USDA California Climate Hub
News & Notes
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The USDA California Climate Hub within the Agricultural Research Service at the UC Davis John Muir Institute works with partners across federal and state agencies, universities, and industry to help enable climate-informed decision making and advance the adaptive capacity for California's working and managed agricultural, range, and forest lands. These newsletters are just one approach toward meeting this objective. We encourage you to get in touch with us if we can be of further service or assistance.
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Information for Wildfire Season
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Earlier this month, the state also saw its first wildfires, beginning the ever-lengthening wildfire season. The Hub has compiled a number of
wildfire resources on our website
. As we move into the hot and dry summer and fall seasons, these resources can be useful for wildfire preparation, monitoring, and response across the state.
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One-Month Climate Outlook
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June began with a record-breaking heatwave before settling back into more seasonable temperatures. Looking forward, the 30-day outlook calls for a 33-40% chance of above-average temperatures. We have settled into our dry season and NOAA's Climate Prediction Center anticipates our normal precipitation regimes over the next month.
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The protracted and wet winter and spring have helped stave off drought across much of the state to date. The most recent drought monitor shows only abnormally dry conditions exist in San Diego, Orange, and eastern Riverside counties.
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In the Literature: A review on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for agriculture in Mediterranean climate regions
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A schematic representation of adaptation strategies of agriculture to climate change in Mediterranean-climate regions, from del Pozo et al. 2019.
A recent review in the journal Sustainability
highlighted the shared climate change impacts to – and adaptation strategies for –agriculture in Mediterranean climates around the world. The review discusses the well-known impacts of climate change on Mediterranean agriculture stemming from increasing temperatures and higher water demand during the warm, dry season, highlighting detrimental impacts to the yield and quality of grains, legumes, fruits, and nuts, and the authors suggest that increasing water productivity through the development of drought-adapted cultivars should be a priority in Mediterranean regions. To this end, the review offers that the use of biotechnological tools can not only aid crop adaptation, but do so with an increased output of potentially successful cultivars while reducing costs of breeding programs. The review also touches on improving agronomic practices, encouraging healthy agroecosystems, and the economic and social impacts of grower adaptation to climate change.
Ultimately, the authors highlight the need to link science and policy in efforts to increase adaptation and resiliency of agriculture in Mediterranean climate regions, and they underscore the particular necessity for adapting for a water-limited future. Whether applying adaptive strategies to the crop or farm level, the conclusion of this review and scores of other scientific literature is that continued investment in agricultural research and the translation of those findings into technological and policy solutions will be critical in meeting the challenges growers will face under climate change.
The full review can be read here
.
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The Hub's 3rd Quarter Highlights
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- The CACH partnered with UC Cooperative Extension, NDMC, and NIDIS to hold four drought planning workshops geared towards rangeland producers.
- We participated in the 2019 CalCAN summit in an outreach capacity, presenting attendees with an overview of the Hub mission, highlights of our on-going work, and a call for engagement opportunities. We received positive feedback from attendees who expressed interest in future engagement and collaborative opportunities.
- The CACH partnered with UC International Programs, Cornell University, and Ecoagriculture Partners, along with USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and Office of the Chief Economist to develop a landscape-scale climate-smart agriculture curriculum for delivery to developing nation sub-national government decision makers.
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Let us know if you have news worthy items, outputs or products, or associated resources that may be of interest to the USDA California Climate Hub community. You can email items to
Steven Ostoja
, USDA California Climate Hub Director, or to
Lauren Parker
, USDA California Climate Hub Postdoctoral Fellow.
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USDA California Climate Hub | climatehubs.oce.usda.gov
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