Pam KnoxExtension, Outreach and Research Activities

For promotion to Public Service Associate J. Phil Campbell

Crop and Soil Sciences Department

What I doExtension 80% and research 20%

100% funded by two USDA-NIFA grants

• One grant covers impacts of climate change on crops in the Southeast

• The other grant covers climate change impacts on livestock production throughout the US

Summary of work over 3 years State Regional National Total

Extension outreach/meetings

28 23 14 65

Outreach talks

28 18 10 56

Outreach publications

53 8 4 65

Technical requests

75 36 16 127

Research posters/presentations

1 6 15 22

Media contacts

101 2 9 112

WEATHER TRENDS: What trends in climate are happening in my area?

IMPACTS: How does the weather affect animal agriculture?

ADAPTATION: How can we reduce risks, plan for changes, and make the best investments?

CLIMATE SCIENCE: What is the science behind climate and weather?

GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) SOURCES: Is animal agriculture a big contributor of Greenhouse Gases?

MITIGATION OF GHGS: Can farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

REGULATIONS: Are regulations of GHGs likely?

COMMUNICATING SCIENCE: How can we communicate this complex issue to farmers and media outlets?

Course Topics

Course Delivery• Modules are

offered through the University of Minnesota Moodle system

• Approximately 240 people have registered for the course, including those from 18 different countries

• Modules are graded and participants who finish the course receive continuing education credits

In addition to the online course, the project has a website with many resources which won an award for website design from ASABE in 2015.

Regional workshops• Waste to Worth Conferences in Denver 2013

and Seattle 2015

• Presentations at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents, Mobile AL 2014

• Regional conferences in College Station TX, Ithaca NY, Seattle WA, Stillwater OK

• Southern Regional Extension Climate Academy in Athens in September 2014

Climate Variability to Climate Change: Extension Challenges and Opportunities in the Southeast USA

• Done in conjunction with the Southeast Climate Consortium

• Includes projects with the TriState crop working group, Federation for Southern Cooperatives, and other agencies

Products

http://www.agroclimate.org/seclimate/extension-resources/

Online activities

http://blog.extension.uga.edu/climate

Research: What is the impact of changing climate on growing season?

• Climate models typically say that the average temperature will rise by X degrees in the future

• Average temperatures are not useful to most producers—instead we looked at distributions of spring and fall temperatures and the growing season length

Research: What is the impact of changing climate on growing season?

• Use analog approach based on past data

• Separate years into warmest, coldest, and intermediate thirds

• Look at changes in spring and fall temperature distributions and growing season

• Compare spatially across the Southeast

Research: What is the impact of changing climate on growing season?

Summer maximum temperature distributions shifted with little change in shape, indicating that for calculations of heat stress and degree days, it could be appropriate to simply add 1 degree of temperature to each daily record to simulate a 1 F F change in average temperature

Conclusions:

• Extreme low temperatures become more rare but still occur

• Temperature distributions near the ocean were compressed—Tmax did not increase as much as inland

• The growing season increased by approximately one week per 1 degree F increase in temperature

My Current Status• Funded through March 2016 with

possible no-cost extension

• Currently on several NIFA grant proposals that are under evaluation

• If you are working on grant proposals that have a weather or climate component I am interested in working with you!