Thematic background

Researching the impacts of climate change on organic systems and the potential for organic agriculture to mitigate and adapt to climate change will include conducting global assessments and developing appropriate methodological tools to assess carbon sequestration levels in organic production. The impacts of increasing global surface temperature and the amount and distribution of precipitation are expected to disproportionately impact people in developing countries. There is ample evidence that organic systems are more resilient to abiotic stresses associated with these changes and contribute less to overall greenhouse gas emissions than systems that rely heavily on purchased synthetic inputs.

As the climate changes, diversified organic farms will be more likely than conventional farms to go through natural stages of succession and adaptation and avoid agro-ecosystem collapse. In addition, organic soil management is particularly attractive as a climate change mitigation strategy as it focuses on increasing soil organic matter, which in turn increases the carbon sequestered in the soil. This Centre will conduct important research on this sequestration potential as well as other key topics impacting climate change such as the timing and management of manure and use of nitrogen fixing crops.

The Key Topics are: Agro-Energy & Energy Flows.