Project Team
Student
Rebecca Beal
Meteorology
Florida State University
Mentor(s)
Meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology
Project Video
Project Abstract
Growing Food in a Changing Climate
Rebecca Beal, J. Evans, J. Fuentes, D. Polasky
Across all areas of the world and in all aspects of our lives, we are experiencing the consequences of climate change. Agriculture is a key sector in all of our lives, but it is vulnerable to the impacts of weather, let alone climate change. Based on future projections that northern Iowa will experience an increase in average daily rainfall, we investigate if an increase in rainfall quantity alone will produce an increase in corn production. We use APSIM to produce a simulation of Sutherland, Iowa and use historical (1979-2013) station data gathered in Sutherland. Then we modify our management technique ls until we can verify our average annual biomass and yield. Using our simulation’s output, we analyze the correlation of rainfall amount to annual biomass.