C-CIARN Agriculture

Archived Update — October, 2006

Greetings from C-CIARN Agriculture,

Useful information for climate change adaptation research is often found outside the climate science literature. For instance, the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture recently published an article regarding the adoption of conservation measures among rural landholders. The authors make several points that apply equally to climate change adaptation research and policy:

Know the types of practices that landholders’ generally favour;
Work with landholders in a participatory way that respects and incorporates their knowledge;
Build on what landholders are doing now;
Recognize that successful adoption research and programs must go beyond biophysical perspectives and include social science approaches from the very beginning.

Several points from the article are summarized here

Pannell, D. , G. Marshall, N. Barr, A. Curtis, F. Vanclay, and R. Wilkinson. 2006. Understanding and Promoting Adoption of Conservation Practices by Rural Landholders. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture (46:1407-1424)

DOCUMENTS AND RESOURCES OF INTEREST
Tebaldi, C., K. Hayhoe, J. M. Arblaster, and G. A. Meehl. W. 2006. Going to the Extremes: An intercomparison of model-simulated historical and future changes in extreme events Climatic Change, December Issue.

Summary--Recent episodes of deadly heat in the United States and Europe, long dry spells across the U.S. West, and heavy bursts of rain and snow across much of North America and Eurasia hint at longer-term changes to come, according to a new study based on several of the world’s most advanced climate models. Much of the world will face an enhanced risk of heat waves, intense precipitation, and other weather extremes, conclude scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Texas Tech University, and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre.

Press release for this article available here

Several resources related to the Prairie Water Symposium held in Winnipeg, September 2005, are now available from International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

The meeting notes, a synthesis paper on provincial water strategies together with individual case studies
Background draft report of the study presented by IISD,
"The Geographical Analysis of Cumulative Threats to Prairie Water Resources"
Presentations from the symposium are available in powerpoint format and as real-time videos here

UPCOMING EVENT AND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Michigan State University is holding an international symposium on Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region: Decision Making Under Uncertainty. They are now accepting poster abstracts for the poster session that will be held on the first day of the Symposium, March 15, 2007.

Faculty, students, government agencies and community organizations are invited to submit an abstract for this competitive poster session. Abstracts are to be no more than 300 words in length. Posters will be selected according to their overall quality and relevance to the symposium topics:
- Potential impacts of climate change, particularly in the Great Lakes Region
- Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies
- Decision making under uncertainty

Abstracts will be peer reviewed. Nine small cash awards for the best posters in various categories (undergraduate student, graduate student, community and faculty) will be given. Deadline for abstracts is December 29. Further information available here

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) based in Laxenburg (Austria) has a 3 month Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) which offers research opportunities to talented young researchers whose interests correspond with IIASA’s ongoing research on issues of global environmental, economic and social change, including climate change. From June through August 2007 accepted participants will work within one of IIASA's Research Programs under the guidance of our scientific staff.

The deadline for applying to the 2007 Program is 15 January. For full details here

WHAT’S IN THE NEWS
Gene switch makes crops drought-resistant when needed
Agnet | September 30, 2006

A unique type of transgenic crop could benefit food growers worldwide by turning on a gene that would resist drought -- but only when the plant begins to dry out. David Dennis was quoted saying, "We have a technology, a gene, that gives you a plant that's drought resistant. The system that we've developed switches on only during drought. During normal growth, if a plant's got water, the system is switched off, as if the gene wasn't there.

A comprehensive collection of top climate change and agriculture news items available here

All for now,

Ellen Wall
ewall@uoguelph.ca
Co-ordinator, C-CIARN Agriculture
(Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network for Agriculture)
Blackwood Hall (Room 202)
University of Guelph.
Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1
Phone: 519 824 4120 ext 58480
Fax: 519 763 4686
http://www.c-ciarn.uoguelph.ca

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