How is Climate Change in Minnesota Affecting the Sustainability of Corn Production?

The University of Minnesota Mesocosm Facility was developed to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate change on crop production in Minnesota and to improve our management practices to help reduce negative environmental impacts. Our experiments have provided important knowledge to corn growers with respect to climate change adaptation. Understanding how current cultivars respond to changing climate helps with developing an integrated climate change adaptation plan and can guide future research efforts. This research project has provided insights regarding the optimization of corn production while limiting the negative environmental consequences such as nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide, and ammonia emissions. The products and deliverables from this project included: 1. A research facility dedicated to understanding the impacts of climate and management on productivity and the environment; 2. Insights regarding how corn growth, yield, and N use efficiency are likely to change, and how these changes affect environmental consequences; 3. Infrastructure and framework for permitting the identification of research needs for adapting to warmer/wetter/higher CO2 corn growing conditions. A main conclusion from our research is that increasing precipitation during spring is having a negative impact on reactive nitrogen losses from agricultural systems. We have shown, based on 4 different simulations, that current trends in precipitation are significantly enhancing nitrous oxide emissions and leaching of nitrogen. Thus, nitrogen use efficiency is likely to decrease in a wetter and warmer world.