Exploring climate change and agriculture, a placement at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew

Anna Lee-Jones

For the past three months I have undertaken an exciting PhD placement at Kew Gardens, exploring a new area of research. Pivoting from my usual research on ozone damage to forests, I have been working in James Borrell’s lab group which focuses on agricultural diversity and resilience. Research council funded PhD students are encouraged to undertake an internship during their studies either in industry, policy or a government research organisation like Kew. My placement allowed me to explore how research happens outside a university, including how interdisciplinary and international teams can collaborate to answer challenging questions. Kew is home to the world’s largest herbarium and has the most biodiverse postcode in the UK, thanks to their incredible living collections.

In my time at Kew, I was able to create a global analysis of the spatial pace of climate change at 1km resolution. We are using this extraordinary dataset to answer questions about how different types of agriculture will be affected by climate change. For example, is steep slope agriculture threatened more by climate change than flat agriculture? Are small holder or industrial scale farms going to need to adapt faster to changing climate? Will the pace of climate change affect some countries or crops disproportionately?  Answering these questions will have important impacts for agricultural strategy and the challenge of feeding the world in a rapidly changing climate.