
Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation
Summary
Increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide, rising temperatures, and altered precipitation patterns will affect agricultural productivity. Livestock production systems are vulnerable to temperature stresses. Projections for crops and livestock production systems reveal that climate change effects over the next 25 years will be mixed. Climate change will exacerbate current biotic stresses on agricultural plants and animals. Agriculture is dependent on a wide range of ecosystem processes that support productivity including maintenance of soil quality and regulation of water quality and quantity. The predicted higher incidence of extreme weather events will have an increasing influence on agricultural productivity. Over the last 150 years, U.S. agriculture has exhibited a remarkable capacity to adapt to a wide diversity of growing conditions amid dynamic social and economic changes.