The relationships among farmers’ belief in climate change, perceptions of climate-related risk, and use of climate adaptation practices is a growing topic of interest in U.S. scholarship. The northeast region is not well represented in the literature, although it is highly agricultural and will likely face climate-related risks that differ from those faced in other regions. We used a mixed methods approach to examine northeast farmers’ perceptions of climate change and climate-related risks over time, and perceived trade-offs associated with on-farm practices. Our investigation shows how northeastern farmers think about climate-risk, and what they are doing to address it.

Climate change adaptation requires that we anticipate future conditions that may deviate from our historical experiences. Our ability to do so is associated with the perceived proximity of decision-outcomes. Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with farmers in the northeastern United States, we conclude that temporal distance (now versus later) and social distance (self versus other) of climate impacts interact to play important roles in climate risk perception. Using Psychological Distance and Construal Level Theory, we identified two distinct temporal perspectives, historically oriented and future oriented. Our analysis suggests that climate-informed farmers use different temporal perspectives depending on whether they are asked to imagine the climate risks through a personal lens versus a lens reserved for the other.

Little research has been conducted on how agricultural producers in the northeastern United States conceptualize climate-related risk and how these farmers address risk through on-farm management strategies. Two years following Tropical Storm Irene, our team interviewed 15 farmers in order to investigate their perceptions of climate-related risk and how their decision-making was influenced by these perceptions. Our results show that Vermont farmers are concerned with both ecological and economic risk. Subthemes that emerged included geographic, topographic, and hydrological characteristics of farm sites; stability of land tenure; hydrological erosion; pest and disease pressure; market access; household financial stability; and floods. Farmers in our study believed that these risks are not new but that they are significantly intensified by climate change. Farmer responses were heavily focused on adaptation activities, with discussion of climate change mitigation activities notably absent. Psychological distance construal theory and hyperbolic discounting emerged as well-suited frames to explain why farmers reported adaptation activities but not mitigation strategies. Farmers will probably experience an increasing severity of climate-related impacts in the northeast region; therefore, information about climate-related risks coming from farmers’ personal experience should be integrated with forecasting data to help farmers plan effective adaptation strategies.

Widespread contamination of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) in agricultural areas is largely attributed to the application of sewage sludge in which the PFAS can be concentrated. This creates a pathway for these contaminants to enter the food chain and, by extension, causes human health and economic concerns. One barrier to managing land with PFAS contamination is the variation in reported plant uptake levels across studies. A review of the literature suggests that the variation in plant uptake is influenced by a host of factors including the composition of PFAS chemicals, soil conditions, and plant physiology. Factors include (1) the chemical components of the PFAS such as the end group and chain length; (2) drivers of soil sorption such as the presence of soil organic matter (SOM), multivalent cation concentration, pH, soil type, and micropore volume; and (3) crop physiological features such as fine root area, percentage of mature roots, and leaf blade area. The wide range of driving factors highlights a need for research to elucidate these mechanisms through additional experiments as well as collect more data to support refined models capable of predicting PFAS uptake in a range of cropping systems. A conceptual framework presented here links drivers of plant PFAS uptake found in the literature to phytomanagement approaches such as modified agriculture or phytoremediation to provide decision support to land managers.

Despite the mounting imperative for managers to help forests adapt to the rapidly shifting climate and related stressors, significant gaps remain between recommendations for adaptive forest management and its actual implementation across the globe. The research presented here offers a novel qualitative analysis regarding the current nature, extent, and drivers of adaptive management in the northeastern United States. Based on 32 in-depth semi-structured interviews with rural (n = 17) and urban foresters (n = 15) across New England and New York, we share a summary of (1) important environmental drivers of adaptation across the region, (2) commonly employed adaptive strategies, (3) significant barriers to adaptation, and (4) approaches to working through named barriers. We categorize adaptive practices of foresters as options of resistance, resilience, or transition, highlighting opportunities to increase the use of all three options across the landscape. Study Implications: Rural and urban foresters across the northeastern United States are responding to climate change with resistance and resilience-oriented adaptation practices. To achieve a greater mix of adaptation practices and outcomes on the ground, more focus can be given to mitigating risks associated with transition-oriented practices like assisted migration. Efforts can include outreach that compares the risks of not using transition practices (i.e., wait-and-see approach) with the financial risks of a preemptive approach and guidance for unfamiliar practices like planting future-adapted tree species. Financial assistance and public outreach may also increase the use of all three adaptation options across the region.