extent, silvopasture, with grass wetlands embedded within this gradient.
According to Rosvel, this is done with limited information on land productivity or the trade-offs emerging from management intensification. Pressure on grazing lands can lead to soil impoverishment, reduction in productivity, and diminished service provisions.
His research, in the context of the ABS-UF LTAR project, aims to answer three questions using the data collected:
- How does productivity change across this grazing lands management intensification in the landscape?
- How is it affected by seasonal and interannual climatic fluctuation?
- What are the environmental and economic trade-offs emerging from this management intensification?
“Answering these research questions will generate data, which will provide stakeholders with the information needed to make management decisions, allowing them to weigh the costs and benefits of land intensification,” Rosvel said, adding that with support from the Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR), his team is working on:
- Evaluating the effects of prescribed fire and mechanical brush control on biomass and forage productivity and quality in native rangelands, as part of the common experiment within the LTAR network.
- Assessing from a native rangeland, an improved pasture, and a silvopasture, three sites represented in the gradient intensification management:
- Ecosystem productivity
- Total carbon dynamics (CO2 + CH4), Evapotranspiration, water use efficiency (WUE), and Soil greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4 & N2O).
The Research
About an hour away Bracho’s team is headquartered at The Range Cattle Research and Education Center, (RCREC/UF-IFAS) as part of the Archbold Biological Station-UF (ABS-UF) Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR), one of the 19 nationwide research sites. The ABS-UF site is in the heart of the Florida grazing lands, where Bracho’s research strives to address priorities and advance sustainable intensification of grazing lands in the region through alternative grazing and fire regimes on indicators of sustainability.
“We expand our research through a typical management intensification gradient common in the cattle industry, ranging from low-intensity native rangelands and semi-native pastures to highly managed pastures and silvopasture, where we look at the relationships among grazing land management, net production, natural resources (water, biodiversity, & soils), in a context of strong climatic variability,” said Bracho.
“Productivity in this gradient is pivotal for food and livestock production, serving as the foundation for many other ecosystem services. We assess productivity across this management gradient over the long term, including the effects of seasonal and interannual climatic variability.”
Bracho explained that a micrometeorological approach (Eddy Covariance) is used, and towers equipped with specialized sensors, including Carbon dioxide and methane, have been installed across the region.
Three sites are set up inside the RCREC/UF-IFAS, including a native rangeland site, an improved, highly managed pasture, a Silvopasture, and, more recently, this new site on a semi native pasture in the middle of UF/IFAS DeLuca Preserve.
Bracho specializes in carbon, greenhouse gases, water, and nutrient dynamics. He officially joined the UF/IFAS RCREC faculty in July 2025; however, his connection to the Center began in 2018. From 2018 to 2025, he worked in collaboration with Dr. Maria Silveira on the UF/IFAS LTAR project as a research faculty member. He oversaw the study on carbon dynamics productivity and greenhouse gas monitoring in grazing areas. Today, Dr. Bracho and his team monitor, maintain, and collect data from three Eddy Covariance sites at the Center in Ona and the latest site at DeLuca Preserve.
“In addition to the ABS-UF site, the new UF/IFAS DeLuca Preserve is being incorporated into the Florida LTAR research sites, extending the research possibilities and collaborations. Stakeholder involvement is a major component of LTAR activities, providing real-world solutions for grazing land sustainability.”
For More Information Contact Dr. Rosvel Bracho, Associate Research Scientist in Carbon, Greenhouse Gases, Water, and Nutrient Dynamics. rbracho@ufl.edu 352-846-0145
To read a recent study “Carbon and methane fluxes from typical pasture-based beef cattle production systems in the Southeastern USA” click here.
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