Communicating climate science: Components of engaging the agricultural audience

The agricultural sector relies on climate information to formulate management decisions which hedge against environmental risks. How this scientific information is communicated by climatologists to the agricultural audience is investigated. It is necessary to not only provide data, but also frame the message as relevant to agriculture, encompassing risk management

Temporal reference and intergenerational timescales of agricultural conservation under variable climate

Agriculture is a complex human-natural system with intricate and continuous feedback loops that bring the past forward into the present and the future. Like all humans, farmers learn from the past. Intergenerational narratives and experiences with recent past extreme weather events and variable climate patterns frequently become analog years used as benchmarks to build knowledge of the natural environment and guide decisions. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how individuals plan and structure the timescales between decision, action, and outcome. For example, why do some people seem to act on “shorter” timescales without regard for long-term consequences of their actions to themselves, others, or the environment? And why do others make decisions based on “longer” timescales in order to preserve resources for the sake of future use? Although agricultural and climate sciences are continuously advancing our understanding of crop management, fewer investments have been made to understand the crucial human element. There is a need to better understand the timescales of social and cultural factors which influence reception (or rejection) of advances in scientific knowledge. How do time perspectives—the orientation to time and pathways of time—influence interpretation of information and decisions made to implement conservation practices on agricultural lands? What are the disjunctures between how humans perceive and reference long-term timescales of changing climatic conditions and short-term timescales of annual crop production? This dissertation seeks to expand understanding of farmer decision-making as it relates to timescales, climate change, corn-based cropping systems, and advances in science for agricultural decision support. First a temporal reference framework is developed to explain the processes by which past experiences and intergenerational narratives are brought forward in time to inform current agricultural management decisions. Then, this theory is elaborated and empirically tested in Chapters 4 and 5. A purposeful sample of interviews with corn farmers (N=159) and climatologists (N=22) in nine upper Midwest states (Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, South Dakota, and Illinois) and a random sample farmer survey (N=1,159) from the 2015 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll provide data for these analyses. Chapter 4 conducts binary logistic regression on the survey of Iowa farmers to evaluate the influence of previous generations and social pressures on decisions to decrease fall tillage, increase no tillage, and increase the use of cover crops on their farm. Family-level norms and pressures are shown to reinforce traditional crop production practices such as the action of post-harvest soil tillage. Chapter 5 explores the weight that farmers and climatologists give to historical experiences in interpreting climate conditions and their effects on production systems by analyzing in-person farmer interview data. Inductive reasoning is utilized to detect common themes involving temporal orientations and temporal pathways that influence agricultural decision-making. Findings suggest that farmers are influenced by historical intergenerational narratives of family farm management practices. Higher weights are often placed upon personally experienced past events and narratives of analogous historical conditions than predictions or expectations of future environmental conditions. Farmers are more likely to consider decisions relative to a past time orientation which reinforces pathways of time as socially-referenced to cyclical intergenerational events. This may result in farmers perceiving environmental conditions as maintaining stability through reoccurrence of environmental weather and climate risks. This suggests that scientific information describing early warning signals of future climate disruptions and opportunities for agricultural management adaption may not be resonating with the farming population. This research offers a contribution to further understand the role of timescales—temporal perspectives, orientations, and pathways—associated with decisions about agricultural production and climate. Implications of these findings may be helpful for scientists, educators, and other agricultural stakeholders who seek to connect advances in climate science with opportunities for agricultural adaptation. Recommendations involve building the capacity of information facilitators, or individuals skilled in communicating and framing science in messaging which resonates to intergenerational narratives of farm and soil conservation. Scientists should find ways to involve farmers in the co-production of knowledge to increase understanding of timescale perspectives in the interpretation of scientific knowledge. As agriculture adapts to changing climate and environmental conditions, decision-makers may need to continually assess and reconsider the trajectory of predominant corn-based cropping management

Startle response probability and amplitude may be independently modulated by affective foreground stimulation as acoustic probe intensity decreases

The magnitude of the eyeblink reflex to an acoustic startle probe is reliable potentiated to highly arousing unpleasant foreground stimuli and inhibited to highly arousing pleasant foreground stimuli across all probe intensity levels. The present study examined the response magnitude findings of Cuthbert, Bradley, and Lang (1996) as response amplitude and probability. Medium arousal pleasant pictures produced larger blink amplitude responses than unpleasant pictures of the same arousal level to 80 and 95, but not 105 dB acoustic startle probes. This effect was opposite for high arousal pictures at all intensity levels. Response probability means decreased from pleasant to unpleasant across all arousal levels to 80 dB probes. The current study provides insight into the differential activation of response amplitude and probability to affective foreground stimulation at lower acoustic stimulus intensities and possible implications for mechanisms involved in the orienting and defensive responses

Identifying Characteristics of Actionable Science for Drought Planning and Adaptation

Changing climate conditions can make water management planning and drought preparedness decisions more complicated than ever before. Federal and State natural resource managers can no longer rely solely on historical trends as a baseline and thus are in need of science that is relevant to their specific needs to inform important planning decisions. Questions remain, however, regarding the most effective and efficient methods for extending scientific knowledge and products into management and decision-making. This project analyzed two unique cases of water management to better understand how science can be translated into resource management actions and decision-making, focusing particularly on how the context of how drought influences ecosystems. In particular, this project sought to understand (1) the characteristics that make science actionable and useful for water resource management and drought preparedness, and (2) the ideal types of scientific knowledge or science products that facilitate the use of science in management and decision making. The first case study focused on beaver mimicry, an emerging nature-based solution that increases the presence of wood and woody debris in rivers and streams to mimic the actions of beavers. This technique has been rapidly adopted by natural resource managers as a way to restore riparian areas, reconnect incised streams with their floodplains, increase groundwater infiltration, and slow surface water flow so that more water is available later in the year during hotter and drier months (Pollock and others 2015). The second case study focused on an established research program, Colorado Dust on Snow, that provides water managers with scientific information explaining how the movement of dust particles from the Colorado Plateau influences hydrology and the timing and intensity of snow melt and water runoff into critical water sources. This program has support from – and is being used by – several water conservation districts in Colorado

Lightweight and cost efficient spaceborn patch antenna

In order to achieve lightweight yet low cost antennas for use in a geostationary space environment, the GeReLEO-SMART project develops a substrate-based, multilayer antenna structure which can replace traditional horn antennas as feeds for reflector antennas. To verify a design, an example mission is developed, consisting of a 2×2 patch antenna array with an integrated stripline bandpass filter. The operation frequency is 25.935 GHz. This multilayer antenna will be tested on board of the German technology demonstration mission “Heinrich-Hertz” (H2SAT). The design passed all tests for space qualification without decrease in performance

A case study of music compositional activities in a high school performance-based ensemble: the apple valley composers

Music making is generally considered a creative activity; however, in performance ensembles, it is the conductor who makes most of the creative decisions. Many believe that creative thinking is strongest in music during composition. Leaders in the field of music education have continually articulated a vision for music education that includes a variety of ways to experience music including composition. Despite this broad vision of what music education should be in theory, in practice, American band programs have traditionally focused almost exclusively on the performance of the music of others. The purpose of this study was to examine an exemplary high school performance-based band program in which composition was taught as part of the curriculum and to determine the impact that composition had on stakeholders, including the teacher, students, and alumni. Data were collected from direct observation of ten composition lessons taught over the 2016–2017 school year, supporting documents, and interviews. Interview data came from guided conversations with various stakeholders including the band director, seven current students, and two alumni. Several themes for discussion were delineated from the data including the importance of early creative experiences, the practical application of composition, a lack of continuity between lessons, and the apparent benefits of composition in a band setting. Participants in this case reported enjoyment during composition activities, did not perceive that time spent composing compromised the band’s ability to perform, and also reported growth in their overall musical understanding, particularly in the role of listener. These themes highlight how composition and performance activities can be used in tandem to reinforce musical concepts and develop creative thinking in all music students

Ergosterol Effect on the Desaturation of 14C-Cis-Vaccenate in Tetrahymena

Supplement of ergosterol to the growth medium of the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena pyriformis W leads to incorporation of the foreign sterol within cell membranes and suppression of synthesis of the native sterol-like compound tetrahymanol, as well as to changes in the fatty acid compositions of several major classes of membrane lipid. Alteration of fatty acid composition is thought to represent a regulatory mechanism whereby optimum membrane fluidity is maintained when the slightly dissimilar foreign sterol is added into the phospholipid bilayer of the membranes. The present study, using several different conditions of growth temperature, substrate concentrations and incubation time, and ergosterol concentrations and exposure time, is an attempt to provide evidence supporting a hypothetical regulatory mechanism. This mechanism proposes that there is a feedback regulation by membrane-bound sterol on an enzyme or enzymes involved in synthesis of the long chain fatty acids contained in membrane phospholipid. Such a mechanism could account for the balance between sterol and fatty acid content of membrane. The data presented here show that a statistically significant increase in desaturation of 14C-cis-vaccenate can be demonstrated in Tetrahymena cell cultures whose membranes contain the foreign sterol, when growth temperature is maintained at 20° or 29.5°. Tetrahymena desaturated 14C-cis-vaccenate substrate in both ergosterol supplemented and normal cultures. The 14C labeled product, 6,11-18:2 was recovered and separated by silver nitrate-Unisil column chromatography