Current:Home > MySweaty corn is making it even more humid-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Sweaty corn is making it even more humid
View Date:2024-12-23 21:15:44
Barb Boustead remembers learning about corn sweat when she moved to Nebraska about 20 years ago to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and found herself plunked down in an ocean of corn. The term for the late-summer spike in humidity from corn plants cooling themselves was “something that locals very much know about,” Boustead, a meteorologist and climatologist, recalled.
But this hallmark of Midwestern summer might be growing stickier thanks to climate change and the steady march of industrial agriculture. Climate change is driving warmer temperatures and warmer nights and allowing the atmosphere to hold more moisture. It’s also changed growing conditions, allowing farmers to plant corn further north and increasing the total amount of corn in the United States.
Farmers are also planting more acres of corn, in part to meet demand for ethanol, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. It all means more plants working harder to stay cool — pumping out humidity that adds to steamy misery like that blanketing much of the U.S. this week.
It’s especially noticeable in the Midwest because so much corn is grown there and it all reaches the stage of evapotranspiration at around the same time, so “you get that real surge there that’s noticeable,” Boustead said.
Dennis Todey directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub, which works to help producers adapt to climate change. He said corn does most of its evapotranspiration — the process of drawing water up from the soil, using it for its needs and then releasing it into the air in the form of vapor — in July, rather than August.
He said soybeans tend to produce more vapor than corn in August.
Todey said more study is necessary to understand how climate change will shape corn sweat, saying rainfall, crop variety and growing methods can all play a part.
But for Lew Ziska, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University who has studied the effects of climate change on crops, warmer conditions mean more transpiration. Asked whether more corn sweat is an effect of climate change, he said simply, “Yes.”
He also noted increasing demand for corn to go into ethanol. Over 40% of corn grown in the U.S. is turned into biofuels that are eventually guzzled by cars and sometimes even planes. The global production of ethanol has been steadily increasing with the exception of a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Renewable Fuels Association.
The consumption of ethanol also contributes to planet-warming emissions.
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it’s been getting hotter. And as a result of it getting hotter, plants are losing more water,” Ziska said.
___
Follow Melina Walling on X at @MelinaWalling.
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
veryGood! (34)
Related
- Michael Grimm, former House member convicted of tax fraud, is paralyzed in fall from horse
- Bridge Fire destroys 54 structures, injures 3 firefighters: See wildfire map
- 2 charged in case of illegal exports for Russian nuclear energy
- Lawsuit says Alabama voter purge targets naturalized citizens
- Padma Lakshmi, John Boyega, Hunter Schafer star in Pirelli's 2025 calendar: See the photos
- A pipeline has exploded and is on fire in a Houston suburb, forcing evacuations
- Oregon Republicans ask governor to protect voter rolls after DMV registered noncitizens
- Hawaii prisons are getting new scanners that can detect drugs without opening mail
- Caitlin Clark's gold Nike golf shoes turn heads at The Annika LPGA pro-am
- Amy Grant says she was depressed, lost 'superpower' after traumatic bike accident
Ranking
- The state that cleared the way for sports gambling now may ban ‘prop’ bets on college athletes
- Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause Undergoes Surgery After “Vintage” Breast Implants Rupture
- 'We don't want the hits': Jayden Daniels' daredevil style still a concern after QB's first win
- Kate Spade's Top 100 Under $100: $259 Bag for Just $49 Today Only, Plus Extra 20% Off Select Styles
- Police cruiser strikes and kills a bicyclist pulling a trailer in Vermont
- Powerball winning numbers for September 14: Jackpot climbs to $152 million
- Judge rules Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name will stay on Wisconsin ballot
- Tito Jackson of The Jackson 5 Dead at 70
Recommendation
-
Taylor Swift Becomes Auntie Tay In Sweet Photo With Fellow Chiefs WAG Chariah Gordon's Daughter
-
Dick Van Dyke, 98, Misses 2024 Emmys After Being Announced as a Presenter
-
Everything to Know About the 2024 Emmys' Biggest Winner Shogun
-
Charlie Puth and Brooke Sansone Spark Marriage Speculation by Showing Off Rings in Italy
-
What that 'Disclaimer' twist says about the misogyny in all of us
-
NFL schedule today: What to know about Falcons at Eagles on Monday Night Football
-
2024 Emmys: Pommel Horse Star Stephen Nedoroscik Keeps Viral Olympics Tradition Alive Before Presenting
-
All 4 dead aboard plane after weekend crash near runway in rural Alaska