Michelle Tigchelaar

All Publications

• Harnessing the diversity of small-scale actors is key to the future of aquatic food systems NATURE FOOD Short, R. E., Gelcich, S., Little, D. C., Micheli, F., Allison, E. H., Basurto, X., Belton, B., Brugere, C., Bush, S. R., Cao, L., Crona, B., Cohen, P. J., Defeo, O., Edwards, P., Ferguson, C. E., Franz, N., Golden, C. D., Halpern, B. S., Hazen, L., Hicks, C., Johnson, D., Kaminski, A. M., Mangubhai, S., Naylor, R. L., Reantaso, M., Sumaila, U., Thilsted, S. H., Tigchelaar, M., Wabnitz, C. C., Zhang, W. 2021

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s43016-021-00363-0

  View details for Web of Science ID 000696165000003

• Blue food demand across geographic and temporal scales. Nature communications Naylor, R. L., Kishore, A., Sumaila, U. R., Issifu, I., Hunter, B. P., Belton, B., Bush, S. R., Cao, L., Gelcich, S., Gephart, J. A., Golden, C. D., Jonell, M., Koehn, J. Z., Little, D. C., Thilsted, S. H., Tigchelaar, M., Crona, B. 2021; 12 (1): 5413

  Abstract

  Numerous studies have focused on the need to expand production of 'blue foods', defined as aquatic foods captured or cultivated in marine and freshwater systems, to meet rising population- and income-driven demand. Here we analyze the roles of economic, demographic, and geographic factors and preferences in shaping blue food demand, using secondary data from FAO and The World Bank, parameters from published models, and case studies at national to sub-national scales. Our results show a weak cross-sectional relationship between per capita income and consumption globally when using an aggregate fish metric. Disaggregation by fish species group reveals distinct geographic patterns; for example, high consumption of freshwater fish in China and pelagic fish in Ghana and Peru where these fish are widely available, affordable, and traditionally eaten. We project a near doubling of global fish demand by mid-century assuming continued growth in aquaculture production and constant real prices for fish. Our study concludes that nutritional and environmental consequences of rising demand will depend on substitution among fish groups and other animal source foods in national diets.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-25516-4

  View details for PubMedID 34526495

• Compound climate risks threaten aquatic food system benefits NATURE FOOD Tigchelaar, M., Cheung, W. L., Mohammed, E., Phillips, M. J., Payne, H. J., Selig, E. R., Wabnitz, C. C., Oyinlola, M. A., Frolicher, T. L., Gephart, J. A., Golden, C. D., Allison, E. H., Bennett, A., Cao, L., Fanzo, J., Halpern, B. S., Lam, V. Y., Micheli, F., Naylor, R. L., Sumaila, U., Tagliabue, A., Troell, M. 2021

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s43016-021-00368-9

  View details for Web of Science ID 000696165000002

• Work adaptations insufficient to address growing heat risk for US agricultural workers ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS Tigchelaar, M., Battisti, D. S., Spector, J. T. 2020; 15 (9)

  View details for DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ab86f4

  View details for Web of Science ID 000565760500001

• Satellites for supply-side water balancing NATURE FOOD Tigchelaar, M. 2020; 1 (2): 104

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s43016-020-0036-7

  View details for Web of Science ID 000598871700008

• Nonlinear response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to late Quaternary sea level and climate forcing CRYOSPHERE Tigchelaar, M., Timmermann, A., Friedrich, T., Heinemann, M., Pollard, D. 2019; 13 (10): 2615–31

  View details for DOI 10.5194/tc-13-2615-2019

  View details for Web of Science ID 000489691400001

• Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate SCIENCE Deutsch, C. A., Tewksbury, J. J., Tigchelaar, M., Battisti, D. S., Merrill, S. C., Huey, R. B., Naylor, R. L. 2018; 361 (6405): 916–19

  Abstract

  Insect pests substantially reduce yields of three staple grains-rice, maize, and wheat-but models assessing the agricultural impacts of global warming rarely consider crop losses to insects. We use established relationships between temperature and the population growth and metabolic rates of insects to estimate how and where climate warming will augment losses of rice, maize, and wheat to insects. Global yield losses of these grains are projected to increase by 10 to 25% per degree of global mean surface warming. Crop losses will be most acute in areas where warming increases both population growth and metabolic rates of insects. These conditions are centered primarily in temperate regions, where most grain is produced.

  View details for PubMedID 30166490

• Future warming increases probability of globally synchronized maize production shocks PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Tigchelaar, M., Battisti, D. S., Naylor, R. L., Ray, D. K. 2018; 115 (26): 6644–49

  Abstract

  Meeting the global food demand of roughly 10 billion people by the middle of the 21st century will become increasingly challenging as the Earth's climate continues to warm. Earlier studies suggest that once the optimum growing temperature is exceeded, mean crop yields decline and the variability of yield increases even if interannual climate variability remains unchanged. Here, we use global datasets of maize production and climate variability combined with future temperature projections to quantify how yield variability will change in the world's major maize-producing and -exporting countries under 2 °C and 4 °C of global warming. We find that as the global mean temperature increases, absent changes in temperature variability or breeding gains in heat tolerance, the coefficient of variation (CV) of maize yields increases almost everywhere to values much larger than present-day values. This higher CV is due both to an increase in the SD of yields and a decrease in mean yields. For the top four maize-exporting countries, which account for 87% of global maize exports, the probability that they have simultaneous production losses greater than 10% in any given year is presently virtually zero, but it increases to 7% under 2 °C warming and 86% under 4 °C warming. Our results portend rising instability in global grain trade and international grain prices, affecting especially the ∼800 million people living in extreme poverty who are most vulnerable to food price spikes. They also underscore the urgency of investments in breeding for heat tolerance.

  View details for PubMedID 29891651