Uhhh Yeah

Sequestration

the update of carbon containing substances in terrestrial or marine reservoirs includes direct removal of co2 from the atmosphere through land use change, afforestation, reforestation, revegetation, carbon storage in landfills, soil carbon enhancement in agriculture, carbon dioxide capture and storage

medicinal plants

Milkweed used as diuretic and other urinary tract problems Water hemlock - poison on tips of arrows or to treat epilepsy

what produces nitrous oxide in agro?

extra fertilizer on field, goes through denitrification and nitrous oxide is released can come from manure can come from wet soils

how to reduce ghg from manure?

- Improve manure management (e.g., keep covered to keep dry) or use manures as energy source in anaerobic digesters

can these models, vertical, roof and greenhouse reduce undernourishment?

- not really because growing niche, expensive crops like lettuce with little calorie density and expensive restaurant market -> not targeting the people that need help with undernourishment but may help with quality of diet like different nutrients

Sustainable Global Agriculture Solutions•Sheaffer and Moncada:

-Protect existing land used for crop and animal production-Practice water conservation-Expand alternative approaches to crop production-Continue plant-breeding research aimed at increasing production efficiency -Preserve genetic diversity of existing crops -Expand the use of crops for renewable energy

Mendel's Laws of inheritance:

1. Each trait is defined by a gene pair2. Inheritance of one trait is not dependent on the other3. An organism with alternate forms of a gene will express the form that is dominant

No, But Seriously How Are We Supposed to Fix This?

1. Reduce GHG Emissions: Paris Agreement or Fee and Dividend2. Change Diets: Increase the price of meat by leveling a revenue neutral tax that incorporates environmental cost3. Reduce Food Waste: Incentives in developed countries, technology transfer and aid in developing4. Close Yield Gaps: Second Green Revolution5. Alleviate Poverty Through Agriculture: Fund small agribusinesses and distribution networks, land rights, grants for women farmers

what percent prevalence of undernourishment across many parts of Africa?

15-25% but also 35%

how much land for argo

40% of the land on earth is dedicated to food production/agriculture

in dollars and people how big is organic industry? and what percentage?

50 billion dollar sector over 25,000 farmers ranchers and other food producers have certified their operations and USDA organic numbers are increasing over time! 10%%%%%% organic!!!!

when did people start researching climate change

60s and 70s

HUMAN carbon component

9 gigatons get emitted 2 go into the shallow ocean (this is a problem because the acidity of the ocean is increased, things with shells made of calciums can be eroded by this acid) 3 go into increasing net primary productivity the other 4 go in the atmosphere!! stays in the atmosphere to warm the earth! absorption and reradiation once this goes up into the atmosphere there's no clear way to get it back, our technology just isn't there yet

Water breakdown; where is it:

97.5% in coeans majority of freshwater in glaciers much more groundwater than fresh surface water very little in atmosphere at any one time

Photoperiodism

: Is a plant's reaction to changing durations of darkness This involves the pigment phytochrome that senses changes in amounts of red and far-red light Phytochrome has two interconvertible forms Flowering response Flowering in many plants is affected by photoperiod Plants can be: short day (corn) , long day (wheat), day neutral (tomato, dandelion

And We Can Make Apples Stay White and Rice Turn Orange (couple other funky things with GMOs)

Arctic apple -Similar to a conventional apple, but browns more slowly -Approved in 2015 •Golden Rice (CONTROVERSIAL) -Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) -Combat vitamin A deficiency, which globally is a cause of child mortality and irreversible blindness CONTROVERSIAL BECAUSE: what some would call a potentially a new technology and unproven in terms of health out to poor people And they wouldn't really have an option. Right. Because I mean, it was all being donated and everything.

types of agroforestry

A. Riparian bioenergy bufferB. WindbreaksC. SilvopastureD. Alley croppingE. Forest farmingF. Short-rotation woody crops

How much of global GHG emissions are from agriculture?

ABOUT 1/3rd!!!! and 14-18% is from animal agro

when did modern humans arise

Africa for 200,000 years

Agricultural Model and Intercomparisonand Improvement Project (AgMIP)

AgMIP Mission: Provide effective science-based agricultural decision-making models and assessments of climate variability and change and sustainable farming systems to achieve local-to-global food security researchers at uni's and they are saying how can we manage fields better, what kind of weather is coming down the line for us and what agro systems can we use to align with that

Sustainable Global Agriculture Solutions Tilman et al.:-

Agricultural improvement and technology transfer critical-Land sparing (with increased nitrogen) minimizes greenhouse gas emissions

early farming

Agriculture went along with the first large permanent human settlements and the origins of modern civilizations How: early farmers probably grew limited quantities of some crops on purpose while still hunting and gathering to meet their food needs

Agroforestry Defined•

Agroforestry refers to any of a broad range of land use practices where pasture or crops are integrated with trees and shrubs. Includes: Riparian Bioenergy Buffer: Prevent nutrient loading of streams•Windbreaks: increased yields through reduced soil conservation, evapotranspiration, through reduced wind erosion•Silvopasture: Trees benefit from livestock nutrients, livestock benefit from shade, reductions in heat stress•Alley Cropping: Blend nitrogen-consuming and nitrogen-fixing crops, protect crops, reduce crop canopy temperatures•Forest Farming: Complex mix of biodiversity and staple crops•Short-Rotation Woody Crops: Another form of multicropping/ intercropping shrubs with field crops

more about agroforestry

Agroforestry: Video: Terrace farming in ethiopia Example with soybeans and walnuts in US A set of management practices Riparian bioenergy buffers: woody species planted along a stream and as the water runs off the fields of pastures it runs into the srhuby veetatgion anns slows donw the waters and lets the water drop all its nutrients and you can harvest the buffer itself ofr bioenergy Windbreaks (instead of completely blank field, you leave rows of trees and they reduce the wind and reduce evapotrainspariate to save on water and soil erosion Silvopasture: pasture and trees growing at the same time, cattle get shade, maure goes back into the trees Alley cropping : a tree species along side a legume, walnuts and soybeans, one fixes nitrogen one gives shade Forest farming Mix of native species and corn for example Short rotation woody crops , again woody crops to break up landscape and you can harvest for bioenergy Not much export product but can provide local food security and give a more varied/healthy/diverse diet Really saving on deforestation, by not cutting down a ton of trees Diversitying crop system helpful overall cause if you do mono cropping if theres a pest or weather event your one crop could be destroyed

Albedo

Albedo = Alpha = short wave reflected / shortwave incidence High albedo surfaces: glaciers, deserts, snow covered mountain tops Low albedo: oceans, deep forest, black tops/pavement

plants that do better in certain conditions

Alfalfa has high water use, sugar beets, corn More with less = winter wheat and dry beans

What would be some Matlab questions he could ask?

And it will be directly related to your problems and how you applied a particular command or process. repmat:repmat repeats the entries of the table and appends a number to the new variable names. corr: Description. rho = corr( X ) returns a matrix of the pairwise linear correlation coefficient between each pair of columns in the input matrix X . polyfit: polyfit(x,y,n) finds the coefficients of a polynomial p(x) of degree n that fits the y data by minimizing the sum of the squares of the deviations of the data from the model (least-squares fit). polyval(p,x) returns the value of a polynomial of degree n that was determined by polyfit , evaluated at x . skatter plots understand the statistical crop model from PSET 3!!!

scientists ringing alarm, going to Congress testifying

And then by the eighties, by the early eighties, you know, there were scientists ringing alarm, going to Congress testifying

when was the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?

And then by the late eighties, we had the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

forages

Any crops whose vegetative parts including stems, leaves, and sometimes attached seeds and grains are used for livestock feed Animales can forage directly from pastures by grazing or forages can be def following storage Farmers store forages as hay or silage Hay is forage that is dried to about 20% moisture and stored in the air Silage is harvested at 50-80% moisture and sealed in a silo

What percentage of agro productivity is from irrigated crops?

Approximately 40% of global agricultural productivity is from irrigated crops

arable vs other kinds of farm land

Arable land is land on which you can grow annual crops on (like corn wheat soy) (or some define it as what land could use to grow food on) Permanent crops like orchards/perennials on chart, grasses etc Pasture for animals Generally most productive use of land/ make the most money is the arable land for things like corn, wheat etc Generally the pasture land isn't good enough to be used to grow annuals on

types of nitrogen

Haber Bosch we like to make nitrate. Nitrate is the plant accessible version of nitrogen. Most of the most of the natural nitrogen fixation so not Haber Bosch is ammonia. And then there's this nitrification process that's done by bacteria. on the ammonia to make it into nitrate. You should know that nitrate leaches. So like where ammonia will bind the soil. nitrate can get washed away by water!!!

how many crops have herbicide resistance, BT or both? and what percent of the world's planted cropland that year was from these?

Available in fewer than 10 crops as of 2015, varieties with GE herbicide resistance, insect resistance, or both were grown on about 12 percent of the world's planted cropland that year

dealing with imbalance in energy budget

BUT WAIT!!! Climate is an imbalance in this energy budget: Things change on the long wave: the 21 long wave we emit to space: because we have put things into the atmosphere that have stopped them from getting out!! The long wave hits the greenhouse gas itself, warms up the greenhouse gas itself and that gas radiates heat in all directions including some back down to earth Water vapor is the one greenhouse gas what we don't emit/control our emission but we do most of the others Shortwave radiation not affected by greenhouse gasses (only longwave)

Downsides of nitrogen use/making: negative impacts: health oh humans

Baby blue syndrome: problems for vulnerable populations Nitrate levels above 10 mg/L (10 ppm) in drinking water lead to decreased oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin

Different methods of applying fertilizers

Banding is simultaneous planting and fertilizing He thinks banding is most common but also anhydrous ammonia Anhydrous ammonia the liquid one would use the middle injected method (cause it would just float away if it was just on the surface) Broadcast is just spreading it all over the place which is like what individuals do to their lawns but if you get rain right after its just gonna all wash away Disk it in just means plow it in or plow it down A side dress is after your plant comes up you wanna get more fertilizer out so you apply it along the sides of the plant without hitting and damaging the plant Farmers can do fertigation: inground irrigation + applying fertilizer at the same time from underneath

china :basic percentages

feeds 22% of the worlds population and 7% of the worlds arable land

Peoples park.

Berkeley california like counterculture in the sixties and just sort of mistrust of like governments and institutions and like organizations in general. The fertilizer production companies were also fighting the war after Vietnam. What else is going on at the time? Moving on around this time from the 1960s, we started carrying a lot about clean water and we passed the Clean Water and Clean Air Act about this time We had DDT that was decimating bird populations. We had the river in Ohio, the Cuyahoga that caught on fire. So there was like there was an incendiary environmentalism at the time that was paired with this interest in organic agriculture.

differences in areas of china (where is arable, where is water)

Better land slightly further north But lots of water down south, flooding in south What are they doing to address that? Channels constructed, take water from yangtze and dump into yellow river Moving water is very energy intensive and difficult Flowing downhill is really the only way (or a ton of power behind it to get it up a hill)

general trend statements

Better off today than we've ever been We live the longest lives in each region we've ever lived Hunger in general is going down There may have been inequality anyway without food storage With agriculture not everyone has to be a farmer so they can do other things and you can make advancements on other fronts

WATER KEY : what percent of used freshwater is used for agro?

Biggest use of water is for agro!! 70/90% is used for agriculture Majority of freshwater has been in glaciers

rooftop farming

Brooklyn example

c3 vs c4 plants when you increase co2 in water limited enviornemtn?

C3 plants get bump in terms of carbon assimilation from increased co2, and because in this instance the plants are only rain fed, c4 plants get it too (because they are water limited)and ALL get bump in terms of their water use efficiency because they don't have to open their stomata as much

c3 vs c4 plants when you increase co2 in irrigated enviornemtn?

C3 plants get bump in terms of carbon assimilation from increased co2, and because in this instance the plants are well watered, c4 plants don't get a benefit

Evaluating accuracy of climate models:

Can we simulate the past to see how accurate our models are Because we should be able to give our models any set of greenhouse gas emissions and it should give us the temps for example back! We can set models up and try to "predict" previous global temps to see how well our models work: How do we do this: We let the model run with the green house gas emission for that set of time and compare that with what was actually observed for that same time by subtracting the two to see the differences we can subtract to see what model says vs. what it was observed (mostly use very recent past data cause we have the best numbers from this time period) Simulated - observed !!! We want to see that the model is very close to the observed because that tells you that your model has relatively few errors Brings up interesting point that if youre predicting a 2 degree celsius change in temperate but the error of your model is 2 degrees celsius this causes a problem (if your modeling error is as big as the signal is trying to detect then we don't really know what is useful) GCMs have hard times with coasts, ocean currents, upwelling/downwelling etc (off chile, upwelling right up against big mountains) Parts of these problems are from course resolutions Like huge mountains on a coast right where there is upwelling ocean water Bands in tropics it vastly overestimated precipitation

what are some key GE crops

Canola oil (round up ready so herbicide resistant) Corn is often both round up ready and BT cotton is insect resistant soy (round up ready and BT)

cereal crops

Cereal crops: Cereal crops are grasses that produce edible grain Wheat, rice, corn, barley, and sorghum are the most important cereal crops grown in the world today

manure as fertilizer!

Chart of manures: we have animals they make manure we put it on fields Next to chart of manure is how WE create nitrogen: We use hydrocarbons, we use nitrogen from the atmosphere, and from this we can create ammonia (NH3) and combine that with chemicals so get all different types and forms of nitrogen that we can put on the field that are beneficial for different scenarios Some are solids, some liquids, some easy to ship

what is climate change fundamentally

Climate change is fundamentally an imbalance in earth's energy budget

climate variability

Climate variability is the way aspects of climate (such as temperature and precipitation) differ from an average.

colombian exchange

Columbian exchange: 1492 triangular trade EU, AM, AF Included corn, potatoes, tomato, tobacco from "new" world wheat, oat, rice from "old world" A lot of livestock from old world Horses esp pigs are very adaptable so good too Precious metals from new world with crops Old world also brought: weeds, people like colonists and slaves, diseases like smallpox, influenza, typhus

companion crops

Companion crops: Such as oat and wheat have traditionally been seeded with a small seeded legume such as alfalfa to provide erosion control suppress weeds, and provide some income from the land during that period if either crop fails Companion crops are harvested at maturity for grain and straw or when immature for silage

roots and tubers

Harvested for their underground storage organs that are rich in starch Sweet potatoes and cassava have enlarged ROOTS not stems/tubers These crops are among the most important in the world as a source of energy for human nutrition Another tuber producing crop is the jerusalem artichoke (store energy as inulin)

cover crops

Cover crops: Farmers use cover crops to prevent soil erosion due to water or wind during periods when the soil is not protected by growing plant cover Example: Summer annuals like corn and soybean in the US are normally in the field from may through october so the soil is uncovered besides crop residue from november until the following spring so a cover crop such as winter rye or hairy vetch is sometimes planted in late fall to provide soil cover over the winter

why the shift to farming

Crop cultivation was necessary to achieve a secure food supply during a time when climatic changes made many areas of the world inhabitable and sedentary populations were increasing, especially adjacent to waterways and other favorable habitats (farming requires more labor but can feed more ppl when done successfully) → once population had increased enough then the RELIANCE on farming began climate changes including warmer average-global temperatures resulted in favorable growing conditions for increased distribution and growth of cereals like rice corn and wheat (grains are versatile cooked for immediate consumption, ground for breads to eat later, or stored. Natural progression from hunting and gathering because Accumulated knowledge built up about how to grow plants and interact with animals and along with this technology developed like the sickle milling and other processing Why did the neolithic revolution occur: The need for a new system for the more people we have now End of ice age, new stable climate, plants love stable Constant water constant temp Natural step from hunting and gathering as with the transitional methods discussed above Also pleistocene megafauna extinction as we came out of the ice age, driving people to agriculture, we need other sources of food

crop spcieces tolerances

Crop species and varieties have different temperatures tolerances: Wheat Winter wheat is seeded in the fall and has greater cold tolerance than spring weather Alfalfa In northern US and Canada more cold tolerant cultivars are grown, in southwest and west more productive yet less cold tolerant cultivars are grown Corn: Hybrids vary in their relative maturity to fit the frost free growing period within a region Do not differ substantially in cold tolerance but are selected in northern regions for their early maturity

what is domestication

DOMESTICATION: is the adapting or taming of wild species of plants or animals to be used by humans

Planting dates and rates:

Date maximize capture of solar energy and water use Rate provides optimum light interception and soil moisture use Rate is how many plants you're planting per square meter Those big increases in yield over time have come almost exclusively from being able to plant crops closer together!!!! More plants per acre and this had been allowed through all of these management tactics like water and nitrogen etc etc Weeks are controlled because they compete with crops for water and light

dormant, germnicaitn, vernalization

Dormant response: Reduce growth, store energy in the roots and crowns, increase sugar concentration in the cells, leaves dropping, etc etc Seed germination: Germination of many seeds is affected by the photoperiod Deeply buried seems are not exposed to light and do not germinate while those near the surface will Vernalization: Is a response during the winter that is important for triggering flowering in the spring To flower in the spring, winter-annual small grains such as rye and wheat along with perennial grasses like smooth bromegrass require exposure to short photoperiods and low temperatures during winter Winter wheat and winter rye that are planted in the spring without vernalisation will not flower

irrigation: most to least efficient:

Drip, then sprinkle (center pivot), then furrow, then flood

impact of droughts

Drought is a significant reduction in normal precipitation Book defines drought has a prolonged period of deficiency in normal precipitation but shorter term droughts can also be damaging, flash droughts can damage crops too Can result in extensive damage to crops depending on magnitude, duration, timing, crop, other factors Not to be confused with semi arid or arid climates that have naturally low rainfall Costs US annoyall 6-8 billion ALSO WHEN THE DROUGHT HITS in the plants life!! Worse for plant to go through a drought during their reproductive stages like silking, tasseling , worse than if you hit them during their vegetative state Don't confuse droughts with places that are already arid or semi-arid, those aren't droughts they are naturally that way, droughts are changes from what you would expect. Hurricanes cost more/cause the most damage, but after hurricanes its drought in terms of cost, so droughts are huge risks (in terms of extreme weather events)

Evapotranpiration

Evapotranspiration: Is the plants total water use ET includes the actual water loss in transpiration as well as water that is evaporated from the surface of the leaves or from the soil surrounding the plant The ET ratio (the weight of water required to produce the weight of the crops dry matter) depends on several factors including type of photosynthesis (C3 or C4) and number of stomata etc etc

piao reading notes:

Due to a relative lack of research on climate change's impact on China, this study was conducted to evaluate future impacts on agricultural and water resources by reviewing observations of "climate, hydrology and agricultural production trends in China," (Piao 43). These observations were then associated with likely future changes in all of these measures. The researchers highlighted some recent trends in climate and water patterns in China such as a warming in the north (+ 1.2 degrees Celsius since 1960) and an increase in rainfall contrast between the drier north and wetter south leading to more droughts and floods in each area respectively (Piao 44). When further evaluating water availability, they noted that it is difficult to detangle "the effects of climate change from those of increased human withdrawal" and also noted the nuances in studying the impact of glacial melt on river runoff (Piao 46). With all this being said, the authors claim that, "depending on regional conditions and crop varieties" this variation in climate may either produce a positive or negative effect on agricultural yield (Piao 48). For example, warming has "extended the length of the potential growing season for crops, allowing both earlier planting and later harvesting and northward expansion of rice planting," but on the other hand this warming also allows for "pests and diseases" to "expand their geographic ranges... increasing stress on crops," (Piao 48). They conclude that it is difficult to predict future impacts of climate change on agriculture because of the only moderate variation observed so far compared to natural fluctuation in climate and advancements in technology. They also note that more effort must be put into improving regional climate simulations, especially those focusing on precipitation, in order to better understand future impacts on agriculture and water resources in China (Piao 43).

Furrow and flood

Easy to deploy, inefficient, specialty applications Lose a lot to evaporation (esp because irrigate in dry areas a lot

numbers on energy - what does energy go to most for agro

Energy Energy accounted for approximately 15% of agricultural production costs Worldwide use in energy is increase 2% per year Nonrenewable sources supply 85% of energy consumed In US only 12% of our total energy is renewable And then we have 9% from nuclear cause its not really renewable, not really fossil Most energy goes to fertilizer (for nitrogen and phosphorus) and diesel (for tractors) and electricity (for heat and lighting) then the rest like gasoline, pesticides, propane, natural gas in smaller percentages

soil carbon enhancement in agriculture: BIOCHAR

FILL IN FROM PSET 2!!!!

can increased aquaculture/aquaponics reduce undernourishment?

FISH: can add more protein to the diet, more varied diet, so better quality of diet, but yeah you are you're expanding your available growing area into the water so just more food in general can be produced CROPS: but the plant crops being grown aren't nutrient dense/they are specialty so not really

fiber crops

Fiber Crops: Used for clothing, rope, paper, and baskets The fiber is a collection of individual fiber cells (see chapter 8 for more details) Cotton, flax, hemp, and ramie are fiber crops that each produce fiber of different characteristics

ag land lost / land damage

Five million hectares 12 million acres of cropland are lost annually: land use change like into a suburb, soil erosion from wind and water Monocultures: you hit the soil with the same crop that take up the same nutrients and the soil is striped Salinization problem as well - most of a problem in irrigated areas, you irrigate an area, the salt in the soil dissolves into the water, the water is brought up to the surface and evaporates away leaving all the salt on top: basically a salt pump from lower layers into upper layers from the water being added and evaporating on a circle over and over, and most plants DON'T LIKE SALT

problems with food waste

Food waste is big problem: 30 to 40% of food is lost to waste in both the developed and developing worlds In the US the majority is wasted in our homes, vs the developing world basically none is wasted at home and it's mostly on the farm and in transport/processing

where are GEs/GMOs used

GMOs Are Used in Developed and Developing Countries: USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, India are the four biggest Also used in Spain and Portugal, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, china, etc etc 16 developing and 5 developed/industrial some countries don't use them because: •Some lack of access to seed, money, herbicide (Roundup) •Government regulations

The atmosphere:

Gaseous layer extended 70 miles, very thin compared to earth Composed of troposphere, stratosphere, mesospheres, thermosphere, defined by temperature profile (troposphere is weather and ghgs) (strasosphere has ozone layer)

history of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation Politics

Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation Politics• December 1988: IPCC Established-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides scientific information on climate change, issues assessments every ~6 years• June 1995: COP 1 in Berlin, Germany-Conference of Parties (COP) convened under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for negotiating specific international treaties to set binding limits on greenhouse gases •December 1997: Creation of the Kyoto Protocol-Binding emission reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries adding up to a 5% average emissions reduction compared to 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008 to 2012 •June 2014: Clean Power Plan Proposed-US EPA Clean Air Act regulation to cut carbon pollution from the nation's power plants 30% from 2005 levels by 2030 This is when Obama is in office, setting up for Paris, regulated under the clean air act cause there was no way it was gonna pass through congress •November 2014: US and China Agree to Climate Accord-United States would emit 26% - 28% less carbon in 2025 relative to 2005-China peak carbon emissions in 2030• December 2015: COP 21 in Paris, France

climate change impact on ocean

Global oceans have absorbed 90% of the warming due to increased greenhouse gases, and absorbed 30% of our carbon dioxide emissions •Sixty percent of the world's marine ecosystems have already been degraded or are being used unsustainably•Damage to coral reefs and mangroves that support ocean life, and migration of species to higher latitudes and altitudes where the water could be cooler•Sea level rise

godfrays five methods

Godfrays 5 methods for addressing the challenge of feeding 9 billion people Reducing waste In developed countries: food waste gets off farms but making sure it actually gets used!! In developing countries: make sure it actually gets to the market, transportation issues, conflict, poor road infrastructure, refrigeration, trying to get across borders etc Closing the yield gap Increasing efficiency, what is being produced on that land vs. what could be being produced on that land This is taking the under producers and catching them up Increase production limits via plant breeding (Sheaffer and Moncada are all about this!!! This is their area but Godfray does more balanced approach and says we also need to look at other factors (the other 4 out of 5 things) This is really can we take the best producers like the US and corn and make them even better Change diets Best thing you can do for the environment! Stop eating meat Especially cows, they produce methane and are an intensive animal to raise Increasing aquaculture Displace other animals protein

grains

Grain crops: Grain is the fruit or seed of a crop plant Similar in definition to cereal crops, the term grain crop is applied to the harvested portion of a number of grass crops such as corn but the term also includes legumes such as soybean and kidney beans and other plants such as flax and buckwheat Small grain is a term applied to wheat, barley, oat, and rye, because relative to corn their seed is small

what are the four mechanisms of lift?

frontal, convergence, orographic, and convection!

Gravity and the hydrologic cycle

Gravity pulls water and ice from atmosphere to earth: Condensation starts cloud and precipitation formation Collision and coalescence: responsible for droplet growth There are drafts, updrafts, downdrafts that push the little water droplets around and they hit into each other and they form little globs THIS continues until the force of gravity outweighs the force of drags Gravity: attraction between Earth and droplet/crystal Drag: Friction between droplet/crystal and air, opposes gravity When droplets/crystals become large enough that the force of gravity overcomes the force of drag from updrafts, they fall In fluid dynamics, drag (sometimes called fluid resistance) is a force acting opposite to the relative motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding fluid.

green manure crops

Green manure crops: Green manure crops are legumes or grasses that are incorporated into the soil while vegetative with the purpose of adding nutrients to the soil or enhancing the soil quality Sweet clover is a traditional example that farmers grow with the express purpose of plowing down and adding nitrogen and organic matter to the soil

Green revolution

Green revolution Is a term used to describe activities by scientists at international research centers in improving the production of food crops in developing countries through breeding of new crop varieties and the use of production technologies such as irrigation, synthetic fertilizer and pesticides Began in 1940s and continues today Increased worldwide yields this way: Example disease resistant wheat increased yields in mexico by 4 times Critique of green revoliton: It was tailored for production that depended on inputs that only rich farmers could afford so many peasant farmers were left behind / ignored Run off from chemicals

greenhouse farming

Greenhouse Farming in the Netherlands•Almost two decades ago, the Dutch made a national commitment to sustainable agriculture under the rallying cry "Twice as much food using half as many resources".•Globe's number two exporter of food as measured by value, second only to the United States, which has 270 times its landmass.•The Netherlands has 36 square miles of greenhouses

What do you we need to predict future climates:

Greenhouse gas emissions Average temps / model that can recreate temperature observations Thermal expansion (SLR - sea level rise)/Glacial melt Population which drives more greenhouse gas emissions Energy production (how and how much) inequality (unequal production of greenhouse gasses) technology transfer - solar panels etc deforestation

GDDs

Growing degree days is a measure of heat accumulation: Measure of heat accumulation in the plant!!! That you can use to predict when the plant is going to mature Based on time series of growing season temperature for a given location Used to estimate how crop development will progress and when a crop is predicted to mature This measure is only useful when you reference it back to a plant's needed number of growing degree days to get to a certain maturation stage

hydroponics

Growing plants in a nutrient solution root medium (no soil)

Haber-Bosch process

Haber Bosch Process: Originally created to help create bombs/ingredients for explosives We have nitrogen from atmosphere, we take hydrogen gas which we stripped off of hydrocarbons (you can take like a methane and strip off a hydrogen gas) and put heat and pressure and it combines with NH3 and you condense it out and you end up with ammonia N2 + 3H2 → 2NH3 (delta H = -92.4 kJ times moles to the negative 1) This is huge chunk of our Green Revolution: the addition of nitrogen Inorganic nitrogen is responsible for a ⅓ of our global food supply

organics / the omnivores dilemma

He discusses the differences between consumers' views of organic products and the actual organic agriculture being practiced. Early on, organic farms were tied closely to sixties counterculture and anti-war sentiments (because many of the same companies that produced pesticides also created chemicals for war) (Pollen 143). Currently though, Pollen describes that organic farms are owned by "big corporate organic growers" which "dominate the market for organic fresh produce in America," (Pollen 138). The organic farming industry experienced a boom of interest after a 60-Minutes exposé in the late 20th century informed the American public about Alar (a carcinogen) being used in apple farming (Pollen 153). As the organic farming industry has grown, the struggle to define "organic" has remained ever-present (Pollen 155). "Big Organic" has won many arguments over what counts as "organic," such as the inclusion of factory farming, non-pasture raised animals, and some additives and synthetic chemicals (Pollen 155). A major leader in the organics industry, Gene Kahn, even said, "if we had lost on synthesis, we'd be out of business" (Kahn/Pollen 156). Pollen also discusses the current practices of organic agriculture that are potentially damaging to the environment such as "farm workers wielding propane torches [to] spot kill the biggest weeds," and the use of extreme tillage methods which can reduce the biological activity in the soil (Pollen 160). Positively though, organic foods tend to "earn higher Brix scores (a measure of sugars)" than conventional foods and have higher levels of Vitamin C, for example (Pollen 176 and 179). And, all in all, "growing food organically uses about a third less fossil fuel than growing it conventionally (Pollen 183). Reactions One section that interested me was the focus on profit for farmers. Pollen says that "farmers who get the message that consumers care only about price will themselves care only about yield," (Pollen 136). In this course so far, I've tended to view yield in the context of undernourishment worldwide, however Pollen resituates yield as a purely economic goal in US farming. It is a good reminder of the different drivers of the agricultural industry and their potentially opposing goals. Source Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Downsides of nutrient use/making: negative impacts: health heavy metals

Heavy metal consumption like mercury lead and arsenic: Mercury, lead, and arsenic from phosphate and micronutrients Come from us mining for the other nutrients (not nitrogen) like magnesium and micronutrients

given 1.5 degrees of overall warming for example, what areas of the globe tend to warm faster than others?

High latitudes/poles tend to warm faster than the tropics

Downsides of nitrogen use/making: negative impacts: GHG

Higher levels of denitrification: then more nitrous oxide can be created and given back out into the atmosphere Global warming: nitrogen oxides produced during denitrification: Nitrous oxide produced during denitrification, Methane emissions from rice paddies increase with fertilization Energy use: Inorganic fertilizer production is energy intensive (1-2% of global energy use), CO2 emissions

What's another really important thing these models can do for us?

How can we see it was human!! We run the global climate model as if humans never emitted greenhouse gasses:/ run the models only with natural forcings: Model based only on solar radiation (which varies based on our orbit and the brightness of the sun which is on about a 7 year cycle) and volcanic influence and then there is no significant temperature change But when we add humans in and influence, our models do match with what if observed! When you put the humans back in we're consistent with observations

how do we get nitrogen onto the fields

How we get it on the fields: Big three numbers on fertilizer bags are the npk on the solid pellet variety Tanks of liquid anhydrous ammonia Ideally you'd test your soil to see much how much you really need to put on (state centers/ universities can help farmers with this) Cover Cropping is low in the midwest (10-20%) relative to the northeast (50+% cover cropping)

what is humidity?

Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air Relative humidity (RH): Is the amount of water vapor in the air vs the amount of water vapor the air CAN hold at a particular temperature (given as %) This is what TV forecasters give you as humidity

what is the largest consumptive use of water globally?

IRRIGATION BY FAR

Regional INtegrated assessmests:

Regional INtegrated assessmests: 5 year project From UK DFID funded 8 regional teams, 18 countries, 5-year project, UK DFID funded8 regional teams, 18 countries, ~200 scientistsProtocols for data, models, scenarios designed and implemented by multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholders

aquaculture

The breeding, rearing, and harvesting of animals and plants in all types of water environments done with tilapia, trout, carp can be hypothetically done sustainably with algae and mussels put outside the fish cages so that the waste and nutrients are taken up by the algae and mussels (to deal with concentrated waste of all the animals being in one place) other problems: disease, not native species and they can get out of the cages, predators come in and get caught in the nets

The Green New Deal•

In response to the October 2018 IPCC ''Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 oC'' and the November 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment• Ten-year national mobilization to achieve NET-zero greenhouse gas emissions -Natural disaster resiliency -New infrastructure-100% clean, renewable, zero-emissions energy sources -Smart grids -Building energy efficiency -Remove greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector -Zero-emissions vehicles, public transit, high-speed rail -Carbon sequestration through land preservation and afforestation

population numbers

In the 1800s the total world population was only about 1 billion By 2000 it reached 6 billion 9 billion by 2050 Population growth is unevenly distributed around the world The developed world (US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan and Australia etc) with a population of about 1 billion have a 0.1 percent per year growth rate Developing countries have 1.5% growth rate

the Lobell reading (did reading reaction on it)

In this journal article, Lobell et al. express changes in the environment from 1980 to 2008 with a particular focus on shifts in the environment that relate to agricultural lands and growing seasons. They report that in agricultural regions during their growing seasons, "temperature trends from 1980 to 2008 exceeded one standard deviation of historic year-to-year variability," (Lobell). They reference models which connect agricultural yields with weather patterns and found that there was a 3.8-5.5% decline in production depending on staple crop assessed, (Lobell). From their database of models, they saw that, over the time period 1980-2008, there were "significant positive trends in temperature for nearly all major growing regions of maize, wheat, rice, and soybeans" with the very "notable exception" of the United States which actually saw a "slight cooling," (Lobell). In order to assess possible future impact on crop yields using this historical data, Lobell "used regression analysis" which is non-linear and allows for "both year-to-year variations" along with "the average climate" to be utilized (Lobell). They clarify that their models do not show direct, "actual impacts," of climate change on crops, but rather they are "a useful measure of the pace of climate change in the context of agriculture," (Lobell).

WHAT ARE THE MODELS CALLED THAT PREDICT FUTURE CLIMATE

Integrated assessment models they use/include the human component, we take these emission pathways like the SSPs and shove them into the GLOBAL CLIMATE MODELS (historically GCMs haven't included a lot of human component)

How do these types of models feed into each other and let us know how agriculture will be effected?

Integrated assessment models give our GHG scenarios based on human input, this is put into Global climate models that give us most importantly temperature and precipitation, and this is fed into agricultural models that give us yield predictions

Hillel and Rosenzweig!!my reading notes:

It is estimated that by 2100, the atmospheric CO2 concentration will have risen to between 540 and 950 ppm This will not only have an effect on temp and climate but also directly on plants This reading is really about this direct effect on plants in open fields Net Results: Photosynthesis: Under open field FACE conditions, elevated concentrations of CO2 to about 550 ppm or by above 200 ppm above ambient, which was about 353 ppm in 1990 during day time increased net photosynthetic rates on average by about 13% for C3 crops The photosynthetic rates of C3 GRASSES increased considerably more about 38% and that of trees by even more (45%) On the other hand, consistent with C4 biochemistry and the CO2 concentrating mechanism, the photosynthetic rates of C4 grasses were not significantly affected by elevated CO2 (but surprisingly that of C4 crops was increased by an average of 12%) Stomatal conductance: Elevated CO2 caused partial stomatal closure of both C3 and C4 crops and grasses Evapotranspiration: The reduction in stomatal conductance due to elevated CO2 presented in the previous section can lead to reductions in water use or ET Canopy temperature: Elevated CO2 levels causes reductions in stomatal conductance with consequent reductions in evapotranspiration (such a reduction in the evaporation of water also results in a reduction in its colloring effect so crop canopy temperatures rise (about .5 - 1.5 degrees celsius) Shoot Biomass: Generally shoot biomass increases (like in wheat z.B.) but not in all cases like sorghum which has little to no effect, but some even go down like potatoes Agricultural yield: Similar to results for shoot biomass for most plants with some exceptions: Grain increase of C3 grasses: 16% increase 32% increase for rice!! Huge 17% increase for soybeans Sorghum = none or negative Potato: 28% increase Cotton boll 38% increase

why do we use fertilizers?

It makes our crops grow better! as you increase nitrogen you put you get increased yields but only up to a point (and this was referenced in the mueller paper!) cc means corn corn corn every year while CS is corn soy corn soy: why is CS higher yields? --> soy is a legume so therefore a nitrogen fixer!

suns energy

Less than 1% of the sun's energy reaches the earth's surface

light and dark reactions

Light reactions (or photochemical reactions) Are the first part of photosynthesis and the only ones actually requiring light The photons of light energy strike the chlorophyll in the chloroplasts and set off a chain of reactions caused by electron transfers Water is split into hydrogen and oxygen and two energy compounds, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), are produced are used in subsequent reactions The Carbon fixation reactions (dark reactions) For these reactions to occur: CO2 in the air diffuses through open stomata into the chloroplast within the mesophyll cells of the leaf. Then NADPH and ATP made in the light reaction power the reduction of CO2 to simple sugars This is called the Calvin Cycle CO2 is added to a 5 carbon compound called ribulose diphosphate (RuBP) The resulting six carbon compound is then split into two 3 carbon molecules (PGA) PGA is converted into glucose which is used in metabolism and converted into disaccharides or polysaccharides for transport or storage Plants that use this ^^ cycle are called C3 plants! Variations on this carbon fixation process: Plants adapted to tropical environments of high air temperature, drought, and high light intensity have alternative systems of carbon fixation: C4 Plants: Have different leaf anatomy Have an Enzymatic system that first fixes CO2 into a three carbon compound, which then forms four carbon compounds like malate These compounds are then transferred to bundle sheath cells that surround the vascular system Then this CO2 is released to the Calvin Cycle (then that's like the C3 plants) Only about 10% of plants are C4 plants but there are a lot of important ones like corn, millet etc CAM plants:

Lobell et all method:

Lobell reading: did reading reaction 2 on it: Use past data to look at particular temps etc then to predict a future that looks like that: take a summer that was particularly warm from the past like 3 degrees celsius warmer than normal and see the effect on crops and use that to predict future yields when all summers are like that

how do we measure yield gaps

Looking at observed yield gaps: Take into account climate, look at all pixels / places you have Stack all the producers and take the second highest (95% percentile) as the standard of what you could be producing

event caused growth in soybean/forage farms

Mad cow disease scare in the 2000s: can't feed animals animal meat / products tso lets feed them more plants (soybean fields and other animal feed farms grow in number)

how to type matrices in Matlab

Matrices: A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]

1800s farming in US

Mechanical grain reapers and combines These machines vastly reduced labor requirements of grain harvesting and increased grain production Also discovery of essential elements of plant nutrition, fertilizers, and barbed wire

plant metabolism

Metabolism: The group of vital biochemical reactions that occurs in the cells of all living organisms Metabolic energy transformations are critical for plants survival and are the foundations for the human food source

origins of organic

Modern "organic" grew out of Organic Gardening and Farming, published in the 1940s, and a counterculture movement of the 1960s-Agrarian Reformers, Brown Food vs. White Food, Anti Military-Industrial Complex, Co-ops, Real (not Plastic) Food Small organic businesses developed through the 1970s-1980s •As demand grew rapidly, organic began to incorporate methods of industrial-scale farming and major agribusiness and food companies entered the market

is meat all bad?

More people should be vegetarians The conversion efficiency of plant into animal matter is about 10% !!! like in problem set 1 There is a rapidly increasing demand for meat and dairy products But meat consumption isn't all super bad it varies Like pork and chickens usually feed on human food waste! Helpful Also in developing countries meat is one of the most concentrated sources for vitamins and minerals! Helpful!

Are GMOs allowed in organics?

NO And remember, any organics would not. You're not allowed to use genetically engineered crops in organics either.

were we in the Kyoto agreement/protocol?

NO it was signed by Clinton BUT No way was ever going to get through the Senate. So because these were binding, the U.S. did not participate.

what is used in the most quantitiy and what is usually the most limited nutrient??

Nitrogen used in the most quantity and usually in the most limiting!!: Important component of amino acids which is how the plant builds proteins We need it for enzymes If you think back to the photosynthetic energy transfer compounds its in those In plant cell structures In chlorophyll In DNA when a plant doesn't get enough oxygen we end up with lower yields and yellowing - not good

human health impacts of GE foods?

The committee found no evidence of differences between the data from the United Kingdom and western Europe and the data from the United States and Canada in the long-term pattern of increase or decrease in specific health problems after the introduction of GE foods in the 1990s.

long term health effects of genetically engineered crops?

None found! but it is complicated because: •Can never fully understand the effects of a particular food or food combination on long-term health•Epidemiological data do not show any disease or chronic conditions correlated with the consumption of GE foods•Changes in food composition detected with omics methods do not indicate safety problems•Reduced farmer exposure to insecticides reduces insecticide poisonings•Small differences found in gut microbiota of animals fed GE crops, but are not expected to cause health problems

number of farmers in the us now vs farmers

Numbers of farmers and farms: Peak of farms is 6 million in 1920s in US That has declined more than 60 percent Number of farmers has also dramatically decreased Only 1% of the population today are farmers Size of farm is larger, and they are less diversified, increased specialization of management and resources

Wait why hasn't the US warmed:

Observed change in surface temperature diagram: almost everywhere elese has warmed except for the southeast and midwest, and one spot over the northern atlantic ocean We as a scientific community has been struggling with why: We have a couple thoughts: We had idea that wet areas get wetter and dry areas get drier (but this isn't a simple process cause the air can hold more water vapor, but only if you have a source of moisture on the ground can more water evaporate into the atmosphere) Eastern US is fairly wet area and the midwest has gotten wetter over the last 40 years, all this evapotranspiration takes energy SO one theory is the increase in precipitation, and we have a lot of things planted (packing in agriculture and growth) there so there's so much evapotranspiration is what's cooling the surface of the midwest The other idea is that: over the last 40 years, we've had these tendencies of jetstreams that come in the winter: dips into continental US and allows cold air from Canada to come down! A trough in the midwest that has allowed cold air to come down Even though canada is getting warmer that air coming down from canada is still colder than what the US would have gotten/more is still coming down than before even if its a little warmer than it used to be its still potentially cooling us

is the net carbon cycle balanced?

Okay. So the fast carbon cycle, the important things to know about the past carbon cycle is its net balance. So even though there's a lot of carbon that moves through the past carbon cycle, so it's on the order of hundreds of gigatons.

what is an organic crop?

Organic Crops-Verifies that irradiation (using radiation UV light to kill bacteria and pathogens), sewage sludge (leftovers from municipal waste), synthetic fertilizers (no Haber Bosch process, only manure), prohibited pesticides (can use some just not certain chemcial ones), and genetically modified organisms were not used

what is organic livestock?

Organic Livestock-Verifies that producers met animal health and welfare standards, did not use antibiotics or growth hormones, used 100% organic feed (this is the difficult part), and provided animals with access to the outdoors

what is organic multi-ingredient?

Organic Multi-Ingredient-Verifies that the product has 95% or more certified organic content. If the label claims that it was made with specified organic ingredients, you can be sure that those specific ingredients are certified organic

cost of a healthy diet

The cost of a HEALTHY diet has gone up overtime eve if the overall food costs have gone down

GE and environmental impacts?

Overall, the committee found no conclusive evidence of cause-and-effect relationships between GE crops and environmental problems. However, the complex nature of assessing long-term environmental changes often made it difficult to reach definitive conclusions. T

Inflation Reduction Act•

PASSED!! Provides $369 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with a focus on vulnerable and underserved communities •Incentives for electric vehicles: Federal tax credit worth up to $7,500 to households that buy new electric vehicles •Strict limits on methane emissions: Polluters pay a penalty of $900 per metric ton of methane emissions emitted in 2024 that surpass federal limits •Boost clean energy production: tax credits to accelerate domestic manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and critical minerals processing

explain dry at 100th meridian

Pay attention to dramatic gradient from humid to dry at around the 100th meridian Because you have mountains in west that squeeze out the rain already And you don't recover from that until you get moisture coming up from the gulf but it goes more east than back towards center so center of country is really dry

Components of atmosphere:

Permanent gasses: dominant but static Nitrogen 78.08% Oxygen 20.95% Argon Neon Helium Hydrogen xenon Variable gasses are sparse but influential → these are the movers and shakers influential, not homogenous, not evenly spread in space and time, these first 4 are greenhouse gasses, these are the ones that absorb or reflect radiation, the permanent gasses don't Water vapor Carbon dioxide (much longer residence time in the atmosphere than water vapor, water vapor is constantly in and out but CO2 can have 100 years) Methane Nitrous oxide Ozone Particles like dust, soot Chlorofluorocarbons, used to be used and still used in some places in refrigeration

Carbon cycle:

Photosynthesis takes up CO2 into plants, respiration we break down some carbon chain and create CO2, decomposition releases CO2, subsoil budget of crop residues and organic and inorganic carbon, when we burn crops/trees it releases carbon, harvesting removes carbon, main problem here is fossil fuel-->> making CO2 how co2 gets removed from atmosphere: super slow: basically co2 in atmosphere combines with rain and makes a weak acid called carbonic acid and it falls to earth and combines with a base like calcium containing rock and makes calcium carbonate and locks up the co2 ocean: takes up co2 in two ways: photosynthetic critters in the ocean that take up co2 AND co2 naturally dissolves into the ocean water

photosynthesis

Photosynthesis: Plants use photosynthesis to acquire energy Plants use this energy for all other metabolic processes Performed during the growing season The chemical reaction is the following below: 6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2 Or 6CO2 + 12H2O + sunlight → C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6H2O The final product is C6H12O6 (Glucose), a simple sugar that is used in metabolism and converted to other more complex compounds Takes place in the chloroplasts, an organelle located in the mesophyll cells of leaves Small with as many as 200 per cell Inside chloroplasts are special molecules called pigments These include the green chlorophylls a and b as well as yellow-orange carotenoids These absorb visible light in the range of 400-700 nanometers Chlorophylls are most effective in absorbing the blue and the red wavelengths of light and least effective in absorbing the green (the green portion is reflected and that is why we see it as green) Chlorophyll converts the photons of light energy into chemical energy

COP21: The World Agrees to Limit Greenhouse Gases•

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that the rise in global temperatures is limited to no more than 2 °C (3.6 °F) •Urge even larger reduction to limit warming to 1.5 °C •Includes commitments from all 195 UNFCCC member nations, responsible for more than 90% of global emissions, to cut or limit the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions via intended nationally determined contributions •Signatories agreed to convene every five years to stocktake, or assess and increase reductions, to achieve the 2 °C(or 1.5 °C) goal •Not legally binding, "name and shame"

price of food

Reflections: We have relatively cheap food compared to every generation before us, food is cheaper than it's ever been

what are plants really made of?

Plants take in Oxygen and Carbon dioxide freely from the air in the form of CO2 Hydrogen it gets through water, it can split water Our common macro nutrients that are limited so we add them: Our macronutrients are: Nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium What percentage of the plant is nitrogen: 1.5 % Potassium: 1 phosphorus: . 2 Calcium .5 (we're not gonna talk as much about this, this gets into the soil via the weathering of rocks or we can add it directly via calcium carbonate Lyme)

in what form do plants usually use nitrogen in

Plants usually use nitrogen in the form of nitrate but in the soil it typically exists as ammonium or nitrate Sometimes we put it on the field as ammonia (NH3)

how We're trying to deal with this not having too much nitrogen thing:

Promoting using cover crops so you don't get water runoff that's full of nitrogen and also ADDs nitrogen so you don't have to put on as much later Encourage set backs so farmers should plant away from the streams We can put riparian buffers so you basically plant some woody species along the edges of the river or stream so that when the water runs off, it slows down and drops its nitrogen

pulses

Pulses: Pulses are legumes that are grown for their edible, high protein seeds ⅓ of their dry weight is in protein They store energy as carbohydrates or oil Pulse seeds are borne in pods that burst into halves when mature and dried Soybeans, edible field beans, field peas, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, and cowpeas

Three main ways we get nitrogen out of the atmosphere and into a plant useable form:

Remember there's plenty of nitrogen in the air plants just cant use it unless theyre nitrogen fixers like legumes: So three ways nitrogen can get into the soil in useable forms: Can come in through rainfall (lightning really), it gets striped out of the air (then comes in through rainfall) Can come in through biological N fixation (legumes), occur naturally without us, they can just be helped along BY us too Can be created by us in labs (inorganic fertilizers) Can be added by organic fertilizers which is manure

How we can deal with resistant bugs and weeds?

Resistant insects (weeds) cross with other resistant insects (weeds) to create insects (weeds) not killed by Bt (glyphosate) •Insect resistance to Bt and weed resistance to glyphosate can be reduced by leaving parts of fields untreated LEAVING REFUGES!!! •Resistant pests (weeds) cross with non-resistant pest (weeds), creating non-resistant offspring• Other strategies -Crop Rotation (cause each crop has their own bug, so rotate so that the populations die down) -Rotate active ingredient (mostly for herbicides) -Do not apply on fully grown weeds -Destroy soil residues

respiration

Respiration: The conversion of sugars formed through photosynthesis to ATP for use in metabolism of living cells Plants use this energy for cell maintenance, growth, and building new tissues. One molecule of glucose formed during photosynthesis results in the production of 36 ATP molecules Occurs in both the cytoplasm and the mitochondria The overall reaction is below: Summary: glucose and oxygen are transformed into carbon dioxide water and energy C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy (ATP and heat)

genetic engineering definition and what decade was it developed?

genetic engineering—a process by which humans introduce or change DNA, RNA, or proteins in an organism to express a new trait or change the expression of an existing trait—was developed in the 1970s.

Russia and ukraine: two big impacts: agriculturally?

Shipments of grain out of ukraine got halted (esp a big provider for africa) But also russia creates a large portion of our nitrogen supply, stop doing business with russia, less nitrogen in the glocal market and so global prices go up

key take away from FACE

So enhanced CO2 increases C3 photosynthesis. So if we drop into detail of this, it's the increased photosynthesis in C3 crops by 10 to 45%. And this increase in photosynthesis will translate to an increase of yield. So C3 plants, because they have this downside of further respiration, their overall photosynthesis becomes more efficient. For C4 plants, they don't really care about the extra CO2 in the atmosphere under well-watered conditions only when they're water stressed. So for C4 crops, we just see the 0 to 10%. There are other limiting factors, though when not water stressed The increases are higher at temperatures greater than 25 degrees Celsius. And we already know why that is, because voter respiration increases as temperatures go up. Okay. Elevated CO2. So there are a couple other things that happen because they don't open their stomata much. So we get reduced tomato conductance. So that means there's less water vapor that comes out of the stomata. So it's less evapotranspiration. And because. The plants are essentially able to sweat. It increases the canopy temperatures.

how denitirficaiton works

So it creates diatomic nitrogen so it creates nitrogen gas, nitrous oxide in wet soils and warm soil that tends to create more nitrous oxide than in well-drained soils. And are important implications here for mitigation are the fact that when we over fertilizer and we put too much nitrogen on the field that just sitting there, we create a lot of nitrous oxide, which is a particularly potent greenhouse gas.

correlates of undernourishment.

So one of them is just just in general, like low GDP, there's actually gross national income, which is which is almost like GDP. And so, again, if we go through and look at where we have undernourishment is where people don't have a lot a lot of financial resources. So this impacts these countries in a variety of ways. So infrastructure, less access to high quality agricultural inputs on the production side. And then when food supplies get tight or when local production fails, which it does in any location around the world,because you just have bad years, bad weather, you can't go out and buy it on the market. ANOTHER is rapid growing population like much of Africa, Asia doesn't have that as much anymore, last piece is large yield gaps: Africa and India : but not exactly a fair compatriot

Can agroforestry help reduce undernourishment, mitigate GHG, enhance resiliency?

So the ones that we saw in the video, we thought that that might be able to improve local food security,quantity and quality because it allows you to it it allows you to grow food in the margins of forests.These are places where if the food supply doesn't come locally, it's more difficult for them to afford to import food mitigate greenhouse gases? Probably. Especially if we can reduce slash and burn agriculture. You know, with your alley cropping, to the extent that you're not putting fertilizer on the field, that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Resiliency probably diversifies the agricultural system, especially in that developing country context. Positives of the preservation of the ecosystems. Reduction of pollution. 13:36 When we talk about those bioenergy buffers. 13:43 And one of the negatives that we came up with was, you know, this might be a barrier to a more productive form of agriculture. 13:51 Right. So there are probably areas where you could get more. 13:59 You know, bushels per acre, calories per acre. If you switched over to an industrial system, it's going to have negative that are associated with it,

breakdown of energy

So we have radiation that comes to the top of the atmosphere The units of radiation are commonly watts per meter squared Shortwave radiation is reflected and absorbed throughout the atmosphere: 51% absorbed by the Earth's surface Part of this absorption is by plants (absorbing the red and blue) Out of 100% incoming solar radiation 19% absorbed by the atmosphere and clouds Like ozone, clouds, aerosols, water vapor 30% reflected by atmosphere and surface 6% by atmosphere (aerosols can reflect), 20% by clouds (very bright so they reflect a lot of energy), 4% by surface REFLECT NOT ABSORB, like snow, desert etc Insolation map: surface receives 55 units: what hits the surface: surface on average reflects 4 units / % and absorbs 51 units left over So hot places with low cloud coverage are the places that emit the most radiation like the arabian peninsula, dry hot places

Downsides of nitrogen use/making: negative impacts: enviornemtn/acidifncation

Soil acidification: Nitrification produces nitrous and nitric acid Gulf of mexico dead zone: Area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and marine life Approximately 5,898 square miles or about the size of connecticut Caused by nitrogen runoff from corn belt of US Nitrogen drains into mississippi and goes to ocean Algae blooms, take oxygen out of water, kills fish

Functions of the atmosphere:

Source of water vapor Protection of earth's surface from harmful energy from the sun Allows selective passage of radiation essential for our vision and for plant processes Keeps the earth's temperature t a level at which plants animals and other organisms can survive and be productive

Radiative forcing

The change in the earth's energy balance caused by a given variable such as change in greenhouse gas Radiative forcing is the change in energy flux in the atmosphere caused by natural or anthropogenic factors of climate change as measured by watts / meter². Radiative forcing is what happens when the amount of energy that enters the Earth's atmosphere is different from the amount of energy that leaves it.

Grey Literature and the International Trade Centre

Subset of academic literature that is neither fully peer-reviewed (scientific journal article) or completely controlled by the author (book)•Can range from synthesis/review pieces to position perspectives•Published by a variety of outlets - government agencies, individuals, research groups, trade organizations•Typically distributed electronically or not through a mainstream publisher•International Trade Centre's Mission: To foster inclusive and sustainable economic development, and contribute to achieving the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development. ITC works towards creating 'trade impact for good'.

Downsides of nitrogen use/making: negative impacts: Energy:

Takes a lot of energy to create (mostly from fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions)

Piao article

Temperature: trend overall: warmer! North and south china : the north is warming at a higher rate than the south Precipitation: trend overall: no significant changes in precipitation, Smaller trends like less precipitation in fall, more in winter but not overall! If were gonna see regional differences less precipitation in north, more in south What does the asterisk mean: is it a statistically significant trend or not What are the A1B B1 A2: Different emissions scenarios/future predictions A2 is highest emission scenario Annual streamflow for two rivers in china: Yangtze, in south Goes a bit a long with the increased precipitation Increase in flow Pay attention to the scales, the yangtze is a much bigger river, more water than the yellow cause its a bigger river overall Yangtze River is increasing in flow but probably not significantly (its in south) Yellow River: flow is Going down! Why In north so drier/less precipitation lately there a bit Increased evaporation from warmer weather Increased diversion and human use/irrigation

Other sprinkler = drip irrigation

Tend to see in specialty crops because its expensive to install so it only makes economic sense when you have something that can make you money Vegetables, tree nuts, garlic You also see this where water is very scarce!! Cause it is VERY efficient you only get so much water a year determined by the government and it would be super expensive to have a bad pistachio crop because of ineffiecnt water use one year so it makes sense to install drip irrigation Lines can be on top they can be subsurface, gives directly to root system not loosing much water at all

hunting and gathering benefits vs agriculture

The hunting and gathering systems were reliable and basic They had a diverse diet and starvation was rare because they did not depend on the cultivation of a limited number of crops or animals It is also likely that hunters and gatherers worked less and had a less compulsive lifestyle than modern humans Crop cultivation is more labor intensive and regimented The climate and region determined the particular ratio or mix between meats and plants

Lifiting of air

The majority of the time we lift up air to get water vapor to condense: lifting air produces clouds and precipitation, the water vapor condenses: When you lift a parcel of air that has water vapor, it expands because as you go up in the atmosphere, there's less pressure and it coooools (because you lowered the pressure and there was an expansion), this cooling condenses water vapor into liquid water How do we lift in diagram: convection: warm summer days sun beats down on earth's surface, the surface absorbed the energy of the sun, it warms the air above it, as the air warms it rises with its water vapor in the air, and the particles expand and cool and you end up with condensation and clouds Orographic lifting: air hits a mountain and it has to go up Example of california, coastal ranges, sierra desert etc Good year for snow pack which they really need cause they're in a 20 year drought Convergence of air are those low pressure systems: are much larger than the convection systems Air gets sucked in it can't go down so it has to go up This is how we get our really huge dumps of rain, hurricanes are just huge low pressure systems too Frontal lifting: cold air runs into warm air: the cold air undercuts the warm air and the warm air is pushed up Can work the other way too, if warm air is coming up on cold air it pushes the cold air down and rises up itself Cold air coming in and replacing warm air is the one that produces heavier rains than other way around

in what crops is GE most common?

The most commonly grown GE crops in 2015 with one or both of those traits were soybean (83 percent of land in soybean production), cotton (75 percent of land in cotton production), maize (29 percent of land in maize production), and canola (24 percent of land in canola production).1

what's one event that caused a boom in organics? Resulting consequences

The organic farming industry experienced a boom of interest after a 60-Minutes exposé in the late 20th century informed the American public about Alar (a carcinogen) being used in apple farming (Pollen 153). SO WE NEED TO SCALE UP and borrow techniques from industrial agriculture

is there enough food?

The rate of global food production and food production per captia has exceeded the population growth rate therefore in theory there should be enough food to meet the needs of the worlds population But of course it is not evenly distributed In 2009, 17% of the worlds population face food insecurity Economic and social factors: Abundance of food, but not everyone has the money to purchase it Many workers in developing countries only make 1-2 dollars a day Other factors: many people in developing countries have been displaced from their homes and farms by war and other political events, displaced persons living in refugee amps have little opportunity to grow food Governments often use food production to control people and disrupt agricultural production for political gain

yield gap

There is a yield gap around the world Yield gap = how much we're growing on the land vs how much we could be growing → increasing efficiency Low yields occur because of technical constraints that prevent local food producers from increasing productivity or for economic reasons The best yields that can be obtained locally depend on the capacity of farmers to access and use among other things seeds water nutrients pest management, soils, biodiversity, and knowledge But if we decrease the gap so places are able to produce more that were previously behind, this brings out environmental problems

How did Lobell overall/conceptually find out the contributions from precipitation and temperature on yield?

They built a statistical yield model (based on the observed relationship between temp and yield and precipitation and yield) TO DO THIS THEY: they had to use data of different resolutions and integrate them they had to take out noisy/not great data / data quality checks looked at the trends in temp and precipitation from 1950 to 2000 and they normalized it (divided it by) the standard deviation WHY DID THEY DO THAT?: what is the change over time divided by the standard deviation? --> IT IS THE VARIABILITY --> shows us what changes are big compared to our normal year variability so we should look at theses because they might be concerning OVERALL THEY: Calculate temp and precipitation trends (from 1950-2000) temp vs time and fit a linear line through it and look at the change from 1950 to 2000 and that's what's on the map! THEN: they can construct their yield model!! PLOT THE growing season temp vs. yield !! no longer based on time: like a bell curve almost cause if its really cold your plants don't like it and if its really warm your plants don't like it THEY USE DETRENDED YIELD DATA to CONSTRUCT THEIR MODELS: so they don't account for changes in technology and things like that because all yield would be going up then and that's not helpful cause you only want the influence of temp and precipitation on the yield!!! otherwise the technology would just dominate the signal of the model! THEN THEY DETREND THE TIMESERIES FOR TEMP AND PRECIP because!!! you want counterfactuals because if you want to know the effects of temperature on yield, you need one of your models run with a temperature change, and one of your models run without a temp change and that tells you the effect of the diff in temp on your yield SO LAST STEP IS TO RUN THE MODEL WITH ALL 4 COMBOS OF ACUTAL AND DETRENDED CLIMATE DATA RUN THESE FOUR: RAW TEMP AND PRECIP (WITH TRENDS): WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENDED DETRENDED TEMP AND RAW PRECIP: THIS GIVES THE EFFECT OF TEMP THEN RAW TEMP AND DETRENDED PRECIP: THIS GIVES EFFECT OF PRECIP THEN LAST RUN IS BOTH DETRENDED: GIVES THE EFFECT OF BOTH CHANGES YIELD COMES OUT OF SIMULATION NO MATTER WHAT!!!! FROM THE RESULTING BAR CHARTS TEMP SEEMS TO BE MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN PRECIP, THEY SHOW BIGGER CHANGE/BIGGER CONTRIBUTION EVENTUALLY THEY ALSO EVULATE CO2 BECAUSE C3 PLANTS LIKE MORE CO2 !! SO NEED TO ACKWOLDEGE THAT TOO MAPS SHOW THAT CLIMATE WAS .1 OR .2 ETC SO 10% OR 20% AS IMPORANT AS TECHNOLOGY ON YIELD OR LOOK AT IT ANOTHER WAY, RUSSIA LOST ABOUT 40% OF ITS GAINS FROM TECHOLOGY TO CLIMAET!!

Tilman reading takeaways

Tilman et al paper: Global crop demand: Historic and future 2050 per captia caloric intake Countries divided into grounds based on GDP Future per captia caloric intake a function of United nation population projects Global growth of 2.5 perfect Developing country GDP growing faster than developed country GDP Methods and tradeoffs between nitrogen use and technology Multiple linear regressions to isolate technology Four scenarios projected out to 2050: Current tech - 2005 level Improvement only: each yountrues yield trends continue based on their 1965 to 2005 trajectory Tech transfer only: everyone gets frozen at 2005 levels, everyone has 2005 levels of group a Improvement AND tech transfer All the scenarios they give with the colorful arrows give you the calories you need but they are different ways to do it 200 megatons : 1.2 times ten to the 9th 80ish/100 ish 1.2ish Three real options: N minimizing: retain our global N use at 100 mt clear 0.5 billion ha and have GHG emissions to 1.6 gt/yr Current N intenstice, and clear Land sparing: only clear a little but and global n use is higher

extract element of matrix and what is repeat

To extract an element of a matrix: The first number is the row of the matrix and the second number is the column of the matrix C = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9] c(3,1) c(:,3) c(1,:) repmat repeats the entries of the table and appends a number to the new variable names.

extract element of vector

To extract an element of a vector: For example i just want the second value in a vector we would type b(2) if we wanted the second value from b = [10 20 30]

Downsides of nitrogen use/making: negative impacts: Eutrophication:

Too many nutrients flowing into water ways can create algae blooms: More nitrogen, more algae can grow and when they die and decompose they suck a whole lot of oxygen from the water and this is bad for aquatic life and fish Nitrogen runoff produced algal blooms in lakes, rivers, oceans. Algae die and decomposition depletes oxygen in water

example of a generticvally engineered crop: Herbicide Resistant Crops (1990s)

Trait derived from Agrobacterium sp. strain CP4 •aka Roundup Ready Crops resistant to glyphosate (which normally kills plants) •Positive -Higher yields• Negative -Increases herbicide applications -Weed resistance (creates super weeds) -Gene Flow -Non-target organisms

transpiration

Transpiration: The process of water loss from the stomata of plants Several important functions: Cooling the plant Movement of nutrients within the plant Uptake of mineral nutrients Driven by the sun's energy and a moisture-concentration gradient Has important functions including cooling the plant, movement of nutrients within the plant and nutrient uptake

What is the US saying its committing to now by 2030? HOW?

US Committed to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 50% by 2030 at 2005 levels infrastructure bill that did pass and is in place and is reducing GHG emissions part was supposed to come from build back better which failed

Paris: When Did We Join, How Did We Leave, and Why Are We Back In?•

US signed the Paris Agreement in April 2016. •Paris Agreement contains commitments from all countries in the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that the rise in global temperature is limited to no more than 2 °C (3.6 °F)• On August 4, 2017, the Trump Administration officially notified the UN that the US intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, and legally withdrew on November 4, 2020 • The cornerstone of our emissions reductions, the Clean Power Plan, is and has always been tied up in legal challenges• Biden signed an executive order to rejoin the Paris Agreement on January 20, 2021

1990 Farm Bill

USDA said okay you are growing organics but what does that mean, how can you differentiate it from conventional agriculture organic has to be defined and there was fight between little organic and big organic and mostly /basically big organic won! synthetics organic pesticides allowed, etc Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), enacted under the 1990 Farm Bill, required USDA to establish national standards for the production and handling of "organic" foods; finalized in 2001

what is undernourishment

Undernourishment defined: Undernourishment is a state, lasting for at least one year of inability to acquire enough food, defined as a level of food intake insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements (according to the FAO, 2017) → doesn't look at quality of food and diversity of nutrients just kals 1800 calories is minimum IN GENERAL for cut off for undernourishment, there's not many people who sustain below that New updated chart on undernourishment: Numbers of undernourished people: relatively stagnated from 2010 to 2018 and then covid hit and it's gone back up orange line is prevalence = the percentage of people who are undernourished and this prevalence is easier to push down than the raw number because remember that majority of people on earth are now born in developing countries, so those are people who are more likely to be hungry Undernourishment manifested in low birthweight (mother didn't get enough food), stunting growth (chronic malnutrition, aren't developing the way they should, don't follow their growth curve), wasting (acute hunger, real emaciation, reduction in fat and muscle)

NON renewable ground water!

Us and India are number 1 and 2 users of non renewable groundwater!!!!! Don't forget that, this diagram does not make it look as bad but it is

can these models, vertical, roof and greenhouse reduce enhance resilancecy to climate change?

greenhouses let you grow in areas that might other wise be too cold / its a controlled enviorenmtn which is helpful against variation in climate diversify the agricultural system

vegetation manipulation

Vegetation manipulation: Some hunters and gatherers used periodic burning to actively manage vegetation This creates new growth, attracts wildlife like bison, deer, and antelope Also burned to suppress undesirable vegetation and provide an environment favorable for food plants (because more nutrients are left for the good plants without the unhelpful ones) Towards the end of that 190,000 years there were hints towards agriculture: Burn scars on plants show the were corralling animals, clearing away inedible plants from blueberry patches etc

nitrogen fixation

Video: Winter rye is most common Hairy vetch is a winter annual, planted in the fall puts on a little bit of growth, stays alive in winter then puts on a lot of growth in the spring You need inoculation in order for the cover crop to fix nitrogen! You need a certain type of bacteria in the soil to allow this to happen symbiotic relationship: Root system provides energy to the bacteria The bacteria fixes nitrogen to the plant Then you till it under along with its nitrogen, then you wait a few days and put your "real crop" in like sweet corn in this case These plants fix their own nitrogen!!! That's the key part Legumes + rhizobia (the bacteria) are what have this symbiotic relationship The legume supplies nutrients and energy to the bacteria that reside in the root nodules (tumor like nodules), the bacteria infect the plant root hairs The bacterial enzyme, nitrogenase, converts nitrogen from the soil into ammonia (NH3) which is reduced to ammonium (NH4) that is used by the legume plant to form amino acids and protein Note that this process is costly for the plant Symbiosis between legumes and bacteria rhizobia Legume supplies energy and nutrients to rhizobia Bacterial enzyme, nitrogenase, converts atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia n3 YOU NEED LEGUMES AND THE BACTERIA FOR ANYTHING TO HAPPEN so that farmer in vermont fixed his soil with bacteria also Plants cant use N2 (atmospheric nitrogen) and this bacteria helps to make ammonia that plants can use the legumes supplies energy and nutrients in rhizobia

Can we see water vapor directly?

We cannot see water vapor directly: We see clouds: which are collections of tiny droplets of water or ice We can only see water vapor in infrared (longwave) scales with the temp Look through satellites seeing diff temps of surface, clouds etc so we can see if water vapor is there to intercept longwave radiation coming out

Hydrologic cycle: precipitation

We get precipitation: Rain from the atmosphere It can hit a body of water and join that or if it hits land it can either: Be partitioned to surface runoff and end up in our lakes and streams etc OR It can infiltrate the surface and end up as groundwater or soil moisture! And while water sits on lake, or transpires out of plants it can go as water vapor back to atmosphere Can also come to earth and then sit and exist as snow in its frozen form And of course water vapor up in the atmosphere can be shifted around move around etc

How do we get the GHG nitrous oxide?

We get the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide by putting too much nitrogen as fertilizers in ground (bad) It justs sits there and goes through the process of denitrification (and we end up with both nitrogen (which we don't care about cause its already in the atmosphere a ton) but then also the nitrous oxide which is a very strong greenhouse gas When we harvest it can remove Nitrogen from the soil so often/sometimes we leave the crop residue on the surface (example: if you're only harvesting the grain of the corn you can leave the stalks and leaves on the field)

These type of SSP scenarios go into out global climate models aka general circulation models - what are these - what do we do with them?

We run these forwards and we get future temp, precip, SLR Computer models, 10s of thousands of lines of code using equations that we know shows global energy models Currently out best and only method to simulate girute climate but they contain significant inaccuracies so it's good to start with the real observations Course resolution , 100 miles by 100 miles, cant get super precise computer model running 10,000s of lines of code, using equations that we know dictate how the earths energy budget works they have significant inacuracies so if you want to show climate change is real you have to look towards actual observations but this is good for showing the future

how much freshwater used

We use 50% of the earth's freshwater 70% of that is for agro

how much have we increased the flow of N and P around the world from fertilizers

We've doubled the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus around the world from fertilizers

some textbook examples of how we can deal with environmental impact of farming

What Sheaffer and Moncada: sustainable global agriculture solutions: Protect existing land use for crop and animal production Tillage conservation, not tilling as much because tilling causes erosion Rotate crops so that we're not hitting those soils with the same crops over and over again and draining those nutrients Strategic placement of croups like in bad soil areas, its not worth it Deficit irrigation: give it 75% of water it needs and your yield is slightly worse but yours still better off crop per drop of water (crop per amount of water applied you're better off)

imapcts on gut of GE foods?

With regard to the gastrointestinal tract, the committee determined, on the basis of available evidence, that the small perturbations sometimes found in the gut microbiota of animals fed foods derived from GE crops are not expected to cause health problems.

how to type vectors in Matlab

X = [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] or you can type x = 1:10

what are cultivars

Yeah. So cultivars are just different types of the same plant. So, like, you can grow. So a good way to think about it is with our field trial, we grew what would be like a long season cultivar So a variety,

Should you eat organic? Defend your answer with at least three arguments.- Use Pollan, Niggli, Google, The truth about organic produce and pesticides (Washington Post), Why I Don't Buy Organic, And Why You Might Not Want To Either (Forbes)

Yes - for the health of the farmers not having to spray pesticides and breath them in, animals do get a little more space, yes for the local enviornemtn because not excess pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer runoff, tastes better/more sugars: organic foods tend to "earn higher Brix scores (a measure of sugars)" than conventional foods and have higher levels of Vitamin C, for example (Pollen 176 and 179). And, all in all, "growing food organically uses about a third less fossil fuel than growing it conventionally (Pollen 183). but organic dosont mean better at a baseline and maybe you could choose the local non-orgnaic option over the far away organic option, and cost of organic is not accessible, and yield is lower so technically less productive fields, organic stuff being grown right next to non organic stuff on adjacent fields also switching costs and liscencing to become organic is really expensive

second Hillel and rosenzweig reading takeaways

gap between climate /climate change information vs what farmers know/have access to/are implementing changes for! for example wheat farmers in Mexico 97% said they noticed shift in temp but only 38% thought this would effect their wheat crop / yield they suggest: more access to information for farmers diversification for crops cause if one fails due to climate other may be okay change planting dates or actual crop varieties for best results given different climate

fossil water

groundwater that is not replenished so its a one time draw and not sustainable

When we talk about emissions reductions, you need to know three things:

You need to know how much you want to reduce (5%) off of what levels (1990 levels), because greenhouse gas emissions change over time, by what time period (by 2008 - 2012) so if you averaged what you released between 2008 and 2012 its 5% below what you released in 1990

are GMOS it allowed in Europe?

You're not allowed to grow genetically engineered crops in Europe. It's just a law that they have only a very small amount of legacy operations that grew the early on. (usually just early varieties of BT corn are allowed)

aquaponics

a combination of fish and plant production using aquaculture and hydroponic systems taking the waste from the fish which contains nitrogen and using it to grow your plants In short, aquaponics is a symbiotic system which combines an aquatic species such as fish with plants and a recirculating system. The fish waste feeds the plants (really first the waste is metabolized into plant food by bacteria)

what can we do to prevent some of the negative impacts of too much nitrogen:

encourage farmers to plant away from streams (setbacks), cover crops to build up nitrogen so you don't have to put more and to protect from soil runoff, plant woody species along rivers to trap nitrogen before it gets into stream

how many gigatons do humans emit of co2 eqvuivalce of GHGs a year?

about 59 gigatons co2 equivalent per year

What is our SSP right now/where we're likely with current trends and policy to be?

between 4.5 and 7.0!! because we have wind turbines going up in the middle of the country, that's insentive programs for electric cars, that's energy efficiency, that's expansion of solar/lowering prices of solar a lot is tied up in the IRA - investment and recovery act

which processes make plant available nitrogen?

biological n fixation (legumes) lightning

what is most popular way to irrigate in us?

center pivot!! it is more efficeint because more direct on crops and less just left to evaporate in American mid and west its mostly ground water being used

Three types of irrigation

center pivot, other (drip), flood/furrow

what wavelengths chlorophyll likes

chlorophyll : absorbs/likes best 420-460 and 620-680

orographic lifting

cloud formation that occurs when warm moist air is forced to rise up the side of a mountain

plant breeding

crossing two different crops with each other to get desirable traits (we've been doing this for thousands of years) example: Teosinte: Precursor of corn, plant found in southern Mexico It is believed that corn is the product of selections from teosinte by early farmers (~9,000 years ago) But we grew this crop in probably every time we had a plant that, by natural variability, had a larger ear, gave more grain. We would save that seed and that would be the one that they would plant next year. (you decide that you want the plants that for genetically, for some reason are allocating more energy to producing seed.)

global warming potential

different greenhouse gasses have different properties in the way they warm the earth GWP: is a measure of the total energy that a gas absorbs over a particular period of time, compared to carbon dioxide carbon dioxide equivalent: convert the emissions from various greenhouse gases to co2 based on GWP consider GWP unites but only valid for converting weights 1 tonne of carbon dioxide is one unit of global warming potential example: over 20 years, one tonne of methane traps more heat than 84 tonnes of CO2 we have 20 and 100 year measurements for this!!! each GHG lasts different amounts of time, some break down, some stick around! This is all helpful to show us what we should focus on when we go in to reduce emissions

CO2 impact on crops!

direct: co2 is necessary for photosynthesis! Indirect: changes in temp, precipitation, relative humidity, wind, solar radiation etc caused by climate change caused by GHGs like co2 absorbing and reradiating

Trend in aquaculture over time

dramatic increase in aquaculture over time (past 25 years) market is concentrated heavily in Asia, 90% of market is in Asia and 60% in china alone

impacts

effects on natural and human systems

Should we eat GMOs?

higher yield, as climate change occurs it could be helpful to have the drought resistant crops in the case of BT, you're using fewer pestticides so less is running off into the water etc AND! with climate change we expect more co2 and therefore more weeds and expansion of range of pests so the round up ready and BT can be very useful for those scenarios DOWNSIDES: There's this technology transfer fees where you have to transfer all the technology or you have to transfer the knowledge. because you need all the inputs that go along with the GMO plants that go beyond the seed Yeah. I mean, like you said, we don't have any evidence that they're harmful to our health, but we don't have any evidence they're not. And it's hard to track those things, especially when they're so recent and the whole microbiome changing or gut microbiome. Yeah, it's a little strange. It's like something to maybe worry about because of the whole gut brain axis connection.

hilel and Rosenzweig: class discussion:

how did they make the figure: yield responses to elevated co2 levels, using meta analysis of face trials --> Free Air Carbon Emissions (take open field and create a higher concentration of co2 around that field Face: in situ responce, but difficult and expensive to set up and maintain. steps: infrared radiometer measures air temp, ceramic heater maintain elevated temp, perforated pic ring emits co2, wind speed and co2 measurements used to achieve increased co2 concentrations THEN HARVEST THE PLANT and take the biomass to see how it changes! this is opposed to enclosed method: greenhouses, soil plant atmosphere research SPAR chambers, interactive variables controlled, difficult to micic true field conditions (this is a really unnatural growing enviornemtn!) overall take away is that overall you get higher yields with increased co2 concentration levels! c4 plant notice that its already efficient with co2 intake so it doesn't get as much benefit as c3 plants do

what is supermarket pastoral

idyllic views that aren't real of an organic farm that is full of green open spaces and pasture

can increased aquaculture/aquaponics mitigate greenhouse gasses?

if you are producing less beef / doing less fishing because you are producing more protein in the form of fish --> but if not then a lot of times it has to be transported long distances and that's not good also not good that a lot of times things like mangroves need to be cut down/cleared out to do the aquaculture (the mangroves used to be giant carbon sink, but now cut down to make shrimp)

Why are farmers in India protesting 2020-2021

instead of 1% of the population being involved in farming like in the US its more than 50% in India done by prime minister Modi's government September 2020: Three farm bills passed by the Parliament of India open agricultural markets, creating an opportunity to circumvent government-set minimum support prices •November 2020: Dilli Chalo "let us go to Delhi", ~200,000 protesters blocking roads and borders, clashes with police, accompanied by a 24-hour strike of 250 million people (more than all adults in America!) across India•January 2021: Tractor Rally and protest at Red Fort, violence and crackdown by police•December 2021: laws repealed Altogether, the three acts invite big players into a fragmented and deregulated market that could lead to volatile prices for farmers and by deregulating the markets. The government has also put out a message in the same breath, essentially saying that they think farmers don't need any protection any more from the government.

vulnerability

the propensity to be adversely effected, often tied up into resources! e.g. New York is less vulnerable than Lagos Nigeria because it has more resources to throw at the problem of sea level rise for example

fast carbon cycle

it moves a lot of carbon but it doesn't move NET a ton of carbon 100 gigatons a year Largely the movement of carbon through life forms on earth, or the biosphere balance between photosynthesis and respiration/decay Net primary productivity: net carbon consumed by plants both on land and in oceans --> as we put more co2 into the atmosphere we have seen an increase in net primary productivity! IT IS BALANCED!!

what produces methane in agriculture? and non agro?

livestock/manure rice paddies leaky methane from mining?

MITIGATION

means reducing green house gasses in this field!!!

Who was Sir Albert Howard?

more holistic ecosystem person

Co2 to carbon

multiply by 12/44

carbon to CO2

multiply by 44/12

how can we reduce this ghg production in agro?

nitrous oxide: split fertilizer application: take same amount of fertilizer and apply at two different times so there's no so much excess at once use legumes instead of fertilizers /winter cover crops manure management practices (keep it covered to keep it dry) methane: intermitanty drain rice paddies (if they get hit with direct oxygen it can reduce the amount of methane they produce) --> or just do dry land growing if possible change feeding strategies for cows and lambs store manure in covered tanks so they don't let methane out CO2: reduce land clearing my burning don't overfill cause each time you do carbon is brought up from ground put C rich sources like biochar into the soil minimize energy intensive products like fertilizers and pesticides

Which of the following is not an attribute of carbon dioxide? most important greenhouse gas by radiative forcing, plant food, returned to the atmosphere by respiration and decomposition, absorbs and reradiates long wave radiation, none of the above

none of the above!!

organic chickens

not allowed to use antibiotics so they grow slower so their lives are a few days longer antibiotics prevent disease but also make animals grow faster organic chickens get a little more space have access to the outside but none of them ever use it and its only open for short amounts of time

production of GHGs between traditional and organic

overall organic uses less GHGS????? organic uses less GHG in terms of fertilizers cause no hater Bosch process BUT organic has to truck in manure organic use a lot go GHG to use blowtorches to kill weeds as but regular herbicides used in regular non-organic farming also use a ton of GHGs to be produced traditional agriculture is not limited in tech use so it tends to have better yields so using the land more efficiently which is good

Gene Kahn

pioneer in organics, started small farming moved on to huge industrial scale things, things are tied to the markets if people want the products they will be made

Hillel and Rosenzweig 2: what are some adaptations for agriculture?

plant breeding shifting planting dates possible double cropping change varieties of a crop or switch the crop entirely changing management practices integrated pest management/pesticides more reliable and available information for farmers disaster insurance for farmers herbicides for weeds/till out the weeds esp because weeds love the increased co2 also irrigation systems tile drainage for perennials: frost and freeze protection

Who was Justus von Liebig?

proposed that plant need NPK and that was sort of it, the essentials

Afforestation

putting forest where there never was one

revegetation

putting plants back somewhere but not trees/a forest

Hillel and Rosenzweig overall results

ran for 550 parts per million (real world now is about 410 ppm, preindustrial is around 350) increased photosynthesis in c3 crops by 10-45% increased photosynthesis in c4 crops by 0-10% when you have low soil nitrogen that becomes the limiting factor increases in yield are higher at temperatures greater than 25 degrees Celsius (we know why this is because photorespiration gets worse the higher the temp gets) so as you increase the co2 you combat the photorespiration in plants elevated co2 decreased stomatal conduction and evapotranspiration because stomata dont have to be open as often BUT because of this, you're increasing the canopy temperature because less evapotranspiration to cool things SO YES YOU SAVE THE WATER BUT PLANTS ALSO DONT LIKE HIGH TEMPS

ICPP SSP with a number - what is the number

represents the amount of energy in watts per meter squared trapped by the end of the century

reforestation

returning a land to a forest when it used to be one: this is basically all go New England , used be cleared for agriculture

can these models, vertical, roof and greenhouse reduce mitigate greenhouse gasses?

rooftop pumping up soil to the roof is energy intensive so no but at the same time the extra plants are taking in co2 less co2 being emitted from transport into the city

vertical farming

singapore lettuce example "sky greens"

Center pivot

sprinklers is most popular in US Water source at center of pivot, in american midwest most it groundwater Thing moves really slowly, sprayer heads Areas around the circles like in the corners there are no crops Relatively easy to deploy, more efficient than flood/furrow

Calculate the amount of methane that would yield the same co2-e radiative forcing as 2 Gt C over a 100 year period

take the 2 Gt carbon and multiply it by 44/12 the 44 is: the atomic weight of a carbon plus 2 oxygens so 12 + 16 + 16 = 44 the 12 is because it gave me 2 Gt carbon and 12 is the atomic weight of just carbon so the carbons can cancel out this 2 Gt carbon and multiply it by 44/12 gives 7.33 gigatons of co2 now I can use the GWP to get over to methane 7.33 gigatons of co2 times (1 gt CH4/84 gigatons carbon) = .26 gigatons CH4 the 84 gigatons carbon is from given GWP value

resilience

the capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance BROADER THAN ADAPTATIONS usually tied up in resources/conceptually similar to vulnerability! think of financial resources, institutional resources, organizational resources, ways in which a community will bounce back protecting land around a vulnerable species example???

runoff

the draining away of water (or substances carried in it) from the surface of an area of land, a building or structure, etc. "the ratio of runoff to rainfall"

mitigation fully defined

the human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gasses reduce the sources: burn less fossil fuel, have less cows, stop leaking methane, better fertilizer application so we don't create too much nitrous oxide enhance the sinks is sequestration

what is the largest US climate action to date?

the inflation reduction act

Organics over time?

the original ethos of organic farming was subsumed by industrial practice. So we ended up just basically taking our conventional agricultural system and doing some tweaks to it to make it organic, like using organic feed.

risk

the potential for consequences where something of value is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain e.g. you have a house on the beach in cape cod vs in Hanover Nh

adaptation

the process of adjustment to actual or experiences climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities ADAPTATION IS USUALLY VERY SPECIFIC COMPARED TO RESILIENCE e.g. cooling sensors, sea walls, bigger culverts, setbacks away from ocean fronts CAN ALSO BE taking advantage of opportunities/benefits like planting longer season varietals

What goes into a global climate model?

they break down the earth system, they contain all aspects of the earth's climate system: - atmospheric radiation - solar energy coming down - drizzly rainstorms - large scale rainstorms - convective clouds (higher intensity rainstorms) - models for oceans (important store of heat in earth's system) - surface physics (everything that happens on the surface (reflection, snow that accumulates on the surface, water that runs off the surface, evapotranspiration, evaporation from puddles and lakes, transpiration from plants)) THATS ALL SIMULATED THE model is divided up into grids to simulate things!! we simulate things in bulk areas of land huge 100 km by 100 km chunk of corn plant how much transpiration comes off --> and they're not really even simulating corn probably just a standard grass

downsides of organics

they irrigate to germinate the weeds and till the soil a ton (not good for carbon sequestration) use flamethrowers/blow torches to kill weeds which lets. out co2

how to get negative green house gas emissions?

through technology that takes carbon out (but we're way far out from doing this) through land use change like planting forests: forests sequester carbon

sling psychrometer

tool made of a wet and dry thermometer that measures relative humidity and requires a table to interpret the two temperatures WHAT WAS THE TAKE AWAY: the humidity outside in the cold was higher cause the air had less capacity to hold moisture cause it was colder compared to in the classroom where it was warmer --> even though basically same amount of water vapor inside vs outside, the outside has higher relative humidity cause it has less capacity to hold water vapor cause its colder AS YOU INCREASE TEMEPRATURE, THE AMOUNT OF WATER VAPOR THE AIR CAN HOLD INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY!!! CALLED THE CLAUSIUS CALPEYRON CURVE WHAT DO WE THINK THE IMPLIFICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE / AGRICULTURE IS? air can hold a lot more water so we can have bigger storms / basically hydrologic cycle is accelerated also water vapor is a green house gas so if there's more of it in the atmosphere we could have more global warming we can get more droughts and more floods: in your low pressure systems you have a bigger bucket that can hold more water because the air is warmer so bigger storms but you can also have more droughts because those areas that depended on a lower relative humidity so that the air could fill up to 100% and drop rain now have an even bigger bucket to fill up and they can't! so rain doesn't fall

NEED TO KNOW WHAT EFFECTS EVAPOTRANPIRATION

use either what you know about plant transpiration: number and size of stomata soil mousture air temp humidity wind OR potential evapotransiparton equation

What are drawbacks of flood and furrow irrigation?

water is wasted cause it can evaportate cause its just sitting on top of the ground, also can run off the sides and take nutrients with it and that's bad and wasteful but also bad for the enviornemtn and blue baby syndrome and algae blooms etc

carbon dioxide capture and storage

we can either strip the carbon dioxide out of our exhaust gasses from fossil fuel burning power plants -> take the co2 out of the exhaust OR we can pull it directly from the air but nothing really scales form this yet

why such a course resolution?

we have denser data but we it would take so long to run the program that its not useful - there are things we think are more important to include in the model so we compromise on spatial resolution

what is NPK agriculture?

we put on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium!

we want to be efficient with our water use so we can calculate how much water our plant is probably going to use over a season / what are the components of the equation

we use reference evapotranspiration to calculate this so, what would a well watered grass use in terms of water components of the equation: Radiation: the A: the more sunlight we have the crop is gonna be conducting photosynthesis, provides energy for evapotranspiration (as this goes up reference evapotranspiration goes up) Temperature: comes in through the saturation vapor pressure--> connected to humidity: this is the demand of the air for water (as temp goes up we can pull more water out of the plant) Wind speed is the u: if the windspeed is high, you don't let the plant form a little micro climate around itself you're wishing the water around it away!, so more wind = more transpiration humidity: vapor pressure, the demand of the air: what the air could hold vs what's actually in it so we take this climate data, and the grass reference crop to get the reference evapotranspiration then we take this reference evapotranspiration and mulitply it by what we know what that type of plant needs like that variety of corn for example (called Kc factor) and that gets us how much water we need to give it

What's up with GMOs these days?

we're working on a drought tolerant corn This is often paired with roundup ready and BT So it would be insect resistant, herbicide tolerant and drought tolerant all together.

CO2 records over time

we've had an observation record of people actually going out and measuring co2 levels since the 1960s! but we can look at ice cores and the bubbles in them to see what the co2 levels used to be like, date the layers YOU CAN GO BACK WITH ICE CORES ABOUT 800,000 YEARS! BUT NOTE THERE HAVE BEEN TIMES IN EARTHS PAST WITH HIGHER CONCENTRAIONS OF CO2 JUST NOT IN THE PAST 800,000 YEARS (ABOUT 3 MILLION YEARS BACK TO GET THERE)

Green bar chart what does the x axis mean

what we could pay farmers to do to help reduce GHG emissions: restore cultivated organic soils; this is basically conservation tillage/no till/low till/soil amendments like biochar cropland management: like reduce nitrogen application in water logged soil, rotate in legumes mange grazing land by fertilizing and irrigation, legumes into grazing lands rice management: drain our rice paddies livestock: what we feed our livestock

can increased aquaculture/aquaponics increase resiliency to climate change and variability?

yes because you're spread into other ecosystems so if things go wrong like floods or droughts with your animals on land or crops you still have your aquaponics going to provide

Slow carbon cycle:

you can think of it as the natural carbon cycle .01 to .1 gigatons / year how co2 gets removed from atmosphere: super slow: basically co2 in atmosphere combines with rain and makes a weak acid called carbonic acid and it falls to earth and combines with a base like calcium containing rock and makes calcium carbonate and locks up the co2 carbon fluxes between rocks, soil, ocean, and atmospehre carbon sequestered as calcium carbonate in ocean sediments or as organic matter embedded in mud carbon returned to atmosphere by volcanoes

what crops will be we grow in the future

•Cool-season crops are more vulnerable, led by wheat•Negative impacts on corn, soy, and rice as well, though more possibilities for adaptation•Perennial crops especially vulnerable - Peaches, cherries, cacao, almonds•USDA awarded a five-year, $65 million award to the National Sorghum Producers through the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities project

Genetic engineering of plants

•Method to genetically modify plants using bacterial pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens •This bacteria can transfer a piece of its DNA to plants •Transgenic genes introduced in Agrobacterium tumefaciens •The modified bacteria is introduced into plant cells often times you're taking desibale traits from whole other species/kingdoms and inserting not just genes from other plants of the same thing

Net Primary Productivity:

•Net carbon consumed by plants both on land and in the oceans

example of a generticvally engineered crop: Insect Resistant Crops (1990s)

•Trait derived from Bacilus turingensis (Bt) •Bt crops express a protein from this bacteria called Cry proteins, lethal for some insects •Bt corn is resistant to corn borers (type of insect) •Positive -Higher yields -Reduces pesticide use •Negative -Increases insect resistance (creates super bugs) -Pollen-mediated gene flow (gmo pollen can float and breed with non-geo plants and give that modified gene) -Non-target organisms (harm insects we didn't intend to harm)

Wait, But What Can IDo?

•Vote, vote, vote. Then also vote. Mitigation requires global action and the US is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases.•Eat less meat - Globally animal agriculture is responsible for between 14% and 18% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Beef and lamb are especially bad.•Be more efficient - LEDs, hybrids, solar panels, energy efficient appliances and housing, walking, etc. all are small but contribute, and in the case of consumer products vote with your wallet.