Paige Farrell

Paige Farrell
  • Masters Student
  • University of Idaho
  • Geography

Advisor: 

John Abatzoglou

Thesis or Dissertation Citation: 

Farrell, P. 2015. Sensitivity of soil loss to climate change in the inland Pacific Northwest USA. University of Idaho, MS Thesis, pp. 1-46.

Research Focus: 

Climate Change Impacts on Soil Erosion in the Inland Northwest

Research Abstract: 

Thesis (M.S., Geography) -- University of Idaho, 2015 | Climate variability and anthropogenic climate change present challenges in achieving sustainable agriculture. One of the challenges in maintaining a healthy agroecological system is climate driven soil erosion. In the Inland Northwestern United States temperatures are expected to increase by as much 4°C and cool season precipitation is expected to increase 5-10% by the mid-21st century. The sensitivity of soil loss to projected changes in climate was simulated using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model. Ensembles of modeling experiments were performed by altering temperature, precipitation and precipitation extremes for a variety of hill slopes and both conventional and no-till cropping practices. Temperature was found to influence erosion through more indirect processes such as precipitation phase changes and changes in erodibility. In contrast, precipitation impacted soil loss more directly and it was found that while changes in mean precipitation increased erosion, large increases in erosion were also seen when extreme events were isolated. We additionally examined projected changes in soil loss by directly using downscaled climate projections from 20 global climate models. The GCMs found that future soil erosion amounts are projected to increase under all 20 models. These model results suggest increases in soil loss rates under future climate change that will present additional challenges to agricultural sustainability and prompt adaptation practices to conserve soil.

Biography: 

I attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor's of Science in Geology. While perusing my undergraduate degree and immediately after, Paige worked on many research projects. Some include profiling the methane emissions at various oil refineries across the southern United States as well sampling water from the North Sea to determine the impacts of an oil leakage on the water column. After working in Santa Barbara, I went on to work at the University of Washington in the Oceanography lab and then moved to South America before coming to the UI to work with Dr. John Abatzoglou.

Publications and Presentations: 

Farrell, P., Abatzoglou, J., Brooks, E. Impact of Climate Change on Inland Northwest Soil Erosion Under Various Land Management Practices. American Geophysical Union, Dec. 15-19, 2014, San Francisco, CA.