Ray Motha

George Mason University | GMU · Environmental Science and Technology Center

It is a new textbook entitled "Climate Change and a Sustainable Earth". The impact of the changing climate on natural resources is among the greatest challenges that currently threaten Earth. This textbook focuses on the basic scientific principles of climate change that may be used to help develop long-term strategies to cope with the resulting br...

The impacts of climate change on hydropower development are complex, often interactive, issues. Many studies have already focused on climate change impacts on the hydrologic cycle. This paper downsizes the analysis and focuses on water resources for power generation. The concentration is on a review of the impacts of climate change on hydropower de...

The goal of the present study was to improve the CERES-wheat model simulation of grain protein concentration (GPC) for winter durum wheat and to use the model as a basis for the development of a GPC Simplified Forecasting Index (SFIpro). The performances of CERES-wheat, which is one of the most widespread crop simulation models, with (i) its standa...

In recent decades, numerous weather- and climate-related natural disasters have impacted North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, repeatedly demonstrating how vulnerable local agriculture is to extreme episodic events. Given this recent history, and expectations that the frequency and intensity of some episodic events will increase with c...

Extreme weather and climate events are likely to cause disastrous consequences for agriculture and food security. This study investigated the impacts of drought in year 2012 on corn yield in the United States Corn Belt by integrating county-level crop yield data from the USDA NASS Quick Stats database and precipitation data from the NCDC GHCN-Daily...

In the Mediterranean, durum wheat is one of the major crops, but a high variability of grain yield and protein concentration (GPC) prevents an adequate agronomic planning at the farm or consortium level. Although there are many studies on monitoring of crop production and early prediction of yields, little has been done at the local scale. The aim...

The United States has sustained over 90 weather-related disasters in the past 30 years in which overall damages exceeded $1 billion. The total normalized losses for the 90-plus events exceeded $700 billion. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, severe storms, heat waves, freezes, and wildfires pose serious challenges for farmers and the agribusiness commun...

Crop models can play a role in this agricultural management decision making process to cope with drought and other natural disasters. Crop simulation models are designed to imitate the behavior of a plant system. These models separate yield prospects into components due to changing weather trends, genetic improvements, and improved technology. Simu...

The availability of appropriate meteorological and agrometeorological databases is a major prerequisite for studying and managing the processes leading to agricultural and forest production. The building of databases for meteorological, phenological, soil, and agronomic information is inevitably a major priority. The key steps to database managemen...

Agriculture is one of the most important economic sectors of global society. Agricultural production continues to expand into forest lands and marginal crop areas in an attempt to keep pace with the ever-increasing world population. Environmental damage is increasing, including erosion, salinity, desertification, deforestation, threats to biodivers...

There are many challenges facing today's farmers and the use of weather and climate can help farmers in meeting and overcoming these challenges. Additionally, government decision-makers use information on actual and potential crop production impacts, a large percentage of which is based on weather and climate information such as drought, heavy rain...

Climate is one of the most important factors determining the sustainability of agricultural production systems. More emphasis must be placed on understanding the influence of changing climate conditions on sustainable agricultural systems, given the increasing limitations of the natural resource base. Agrometeorologists can play a leading role in b...

Variations in crop yields and agricultural productivity are strongly influenced by fluctuations in seasonal weather conditions during the growing season. The El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, and other similar ocean/atmosphere teleconnections in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, contribute to extreme weather events and climatic variabi...

Weather and climatic conditions are the most important production factors for agriculture. Farmers within any agroecosystem therefore try to adapt to these conditions as much as possible (Adger et al. 2005; Smit and Yunlong 1996). Farm technologies play a major role in this adaptation process in both the short and the long term. Farm technologies a...

In many parts of the world, weather and climate are one of the biggest production risks and uncertainty factors impacting on agricultural systems performance and management. Both structural and non-structural measures can be used to reduce the impacts of the variability (including extremes) of climate resources on crop production. While the structu...

Agriculture is defined as “the production and processing of plant and animal life for the use of human beings” and also “a system for harvesting or exploiting the solar radiation.” Meteorology is “the science of atmosphere.” “The study of those aspects of meteorology, which have direct relevance to agriculture,” is defined as agricultural meteorolo...

Agriculture is a complex system, within which changes are driven by the joint effects of economic, environmental, political and social forces (Olmstead 1970; Bryant and Johnston 1992). It is very well known that agriculture is inherently sensitive to climate conditions and is among the sectors most vulnerable to weather and climate risks. Of the to...

Munich Re is one of the largest global reinsurers and has a long tradition in both the assessment of weather-related hazards and their impact on crop production and the development of appropriate risk management tools and crop insurance schemes. Munich Re’s underwriting of agricultural risks throughout the world is concentrated in its agricultural...

The International Workshop on Reducing Vulnerability of Agriculture and Forestry to Climate Variability and Climate Change held in Ljubljana, Solvenia, from 7 to 9 October 2002 addressed a range of important issues relating to climate variability, climate change, agriculture, and forestry including the state of agriculture and forestry and agromete...

The potential impact of climate variability and climate change on agricultural production in the United States and Canada varies generally by latitude. Largest reductions are projected in southern crop areas due to increased temperatures and reduced water availability. A longer growing season and projected increases in CO2 may enhance crop yields i...

Recent advances in atmospheric and ocean sciences and a better understanding of the global climate have led to skillful climate forecasts at seasonal to interannual timescales, even in midlatitudes. These scientific advances and forecasting capabilities have opened the door to practical applications that benefit society. The benefits include the re...

This paper reviews the prospects for adaptation in world agriculture in the face of climate change. The record of experience from previous decades demonstrates a considerable capacity to adapt and there is general optimism that successful adaptation will be maintained. There are some grounds for concern because of the uncertainty surrounding global...

Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate related disasters. Impacts of extreme events on the agricultural sector can be positive or negative. While it is easier to contemplate negative impacts of extreme events such as droughts, tropical cyclones and...

Severe droughts have occurred frequently in various parts of the United States throughout the 20th Century. These natural disasters caused severe hardship not only on the agriculture sector of society, but also on the entire socio-economic infrastructure. Until recently, governments and relief agencies responded to a drought disaster from a crisis...

Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not...

The potential impact of climate variability and climate change on agricultural production in the United States and Canada varies generally by latitude. Largest reductions are projected in southern crop areas due to increased temperatures and reduced water availability. A longer growing season and projected increases in CO2 may enhance crop yields i...

One of the major challenges facing humankind is to provide an equitable standard of living for this and future generations: adequate food, water and energy, safe shelter and a healthy environment. Human-induced climate change, and increasing climate variability, as well as other global environmental issues such as land degradation and loss of biolo...

The major concerns for the availability of climate and agrometeorological data as we move into the 21st century continue to be in areas of data collection and data base management. New technologies have advanced our ability to address these issues but the solutions may require the commitment of resources that may yet be outside the reach of develop...

The requirements for precipitation measurements from space for hydrologic forecasting applications are discussed. The structure of the hydrologic forecasting service of the National Weather Service (NWS) is described, and an attempt is made to estimate the sampling and accuracy requirements for a range of spatial and temporal averaging scales corre...

Between 2000 and 2030, the population of the Pacific Northwest is expected to increase between 41 percent and 52 percent. With the possible additional stress placed on its water supply due to continued regional warming, the demand for water is expected to outpace the supply. Ecosystems will undoubtedly change and adapt but our ability to maintain o...

In 1998, the U.S. Congress passed the National Drought Policy Act, stating that the nation would benefit from a national drought policy based on preparedness and mitigation to reduce the need for emergency relief. The Act acknowledged that there was no consistent, comprehensive policy driving the federal role to help reduce the impacts of drought....