Crop Modeling Under Climate Change
Process-based modeling to evaluate plant behavior, water demand, and adaptation pathways under present and future climates.
Postdoctoral Researcher, CSRE, IIT Bombay
Process-based crop modeling for climate resilience, water use, and plant-scale intelligence.
I work at the intersection of crop physiology, environmental modeling, and machine learning to understand how plants respond to changing climate and how those responses can inform adaptation strategies for agricultural systems.
Research Focus
Questions that connect physiology, climate, and agricultural systems
Leaf-to-Canopy Scaling
Mechanistic frameworks that link leaf-scale photosynthesis, energy balance, and stomatal responses to canopy-scale fluxes.
ML and Optimization
Parameter estimation, calibration, uncertainty analysis, and hybrid modeling workflows that strengthen biophysical models.
Agricultural Risk and Adaptation
Climate-risk assessment and water-saving strategies for agricultural systems facing environmental stress and resource limits.
Experience
Research roles rooted in model development and interdisciplinary collaboration
Postdoctoral Researcher, CSRE
Developing an ML-process-based canopy modeling framework to quantify genotype trait variation across the season and connect it to crop water-saving strategies.
Coupling vLeaf with DSSAT-CERES to drive canopy-scale carbon and water fluxes using two-leaf photosynthesis and energy-balance physics.
Research Scholar, HWRE, Civil Engineering
Developed vLeaf and vCanopy, process-based models for simulating leaf-to-canopy carbon, water, and energy fluxes under field conditions.
Led parameterization, validation, and climate-scenario studies on stomatal conductance and water-use efficiency tradeoffs, while building reusable workflows and web-based research tools.
Education
Training in civil engineering, environmental systems, and computational modeling
PhD (Integrated MS-PhD), Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 2019 to 2025
Dissertation: Tradeoffs in Enhancing Water-Use Efficiency in Crops
B.Tech., Civil Engineering
National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, 2015 to 2019
Selected Publications
Recent work in plant physiology, canopy modeling, and transport systems
How do water use efficiency gains from leaf-level stomatal conductance reduction scale at the crop canopy under current and future climates?
Srivastava, A., Das, A., Srinivasan, V., and Stephen P. Long
Under revision
Stomatal conductance reduction tradeoffs in maize leaves: A theoretical study
Srivastava, A., Srinivasan, V., and Stephen P. Long
Plant, Cell & Environment, 2024
Analytical solutions to three-dimensional reactive contaminant transport problems involving point, line, and area sources
Sangani, J., Srivastava, A., and Srinivasan, V.
Transport in Porous Media, 2022
Research Tools
Models and applications developed for scientific analysis and practical use
vLeaf
A steady-state leaf-scale model for simulating mass and energy exchange between the leaf and its microenvironment.
MATLAB / PythonvCanopy
A multi-layer canopy-scale model that integrates radiation transfer, turbulent transport, and leaf-level processes.
MATLABPhotoFit
A Streamlit-based tool for estimating photosynthetic parameters from A-Ci gas-exchange data for C4 leaves.
Python / StreamlitvScreen
An ongoing cloud-based screening tool to predict the fate and transport of reactive groundwater contaminants.
Python / StreamlitTeaching and Honors
Academic service, mentoring, and recognition
Teaching
- Teaching Assistant for Water Resources Engineering, Numerical Techniques, Optimization Methods, and Soil-Plant-Atmospheric Continuum.
- Supported tutorials, doubt-clearing sessions, grading, and workshop instruction in crop and water systems modeling.
- Session Instructor for the South Indian Plant System Modeling Workshop in January 2024.
Honors
- ANRF travel grant for iCROPM 2026 conference, Italy.
- Best Poster Presentation Award, World Water Day at IIT Madras, March 2025.
- PMRF Scholarship for PhD at IIT Madras, 2020 to 2024.
- University Gold Medal in B.Tech. Civil Engineering at NIT Tiruchirappalli, 2019.
Technical Skills
Computational tools used across modeling, inference, and data-driven research
Programming
Python, MATLAB, R, GPU-accelerated computing
Libraries and Platforms
PyTorch, scikit-learn, GEKKO, Streamlit, QGIS, HYDRUS-1D
Methods
Deep learning, physics-informed neural networks, optimization algorithms, calibration, and uncertainty analysis
Contact
Open to academic collaboration, modeling discussions, and research conversations
Reach me at srivastava.antriksh96@gmail.com or visit my GitHub profile.