Branching out: Agroforestry as a climate change mitigation and adaptation tool for agriculture

MEETING MULTIPLE DEMANDS UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE US and Canadian agricultural lands are being pressed to provide more environmental and economic services, while at the same time their capacity to provide these services under potential climate change (CC) is being questioned (Field et al. 2007; CAST 2011). Producers are already experiencing weather patterns outside of climate norms (e.g., the 2011 droughts in Texas, and flooding along the Missouri River in the United States and along the Red River in Canada) that have had significant impacts on production. Predictions of future climate conditions for the US Midwest include longer growing seasons that could potentially increase crop yields but also increase heat waves, floods, droughts, and insect and weed issues that may then adversely impact production (USGCRP 2009). Climate change drives many stressors and interacts with many nonclimatic stressors. This makes it difficult to forecast outcomes in any general way other than many existing threats to agricultural production, such as erosion and pests, which will most likely be exacerbated under shifting climate (Field et al. 2007; USGCRP 2009). Creating profitable and healthy operations under this unpredictable interplay of factors driven by shifting climate (and, along with it, shifting markets) will…