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Effect of Type and Amount of Crop on Climate Change
Matt Carity, John Miller
ABSTRACT
Agribusiness is a well-oiled machine, feeding America’s hungry and providing for other, possibly not-so-fortunate families around the world. As the business aspect of farming expands with technology and increasing knowledge, it seems that less attention is being given to the environmental effects of agriculture. By looking out for number one are we, as a culture of consumers, altering the environment? Sure we are. Over-farming a parcel of land may lead to erosion problems as well as problems with soil fertility. Also, by the progressive modification of crops (both in the past as well as today) we have significantly altered the types, forms, shapes, and amount of crops we are able to produce. We wish, also, to analyze how the type of crop (be it monoculture or polyculture) as well as the amount of crop planted can be optimized to produce the most product while at the same time doing the least amount of environmental damage. By digging deep into the science and history of farming, and manipulating certain variables, we hope to be able to obtain a feasible model for optimal growth and minimal ecological damage.
I. Introduction
A. Purpose/Problem
Depending on the type of crop planted, the amount of carbon dioxide acquisition as well as the amount of albedo will be affected. Carbon dioxide acquisition is regulated, in plants, by photosynthesis. The process by which carbon sequestration is monitored varies by plant families. C3, C4, and CAM plants all have different ways of obtaining carbon that is suited to the type of plant and its environment. Albedo is the amount of light that is reflected by a surface -- in this case the crop. Factors that must be taken into consideration is the color of the plant, as well as how uniform the plant coverage is. Both albedo and the amount of carbon dioxide have direct impacts as far as climate is concerned.
B. What Do You Plan to Accomplish?
By manipulating the type and amount of crop used, we hope to be able to come up with a model that optimizes crop production while at the same time producing the highest yield. The types of crop we are going to study are corn, wheat, and soybeans. Turning our attention to corn it seems that the albedo would be considerably low because of the height of the corn. From the top of the plant to the ground offers a lot of room for horizontal light scattering as well as absorption. The green color of the corn seems, also, to be an important factor. The chloroplasts within the corn are going to collect and harvest most of the light in an attempt to turn their carbon dioxide and water into sugars and nutrients. With soybeans, the stature of the plant is a diminished considerably, but there is still a seemingly high potential for horizontal scattering. Flexibility of the plant would seem to play a big part as well. If the plant in question could move freely, the surface seems more likely to reflect light. Take a meadow for instance. We are all familiar with the wind-blown meadows creating a blanket of grass. With soybeans this is not possible due to their rigidity. Again, the green chloroplasts are going to suck up a lot of light, and not allow much reflectance. Finally, wheat which is lighter in color and more pliable seems to be the best candidate for high albedo. Also, wheat seems like it would be less likely to suck up lots and lots of carbon dioxide because of the lack of chloroplasts. It seems intuitive that the localized climate directly above a wheat field would be somewhat warmer than what we would find above a field of corn or soybeans. The question is, then, how can we manipulate the type and amount of crop to get a moderate localized climate, minimized erosion, and optimal crop production?
C. Relevance
The two important variables here are the amount of carbon acquired through the plant and the amount of albedo with any of the three crops. A crop with a high albedo is going to result in a higher localized climate. So, by establishing a large amount of land with a uniform distribution of color, would we effectively be producing a blanket of heat over the field? If so, how can we change variables to modify the amount of heat produced? Would it also be possible, then, to modify the amount of carbon dioxide that is acquired via photosynthesis to also change the local climate regime? Or is the amount of carbon dioxide acquisition by plants negligible? **Addition of contextual information on history/effects of farming pending.**
II. Relevance of your research question
Gifford, R.M., et al. Agriculture and global change: scaling direct carbon dioxide impacts and feedbacks through time. In Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems. Ed. Walker, Brian and Steffen, Will. 2nd title in series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 229.
Goudriaan, J. Predicting crop yields under global change. In Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems. Ed. Walker, Brian and Steffen, Will. 2nd title in series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 260.
Nilsson, Annika. Greenhouse Earth. New York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1993.
Schulze, E.D., et al. The role of vegetation in controlling carbon dioxide and water exchange between land surface and the atmosphere. In Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems. Ed. Walker, Brian and Steffen, Will. 2nd title in series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 77.
Tate, K.R., et al. Impacts of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change on Temperate and Tropical Pastoral Agriculture. In Greenhouse: Coping With Global Climate Change. Ed. Bouma, W.J., et al. 1994 edition. Australia: CSIRO Publishing, 1996. 171.
Changing Global Land Surface: This article is put out by NASA and talks about the implications of the greenhouse effect and evapotranspiration in plants. The article also goes into the carbon cycle. Similar to one of the articles we read in class, this article talks about the ‘migration’ of plants due to changing temperatures.
Climate Change: Human impact on the climate is the main focus of this article. The contributions to and causes of the beginning of the climate change are discussed.
Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture: Explanation of what is currently happening with climate change. Also, this article talks about how climate change is affecting agriculture and how agriculture is effecting climate change. Steps are being taken by the USDA to help farmers cope with climate change.
Global Warming Changes the Forecast for Agriculture: Increasing water availability is a benefit of the warmer temperatures. However, the article also cautions that if the temperatures get too high the carbon dioxide will no longer have an effective ‘fertilizing’ effect.
Net Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture: A National Assessment: This article provides a good view of national data on the amount of carbon that is able to be sequestered in various types of crops. B. Website References
Agriculture and Climate Change – NCRS: How is agriculture effecting climate change? Carbon sequestering can help reduce greenhouse gases. How is climate change effecting agriculture? Climate change is altering the times and lengths of growing seasons. It is also changing the harvest dates. A need to change the variety of crops may appear in the future.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/ECS/air/change.html
Carbon Dioxide and Temperature Effects on Evapotranspiration and Water-Use: Efficiency of Soybean. University of Florida is experimenting with soybeans’ response to increased levels of carbon dioxide. http://www.nal.usda.gov/ttic/tektran/data/000012/53/0000125308.html
Global Warming Could Disrupt Agriculture Around the Globe: Rising temperatures could play havoc with crops. However, in the short-run some crops could grow better, but other functions, such as reproduction may become inhibited. http://www.napa.ufl.edu/98news/greenhou.htm
High Carbon Dioxide Levels can Retard Plant Growth: Higher temperatures and increased precipitation (both effects of higher carbon dioxide) actually impede plant growth. This is a generational plant/ecosystem study done at Stanford. http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2002/december11/jasperplots-124.html
Rising Carbon Dioxide is Great for Plants: With a higher amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plants would be better off. Plants would grow faster and higher with more carbon dioxide. Also, if there was an increase in carbon dioxide water loss would be reduced. http://www.purgit.com/co2ok.html
C. How Does Your Research Relate to a Larger Question?
The effects of farming on the environment are closely associated with carbon dioxide acquisition and albedo. Also, we should pay attention to the limitations the environment is playing on farming. The overall question, here, is what effect is farming having on the environment?
III. Materials and Methods
Research has told us that there are plenty of problems associated with agriculture. Soil compaction is one of these problems. Compaction leads to a snowball of events, increasing run-off, thereby increasing erosion. In addition farming which utilizes chemicals may be contributing to the pollution of nearby rivers or streams when some of these pesticides are carried off the fields because of this soil compaction. Research is being done to determine how much hardpack, via soil compaction, is formed as a result of farming.
Nearly 12,000 years ago, some humans began to abandon the traditional methods of hunting and gathering for subsistence and began replacing them with domestication of animals and crop production, aka: agriculture. It is believed that agriculture’s roots are set in the Middle East region where humans first began to produce crops by collecting wild grasses and seeds and planting them within the ground (historylink101). Over time, their skill, range of crops, and innovation in crop growing techniques increased to produce greater varieties of single crops as well as larger yields providing human groups rather consistent source of nutrition. This source did not come without its share of impacts, some of those being sedentary lifestyles for many of these groups as well as influencing the distribution of gender roles within these groups. Over time, agriculture was honed to the extent that it could support large communities within a relatively small area, and allowed people to remain rooted in one place and explore various areas of interest such as arts, crafts, wood and metal working, etc. Many of these communities became elaborate civilizations that flourished and evolved through the ages, to our current period of time, with much thanks having to be given to nutrition and lifestyle crop production provided to them.
A . What is your research design? Is it statistically sound?
We plan on comparing graphs of carbon dioxide and albedo between various types of crops to determine if there is any correlation between carbon dioxide uptake, albedo and optimal crop yield. For our data, we will be pooling various information and interpreting statistics to draw conclusions about crop yield vs. crop type and amount of carbon dioxide and light reflectance.
B. Describe important materials and how they will be used.
The most important materials will be graphs and data noting national crop yields from the United States Department of Agriculture. Also, we will be utilizing various charts from NOAA and the NWS for carbon dioxide and albedo distributions.
C. Describe other methods.
Possibly incorporate GIS methods from various resources. Also, look into talking with the Botany department and other resources on campus.
D. Have you included a Data Sheet?
Not yet.
E. Include a specific time-line of research execution
3/8-3/12 – Reread sources and start organizing valuable information and usable maps and statistical analyses. Also find and look through data sets. 3/20-3/27- Continue looking through data sets and finalize which data sets will be used and exactly which data sets will be compared. 3/28-3/31 – create graphs from data sets 4/1-4/15 – analyze data sets and graphs. Make comparisons between graphs and draw conclusions from graphs as to which data is significant and in what relation does each have to the prospect of being effected by global climate change 4/16-forward – draw further conclusions and solidify write-up.