The Climate Team carries out research to enable predictions and modeling of climate-scale trends in precipitation and temperature as they impact plant productivity. The relationship with the
Plant Team cuts across all of the activities of the Climate Team. The critical question that is being addressed is,
how do seasonal-scale changes in temperature and precipitation affect the productivity of crops and the natural flora? The Climate Team is considering changes that have occurred across temporal scales, from days to decades, and utilizing newly available high-resolution datasets as the basis for integrated and interdisciplinary climate and hydrology research.
Research Aims
- Aim 1: Provide quantitative understanding of precipitation over a multi-use complex terrain.
- Aim 2: Improve seasonal-range climate outlooks.
- Aim 3: Evaluate climate change projections on wetland plant growth.
- Aim 4: Estimate future hydroclimates in Missouri with climate models.
Climate Team Lead
Dr. Patrick Market
Dr. Patrick Market is the Department Chair and Professor of Atmospheric Science in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri. He participates in climate and long-range forecasting research on the Missouri Transect. As the Climate Team lead, he negotiated the purchase and installation of a Doppler weather radar that has improved mid-Missouri microclimate datasets and enhanced predictions of climate variability and extreme events.
Climate Team Members
Jimmy Adegoke
Dr. Jimmy Adegoke is a Professor in Geosciences at UMKC. Dr. Adegoke generates climate model outputs for various experiments and simulations and supervises a PhD student in research as part of this project.
Timothy Eichler
Dr. Tim Eichler is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at SLU. He investigates the role of cyclone tracks on Missouri agriculture by analyzing historical data and generating storm tracks.
Neil Fox
Dr. Neil Fox is responsible for the operation and exploitation of the Doppler weather radar and its data. He also leads the Hinkson Creek Watershed study to investigate alterations to water resources, water quality, natural resources, and society.
Keith Goyne
Dr. Keith Goyne investigates the influence of climate change on wetland playa soil chemistry, and plant germination and productivity under different climate scenarios.
Patrick Guinan
Dr. Pat Guinan installed and maintains three environmental weather stations on academic K-12 property in Moscow Mills Ninth Grade Center, Putnam County R-I School District, and Butler R-V School District. These weather stations, part of the Missouri Mesonet, have above- and below-ground sensors and provide opportunities to share science technology with educational institutions, students, teachers, and administrators.
Anthony Lupo
Dr. Tony Lupo constructs long-range forecasts by making seasonal forecasts and then evaluating them against climatology, or the 30-year mean of temperature or precipitation for a particular period (a day or a month). Dr. Lupo will make long-range forecasts of temperature and precipitation for the winter (December – February) and summer seasons (June – August), periods of most interest to local and regional agricultural communities.
Fengpeng Sun
As an established climate scientist, Dr. Fengpeng Sun brings to the Climate Team added expertise in the design of high-resolution regional climate modeling. He is a new faculty hire at UMKC with startup funds contributed by the Missouri Transect.
John Travlos
John Travlos is an IT expert collaborating with Pat Guinan to expedite the online deployment and mining of archived and real-time data from the Missouri Climate Center.
Lisa Webb
Dr. Lisa Webb is a USGS scientist and Assistant Unit Leader for the USGS Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit. She will collaborate closely with Keith Goyne on the completion of his wetland research.
Staff, Postdocs, and Students
Abigail Aderonmu
Abigail Aderonmu is an PhD candidate in Geoscience and Social Science at UMKC in the Adegoke lab. She graduated with her MS degree from UMKC in May 2015. Her research focus is on climate change, agriculture, vulnerability and adaptation and risk management.
Claire Baffaut
Dr. Claire Baffaut is a Research Hydrologist at USDA-ARS and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences at MU. She is collaborating with Dr. Bo Svoma.
David Haukos
Dr. David Haukos is the USGS Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Leader and Associate Professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University. He is an expert in playas, especially in the southern and northern playa region. Dr. Haukos is working with Rachel Owen to identify literature and establish research questions. He has collected initial soil samples and will travel with her to Texas to collect more samples.
Ali Koleiny
Ali Koleiny is a PhD candidate at UMKC working with Dr. Jimmy Adegoke. He develops, applies, and tests statistical, dynamical model, and mixed models to improve the accuracy of sub-seasonal predictions of precipitation in the MRV, at spatial resolutions commensurate with the interactions.
Chenhui Li
Dr. Chenhui Li is a Postdoctoral Fellow collecting data on soil microbial ecosystems in native prairies at Tucker Prairie. Dr. Li works with Dr. Fritschi on the Plant Team, Dr. Veum with USDA-ARS, and Dr. Goyne on the Climate Team.
Carrie Merritt
Carrie Merritt an undergraduate student at UMKC and works with Dr. Fengpeng Sun.
Jane Niemeyer
Rachel Owen
Rachel K. Owen is a PhD candidate in Natural Resources at MU. Her advisor is Dr. Keith Goyne. She studies playa wetlands using GIS and modeling software to develop spatially explicit landscape maps of nitrogen-cycling capability in playas under different predicted precipitation and land use scenarios.
Quinn Pallardy
Quinn Pallardy is a PhD candidate at MU working with Dr. Bo Svoma. He makes future climate predictions to regional climate models.
Kyle Reed
Kyle Reed is an Environmental & Urban Geosciences Master's student at UMKC in the Geosciences Department and works with Dr. Fengpeng Sun.
Kristen Veum
Dr. Kristen Veum is a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Columbia, MO. With a background in geological sciences, water quality, and soil biogeochemistry, her research is cross-disciplinary and focuses on soil health assessment for sustainability and environmental protection. In particular, she is interested in soil microbial community structure and function in a wide range of ecosystems, including native prairies, managed forests, and agroecosystems. Dr. Veum also evaluates in-field sensor technology for rapid, high-resolution estimation of soil properties. On a national level, she is working with the new Soil Health Institute on measurements and standards for a nation-wide soil health assessment. As part of the EPSCoR Climate Team, she will be collaborating with Drs. Keith Goyne and Felix Fritschi to quantify the effects of drought on native prairie plant production and diversity, soil microbial metagenomics, and microbial function at Tucker Prairie. In addition, Dr. Veum will apply sensor fusion technology to assess spatial variability within the soil system and estimate soil biological, chemical, and physical characteristics.
Gary Wen
Gary Wen is a Postdoctoral Fellow working on Doppler Radar data collection and research with Dr. Neil Fox.
Lili Zhu
Lili Zhu is a graduate student at UMKC and works with Dr. Fengpeng Sun.
