Climate in a box

“In our family’s visits to the farm and conversations with my grandpa, I learned that timely rains were always on his mind during the spring and summer,” says Suchan. “It became very apparent to me that moisture was a critical component to the success of the farm.”

As part of his PhD program, Suchan has developed a way to study the effects of evaporation by bringing weather into the lab. His Bench-Scale Atmospheric Simulator (BAS for short) is essentially climate in a box. It not only simulates the four factors that drive evaporation – wind, temperature, humidity, and sunshine ­– but can also manipulate each factor individually while holding the others constant.

“In discussions with my grandpa, I’ve come to understand that the farming business is a very competitive one with very tight profit margins. If a farmer can save five to ten per cent on an expense in their operations, the profit goes straight to their bottom line in being a sustainable and productive farming operation.”

Suchan admits that while there can be occasional excesses of moisture, the long-standing challenge for Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers has generally been managing and optimizing available moisture under dry conditions. This is particularly important in the southwest part of the province and in areas where there is irrigation and the potential for irrigation.

The ability to run various climate simulations in the unit could also help farmers determine what crops to plant under which conditions.

“This may not be the silver bullet in terms of answering all their questions, but it could be one of the little pieces that helps inform things,” says Suchan.

“Crop production practices generally take water availability into account when making crop choices and harvesting practices,” says Suchan. “Evaporation from soils and local waterbodies is a critical factor to water availability on farmland. Improving our knowledge on the atmospheric effects like wind speed, humidity, air temperature, solar energy, and surface effects like surface temperature, and water and soil salinity on evaporation can provide agricultural producers with more information to make production practice decisions.”

While he admits he’s not an expert in climate change, Suchan speculates that the biggest concern for agricultural producers in the future will be in regards to water availability.

“Competing demands already exist for water between municipalities, agricultural producers, and industrial users on the Prairies,” says Suchan. “In the future, we anticipate increased air temperature and extreme weather events occurrences to potentially disrupt our water sources.”