As the climate changes and global demand for food increases, improving sustainable agricultural practices will be key to preserving the planet. Colorado State University climate scientist Andrew Jones will join a discussion at this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science[1] meeting to highlight current practices and emerging innovations in how we interact with plants, microorganisms, soils and climate – the phytobiome.

Jones, a senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at CSU, will join two other panelists – Gary Felton of Pennsylvania State University and Linda Kinkel of University of Minnesota – for a session titled “Phytobiomes: Systems-level approaches to improve agricultural productivity.” The session will take place Feb. 18 during the AAAS annual meeting in Boston.

Data meets models

An expert in data assimilation, modeling and remote sensing, Jones is assistant director of the Innovation Center for Sustainable Agriculture[2] at CSU. During the panel, Jones will describe a “data meets models” vision for integrating environmental and geophysical climate and weather data into crop and economic models. He’ll include commentary on the communication, scale, complexity and other activities necessary to incorporate climate and weather scientists into all aspects of phytobiomes research.

AAAS[3] is the world’s largest scientific society. The annual meeting draws thousands of researchers from around the globe to discuss pressing scientific challenges and recent development in science and technology.

The phytobiomes panel is co-organized by Jan Leach[4], a University Distinguished Professor of plant pathology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Kellye Eversole of Eversole Associates.