Project Details
Description
Understanding the effects of weather variability on crop performance and agroecosystem processes is essential to assist farmers with adaptive management strategies. Perennial forage crops are especially vulnerable to year-round environmental variation, and the projected increase in winter weather variability will have profound effects on perennial forage productivity and resilience, and consequently, farm viability. Poor overwinter survival is one of the leading impediments to establishment and yield of perennial forage crops. Our proposed work will use both open-top chambers and snow removal to manipulate climate within the field and examine how warmer temperatures and increasing winter weather variability associated with climate change will affect perennial forage crops and their associated weedy plant communities. In Objective 1, we will determine the degree to which forage management practices (alfalfa variety and harvest frequency) may ameliorate or exacerbate climate effects on the persistence and performance of an alfalfa-orchardgrass mixture. In Objective 2, we will examine how warmer and more variable climates affect weed emergence timing and seed persistence in the soil seedbank, both of which are critical for effective weed management. Finally, we will use structural equation modeling to quantify the extent to which environmental variables within climate manipulation and forage management treatments predict forage and weed responses. Results from this work will provide essential information to growers in the Northeast on the effects that increasing weather variability may have on perennial forage systems, as well as the optimal management tactics to enhance farm resiliency in response to a changing climate.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 1/15/22 → 1/14/26 |
Funding
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture: $650,000.00