{"id":2263,"date":"2024-08-19T13:45:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T17:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/?p=2263"},"modified":"2024-08-19T13:45:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T17:45:25","slug":"exploring-garden-coordinators-perceptions-of-climate-smart-adaptations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/2024\/08\/exploring-garden-coordinators-perceptions-of-climate-smart-adaptations\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Garden Coordinators&#8217; Perceptions of Climate-Smart Adaptations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Climate change is reshaping our world, bringing about extreme weather events, intensified droughts and floods, and altered growing seasons. These changes significantly impact horticulture, agriculture, and food systems. States like Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are experiencing climate-related challenges, including rising sea levels and extreme heat. Amid these challenges, community gardens emerge as vital sources of local, fresh foods, especially in areas grappling with food insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/people\/olivia-erskine\/\" data-type=\"caes-people\" data-id=\"959\">Olivia Erskine<\/a>, a recent graduate from the Lamm Lab, conducted a pivotal study focusing on the role of community gardens in climate change adaptation. Her thesis, \u201cExploring Adoption and Perceptions of Climate-Smart Practices in Community Gardens,\u201d aimed to understand garden coordinators\u2019 perceptions of the need for climate change adaptation and their stance in the innovation\u2013decision process regarding these practices. The first article from her thesis was just published in Horticulturae and can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2311-7524\/10\/6\/601\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2311-7524\/10\/6\/601\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"585\" data-id=\"2264\" src=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/037.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/037.jpg 780w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/037-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/037-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"2266\" src=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/Green-Meadows-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/Green-Meadows-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/Green-Meadows-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/Green-Meadows-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/Green-Meadows-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/Green-Meadows-1.jpg 1632w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" data-id=\"2265\" src=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/georgia-street-community-collective-01-620.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/georgia-street-community-collective-01-620.jpg 620w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/files\/2024\/08\/georgia-street-community-collective-01-620-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Findings and Implications<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Olivia\u2019s research revealed community garden coordinators highly value the relative advantage and low complexity of climate-smart practices. This means that practices perceived as beneficial and easy to implement are more likely to be adopted. Interestingly, her study found that all participating community gardens were already implementing some form of climate-smart adaptations, even if these were not initially intended for climate-related reasons. However, the study also found a significant barrier to adoption: the lack of extra funds, underscoring the need for targeted support and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By understanding the perceptions and challenges faced by community garden coordinators, educators and policymakers can develop more effective strategies to encourage the adoption of climate-smart practices. This includes providing financial support, simplifying the implementation process, and enhancing educational outreach to bridge knowledge gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> As we continue to face the impacts of climate change, studies like Olivia\u2019s are crucial in guiding our efforts towards a more sustainable future. Congratulations to Olivia on her impactful research and for contributing significantly to the field of agricultural and environmental science communication!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Climate change is reshaping our world, bringing about extreme weather events, intensified droughts and floods, and altered growing seasons. These changes significantly impact horticulture, agriculture, and food systems. States like Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are experiencing climate-related challenges, including rising sea levels and extreme heat. Amid these challenges, community gardens emerge as vital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":753,"featured_media":2266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,18,23,59,60],"tags":[10,45,36],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agproduction","category-climate","category-environment","category-plant-production","category-scicomm","tag-lamm","tag-erskine","tag-lamm-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2267,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions\/2267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}