IFAS Climate Study

Climate change is a hot issue currently, with most people being on one side of the fence or the other. Some organizations going so far as creating doomsday clocks with a countdown until zero hour, or when our effect on the plant will be irreversible. But the more logical institutes are continue to conduct research on environmental impacts and the roll of various ecosystems.

Dr. Jiangxiao Qiu from the University of Florida's IFAS is in the beginning stages of one such research project. He and his team at IFAS will be studying how future climate change can affect grassland ecosystems here in Florida and how that might benefit humans.

"In this project, we aim to use an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the projected future climate change can affect the grassland ecosystems and also the benefits to humans. And also to investigate land management strategies that can help us mitigate such impacts. "

When most people think climate change they assume just a change in the global temperature will occur. But the change also impacts precipitation levels, pest and disease patterns, and much more.

"Rising temperature and heated stress which can also be related with the increase in insect and disease presence. But also for this project in particular we are looking for the changes in the precipitation patterns in the seasonality and the intensity of precipitation and the drier conditions to see how they can affect the grassland ecosystems in Florida."