The Palouse’s largely agrarian economy is heavily dependent on weather that affects the growing season, and in light of projections for Northwest climate change the University of Idaho and other regional institutions are taking advantage of a five-year, $20 million grant.
The program, Regional Approaches to Climate Change in Pacific Northwest Agriculture (REACCH PNA), looks at aspects of grain production and climate change. Project director and UI professor of chemical ecology in the department of Plant, Soil, and Entomological sciences Sanford Eigenbrode said the grant, awarded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, encompasses four institutions: UI, Washington State University, Oregon State University and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
“(This) is what we’re calling … a trans-disciplinary project,” Eigenbrode said. “It involves many disciplines working closely together.”
The project is all-encompassing and investigates climactic and economic modeling, more efficient methods of grain production, data infrastructure and the native biology of earthworms, bug and fungal pathogens.
“We’re interested in how agriculture affects the atmosphere and climate,” Eigenbrode said. “We also have economists, because in order for the project to achieve impact it will have to take into clear consideration the economics of agriculture and incentives for addressing climate change.”
Researchers from UI address individual projects on focus teams. Assistant professor of rural sociology J.D. Wulfhorst, is the sole member of the sociological portion of the social-economic team. He hopes to understand sociological phenomena within rural communities, especially attitudes and adoption rates of new, environmentally conscious means of production. In the Pacific Northwest, he said there is a legacy of poor soil care and erosion.
Projected climate fluctuations and their affect the agricultural economy and society are another key aspect of grant-funded research. From a sociological perspective, Wulfhorst said, the sheer multitude of variables and uncertainty could lead to anxiety among community members or other unforeseen cultural effects.
Aside from the typical “doom and gloom” aspects, Wulfhorst said there is a possibility of unforeseen positive impacts of climate change, such as changes in crop zones. Right now, the region is primarily a one-crop economy, but greater diversity could result from climate change anxiety.
Wulfhorst said he sees this project as “upgrading science,” cutting across “silos” of specialized discipline. This collaboration, he said, seems to be a trend, both within the university and within government agencies awarding contracts.
Jodi Johnson-Maynard, associate professor of plant, soil and entomological sciences has two major responsibilities on two different teams — researching the affects of climate on earthworms for the biological team, and brainstorming K-12 curriculum for the education team.
Johnson-Maynard said air temperature and soil moisture affect how well earthworms interact with the soil.
“There’s not a lot of good data available on how earthworms can survive different temperature and climate combinations,” Johnson-Maynard said. “So we’ll be doing some specific studies.”
Her other project emphasis, education, spans kindergarten through the graduate level. In the K-12 arena, researchers will survey teachers to find which products would be of most use.
“We’ve been trying to figure out exactly how we can package this material in a way that they can use it,” Johnson-Maynard said. “We also hope to do some professional development activities, where we might have teachers come for a week … to see how we do our science.”
At the undergraduate and graduate education levels, about 10 undergraduate internships will be offered in the summer, and starting fall 2012 about 14 grad students will be hired on the project full time.
These internships will draw from agricultural science, economics, education and sociology students.
Eigenbrode and Wulfhorst said they hope this grant is just the beginning of an extended, extra-long-term project, and that more grant funds can be brought in after practical results are obtained.
“Our goals are increased nitrogen efficiency and decreased greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture,” Eigenbrode said.