Portland State Magazine Spring 2007

The kind of fertilizer and the amount of water used in growing rice in a campus greenhouse have an effect on methane gas levels. In the scientific community, though, members are skeptical. One group of researchers reported in the September issue of Nature char they believe the slow– down is temporary, caused by a worldwide drought that has temporarily shrunk wetlands, which contribute a large share of the world's atmospheric methane. Furthermore, the article says, methane emissions from industrial sources are actually increasing. That may be so, says Khalil, but he maintains chat other sources of methane, such as China's rice paddies, are decreasing, which is why levels will continue to hold steady. BEFORE HIS RESEARCH on methane more than 20 years ago, even less was understood about the naturally occurring gas and its sources. Reference books listed methane as a stable component of the Earth's atmosphere. Khalil found otherwise. He worked with his mentor, Reinhold Rasmussen of the Oregon Graduate Institute (now part of Oregon Health & Science University). Analyzing Rasmussen's measurements of atmospheric gases taken at Oregon's Cape Meares in the early 1980s, Khalil found an increase in the levels of atmospheric methane and published his findings. The scientific community immediately scoffed. "It was the first instance of a gas other than carbon dioxide increasing," he says. "It started a new wave of people trying to validate the findings." And they did. Our of char Hood of research came a greater understanding of methane and its sources. Now, after raising the first alarm, Khalil has the ironic job of saying things aren't looking quite so grim. Having proved to his own satisfaction chat methane is stable, Khalil is ready to move on to a study of rhe interaction of methane and nitrous oxide, an even more harmful greenhouse gas. As for the rest of the scientific community? Time will cell-and chat's just fine with Khalil. For more about his research, please visit the Web sire www.pdx.edu/news/J4JJ6/. ■ Melissa Steineger, a Portland.freelance writer, wrote the article "True Crime" in the winter 2007 Portland State Magazine. Aslam Khalil, atmospheric physicist, is not an expert on cultivating rice plants, but he is an expert at interpreting their meth– ane emissions. GROUNDED IN SCIENCE FOR MANY YEARS, Aslam Khalil has worked where the rice is-China. Recently, he has focused on growing the grain closer to home in a controlled environment. In a greenhouse outside Science Building 2, Khalil and his assistants are studying the interaction between methane and nitrous oxide created when nitrogen and organic fertilizers are applied to the rice crops. That on-campus research will get a boost when a new research-grade greenhouse is built later this year, and when the proposed Science and Research Teaching Complex project is completed . PSU has identified a $41 million funding need to fully upgrade Science Building 2 infrastructure while improving its laboratories and creating more teaching and research space. The goal is to complete these and other improvements by 2010. Khalil looks forward to an environment better suited for research, and for that other basic of scientific endeavors-finding grants. Modern laboratories and other facilities will give funders the confidence that grant money will be well spent, he says. ■ SPRING 2007 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 15