Climate Modeling

Climate Change May Redraw Map of Places to Grow Cold-Sensitive Crops

Article reposted from University of Idaho News: Oregon almonds and Louisiana oranges? It could be if future projections in hardiness zones come to fruition. A new study by University of Idaho researchers uses climate models to assess how the coldest temperature recorded each winter in the United States may change over the next several decades, […]

Climate Model Series (Part 3 of 5)— The “Wicked” Problems of the West, and Why We Need to Link Environmental Models

By Liz Allen Last month I wrote about “top down” (system dynamics) and “bottom up” (process based) modeling approaches. The key take-away there was that modelers’ decisions about how to represent a system depend on: 1) the scope and framing of the issues being investigated, 2) availability of data and 3) intended audience. For example, […]

Climate Model Series (Part 2 of 5)— “Top-down” and “bottom-up” perspectives of environmental systems

By Liz Allen Within my research team, I have the very unusual role of studying my fellow scientists. I use research methods from anthropology and sociology—interviews, surveys and participant observation—to understand how academic scientists think about the relationship between their research and their stakeholders, who make management and policy decisions about water resources, forests and […]

The “But what about…?” Challenge – What we should be talking about, but aren’t (yet)

By: Sonia A. Hall We have just wrapped up 2015, a year where we discussed agriculture’s contributions to a changing climate, and what the sector suggests for solving the problem. We’ve had lots of discussion about drought, dust bowls, water shortage, heat stress, changes in the growing season, and other signs of what’s to come. […]

Modeling Ecological Changes to U.S. Forests

By CIRCulator Editorial Staff Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator FIRES AND OTHER disturbances are the primary agents of ecological change in forests. Under climate change, forest fires are expected to grow both in frequency and size. One recent study examines what that means for the Northwest. The study published in the journal Ecological Modeling comes […]

Being prepared: what we got can help us understand what to expect

By Sonia A. Hall Reprinted from: WSU CSANR Perspectives on Sustainability As I shared in my last post, “Climate is what you expect, and weather is what you get.” But if the climate is changing, and part of what experts predict is that we’ll see more extreme weather and weather-related events—think floods, droughts, big storms—what […]

Scenario Planning Series, Part 5: What’s in Store for PNW Farms of the Future?

By Liz Allen Throughout this blog series I’ve discussed various aspects of scenario planning, from the general philosophy (part 1) to adapting global scenarios to study the impacts of climate change and development on water resources in the Pacific Northwest (Part 4). In this 5th and final installment, we’ll turn to scenarios created specifically to […]

Climate Impacts Modeling 101: Interpreting What Models Say About the Future of Our Region Under Climate Change

By Liz Allen Reprinted from: WSU CSANR Perspectives on Sustainability As a PhD student with CSANR interested in improving communication about climate and agriculture between the academic and decision-making spheres, I’ve had a lot of conversations about climate models with agricultural producers, industry representatives, policy makers and regulatory officials (as well as with modelers themselves!). […]

Scenario Planning Series, Part 4: Thinking Globally, Applying Scenarios Locally

By Liz Allen In this installment of the scenario planning series we’ll turn to a Pacific Northwest-specific application of shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) storylines. Professor John Harrison and graduate student Will Forney, of WSU Vancouver’s School of the Environment, made time to talk with me about the work their lab group is doing to adapt […]