Even short-duration heat waves could lead to failure of coffee crops.
A study by OSU’s College of Forestry showed that when Coffea arabica plants were subjected to short-duration heat waves, they became unable to produce flowers and fruit.
C. arabica is the globe’s dominant coffee-plant species, accounting for 65 percent of the commercial production of the nearly 20 billion pounds of coffee consumed globally each year.
Continually producing new flushes of leaves year-round, C. arabica grows on 80 countries in four continents in the tropics.
The OSU research investigated how leaf age and heat duration affected C. arabica’s recovery from heat stress during greenhouse testing.
"This emphasizes how sensitive Coffea arabica is to temperature," said lead author Danielle Marias, a plant physiologist with OSU’s Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society.
"Heat is very stressful to the plants and is often associated with drought.
However, in regions where coffee is grown, it may not just be hotter and drier, it could be hotter and wetter, so in this research we wanted to isolate the effects of heat."
In the OSU study, C. arabica plants were exposed to heat that produced leaf temperatures of a little over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, for either 45 or 90 minutes.
"In both treatments, photosynthesis of expanding leaves recovered more slowly than in mature leaves, and stomatal conductance of expanding leaves was reduced in both heat treatments," Marias said.

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Doug Whaley fired as Bills general manager.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills fired general manager Doug Whaley, the team announced Sunday.
The Bills were 30-34 in Whaley’s four seasons as general manager.
"After a thorough review of our football operations over the past several months, Kim [Pegula] and I informed Doug this morning that we will be moving in a new direction," Bills co-owner Terry Pegula said in a statement.
"We have enjoyed working with Doug.
It was not an easy decision but I believe it’s the right one for the future of the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills also dismissed their entire scouting staff a day after the draft, with Terry Pegula announcing the decision during a news conference Sunday.
When the Bills hired Sean McDermott as coach in January, Whaley retained control of the 53-man roster and continued to report directly to the Pegulas.
McDermott spoke at the Bills’ pre-draft news conference, as well as after each of the team’s draft selections were made last week — interviews that had been conducted by Whaley in prior seasons.
In his first draft as general manager in 2014, Whaley traded the Bills’ 2015 first-round pick to move up and select wide receiver Sammy Watkins fourth overall.

“Precipitation looks to be above normal for the next two weeks,” he said.
By the middle of October, almost 70 percent of Maine was experiencing some drought conditions, including large parts of northern and eastern Maine that previously were not affected.
First Maine drought in 14 years Maine hadn’t experienced a drought in 14 years.
Stasulis said 17,000 people reported dry wells during the drought in the early 2000s.
Town Manager Steve Eldridge said the manganese levels in the water have dropped.
Chase’s Pond, York’s water source, is now back to normal levels.
A call to the Maine Farm Service Agency was not returned Thursday, and it is unclear how many farmers applied for aid.
They were not able to grow enough forage to feed their cattle this winter, so they had to buy extra feed.
“I hadn’t seen it green since July of last year,” she said.
The April rain has saturated the soil for now, but Sinisi is worried a dry spell could send the state back to drought.

DAILY DIGEST, weekend edition: City of Antioch files claim against DWR; Another giant California dam has downstream residents worried; Delta Council gets an earful; Sites JPA approves deal with Metropolitan; and more ….
In California water news this weekend, City of Antioch files claim against Department of Water Resources; Another giant California dam has downstream residents worried; Delta Council gets an earful; Sites JPA approves deal with Metropolitan; Lessons from Abu Dhabi on using renewables to power desalination; Trump appoints Valley water lobbyist to top Interior Department post; and more … In the news this weekend … City of Antioch files claim against Department of Water Resources: “The City has filed a claim with the State of California seeking relief for the Department of Water Resources’ (“DWR”) failure to perform specific key terms of an agreement between the State and Antioch dating from 1968 commonly referred to as the “1968 Agreement”.
Should state officials sidestep the issue as conditions worsen by the year?
… ” Read more from the Riverside Press-Enterprise here: Fix California’s dilapidated water system In regional news and commentary this weekend … DWR answers public’s questions, listens to concerns: ““I’m sorry.
Croyle, the acting director of the Department of Water Resources, answered questions and listened Thursday evening as people stepped up to a microphone and were heard during the first of the water agency’s community meetings about the Oroville Dam spillway disaster and evacuations.
Area firefighters are taking part in an intensive training down the Mokelumne River.
… ” Read more from the Stockton Record here: San Joaquin County pesticide use highest since 1990s Kern County: Where does all the water go?
… ” Read more from the Ridgecrest Independent here: Indian Valley Wells Groundwater Authority Southern California: Why a regional water district is raising its rate for pumping water: “A regional water district in charge of keeping the underground aquifer full is the latest water agency to cite the drought for raising its rates.
“Unfortunately, as in every water agency, as sales go down, revenue goes down and costs go up.” … ” Read more from the Whittier Daily News here: Southern California: Why a regional water district is raising its rate for pumping water Why more water could be in San Jacinto Valley’s future: “Eastern Municipal Water District is about to embark on a first-of-its-kind plan in Riverside County to increase the amount — and improve the quality — of groundwater in the San Jacinto Valley.
Maven’s Notebook where California water news never goes home for the weekend

Fires, drought sap high plains.
A swath of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas has been in a drought or near-drought condition for six months, putting some of the winter wheat crop in doubt.
"The first word you think of is devastating, financially," said David Clawson, a farmer and rancher in southwestern Kansas who lost 40 head of cattle to the fires.
April rains on parts of the high plains have eased the drought and helped the grassland recover, but it could be weeks or longer before cattle can be turned out to graze, leaving some ranchers a choice of buying costlier feed or culling their herds.
"Some of the ground will not be grazed this year at all to let it recover," said Oklahoma Agriculture Commissioner Jim Reese.
Drought could worsen in the Texas Panhandle, the outlook said.
Crops and grassland across the high plains thrived last year after a far worse drought from about 2010 to 2015.
He lost nearly 50 cattle, three houses and more than 150 miles of fence.
Barby, Clawson and other farmers and ranchers said they were overwhelmed by a flood of donations from farmers, ranchers and others who offered feed, fencing materials and cash.
"They’re just showing up, not asking for anything," Clawson said.

A team of international researchers led by University of Freiburg hydrologist Dr. Andreas Hartmann suggests that inclusion of currently missing key hydrological processes in large-scale climate change impact models can significantly improve our estimates of water availability.
The study shows that groundwater recharge estimates for 560 million people in karst regions in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa, are much higher than previously estimated from current large-scale models.
The team has published their research findings in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Groundwater is a vital resource in many regions around the globe.
The researchers have compared two hydrological models that simulate groundwater recharge.
One is a long-established global model with limited accounting for subsurface heterogeneity.
The other is a continental model the researchers have developed themselves that includes, for example, variability in the thickness of soils and different subsurface permeabilities.
A comparison of the models’ calculations with independent observations of groundwater recharge at 38 sites in the regions has shown that the model that accounts for heterogeneity produces more realistic estimates.
The researchers explain the reason for the difference between the two models as follows: In simulation, their newly developed model shows reduced fractions of surface According to the new model, a farmer in the Mediterranean region would potentially have up to a million liters more groundwater for extraction available in a year than the established model estimates, dependent on actual subsurface composition and the water demands of the local ecosystems.
Enhanced groundwater recharge rates and altered recharge sensitivity to climate variability through subsurface heterogeneity.

How Last Year’s Drought Links To This Year’s Flooding.
"We’re just seeing a much more variable climate now and I think we’ll continue to have that.
Measurements at the Watertown International Airport show close to 4 times the amount of rain this April, compared to last year.
Speaking in Depauville, Dr. Walter explained what he’s found out while studying last year’s drought.
He says it was actually worse in Jefferson County than reported.
By collecting information from independent people in the county, he compiled what he says is a closer depiction of how bad it really was.
Now he says the water table is back to normal, if not higher than normal, and we won’t see any lasting effects from the drought.
I think we’re in pretty good shape going into the summer," he said.
Dr. Walter says he’d like to get even more accurate information, but to do that he needs more samples.
So he’s asking anyone who keeps track of water levels on their own to send those to him through email.

Luis Suarez says ending goal drought ‘not a big deal’ after Barcelona win.
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They were Suarez’s first goals in six appearances in all competitions — his longest drought in his Barcelona career — and took his tally to 26 in the league this season.
"I want to make it clear it wasn’t a big deal not having scored [for five games]; that I wasn’t obsessed about not scoring recently.
The important thing is to help the team, it doesn’t matter who scores the goals."
The Blaugrana struggled to break down city rivals Espanyol, relying on a Jose Manuel Jurado mistake when they eventually broke the deadlock in the second half.
"We needed to play at a good rhythm to wear them down and, in the end, we wore them down," the Barca coach said.
"We deserved the win and I am satisfied with what was a really professional performance from my players."
We have two objectives [La Liga and the Copa del Rey] and we want to fight until the end for them both."

By mid-July, the Rices were hauling water from a farm two miles away, 275 gallons at a time.
"It made us understand how vulnerable we are to the weather," she said.
"All of those things combined mean farmers are probably going to face more short-term summer droughts in the future," said Shannan Sweet, who studies climate and horticulture at Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.
"Just about every single farmer across the state will talk about weather, or weather uncertainty and unpredictability and say something is different," she said.
New York’s apple season used to start in mid-May.
"Farmers want to farm," Rice said.
"It’s one of those things I can get up on my apple box about."
It’ll take a decade for him to get back to where he was last year, and yet he’s optimistic.
Farmers, she found, increasingly want to invest in the long-term technologies that’ll prevent the worst effects of unpredictable weather and produce energy at a more sustainable rate.
Those who do invest are "hedging a bet" that can take decades to pay off, said David Wolfe, chair of Cornell’s sustainable climate change center.