Cover Crops May Cause Winter Warming in Snow‐Covered Regions

Details

• Journal Title:
  Geophysical Research Letters
• Personal Author:
  Lombardozzi, D. L. ; Bonan, G. B. ; Wieder, W. ; Grandy, A. S. ; Morris, C. ; Lawrence, D. L.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) ; NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information)
• Description:
  Cover crops, grown between cash crops when soil is fallow, are a management strategy that may help mitigate climate change. The biogeochemical effects of cover crops are well documented, as theyprovide numerous localized bene fits to farmers. We test potential biogeophysical climate impacts of idealized cover crop scenarios by assuming that cover crops are planted offseason in all crop regions throughout North America. Our results suggest that planting cover crops increases wintertime temperatureup to 3 °C in central North America by decreasing albedo in regions with variable snowpack. Cover crops with higher leaf area indices increase temperature more by decreasing broadband albedo, while decreasing cover crop height helped to mitigate the temperature increase as the shorter height was more frequentlyburied by snow. Thus, climate mitigation potential must consider the biogeophysical impacts of planting cover crops, and varietal selection can minimize winter warming.
• Keywords:
  General Earth And Planetary Sciences Geophysics General Earth And Planetary Sciences General Earth And Planetary Sciences
• Source:
  Geophysical Research Letters, 45(18), 9889-9897
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079000
• ISSN:
  0094-8276 ; 1944-8007
• Format:
  PDF
• Publisher:
  American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:8dd49d25bfd603662ef3afa20fab4fdc0cd2d1b00670bbeded8679185978e4b5
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/53908/noaa_53908_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 7.28 MB ]