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Climate Change

Crop, grazing and forested lands and wetlands all have the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to ecosystem services. From a GHG management perspective, soil carbon not only stores carbon dioxide (CO2), but also offers other benefits--it acts as a chemical filter (with soil minerals and organic matter) for clean water, reduces soil erosion, conserves water, provides microbial habitats and sources of long‐term slow‐release nutrients, and improves soil structure and productivity. This material can be stockpiled using numerous best management practices (BMPs) including sustainable forestry practices; no‐till and conservation tillage in cropped land; cover cropping; and forage, agroforestry, wetland, and grassland management.

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA support activities that develop new and strengthen existing partnerships between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey. Interagency collaboration will streamline decision‐making for more effective and efficient synchronized interagency data management and problem solving.

 

Science Policy Office Activities Related to Climate Change

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Report: Agriculture’s Role in Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Capture    

 
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA released a report that summarizes the current knowledge of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions and capture across six regions—Northeast, Southeast, Corn Belt, Northern Great Plains, Southern Great Plains, and Pacific—as influenced by cropping system, tillage, and soil management. The report also outlines conservation agricultural systems and practices including: no-till, reduced tillage, cover crops, leguminous green manures, and nutrient-use efficiency—that, when adopted, will result in increased capture and reduced emissions of these GHGs.
 
Agricultural practices that promote good stewardship of the land will also reduce GHG emissions and maximize soil carbon sequestration, ultimately reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint. The report finds that although soil carbon sequestration and GHG emissions from agriculture have been investigated for several decades, field validation of models is sorely lacking.  Finally, specific areas requiring further research to reduce emissions and optimize capture of GHGs from agroecosystems, including coordinated, long-term field studies and full life-cycle analyses for major cropping systems, are identified.
 
 
 

 

 

Cropping Systems Research and Knowledge is Key to Adapting Agriculture to a Changing Climate

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) sponsored two congressional briefings on agricultural adaptation to climate change. At the briefings, experts stated that cropping systems may require a more diverse array of crops to help communities adapt to warmer temperatures, unexpected cold snaps, heavy rainfall, drought, and other extremes. Changing rainfall patterns and intensities, air temperatures, and cropping seasons will require adapting traditional agricultural systems to a new climate, creating new production opportunities and challenges.
 
ag adaptation one page document

Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research fellow at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and member of ASA and SSSA opened up the briefing with an overview of how the climate is changing and impacting agriculture. Dr. Paul Gepts, a geneticist and professor of agronomy at the University of California, Davis, and member of the ASA and CSSA described the need for greater crop biodiversity in the United States, warning the as climate change intensifies crop vulnerabilities to biotic and abiotic stresses will increase. Dr. César Izaurralde, a laboratory fellow with the Joint Global Change Research Institute, and member of the ASA and CSSA explained how CO2 can damage corn, maize, and wheat as water becomes trapped plant stomata. Dr. Gerald Nelson, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute also spoke at the briefing. All the presenters agreed that climate change is likely to threaten the world’s food supply, posing security risks for the United States and many other nations.

View the one-page document distributed at the briefings here: Ag Adaptation One Page Document. (PDF)
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