Water Insights is an interdisciplinary seminar series on water science, water management, and water policy sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science (SAFES). Speakers include researchers, water managers, and water policy makers from Penn State, other universities, government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
Climate change, especially changes in air temperature, shortwave radiation and vapor pressure deficit, influences agro-ecosystem practices and production outcomes and hydrologic balances on various scales. Detailed quantifications of magnitude and trends in climate variables are necessary for determining potential positive or negative effects on natural resources so that appropriate management practices and strategies can be developed to mitigate negative impacts. Furthermore, long-term monitoring agro-ecosystem response to variations and changes in climate variables through water and energy fluxes measurements need to be developed to infer direct feedback from agro-ecosystem response to climate. Such long-term flux data can be vital for understanding the soil-water-vegetation-climate continuum and interactions to better assess the climate impacts. Long-term fluxes are also necessary for assessing the impact of land use and management changes on water balances under changing climate. Accomplishing these goals requires measurement of water vapor and energy exchanges between various vegetation surfaces and microclimates for long-enough periods to empathize the behavior and dynamics involved with the flux transfer so that robust models can be developed to predict these processes under different scenarios. This presentation will focus on some of the potential implications of climate change on agro-ecosystems and will present an example of a robust, successful, and long-term flux measurement network that the presenter had established previously and will present his plans on replicating a similar flux network for Pennsylvania agro-ecosystems monitoring.