A climate change double whammy in the US Corn Belt
The United States Corn Belt includes western Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and eastern Kansas. The region has dominated corn production in the U.S. since the 1850s, accounting for more than a third of the global supply of corn. It is also the world's largest source of soybeans. New research led by atmospheric scientist Mingfang Ting from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reveals that climate change has triggered two changes that threaten the region's crop production; warming temperatures are both increasing the evaporation of soil moisture and causing summer storms to carry more moisture away from the Midwest. Ting's study, which she presented last week at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union, forecasts a progressive worsening of this one-two punch over the next decade.