“Simulating
the potential impacts of future climate change on corn and soybean health in the Lower Chippewa River Watershed”
This is current research being done with Dr. Cyril Wilson at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire. The research will be presented at the 2018 American Association of Geographers (AAG) annual meeting.
Abstract:
Climate change has the potential to affect several biophysical processes that support vegetation health including agricultural crops and forests. Changes in future climate can potentially alter the growth and production of crops leading to possible implications on food production methods and food security. As a result of this, it becomes prudent to evaluate the potential role that changes in future climate might have on crop production and eventual food security. This study employed a multiperceptron neutral network coupled with Markov Chain modeling to develop future land use information for the Lower Chippewa River Watershed up to the years 2030 and 2040. Additionally, the study analyzed the potential impacts of future climate change on corn health based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 future climate change projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC). Crop health monitoring was implemented with the WinEPIC crop simulation growth model. WinEPIC was informed by historical weather data and future IPPC climate projected data. The study result demonstrated that corn and soybean biomass, grain yield, and harvest index are predicted to decrease due to a predicted increase in the number of water stress days. RCP8.5 projections demonstrated better corn and soybean growth predictions with greater biomass and grain yields than RCP4.5, suggesting that increases in carbon dioxide can lengthen the growing season in the study area creating better productivity.
In this link this project can be seen as one of the Undergraduate Student Presentations at 2018 AAG Annual Meeting as poster #015 on page 23: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14Sr_lBIzaj0JvOdbVAMqw4yMRl7BUgET
Figure 1. Poster presented at 2018 AAG conference.
Figure 2. Presenting research poster at the America Association of Geographers annual meeting in New Orleans, LA.
In this link this project can be seen as one of the CERCA (Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity) poster presentations as a Natural and Physical Sciences poster presentation #252 on page 85: https://drive.google.com/openid=1RclGCF1IyjLGaoC9ID_DSvoUY_aBiduS
