Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night
Abstract Farmworkers, the frontline workers of our food system, are often exposed to heat stress that is likely to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change. Irrigation can either alleviate or exacerbate heat stress, quantification of which is crucial in intensely irrigated agricultur...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Communications Earth & Environment |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01959-7 |
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| author | Sagar P. Parajuli Trent Biggs Fernando de Sales Miguel Angel Zavala Perez Cenlin He Charles Jones Callum Thompson Nicolas Lopez Galvez Haley Ciborowski Tiago Quintino Claudia Di Napoli Aliasghar Montazar Tayebeh Hosseini Yazdi Monica Soucier |
| author_facet | Sagar P. Parajuli Trent Biggs Fernando de Sales Miguel Angel Zavala Perez Cenlin He Charles Jones Callum Thompson Nicolas Lopez Galvez Haley Ciborowski Tiago Quintino Claudia Di Napoli Aliasghar Montazar Tayebeh Hosseini Yazdi Monica Soucier |
| author_sort | Sagar P. Parajuli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Farmworkers, the frontline workers of our food system, are often exposed to heat stress that is likely to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change. Irrigation can either alleviate or exacerbate heat stress, quantification of which is crucial in intensely irrigated agricultural lands such as the Imperial Valley in southern California. We investigate the impact of irrigation on wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), a key indicator of heat exposure in humans, using a validated high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model, during day and night and in different seasons. We find that irrigation reduces WBGT by 0.3–1.3 °C during the daytime in summer due to strong evaporative cooling. However, during the summer nights, irrigation increases WBGT by 0.4–1.3 °C, when a large increase in humidity sufficiently raises the wet-bulb temperature. Urban and fallow areas adjacent to cropped fields also experience increased heat stress due to moisture advection from irrigated areas. Our results can inform heat-related policies in agricultural regions of California and elsewhere. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7a1eba97bd1b460fbde2e96e5ce413bf |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2662-4435 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Earth & Environment |
| spelling | doaj-art-7a1eba97bd1b460fbde2e96e5ce413bf2025-01-19T12:39:59ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Earth & Environment2662-44352024-12-015111610.1038/s43247-024-01959-7Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and nightSagar P. Parajuli0Trent Biggs1Fernando de Sales2Miguel Angel Zavala Perez3Cenlin He4Charles Jones5Callum Thompson6Nicolas Lopez Galvez7Haley Ciborowski8Tiago Quintino9Claudia Di Napoli10Aliasghar Montazar11Tayebeh Hosseini Yazdi12Monica Soucier13San Diego State UniversitySan Diego State UniversitySan Diego State UniversitySan Diego State University Imperial Valley CampusNSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)University of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraSan Diego State UniversitySan Diego State UniversityEuropean Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)University of California Cooperative Extension Imperial CountyUniversity of California Cooperative Extension Imperial CountyImperial County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) OfficeAbstract Farmworkers, the frontline workers of our food system, are often exposed to heat stress that is likely to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change. Irrigation can either alleviate or exacerbate heat stress, quantification of which is crucial in intensely irrigated agricultural lands such as the Imperial Valley in southern California. We investigate the impact of irrigation on wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), a key indicator of heat exposure in humans, using a validated high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model, during day and night and in different seasons. We find that irrigation reduces WBGT by 0.3–1.3 °C during the daytime in summer due to strong evaporative cooling. However, during the summer nights, irrigation increases WBGT by 0.4–1.3 °C, when a large increase in humidity sufficiently raises the wet-bulb temperature. Urban and fallow areas adjacent to cropped fields also experience increased heat stress due to moisture advection from irrigated areas. Our results can inform heat-related policies in agricultural regions of California and elsewhere.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01959-7 |
| spellingShingle | Sagar P. Parajuli Trent Biggs Fernando de Sales Miguel Angel Zavala Perez Cenlin He Charles Jones Callum Thompson Nicolas Lopez Galvez Haley Ciborowski Tiago Quintino Claudia Di Napoli Aliasghar Montazar Tayebeh Hosseini Yazdi Monica Soucier Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night Communications Earth & Environment |
| title | Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night |
| title_full | Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night |
| title_fullStr | Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night |
| title_short | Impact of irrigation on farmworkers’ heat stress in California differs by season and during the day and night |
| title_sort | impact of irrigation on farmworkers heat stress in california differs by season and during the day and night |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01959-7 |
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