Report of the ARS Global Change Research Workshop, Temple, TX, September 23-25, 1997 PDF
Preview Report of the ARS Global Change Research Workshop, Temple, TX, September 23-25, 1997
Historic, Archive Document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. i a loan eh aaa s; Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory Beculcares Reserve S tee - aGE149 — .A78 USDA 1997 United States Department of Agriculture NOV 2 8 2003 CATALOGING PREP = Report of the ARS GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH WORKSHOP Temple, TX September 23-25, 1997 United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments )U s. SA: Meeting Agenda NOV 28 20 List of Attendees CATALOGING |F m3i Da | Opening Remarks--D. A. Farrell Global Change Issues and Deliverables Research Progress Reports Ecosystem Dynamics Biogeochemical Dynamics Hydrologic Processes Technical Tour Compiled and edited by: H. Allen Torbert Temple, TX December 1997 PREFACE PREFACE This volume contains the documentation from the fourth Global Change Research Planning Workshop held at Temple, Texas, in September 1997. The workshop meets several needs, but its primary purpose is to provide the ARS scientists who conduct research in global change, hydrology, and water management an opportunity to interact and exchange information and ideas. At the same time, progress is assessed and new priorities are informally identified as a basis for planning and making program adjustments. The workshop also allows an appraisal of whether the program is meeting its overall goals of reducing uncertainty regarding the effects of global change on agriculture and future food security, documenting the extent and nature of agriculture’s role in causing global change by generating greenhouse gas emissions and forestalling climate change by sequestering greenhouse gases, and determining how effects of global change may be mitigated or how agriculture can adapt to large-scale environmental changes. The ARS Global Change Research Program addresses a wide range of more specific global change-related questions and problems in both plant and animal agriculture. It utilizes state- of-the-art scientific technology, and has developed several unique approaches to the study of hydrologic processes, global change effects on plants, and trace gas emissions and the carbon cycle. These specific objectives and novel experimental approaches appear in the 68 progress reports submitted by the ARS scientists and engineers who conduct the Global Change National Program. It directly involves over 30 researchers assigned to 16 Research Units at 13 different locations across the U.S. Also included in these progress reports are contributions from over 70 additional ARS scientists and engineers who work in closely related areas, especially the Water Quality and Management, the Air Quality, the Methyl Bromide Alternatives, and the Integrated Farm Systems National Programs. These progress reports document the current status of ARS’ efforts to resolve uncertainty concerning the potential effects of climate change, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, tropospheric ozone, uv-B radiation, and other large-scale environmental changes on crop and animal production systems, grazinglands, hydrology, and ecosystems processes. They also indicate that research continues to provide policy makers with information regarding the positive effects of global change. Examples include various aspects of the “fertilization effect” of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on plants and possible improvements in the capacity to produce crops in interior Alaska, as suggested by recent evidence of increases in the number of degree growing days. The work addresses very basic phenomena like plant photosynthesis, respiration, and metabolism, as well as practical operations like tillage, irrigation and fertilization. It involves scientific disciplines ranging from fundamental (chemistry, molecular biology, genetics, plant physiology) to the applied (agronomy, water management, rangeland management). Working as members of teams, and with a host of cooperators, these scientists have compiled an impressive record of achievement in improving our level of understanding of global change effects, and in understanding the role of agriculture as a contributor to the causes of global change. To date, these researchers have: ° enhanced our knowledge of fundamental biological processes critical to agriculture, such as photosynthesis, respiration, and growth; enzymatic processes; stress tolerance; plant competition, water use, and the acquisition and use of light energy and nutrients, ° increased our understanding of biogeochemical processes important to agriculture, such as energy exchange between the terrestrial surface and the atmosphere; carbon and nutrient cycles; trace gas fluxes and their sources, sinks, and pools; and especially the hydrological cycle, ° acquired long-term hydrologic, climatic and vegetation databases useful for documenting change and developing an understanding of hydrologic processes and climatic effects on crop and livestock production, ° documented how changing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations affect plant physiology, growth, partitioning of photosynthate, biomass accumulation and yield, water use, and energy capture, e determined how uv-B radiation and atmospheric ozone affect plant physiological processes and crop yields, and how uv-B radiation and ozone interact with rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and other global change effects, ° determined how global change factors such as uv-B radiation, changing temperature and precipitation patterns, and changes in the trace gas composition of the atmosphere interact with other stresses on crops and animals, such as diseases, weeds, insect infestations, salinity, and drought, e provided accurate measurements of amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides that are emitted into the atmosphere by agricultural activities, and accurate estimates of amounts removed from the atmosphere by agricultural practices that sequester greenhouse gases, such as the shift from conventional to minimum tillage and conversion of cropland to perennial grasses or trees under the Conservation Reserve Program, ° determined the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on ecosystem processes which control productivity, structure, and species composition of vegetation on rangelands, and ° developed a suite of simulation models which allow the prediction of global change effects on crop growth and yield, livestock production, water availability, and the sustainability of agricultural production systems, and of the effects of global change
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