Climate and Ag in the news
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The videotaped presentations from the conference on Navigating Agriculture through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus held in Austin TX in November are now available here. This one day conference addressed the following important questions: What are the linkages between water, energy, and food systems? What are the interdependencies and tradeoffs that will influence future policy and sustainability of agriculture?…
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NASA published a blog post on a set of soil composition maps this week, which really show the range of water-holding capacity across the United States. The series of maps show the composition of soil by sand, clay, and silt as well as showing the available water storage. As expected, the water storage of Southeastern soils…
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ABC News posted a story today about the severe drought in South Africa. In the last week 11 people have died from heatstroke associated with record-setting high temperatures in the dry conditions. One farmer reported that he has already lost $60,000 this season because he has not been able to plant a single seed. He…
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The Forest Service’s Southern Research Station has produced a new map for the United States which shows the extent of forested plots that have at least one invasive species present. The study that the map is based on shows that in Southeastern forests, about 39 percent of all the plots tested had at least one…
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According to the Southeast Regional Climate Hub, the PINEMAP DSS (decision support system) is now available online. According to SERCH, it is “a map-based collection of climate and forest productivity web tools designed to provide region-wide information on likely future climate risks, opportunities, and impacts on southern pines at the watershed scale.” The goal is…
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The heavy rains in the central part of the US have caused a lot of flooding along the Mississippi River and many other rivers in the region. This is the worst flooding since 2011 and has been compared to the 1993 devastating floods. This has caused major problems for crop and livestock farmers. AgWeb published…
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The National Hurricane Center is watching a swirl of clouds off the coast of North Carolina for signs of development. It is currently an extratropical storm, but because it is over warm water it could develop some tropical characteristics and might gain enough strength to gain a name. If it did, it would be called…