Adapting to a Changing Climate on the Central Great Plains Conference
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Item Open Access Changing What We Tax: Free-enterprise Solutions for Energy Security and Climate Change (Part 1)(Kansas State University, 2012-11-20) Inglis, BobBob Inglis is passionate about free enterprise solving our energy and climate challenge. A former South Carolina congressman, his service on the House Foreign Affairs Committee taught him just how much our petroleum dependency threatens our national security. While serving on the House Science Committee, he learned how that threat could be multiplied if scientists are right about our changing climate. Inglis is now the executive director of the new Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University. Through this initiative, Inglis is leading national-level policy discussions about responding to climate change based on conservative policy principles.Item Open Access Changing What We Tax: Free-enterprise Solutions for Energy Security and Climate Change (Part 2)(Kansas State University, 2012-11-20) Inglis, BobBob Inglis is passionate about free enterprise solving our energy and climate challenge. A former South Carolina congressman, his service on the House Foreign Affairs Committee taught him just how much our petroleum dependency threatens our national security. While serving on the House Science Committee, he learned how that threat could be multiplied if scientists are right about our changing climate. Inglis is now the executive director of the new Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University. Through this initiative, Inglis is leading national-level policy discussions about responding to climate change based on conservative policy principles.Item Open Access Building Trust with Agricultural and Rural Decision-Makers through Engaged Climate Educational Models in the Rural U.S. Central Great Plains(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Champion, Benjamin L.; Devlin, Daniel L.; Rice, Charles W.; Harrington, John A., Jr.; Kahl, Daniel W.; Spears, Jacqueline D.; Steffensmeier, Timothy R.; Washburn, Shannon G.; Bruning, Roger; Pytlik Zillig, Lisa; Abdel-Monem, Tarik L.; Hu, Qi; Hubbard, Kenneth; Nugent, Gwen L.; Pathak, Tapan B.; Shulski, Martha; Umphlett, Natalie; champion; ddevlin; cwrice; dankahl; jdspears; steffy; sgwPotential climate change impacts on Central Great Plains (CGP) agricultural production are profound and highly likely to affect both national and global food supplies and related social and economic systems. Predicted climate changes include increasing temperatures with more variability including, greater precipitation events, longer and more frequent heat waves. These changes will impact agricultural production, water supply, and human health. Three annual crops, corn, sorghum, and wheat, which collectively account for 81 million hectares of agricultural land in the U.S., are concentrated in the Midwest and Central Great Plains. These crops are the mainstay for U.S. agriculture and account for $30.1 billion of agricultural production annually. The CGP also has been identified as one of the few regions around the globe that has a high degree of coupling of climate to soil moisture conditions, suggesting that any changes in precipitation will amplify climate feedbacks. This increases the level of uncertainty regarding the effects of climate change on production agriculture. Despite the fact that both Nebraska and Kansas are heavily dependent upon agriculture for their economic well-being, rural citizens’ responses to climate change remain mixed. Regional research has found that most rural Nebraskans felt at least fairly well informed about climate change (71%), believed climate change was happening (58%), and were concerned or very concerned about climate change impacting the U.S. (60%), but other research indicates that sizable numbers of producers say that weather and climate forecasts do not influence their agricultural decisions (e.g., ranging from 9% to 42% depending on the specific forecast product and agricultural decision). Focus groups from our Phase I partnership conducted with three sets of stakeholders (agricultural producers, rural community members, and agriculture/science educators representing future agricultural producers/rural community members) suggest these stakeholder group members were eager to learn more about climate and how it might change, but that their purposes, goals and attitudes toward the information vary widely. Different stakeholder groups want access to different types of information as well as how to use that information for different purposes. Moreover, they want increased access to data such that it allows them to decide for themselves how the data could be useful to them. Despite these differences, all the focus group stakeholders desire information that they can trust, is frequently and quickly updated, and easy to access. Most of all, they want locally relevant information. Conclusions from Phase I emphasize locally relevant, inquiry-based approaches with multiple points of access to the development and delivery of educational programs on climate change. We have developed a larger research and implementation framework outlining these multiple points of entry for different stakeholder audiences and a plan for programming across the three stakeholder groups based on this framework. Information about project personnel, partners, and other project information can be found at the project website: www.ksu.edu/cgp-ccepItem Open Access State Planning for Water Resources(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Stover, SusanKansas has geographically diverse water resources varying from primarily surface water in the Southeast to primarily ground water in the west. Sedimentation is having a negative impact on the capacity of many of the state’s surface water reservoirs including John Redmond Reservoir which supplies Coffey County Lake which in turn provides cooling water for the Wolf Creek Generating Station. Much of the Ogallala High Plains Aquifer has been drawn down between 2011 and 2012, in some parts by as much as 10 feet on average. The increased need for irrigation during successive drought years has raised some serious concerns about future water availability especially considering the slow recharge rate of the aquifer. New legislation was passed in 2012 to help conserve the aquifer. This legislation changed the “Use it or Lose it” requirement which encouraged inefficient water use and developed an option for Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA) Conservation Plans to address water conservation needs. In Sheridan County High Priority Area #6 local producers have collectively decided to limit water right use to 55 inches over a 5 year period.Item Open Access Adapting Great Plains Cropping Systems to a Changing Climate(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Roozeboom, Kraig L.; kraigPotential cropping system strategies for adapting to climate change include crop selection, tillage systems, plant breeding and technology. Water conservation can have significant impacts on corn yield. Conserving two inches of water can add 26 bushels/acre to corn yield.Item Open Access Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation, and Mitigation(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Rice, Charles W.; cwriceAgriculture offers many opportunities for greenhouse gas mitigation through reduced tillage, cover crops, fertility management, and water management. No-tillage cropping systems improve soil fertility and conserve soil moisture while also reducing energetic inputs and sequestering carbon. Biofuels also offer mitigation opportunities. Life cycle assessments of corn stover, P. sorghum, switchgrass, and miscanthus indicate substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gasoline. A number of other projects on campus are related to climate change and agriculture including collaborative work with other U.S. and international institutions.Item Open Access State of the Climate of the Central Great Plains(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Feddema, JohannesExtreme weather in much of the U.S. this summer had focused attention on climate change. The Central Great Plains region bridges two of the U.S. climate regions as defined by the National Climatic Data Center, West North Central and South. In both regions the long term trend is towards greater annual precipitation and higher temperatures although these trends vary by season between the two regions. Temperatures have also been rising around the globe with the majority of temperature anomalies being increases from previous averages. Within the U.S. the impact of climate change has been masked by a “warming hole” encompassing much of the nation. The extensive use of irrigation in much of the Great Plains has resulted in cooler maximum and minimum temperatures over much of the region. On a global scale, warmer temperatures are evidenced by a reduction in the area, thickness, and volume of Artic sea ice. Recent changes in the USDA hardiness zone map as well as phonological indicators point towards a general warming trend.Item Open Access Research Projects Related to Climate Change and the Climate of Kansas(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Harrington, John A., Jr.; jharrinJohn Harrington, Jr. is a professor and former head of the Department of Geography. He has been involved in several research projects related to climate change and the climate of Kansas. His students have analyzed data on soil temperature throughout the state. The date soils reach threshold temperatures for agricultural activities have changed between the 1990s and 2000s with western locations warming faster in the 2000s for most thresholds. In contrast, several central and eastern stations exhibited faster warming in the 1990s during winter. Another student examined historical variations in climate and agricultural adaptation in Kansas and the Great Plains. Future research projects will build on prior work and analyze the frequency, length, and magnitude of heat waves.Item Open Access Research interests related to climate change(Kansas State University, 2012-11-06) Anandhi, Aavudai; anandhiThis research develops impact assessments of climate change projections by incorporating climate variables (including water (SF, P), Heat (T, SR), carbon dioxide, relative humidity and wind speed) into existing process based and black box models. Changes in Kansas climate will be reflected in both the mean values for rain fall, maximum, minimum, average, and diurnal temperature as well as extreme values for rain fall, and maximum and minimum temperature. Based on analysis of data from 23 centennial weather stations, the highest average monthly temperature during the summer season was from 1920-1949 for many locations. This indicates the dust bowl years can serve as a good proxy for the near future climate conditions. Long term trends for frost indices in Kansas have changed at both the beginning and end of the growing season with earlier last spring freeze events and later first fall freezes, although this is less consistent than the last spring freeze. Combined, these result in fewer frost days and a longer growing season. Further analysis will assess the impact of potential producer adaptations to these changes such as earlier planting dates in response to earlier last spring freeze events on biomass yield.
