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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Nature and Society Relations
Water Use Governance In A Temperate Region: Implications For Agricultural Climate Change Adaptation In The Northeastern United States, Rachel E. Schattman, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah M. Aitken
Water Use Governance In A Temperate Region: Implications For Agricultural Climate Change Adaptation In The Northeastern United States, Rachel E. Schattman, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah M. Aitken
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications
Climate change and access to water are interrelated concerns for agriculture and other sectors, even in temperate regions. Governance approaches and regulatory frameworks determine who has access to water, for what purpose, and when. In the northeastern United States, water governance has historically been conducted by states through a combination of statutory guidance and common law. However, it is unclear what effect if current governance approaches will be sufficient for achieving resource conservation and equitable allocation in a changing climate. To provide insight into these issues, we conducted the first review of freshwater governance in the 12 states that comprise …
Us County-Level Agricultural Crop Production Typology, Courtney R. Hammond Wagner, Meredith T. Niles, Eric D. Roy
Us County-Level Agricultural Crop Production Typology, Courtney R. Hammond Wagner, Meredith T. Niles, Eric D. Roy
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications
Objectives: Crop production is an important variable in social, economic and environmental analyses. There is an abundance of crop data available for the United States, but we lack a typology of county-level crop production that accounts for production similarities in counties across the country. We fill this gap with a county-level classification of crop production with ten mutually exclusive categories across the contiguous United States. Data description: To create the typology we ran a cluster analysis on acreage data for 21 key crops from the United States Department of Agriculture's 2012 Agricultural Census. Prior to clustering, we estimated undisclosed county …
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
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 …
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
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 …
Local Knowledge And Climate Information: The Role Of Trust And Risk In Agricultural Decisions About Drought, Adam J. Snitker
Local Knowledge And Climate Information: The Role Of Trust And Risk In Agricultural Decisions About Drought, Adam J. Snitker
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Climate change is projected to dramatically impact agricultural production across the world. Agricultural producers must adapt to changing conditions by implementing practices and utilizing knowledge that creates resilient operations. This study explores how Montana farmers and ranchers use of different types of knowledge during periods of drought and how risk perceptions and trust influence the use of knowledge. To understand the role trust and risk in producers’ use of local knowledge and climate information, I conducted five focus groups with 34 Montana agricultural producers. Producers explained that they encounter many agriculture-related risks, including uncertain forecasts, financial losses, and adverse weather. …
Farmer Perceptions Of Climate Change: Associations With Observed Temperature And Precipitation Trends, Irrigation, And Climate Beliefs, Meredith T. Niles, Nathaniel D. Mueller
Farmer Perceptions Of Climate Change: Associations With Observed Temperature And Precipitation Trends, Irrigation, And Climate Beliefs, Meredith T. Niles, Nathaniel D. Mueller
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications
How individuals perceive climate change is linked to whether individuals support climate policies and whether they alter their own climate-related behaviors, yet climate perceptions may be influenced by many factors beyond local shifts in weather. Infrastructure designed to control or regulate natural resources may serve as an important lens through which people experience climate, and thus may influence perceptions. Likewise, perceptions may be influenced by personal beliefs about climate change and whether it is human-induced. Here we examine farmer perceptions of historical climate change, how perceptions are related to observed trends in regional climate, how perceptions are related to the …
The Ecological Genomic Basis Of Salinity Adaptation In Tunisian Medicago Truncatula, Maren L. Friesen, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Mounawer Badri, Ken S. Moriuchi, Fathi Barhoumi, Peter L. Chang, Sonia Cuellar-Ortiz, Matilde A. Cordeiro, Wendy T. Vu, Soumaya Arraouadi, Naceur Djébali, Kais Zribi, Yazid Badri, Stephanie S. Porter, Mohammed Elarbi Aouani, Douglas R. Cook, Sharon Y. Strauss, Sergey V. Nuzhdin
The Ecological Genomic Basis Of Salinity Adaptation In Tunisian Medicago Truncatula, Maren L. Friesen, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Mounawer Badri, Ken S. Moriuchi, Fathi Barhoumi, Peter L. Chang, Sonia Cuellar-Ortiz, Matilde A. Cordeiro, Wendy T. Vu, Soumaya Arraouadi, Naceur Djébali, Kais Zribi, Yazid Badri, Stephanie S. Porter, Mohammed Elarbi Aouani, Douglas R. Cook, Sharon Y. Strauss, Sergey V. Nuzhdin
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications
Background: As our world becomes warmer, agriculture is increasingly impacted by rising soil salinity and understanding plant adaptation to salt stress can help enable effective crop breeding. Salt tolerance is a complex plant phenotype and we know little about the pathways utilized by naturally tolerant plants. Legumes are important species in agricultural and natural ecosystems, since they engage in symbiotic nitrogen-fixation, but are especially vulnerable to salinity stress. Results: Our studies of the model legume Medicago truncatula in field and greenhouse settings demonstrate that Tunisian populations are locally adapted to saline soils at the metapopulation level and that saline origin …
Shade Coffee: Update On A Disappearing Refuge For Biodiversity, Shalene Jha, Christopher M. Bacon, Stacy M. Philpott, V. Ernesto Méndez, Peter Läderach, Robert A. Rice
Shade Coffee: Update On A Disappearing Refuge For Biodiversity, Shalene Jha, Christopher M. Bacon, Stacy M. Philpott, V. Ernesto Méndez, Peter Läderach, Robert A. Rice
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications
In the past three decades, coffee cultivation has gained widespread attention for its crucial role in supporting local and global biodiversity. In this synthetic Overview, we present newly gathered data that summarize how global patterns in coffee distribution and shade vegetation have changed and discuss implications for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and livelihoods. Although overall cultivated coffee area has decreased by 8% since 1990, coffee production and agricultural intensification have increased in many places and shifted globally, with production expanding in Asia while contracting in Africa. Ecosystem services such as pollination, pest control, climate regulation, and nutrient sequestration are generally greater …
The Politics Of Transgenic Food: An Ethnographically Informed Analysis Of The Ban On Genetically Modified Crops In Bolivia, Kristin Gjelsteen
The Politics Of Transgenic Food: An Ethnographically Informed Analysis Of The Ban On Genetically Modified Crops In Bolivia, Kristin Gjelsteen
Summer Research
This research investigates a country that has recently committed itself to replacing all genetically modified crops with non-altered crops. Limitations and benefits associated with allowing or banning transgenic technology are examined through interviews with farmers, agricultural researchers, agronomists, biologists and environmental advocates in three diverse communities in Bolivia. This research explores how these stakeholders experience and understand the recent national rejection of this agricultural technology. Controversy surrounding development and use of transgenic technology illustrates moral, political, social and economic conflicts, presents risks and creates complex societal decisions with the potential to impact ecological systems, diversity of life, health (both natural …
Are Trees Necessary In The City?, Chester Smolski
Are Trees Necessary In The City?, Chester Smolski
Smolski Texts
"It appeared as a small news item: the Providence Park Commission had requested that 40 trees be planted along Atwells Avenue as part of the $2.8 million facelift scheduled for Federal Hill but the Providence Redevelopment Agency did not act on the request. Businessmen along the street were also opposed to the plantings because they considered that their shops would not be visible behind the trees and thus, they would lose some potential business. As a result, no new trees will appear along that business thoroughfare."
City Parks Are For People: Viewpoint, Chester Smolski
City Parks Are For People: Viewpoint, Chester Smolski
Smolski Texts
"It has been claimed that urban parks are "the lungs of the city," supplying, as they do, breathing space in a harsh concrete and asphalt enviornment. Parks also provide a sense of nature with trees, grass and flowers in a serene and peaceful setting."