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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Tile Drainage Flow Partitioning And Phosphorus Export In Vermont Usa, Ryan Ruggiero, Donald Ross, Joshua W. Faulkner Jan 2022

Tile Drainage Flow Partitioning And Phosphorus Export In Vermont Usa, Ryan Ruggiero, Donald Ross, Joshua W. Faulkner

Lake Champlain Sea Grant Institute

Tile drainage (TD) has been identified as a potential non-point source of phosphorus (P) pollution and subsequent water quality issues. Three fields with TD in Vermont USA were monitored to characterize hydrology and P export. Fields were in corn silage and used minimal tillage and cover cropping practices. Preferential flow path (PFP) activity was explored by separating TD flow into flow pathway and source connectivity components using two hydrograph separation techniques, electrical conductivity end member unmixing, and hydrograph recession analysis. TD was the dominant P export pathway because of higher total discharge. Drought conditions during this study limited surface runoff, …


Awareness Of Climate Change’S Impacts And Motivation To Adapt Are Not Enough To Drive Action: A Look Of Puerto Rican Farmers After Hurricane Maria, Luis Alexis Rodríguez-Cruz, Meredith T. Niles Jan 2021

Awareness Of Climate Change’S Impacts And Motivation To Adapt Are Not Enough To Drive Action: A Look Of Puerto Rican Farmers After Hurricane Maria, Luis Alexis Rodríguez-Cruz, Meredith T. Niles

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding how perceptions around motivation, capacity, and climate change’s impacts relate to the adoption of adaptation practices in light of experiences with extreme weather events is important in assessing farmers’ adaptive capacity. However, very little of this work has occurred in islands, which may have different vulnerabilities and capacities for adaptation. Data of surveyed farmers throughout Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (n = 405, 87% response rate) were used in a structural equation model to explore the extent to which their adoption of agricultural practices and management strategies was driven by perceptions of motivation, vulnerability, and capacity as a function …


Land Use And Season Influence Event-Scale Nitrate And Soluble Reactive Phosphorus Exports And Export Stoichiometry From Headwater Catchments, Dustin W. Kincaid, Erin C. Seybold, E. Carol Adair, William B. Bowden, Julia N. Perdrial, Matthew C.H. Vaughan, Andrew W. Schroth Oct 2020

Land Use And Season Influence Event-Scale Nitrate And Soluble Reactive Phosphorus Exports And Export Stoichiometry From Headwater Catchments, Dustin W. Kincaid, Erin C. Seybold, E. Carol Adair, William B. Bowden, Julia N. Perdrial, Matthew C.H. Vaughan, Andrew W. Schroth

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Catchment nutrient export, especially during high flow events, can influence ecological processes in receiving waters by altering nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and relative amounts (stoichiometry). Event-scale N and P export dynamics may be significantly altered by land use/land cover (LULC) and season. Consequently, to manage water resources, it is important to understand how LULC and season interact to influence event N and P export. In situ, high-frequency spectrophotometers allowed us to continuously and concurrently monitor nitrate (NO3−) and soluble reactive P (SRP) concentrations and therefore examine event-scale NO3− and SRP export dynamics. Here we analyzed event NO3− and …


Land Use And Season Influence Event-Scale Nitrate And Soluble Reactive Phosphorus Exports And Export Stoichiometry From Headwater Catchments, Dustin W. Kincaid, Erin C. Seybold, E. Carol Adair, William B. Bowden, Julia N. Perdrial, Matthew C.H. Vaughan, Andrew W. Schroth Oct 2020

Land Use And Season Influence Event-Scale Nitrate And Soluble Reactive Phosphorus Exports And Export Stoichiometry From Headwater Catchments, Dustin W. Kincaid, Erin C. Seybold, E. Carol Adair, William B. Bowden, Julia N. Perdrial, Matthew C.H. Vaughan, Andrew W. Schroth

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Catchment nutrient export, especially during high flow events, can influence ecological processes in receiving waters by altering nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and relative amounts (stoichiometry). Event-scale N and P export dynamics may be significantly altered by land use/land cover (LULC) and season. Consequently, to manage water resources, it is important to understand how LULC and season interact to influence event N and P export. In situ, high-frequency spectrophotometers allowed us to continuously and concurrently monitor nitrate (NO3−) and soluble reactive P (SRP) concentrations and therefore examine event-scale NO3− and SRP export dynamics. Here we analyzed event NO3− and …


Benefits And Tradeoffs Of Reduced Tillage And Manure Application Methods In A Zea Mays Silage System, Kyle M. Dittmer, Heather M. Darby, Tyler R. Goeschel, E. Carol Adair Sep 2020

Benefits And Tradeoffs Of Reduced Tillage And Manure Application Methods In A Zea Mays Silage System, Kyle M. Dittmer, Heather M. Darby, Tyler R. Goeschel, E. Carol Adair

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

A critical question is whether there are agricultural management practices that can attain the multiple management goals of increasing yields, preventing nutrient losses, and suppressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. No-till and manure application methods, such as manure injection, can enhance nutrient retention, but both may also enhance emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful GHG. We assessed differences in soil N2O and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, nitrate and ammonium retention, and crop yield and protein content under combinations of vertical-till, no-till, manure injection, and manure broadcast without incorporation in a corn (Zea mays L.) silage system. During the growing seasons …


Perspective Article: Actions To Reconfigure Food Systems, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Philip Thornton, Jonathan Wadsworth, Bruce M. Campbell, Mario Herrero, Daniel Mason-D'Croz, Dhanush Dinesh, Sophia Huyer, Andy Jarvis, Alberto Millan, Eva Wollenberg, Stephen Zebiak Sep 2020

Perspective Article: Actions To Reconfigure Food Systems, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Philip Thornton, Jonathan Wadsworth, Bruce M. Campbell, Mario Herrero, Daniel Mason-D'Croz, Dhanush Dinesh, Sophia Huyer, Andy Jarvis, Alberto Millan, Eva Wollenberg, Stephen Zebiak

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

There is broad agreement that current food systems are not on a sustainable trajectory that will enable us to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly in the face of anthropogenic climate change. Guided by a consideration of some food system reconfigurations in the past, we outline an agenda of work around four action areas: rerouting old systems into new trajectories; reducing risks; minimising the environmental footprint of food systems; and realigning the enablers of change needed to make new food systems function. Here we highlight food systems levers that, along with activities within these four action areas, may …


Agricultural Development Addresses Food Loss And Waste While Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Gillian L. Galford, Olivia Peña, Amanda K. Sullivan, Julie Nash, Noel Gurwick, Gillian Pirolli, Meryl Richards, Julianna White, Eva Wollenberg Jan 2020

Agricultural Development Addresses Food Loss And Waste While Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Gillian L. Galford, Olivia Peña, Amanda K. Sullivan, Julie Nash, Noel Gurwick, Gillian Pirolli, Meryl Richards, Julianna White, Eva Wollenberg

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Food loss and waste (FLW) reduce food available for consumption and increase the environmental burden of production. Reducing FLW increases agricultural and value-chain productivity and may reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with feeding the global population. Although studies of interventions that reduce FLW exist, almost no research systematically investigates FLW interventions across multiple value chains or countries, most likely due to challenges in collecting and synthesizing data and estimates, let alone estimating greenhouse gas emissions. Our research team investigated changes in FLW in projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) global hunger and food security initiative, …


How To Measure, Report And Verify Soil Carbon Change To Realize The Potential Of Soil Carbon Sequestration For Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Removal, Pete Smith, Jean Francois Soussana, Denis Angers, Louis Schipper, Claire Chenu, Daniel P. Rasse, Niels H. Batjes, Fenny Van Egmond, Stephen Mcneill, Matthias Kuhnert, Cristina Arias-Navarro, Jorgen E. Olesen, Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Dario Fornara, Eva Wollenberg, Jorge Álvaro-Fuentes, Alberto Sanz-Cobena, Katja Klumpp Jan 2020

How To Measure, Report And Verify Soil Carbon Change To Realize The Potential Of Soil Carbon Sequestration For Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Removal, Pete Smith, Jean Francois Soussana, Denis Angers, Louis Schipper, Claire Chenu, Daniel P. Rasse, Niels H. Batjes, Fenny Van Egmond, Stephen Mcneill, Matthias Kuhnert, Cristina Arias-Navarro, Jorgen E. Olesen, Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Dario Fornara, Eva Wollenberg, Jorge Álvaro-Fuentes, Alberto Sanz-Cobena, Katja Klumpp

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd There is growing international interest in better managing soils to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content to contribute to climate change mitigation, to enhance resilience to climate change and to underpin food security, through initiatives such as international ‘4p1000’ initiative and the FAO's Global assessment of SOC sequestration potential (GSOCseq) programme. Since SOC content of soils cannot be easily measured, a key barrier to implementing programmes to increase SOC at large scale, is the need for credible and reliable measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms, both for national reporting and …


Visualizing Climate Change Adaptation: An Effective Tool For Agricultural Outreach?, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie E. Hurley, Holly L. Greenleaf, Meredith T. Niles, Martha Caswell Jan 2020

Visualizing Climate Change Adaptation: An Effective Tool For Agricultural Outreach?, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie E. Hurley, Holly L. Greenleaf, Meredith T. Niles, Martha Caswell

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Landscape photovisualizations (PVZs) are digitally altered photographs that show existing landscapes altered to include a simulated future scenario. They are commonly used to support dialogue and decision-making in multistakeholder contexts. In agricultural sectors, stakeholders increasingly must contend with pressures to adapt to climatic changes and shifts in weather patterns. This study examines the potential of PVZs to engage agricultural stakeholders about climate change adaptation, specifically around best management practices (BMPs). In 2015, survey data were collected (n 5 133) at six agricultural confer-ences Vermont. Participants were asked about their climate change knowledge, perceptions of adaptation, and their intentions to adopt …


Making Trees Count: Measurement And Reporting Of Agroforestry In Unfccc National Communications Of Non-Annex I Countries, Todd S. Rosenstock, Andreas Wilkes, Courtney Jallo, Nictor Namoi, Medha Bulusu, Marta Suber, Damaris Mboi, Rachmat Mulia, Elisabeth Simelton, Meryl Richards, Noel Gurwick, Eva Wollenberg Nov 2019

Making Trees Count: Measurement And Reporting Of Agroforestry In Unfccc National Communications Of Non-Annex I Countries, Todd S. Rosenstock, Andreas Wilkes, Courtney Jallo, Nictor Namoi, Medha Bulusu, Marta Suber, Damaris Mboi, Rachmat Mulia, Elisabeth Simelton, Meryl Richards, Noel Gurwick, Eva Wollenberg

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Agroforestry—the integration of trees with crops and livestock—generates many benefits directly relevant to the UNFCCC's Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, including: (i) building resilience, (ii) increasing soil carbon and improving soil health, (iii) providing fodder and shade for sustainable livestock production and (iv) diversifying human diets and economic opportunities. Despite its significance to the climate agenda, agroforestry may not be included in measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems under the UNFCCC. Here we report on a first appraisal of how agroforestry is treated in national MRV systems under the UNFCCC. We examined national communications (NCs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) …


Payment For Ecosystem Services: Incentives To Support Environmental Quality & Farming In Vermont, Stephen Posner, Taylor Ricketts, Eric Roy Oct 2019

Payment For Ecosystem Services: Incentives To Support Environmental Quality & Farming In Vermont, Stephen Posner, Taylor Ricketts, Eric Roy

Reports and Policy Briefs

Environmental quality is an ongoing concern in the Lake Champlain Basin. Vermont farmers are in a unique position to manage land in a way that maintains and improves environmental quality. A payment for ecosystem services (PES) program for Vermont would both support the economic vi- ability of Vermont farms and incentivize farmers to improve water quality and soil health. How- ever, conceptual and practical implementation challenges remain.


Policy Options To Streamline The Carbon Market For Agricultural Nitrous Oxide Emissions, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah Waterhouse, Robert Parkhurst, Eileen L. Mclellan, Sara Kroopf Aug 2019

Policy Options To Streamline The Carbon Market For Agricultural Nitrous Oxide Emissions, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah Waterhouse, Robert Parkhurst, Eileen L. Mclellan, Sara Kroopf

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The majority of emissions of nitrous oxide – a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) – are from agricultural sources, particularly nitrogen fertilizer applications. A growing focus on these emission sources has led to the development in the United States of GHG offset protocols that could enable payment to farmers for reducing fertilizer use or implementing other nitrogen management strategies. Despite the development of several protocols, the current regional scope is narrow, adoption by farmers is low, and policy implementation of protocols has a significant time lag. Here we utilize existing research and policy structures to propose an ‘umbrella’ approach for nitrogen …


A Comparative Analysis Of Governance And Leadership In Agricultural Development Policy Networks, Jessica Rudnick, Meredith Niles, Mark Lubell, Laura Cramer May 2019

A Comparative Analysis Of Governance And Leadership In Agricultural Development Policy Networks, Jessica Rudnick, Meredith Niles, Mark Lubell, Laura Cramer

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Agricultural development initiatives feature many public and private organizations working together across sectors and scales to pursue the goals of food security and climate resilience. Policy networks are considered a crucial ingredient for the learning and cooperation needed to effectively implement agricultural development projects and increase community resiliency, yet very little comparative empirical data has been collected to assess where and how these networks operate. We contribute to filling this gap by characterizing the governance and leadership patterns within agricultural development policy networks that connect organizations working on climate resilience and food security activities in 14 smallholder farming communities across …


Seeing Is Not Always Believing: Crop Loss And Climate Change Perceptions Among Farm Advisors, Meredith T. Niles, Sarah Wiener, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Julian Reyes Mar 2019

Seeing Is Not Always Believing: Crop Loss And Climate Change Perceptions Among Farm Advisors, Meredith T. Niles, Sarah Wiener, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Julian Reyes

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

As climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural systems globally, agricultural farm advisors have been increasingly recognized as an important resource in helping farmers address these challenges. While there have been many studies exploring the climate change belief and risk perceptions as well as behaviors of both farmers and agricultural farm advisors, there are very few studies that have explored how these perceptions relate to actual climate impacts in agriculture. Here we couple survey data from United States Department of Agriculture farm service employees (n = 6, 514) with historical crop loss data across the United States to explore …


Food And Earth Systems: Priorities For Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation For Agriculture And Food Systems, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Bruce M. Campbell, Peter J.M. Cooper, James W. Hansen, Todd Rosenstock, Eva Wollenberg Mar 2019

Food And Earth Systems: Priorities For Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation For Agriculture And Food Systems, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Bruce M. Campbell, Peter J.M. Cooper, James W. Hansen, Todd Rosenstock, Eva Wollenberg

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Human activities and their relation with land, through agriculture and forestry, are significantly impacting Earth system functioning. Specifically, agriculture has increasingly become a key sector for adaptation and mitigation initiatives that address climate change and help ensure food security for a growing global population. Climate change and agricultural outcomes influence our ability to reach targets for at least seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. By 2015, 103 nations had committed themselves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, while 102 countries had prioritized agriculture in their adaptation agenda. Adaptation and mitigation actions within agriculture still receive insufficient support across …


Now I See: Photovisualization To Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie Hurley, Martha Caswell Feb 2019

Now I See: Photovisualization To Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie Hurley, Martha Caswell

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects …


Does Household Capital Mediate The Uptake Of Agricultural Land, Crop, And Livestock Adaptations? Evidence From The Indo-Gangetic Plains (India), Sameer H. Shah, Courtney Hammond Wagner, Udita Sanga, Hogeun Park, Lia Helena Monteiro De Lima Demange, Carolina Gueiros, Meredith T. Niles Jan 2019

Does Household Capital Mediate The Uptake Of Agricultural Land, Crop, And Livestock Adaptations? Evidence From The Indo-Gangetic Plains (India), Sameer H. Shah, Courtney Hammond Wagner, Udita Sanga, Hogeun Park, Lia Helena Monteiro De Lima Demange, Carolina Gueiros, Meredith T. Niles

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains produce much of the wheat and rice grown in India. However, food production and millions of farm-based livelihoods in this region will continue to be adversely affected by hydro-climatic change and variation, reduced land productivity, and declining groundwater levels. Thus, agricultural adaptations are essential for protecting and improving upon intersecting goals of food security, poverty alleviation, and wellbeing. Household “capital” (e.g., natural, human, financial, physical, and social) is commonly cited as an indicator of livelihood adaptability and innovation. We develop a series of mediated structural equation models to empirically evaluate the validity of capital as …


Scaling Up Sustainability In Commodity Agriculture: Transferability Of Governance Mechanisms Across The Coffee And Cattle Sectors In Brazil, R. Hajjar, P. Newton, D. Adshead, M. Bogaerts, V. A. Maguire-Rajpaul, L. F.G. Pinto, C. L. Mcdermott, J. C. Milder, E. Wollenberg, A. Agrawal Jan 2019

Scaling Up Sustainability In Commodity Agriculture: Transferability Of Governance Mechanisms Across The Coffee And Cattle Sectors In Brazil, R. Hajjar, P. Newton, D. Adshead, M. Bogaerts, V. A. Maguire-Rajpaul, L. F.G. Pinto, C. L. Mcdermott, J. C. Milder, E. Wollenberg, A. Agrawal

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

A number of governance mechanisms address socio-environmental challenges associated with commodity agriculture in tropical forested countries. Governance mechanisms that prove effective in one agricultural sector are often applied to other sectors as well. For example, voluntary certification programs have been adopted by producers of commodities as diverse as beef, coffee, palm oil, and soy. However, there are substantial differences in the extent to which governance mechanisms scale up and achieve impact in different sectors. This paper analyzes how the potential for scaling up a particular governance mechanism is influenced by environmental, market, and social geographies that differ between sectors. Through …


Similarity Of Introduced Plant Species To Native Ones Facilitates Naturalization, But Differences Enhance Invasion Success, Jan Divíšek, Milan Chytrý, Brian Beckage, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Zdeňka Lososová, Petr Pyšek, David M. Richardson, Jane Molofsky Dec 2018

Similarity Of Introduced Plant Species To Native Ones Facilitates Naturalization, But Differences Enhance Invasion Success, Jan Divíšek, Milan Chytrý, Brian Beckage, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Zdeňka Lososová, Petr Pyšek, David M. Richardson, Jane Molofsky

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The search for traits associated with plant invasiveness has yielded contradictory results, in part because most previous studies have failed to recognize that different traits are important at different stages along the introduction–naturalization–invasion continuum. Here we show that across six different habitat types in temperate Central Europe, naturalized non-invasive species are functionally similar to native species occurring in the same habitat type, but invasive species are different as they occupy the edge of the plant functional trait space represented in each habitat. This pattern was driven mainly by the greater average height of invasive species. These results suggest that the …


National Contributions To Climate Change Mitigation From Agriculture: Allocating A Global Target, Meryl Breton Richards, Eva Wollenberg, Detlef Van Vuuren Nov 2018

National Contributions To Climate Change Mitigation From Agriculture: Allocating A Global Target, Meryl Breton Richards, Eva Wollenberg, Detlef Van Vuuren

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Globally, agriculture and related land use change contributed about 17% of the world’s anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2010 (8.4 GtCO2e yr−1), making GHG mitigation in the agriculture sector critical to meeting the Paris Agreement’s 2°C goal. This article proposes a range of country-level targets for mitigation of agricultural emissions by allocating a global target according to five approaches to effort-sharing for climate change mitigation: responsibility, capability, equality, responsibility-capability-need and equal cumulative per capita emissions. Allocating mitigation targets according to responsibility for total historical emissions or capability to mitigate assigned large targets for agricultural emission reductions to North America, Europe and …


Farm Service Agency Employee Intentions To Use Weather And Climate Data In Professional Services, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Sarah Wiener, Meredith T. Niles, David Y. Hollinger Jun 2018

Farm Service Agency Employee Intentions To Use Weather And Climate Data In Professional Services, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Sarah Wiener, Meredith T. Niles, David Y. Hollinger

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.. Agricultural service providers often work closely with producers, and are well positioned to include weather and climate change information in the services they provide. By doing so, they can help producers reduce risks due to climate variability and change. A national survey of United States Department of …


Climate Change Mitigation Beyond Agriculture: A Review Of Food System Opportunities And Implications, Meredith T. Niles, Richie Ahuja, Todd Barker, Jimena Esquivel, Sophie Gutterman, Martin C. Heller, Nelson Mango, Diana Portner, Rex Raimond, Cristina Tirado, Sonja Vermeulen Jun 2018

Climate Change Mitigation Beyond Agriculture: A Review Of Food System Opportunities And Implications, Meredith T. Niles, Richie Ahuja, Todd Barker, Jimena Esquivel, Sophie Gutterman, Martin C. Heller, Nelson Mango, Diana Portner, Rex Raimond, Cristina Tirado, Sonja Vermeulen

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

A large body of research has explored opportunities to mitigate climate change in agricultural systems; however, less research has explored opportunities across the food system. Here we expand the existing research with a review of potential mitigation opportunities across the entire food system, including in pre-production, production, processing, transport, consumption and loss and waste. We detail and synthesize recent research on the topic, and explore the applicability of different climate mitigation strategies in varying country contexts with different economic and agricultural systems. Further, we highlight some potential adaptation co-benefits of food system mitigation strategies and explore the potential implications of …


Climate-Smart Land Use Requires Local Solutions, Transdisciplinary Research, Policy Coherence And Transparency, Sarah Carter, Bas Arts, Ken E. Giller, Cinthia Soto Golcher, Kasper Kok, Jessica De Koning, Meine Van Noordwijk, Pytrik Reidsma, Mariana C. Rufino, Giulia Salvini, Louis Verchot, Eva Wollenberg, Martin Herold May 2018

Climate-Smart Land Use Requires Local Solutions, Transdisciplinary Research, Policy Coherence And Transparency, Sarah Carter, Bas Arts, Ken E. Giller, Cinthia Soto Golcher, Kasper Kok, Jessica De Koning, Meine Van Noordwijk, Pytrik Reidsma, Mariana C. Rufino, Giulia Salvini, Louis Verchot, Eva Wollenberg, Martin Herold

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Successfully meeting the mitigation and adaptation targets of the Paris Climate Agreement (PA) will depend on strengthening the ties between forests and agriculture. Climate-smart land use can be achieved by integrating climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and REDD+. The focus on agriculture for food security within a changing climate, and on forests for climate change mitigation and adaptation, can be achieved simultaneously with a transformational change in the land-use sector. Striving for both independently will lead to competition for land, inefficiencies in monitoring and conflicting agendas. Practical solutions exist for specific contexts that can lead to increased agricultural output and forest protection. …


Analyzing The Greenhouse Gas Impact Potential Of Smallholder Development Actions Across A Global Food Security Program, Uwe Grewer, Julie Nash, Noel Gurwick, Louis Bockel, Gillian Galford, Meryl Richards, Ciniro Costa Junior, Julianna White, Gillian Pirolli, Eva Wollenberg Apr 2018

Analyzing The Greenhouse Gas Impact Potential Of Smallholder Development Actions Across A Global Food Security Program, Uwe Grewer, Julie Nash, Noel Gurwick, Louis Bockel, Gillian Galford, Meryl Richards, Ciniro Costa Junior, Julianna White, Gillian Pirolli, Eva Wollenberg

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

This article analyses the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact potential of improved management practices and technologies for smallholder agriculture promoted under a global food security development program. Under 'business-as-usual' development, global studies on the future of agriculture to 2050 project considerable increases in total food production and cultivated area. Conventional cropland intensification and conversion of natural vegetation typically result in increased GHG emissions and loss of carbon stocks. There is a strong need to understand the potential greenhouse gas impacts of agricultural development programs intended to achieve large-scale change, and to identify pathways of smallholder agricultural development that can achieve food …


Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Farmer And Agricultural Advisor Perceptions Of Climate Change And Adaptation In Vermont, United States, Rachel E. Schattman, V. Ernesto Méndez, Scott C. Merrill, Asim Zia Feb 2018

Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Farmer And Agricultural Advisor Perceptions Of Climate Change And Adaptation In Vermont, United States, Rachel E. Schattman, V. Ernesto Méndez, Scott C. Merrill, Asim Zia

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The relationships among farmers’ belief in climate change, perceptions of climate-related risk, and use of climate adaptation practices is a growing topic of interest in U.S. scholarship. The northeast region is not well represented in the literature, although it is highly agricultural and will likely face climate-related risks that differ from those faced in other regions. We used a mixed methods approach to examine northeast farmers’ perceptions of climate change and climate-related risks over time, and perceived trade-offs associated with on-farm practices. Our investigation shows how northeastern farmers think about climate-risk, and what they are doing to address it.


A Cross-Country Analysis Of Climate Shocks And Smallholder Food Insecurity, Meredith T. Niles, Jonathan D. Salerno Feb 2018

A Cross-Country Analysis Of Climate Shocks And Smallholder Food Insecurity, Meredith T. Niles, Jonathan D. Salerno

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Future climate changes will affect smallholder farmers in the developing world, posing threats to household food security. Nevertheless, there remains limited comparable evidence across multiple countries and regions regarding the global extent of climate shocks affecting smallholder food security. We examine data from 5,299 household surveys across 15 countries in Latin America, Africa and South Asia to assess the extent of climate shocks and their association with food insecurity, as well as what strategies may help buffer against climate shocks. We find that 71% of households reported experiencing a climate shock in the previous five years. Fifty-four percent reported experiencing …


Small-Scale Genotypic Richness Stabilizes Plot Biomass And Increases Phenotypic Variance In The Invasive Grass Phalaris Arundinacea, Alexandra R. Collins, Brian Beckage, Jane Molofsky Jan 2018

Small-Scale Genotypic Richness Stabilizes Plot Biomass And Increases Phenotypic Variance In The Invasive Grass Phalaris Arundinacea, Alexandra R. Collins, Brian Beckage, Jane Molofsky

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Botanical Society of China. All rights reserved. Aims We aim to understand how small-scale genotypic richness and genotypic interactions influence the biomass and potential invasiveness of the invasive grass, Phalaris arundinacea under two different disturbance treatments: intact plots and disturbed plots, where all the native vegetation has been removed. Specifically, we address the following questions (i) Does genotypic richness increase biomass production? (ii) Do genotypic interactions promote or reduce biomass production? (iii) Does the effect of genotypic richness and genotypic interactions differ …


The Climate-Smart Village Approach: Framework Of An Integrative Strategy For Scaling Up Adaptation Options In Agriculture, Pramod K. Aggarwal, Andy Jarvis, Bruce M. Campbell, Robert B. Zougmoré, Arun Khatri-Chhetri, Sonja J. Vermeulen, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Leocadio S. Sebastian, James Kinyangi, Osana Bonilla-Findji, Maren Radeny, John Recha, Deissy Martinez-Baron, Julian Ramirez-Villegas, Sophia Huyer, Philip Thornton, Eva Wollenberg, James Hansen, Patricia Alvarez-Toro, Andrés Aguilar-Ariza, David Arango-Londoño, Victor Patiño-Bravo, Ovidio Rivera, Mathieu Ouedraogo, Bui Tan Yen Jan 2018

The Climate-Smart Village Approach: Framework Of An Integrative Strategy For Scaling Up Adaptation Options In Agriculture, Pramod K. Aggarwal, Andy Jarvis, Bruce M. Campbell, Robert B. Zougmoré, Arun Khatri-Chhetri, Sonja J. Vermeulen, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Leocadio S. Sebastian, James Kinyangi, Osana Bonilla-Findji, Maren Radeny, John Recha, Deissy Martinez-Baron, Julian Ramirez-Villegas, Sophia Huyer, Philip Thornton, Eva Wollenberg, James Hansen, Patricia Alvarez-Toro, Andrés Aguilar-Ariza, David Arango-Londoño, Victor Patiño-Bravo, Ovidio Rivera, Mathieu Ouedraogo, Bui Tan Yen

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Increasing weather risks threaten agricultural production systems and food security across the world. Maintaining agricultural growth while minimizing climate shocks is crucial to building a resilient food production system and meeting developmental goals in vulnerable countries. Experts have proposed several technological, institutional, and policy interventions to help farmers adapt to current and future weather variability and to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the climate-smart village (CSV) approach as a means of performing agricultural research for development that robustly tests technological and institutional options for dealing with climatic variability and climate change in agriculture using participatory methods. It …


Addressing Climate Change Impacts On Agriculture And Natural Resources: Barriers And Priorities For Land-Grant Universities In The Northeastern United States, Daniel Tobin, Rama Radhakrishna, Allison Chatrchyan, Shorna B. Allred Jul 2017

Addressing Climate Change Impacts On Agriculture And Natural Resources: Barriers And Priorities For Land-Grant Universities In The Northeastern United States, Daniel Tobin, Rama Radhakrishna, Allison Chatrchyan, Shorna B. Allred

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change has serious implications for agricultural production, natural resource management, and food security. In the United States, land-grant universities and the U.S. Cooperative Extension System have a critical role to play in conducting basic and applied research related to climate change and translating findings into meaningful programming. However, land-grant universities and Extension have had difficulty maintaining their roles as the preeminent source of trusted information on complex topics like climate change. To help guide research and programming agendas of land-grant universities, the authors explored the barriers and priorities that researchers and Extension personnel at 16 northeastern land-grant universities perceive …


Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Agriculture Without Compromising Food Security?, Stefan Frank, Petr Havlík, Jean François Soussana, Antoine Levesque, Hugo Valin, Eva Wollenberg, Ulrich Kleinwechter, Oliver Fricko, Mykola Gusti, Mario Herrero, Pete Smith, Tomoko Hasegawa, Florian Kraxner, Michael Obersteiner Jan 2017

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Agriculture Without Compromising Food Security?, Stefan Frank, Petr Havlík, Jean François Soussana, Antoine Levesque, Hugo Valin, Eva Wollenberg, Ulrich Kleinwechter, Oliver Fricko, Mykola Gusti, Mario Herrero, Pete Smith, Tomoko Hasegawa, Florian Kraxner, Michael Obersteiner

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

To keep global warming possibly below 1.5◦C and mitigate adverse effects of climate change, agriculture, like all other sectors, will have to contribute to efforts in achieving net negative emissions by the end of the century. Cost-efficient distribution of mitigation across regions and economic sectors is typically calculated using a global uniform carbon price in climate stabilization scenarios. However, in reality such a carbon price would substantially affect food availability. Here, we assess the implications of climate change mitigation in the land use sector for agricultural production and food security using an integrated partial equilibrium modelling framework and explore ways …