Dr. Willemijn Appels is Senior Research Chair at Lethbridge Polytechnic, leading the Mueller Irrigation Research Group. Trained as a hydrologist and soil physicist at Wageningen University (the Netherlands), her expertise is in measuring and modeling agrohydrological processes above and below the soil surface. The Mueller Irrigation Research Group was established in 2016 and investigates how new scientific findings in the field of agricultural water management can be translated into practical applications for producers in the irrigated agriculture sector of southern Alberta. The group hosts one of seven benchmark sites for the Canadian Nitrous Oxide Collaboration Network (CANN2ONET) that aim to quantify agroecosystem nitrogen cycling and N2O emissions reductions from the implementation agricultural best management practices throughout Canada. In addition to year-round field monitoring, this project includes modeling, behavioral experiments, and metric development to arrive at region-specific recommendations of agricultural best management practices based on emissions reduction potential that consider farm profitability and behavioral factors.
