Increasing Ecosystem Services and Climate Change Resilience in Agroecosystems of the Northeast - UVM Research Update from Ongoing Study at Shelburne Farms

DATE:
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
TIME: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
EVENT TYPE:
Adult Program
LOCATION: Farm Barn
FEE: Free; registration encouraged
https://shelburnefarms.org/calendar/event/increasing-ecosystem-services-and-climate-change-r[...]the

As climate changes increasingly affect agricultural regions and landscapes, a range of stakeholders, from farmers to policy makers, will need to confront the challenge of how best to address both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Central to this challenge is designing and managing appropriate agroecosystems that do not degrade water quality, function to increase landscape flood resiliency, and mitigate agriculture's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, all while remaining economically viable. The long-term goal of this project is to monitor alternative management systems for dominant agricultural land uses in the Northeast and evaluate the enhancement of ecosystem services and climate change resilience. This research is ongoing at Shelburne Farms and a nearby dairy farm to evaluate the benefits of aeration on hay fields and manure injection in corn fields, and the UVM research team is looking forward to presenting their work thus far.

Lindsay Barbieri is a graduate student at UVM pursuing a PhD in Natural Resources. Her research focuses on problem-solving at the interface of agriculture, climate and technology. She thinks about farms as complex systems, and works to understand how agricultural landscapes - especially soils - can be managed to reduce negative environmental impacts while adapting to a changing climate. Believing that farms play a vital role in sustaining our future, she explores the use of emerging technologies to improve agricultural resilience and mitigate climate change.

Cameron Twombly is a graduate student at UVM pursuing a M.S. in Environmental Engineering. He earned his B.S. in Environmental Science: Ecosystem Ecology from the University of New Hampshire. His research focuses on hydrologic and nutrient fluxes at the farm and watershed scale. He is interested in evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural best management practices on water quality and other ecosystem services.

Joshua Faulkner is the Farming and Climate Change Program Coordinator at the UVM Extension Center for Sustainable Agriculture and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Plant and Soil Science. His experience lies in agricultural hydrology and the processes by which agricultural systems impact water quality and the surrounding environment. He currently provides technical assistance to farmers across Vermont and manages various applied research projects, all focused on making Northeastern farms environmentally sustainable and more resilient to the impacts of climate change. He obtained a BS in Biological Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a MS and PhD from Cornell University in Biological and Environmental Engineering, all of which had a concentration in Soil and Water Resources. Raised on a beef farm in southern West Virginia, he now lives in Starksboro, Vermont where he is trying his hand at pastured pork.