Southwest Climate Hub Bulletin

The ten Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry are central to the USDA greenhouse gas mitigation strategy. The Building Blocks plan is intended to help land managers and rural communities develop practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon storage, and generate clean renewable energy. The Southwest Hub is teaming up with the California Hub to present a workshop on Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry in the Southwest. We are still in the planning stages, but we expect to announce a precise date and location soon. The workshop will take place in early 2017 and will be held in either Sacramento or Davis, California. Please contact Caiti Steele or Amber Kerr to receive updates.

Emerging Manure to Energy Technologies - Are Cost Effective Small Scale Digesters Possible?

This was a webinar sponsored by USDA Northeast Climate Hub and was about current research, available technologies, future possibilities, and the benefits and costs of small-scale manure digesters. Learn about REAP program eligibility, application deadlines, program grant and loan opportunities and how existing digesters used REAP as part of their funding package.

The American Association of State Climatologists Meeting

The 40th Annual Meeting of the AASC was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico June 28 to July 1, 2016. Albert Rango presented on the Southwest Climate Hub and its relationship to the National Climate Hub activities. The AASC was pleased to learn that the Southwest Climate Hub was distributing and supplementing the rain gauge network in the Four Corners region with CoCoRaHS gauges through a request made by the Navajo Nation.

USDA and the Department of Interior Announced $47 Million in Investments for Water Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Drought Response and Agriculture Operations Across the West - Funding for 13 states at the local level to improve water and energy efficiency.

US Forest Service Videos on Tree Mortality - aerial surveys, bark beetles, and more.

Forest Service Survey Finds Record 66 Million Dead Trees Statewide - Without additional funding from Congress, the Forest Service will not be able to restore at-risk areas.

Climate Change is Tipping Scales Toward More Wildfires - Since the 1970s, the number of large forest fires in the West has tripled, and with more than 10 million acres burned, 2015 is the worst fire season on record.

CLIMAS Reports Forecasts for July-September - Above-average temperatures are predicted.

Sierra Water Runoff Coming Up Short - California snowmelt from the Sierras will provide only about 70% of the average, runoff has been early this year, with higher temperatures and rain instead of snow contributing to the problem.

Researchers See More Overhead Irrigation in California’s Future - Overhead irrigation uses less water than traditional irrigation and requires less labor than drip systems.

Uncertainty in Future Agro-Climate Projections in the United States and Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
This research uses projections of agro-climate indices to explore how future climate changes will impact US agriculture. The indices chosen for the research are those found to be relevant to stakeholders and include accumulated frost days, dry days, growing season length, plant heat stress and start of field operations. In addition, the authors used integrated economic and climate projections so they were able to show the direct benefit of climate mitigation on agriculture.

Beyond Yields: Climate Change Effects on Specialty Crop Quality and Agroecological Management
Crop quality is often lacking from research on how climate change will affect agriculture in the future. This paper uses a social-systems framework to find out how climate change will impact crop quality as well as crop yield. The framework is key to understanding linkages between crop quality, consumer responses, and management of agroecosystems.

Future Land-Use Related Water Demand in California
As population continues to grow and land-use intensifies, demand for water in California is likely to increase. This research uses a state-and-transition simulation model to project changes in land use, and future imbalances in water supply and demand.

Trends in Atmospheric Patterns Conducive to Seasonal Precipitation and Temperature Extremes in California
Persistent ridging patterns (e.g., the “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge”) disrupt precipitation patterns over California and are responsible for the recent California drought. Persistent anomalies over the North Pacific are also responsible for California’s wettest years. The findings presented in this paper suggest that the frequency of the anomalies associated with severely dry and hot years has increased, but not at the expense of anomalous patterns known to drive extremely wet years.

Incorporating Anthropogenic Influences into Fire Probability Models: Effects of Human Activity and Climate Change on Fire Activity in California
This paper uses an empirical model to assess climate and anthropogenic influences on the California’s fire regimes from 1975 to 2050. The authors found that anthropogenic drivers account for up to 50% of explanatory power in their model and that total burned area in California is likely to increase by between 2.2 and 5% by 2050. They also emphasize the importance of including anthropogenic effects in fire probability models.

Building Blocks Workshop Planned for 2017