By Dialynn Dwyer
There’s a lot of research underway about how climate affects agriculture, examining how heat waves reduce crop yields, among other impacts.
But there is some thinking among researchers that the crops also affect the local climate to some extent. Vegetation transpires water, acting as a pump that pulls the moisture from the ground, making the air surrounding it a little more humid, effectively altering the heat index or felt temperature.
Exactly what that impact on the local climate might be is one of the questions Ethan Coffel, assistant professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is seeking to understand with his current research.
“Ultimately metrics like the heat index are most important for human heat exposure,” he says.
Examining the influence of crops on local climate isn’t a new pursuit for him. A few years ago, he published a paper that aimed to estimate the amount of cooling corn crops caused around them.
“They reduce basically the amount of heat waves that occur, which is a positive for the crops,” he says. “And so effectively, the crops are modifying the climate in a way that is actually helping the crops grow.”
Coffel was awarded a $582,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in 2023 to support his research on agriculture as a driver of climate extremes. With co-investigator Justin Mankin from Dartmouth College, Coffel is the principal investigator for the three-year project, titled Quantifying Agriculture as a Driver of Regional Climate Extremes.
Source : syr.edu