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The US Department of Agriculture has an interesting website with ten case studies documenting their plan to help farmers and foresters plan for climate change. Here is some of the information from the web site. You can read more at: https://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=climate-smart.html ——————————————————————————————————- The effort relies on voluntary, incentive-based conservation, forestry, and energy programs to reduce…
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I’ve seen a few stories recently about impacts of adverse climate on crops in other countries. AgWeb reported that France’s wheat harvest will be the worst in 28 years after rain and an overcast spring dropped yields precipitously. Excess water drowned the roots of the plants and fungal diseases were rampant, which the lack of…
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A new study by UGA scientists shows that over the last three decades, the area of Georgia’s coast covered by spartina, or marsh grass, has decreased by 35% based on satellite measurements. They attribute the decline to frequent droughts over the period, combined with increasing temperatures and increased snail activity in the latter half of…
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I am happy to announce the birth of a new website for the University of Georgia automated weather station network. You can still find the main portal at https://www.georgiaweather.net/, although that may change in the future. The website has a fresh new look and more readily available information. I encourage you to visit them and see…
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NOAA released their annual “State of the Climate” report today for 2015, and it confirms that 2015 was the warmest year ever recorded on Earth. This year’s warmth was helped by the strong El Niño which also warmed the Pacific Ocean. You can read about it in NOAA’s Climate.gov newsletter here. You can see a…
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The National Hurricane Center has just announced that they will begin issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Earl, currently located in the western Caribbean Sea and moving west towards Mexico. It is not expected to affect the Southeast or the rest of the US. You can get more information at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov or at https://www.spaghettimodels.com.
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To understand how common crops respond to changes in climate, some researchers at the University of Minnesota have built a sophisticated climate-controlled laboratory for studying how crops like corn respond to changes in temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and rainfall. I was amazed at how carefully they had to put together the lab, for example in…