Location: Soil, Water & Air Resources Research
2021 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1. Enable climate-smart decision-making by developing science-based, region-specific information, tools and technologies for agricultural and natural resource managers, and provide assistance where possible to enhance adoption and implementation of the same. The work will be conducted as the Midwest USDA Climate Change Hub and will be coordinated with NRCS, FS, and other USDA and non-USDA organizations in accordance with guidance found in the USDA Climate Change Hubs Charter, and Terms of Reference.
Approach
To fulfill the objectives of supporting climate-smart agriculture and agricultural adaptation to a changing climate, the Midwest Climate Hub will work in three main areas:
1) Development and delivery of current condition/monitoring products and services to guide improved management and agricultural decision-making under climate change and extremes.
2) Development of new products and information to describe and understand the changing climate and impacts to agriculture.
3) Creating and sharing new adaptation/mitigation strategies for climate-smart agriculture and agricultural intensification under climate change in various agricultural systems including, row crop, livestock and specialty crop systems.
The Midwest Climate Hub (MCH) will work with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and other federal and state partners to monitor and share information about potential climate risk issues across the range of agricultural production systems in the Midwest. These issues will include extreme issues such as drought, extreme rains, freezes and others to mitigate potential damages. The information will be shared via webinars, email lists, various social media, web sites and traditional media as necessary. We will also work with USDA-internal partners to create and share information appropriate to internal partners.
The MCH will work with federal and state partners to create and develop new climate products for tracking changes in climate and agricultural issues and developing new climate summary information for different geographical regions and various specific agricultural issues. The new data climatologies could include information such as evapotranspiration and soil temperature/moisture climatologies to provide context and changes over time. The goal of publications will be to inform land managers about climate change issues in agriculture and potential impacts to their production systems.
The MCH will work with partners to create and share additional information on new strategies for climate-smart farming to help producers adapt and mitigate issues related to climate changes. The work will include reviewing current management systems and developing work with changing or new management systems to adapt to changing conditions or mitigate greenhouse gas issues. Partners would include current ARS projects, other partners in USDA, land grants/extension, and others to develop alternatives and share possible management/cropping changes coupled with USDA policies.
Various projects will be tracked to determine impacts including usage of information, changes in practices and possible implementation on landscapes across the region.
Progress Report
In response to severe drought conditions in the Midwest and Northern Plains (for example, the extent of drought on the U.S. Drought Monitor Map in 2021 was the largest since the end of the 2012 drought), the Midwest Climate Hub (MCH) participated in and partnered in developing alert information for stakeholders about drought conditions and potential agricultural issues. The outputs included four webinars (over 1000 attendees), three Drought Status Updates (with the National Integrated Drought Information System) and other updates sharing current information and potential additional hazards due to the severe drought conditions.
Climate change issues are affecting the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) implementation of conservation strategies. To respond to this problem, the MCH and an NRCS liaison for Calendar Year 2021 are working on understanding climate changes and potential impacts to several NRCS conservation practices in the Northern Plains. The liaison and MCH have established three possible standards to recommend changes. They have also developed an initial plan for creating weather/climate dashboards to support NRCS decision-making on conservation program-variances and other decision-making. The MCH and liaison have also educated over 100 NRCS staff on climate issues.
The MCH, together with its partners Great Lakes Regional Integrated Science Assessment (GLISA), Northern Forests Hub staff, and NRCS staff, have developed a template and sets of data for state agricultural climate change assessment for the eight-state MCH region. This summary includes current and projected climate information and changes impacting agriculture in each state.
The MCH with partners in Indiana (Indiana State Climate Office at Purdue, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Indiana Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources) conducted an Indiana Climate Services Summit for Agriculture. This meeting was one of a series of meetings among the MCH, state climate partners, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration staff to connect with stakeholders, share useable information about climate and gather additional climate information needs.
Accomplishments
1. Stakeholder outreach for the 2021 Midwest and Plains Drought. The Midwest Climate Hub delivered information to stakeholders about current impacts of Midwest and Northern Plains drought and potential growing season problems during the early part of the 2021 growing season. Products delivered included 4 webinars with over 800 attendees, over 30 media interviews throughout the region, and several emailed drought status updates in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Integrated Drought Information System. The drought status email update of June 10 had more than 20,000 page views opened from the email.
