给罗盘”:

马克•夏皮罗解释了农民在加州正在设计未来的农业气候抵抗变化通过实践树。

•资助者如何支持努力创新农业在气候变化做准备吗?

•了解更多关于气候变化与农业


杜阿尔特,一个世界上最大的商用托儿所,专门从事树坚果和水果,整个山谷近几十年来蓬勃发展。四十年前成立,托儿所也随之迅速增长的水输送到山谷内华达山脉生在北美最慷慨的农业中心。现在托儿所延伸200英亩Hughson镇郊外莫德斯托。事情开始改变大约十年前,根据约翰•杜阿尔特托儿所的总统。

当我第一次见到杜阿尔特早在2012年,他拒绝调用转变看到气候变化:“无论是碳积累在大气中或只是该死的坏运气,”他说,“条件是紧张我们。”Today, he still avoids the climate change label. ("You should meet my daughter; I think she agrees with you on the climate business," he told me recently.) But even seven years ago, Duarte was on the forefront of researching tree varieties suited to a hotter, drier, saltier future.

树提供一个特别的挑战:环境转变,但树木不能移动。今天水果或坚果的树种植可以根据不同的物种,是适合气候条件的时候它在5年或10年开始开花结果。Duarte试图回答的问题,整个山谷,一批农民,今天种植可以茁壮成长,开花结果在接下来的25年或更多?

杜阿尔特说,“每一个人,正在考虑暖冬的影响,没有足够的水。”Valley temperatures are predicted to rise between 3.5 and six degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, while periods of extreme heat are expected to lengthen. Even now, it's often not cold enough in winter to permit trees' metabolism to slow down, a process critical to the spring flowering that produces fruits and nuts later in the season. Irrigation water is becoming saltier too. Desperate farmers drilling ever-deeper wells are pumping up saltier water. And a new state law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, will likely serve as a catalyst of change. Starting in 2020, it will regulate how much water farmers can withdraw from the Central Valley aquifer. The law promises to shake up the methods and business of valley agriculture.

这里的经验教训,学习,对其他农业地区产生影响,从美国中西部到北非,欧洲南部和西南。这些粮仓已经经历类似的极端高温,干旱,洪水,新的害虫和疾病。

阅读全文设计未来的农业在太平洋标准由马克•夏皮罗。