Understanding scientists’ communication challenges at the intersection of climate and agriculture

RESEARCH ARTICLE Understanding scientists’ communication challenges at the intersection of climate and agriculture Jackie M. GetsonID*, Sarah P. Church¤a, Brennan G. Radulski¤a, Anders E. Sjo¨ strand¤b, Junyu LuID¤c, Linda S. Prokopy¤d Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America ¤a Current address: Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America ¤b Current address: Department of Geography and Planning, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, United States of America ¤c Current address: School of Community Resource and Development, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America ¤d Current address: Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America * jgetson@purdue.edu Abstract In the United States, a public debate remains about the existence and effects of anthropo- genic climate change. This skepticism is present in the agricultural sector, rendering climate science communication challenging. Due to the polarization of climate change issues and the concurrent need for agricultural adaptation, we sought to examine how scientists com- municate in this sector. A survey, administered to climate scientists and pertinent U.S. fed- eral agency staff (response rate = 43%), was conducted to examine perspectives on communicating with five agricultural stakeholder groups: agribusinesses, crop advisors,

general public, producers, and policymakers. We focused on three aspects of the communi- cation process with these stakeholders to evaluate if scientists, as messengers, were follow- ing best practices–communicator training, knowledge of stakeholder, and terminology use. We found scientists valued communication training; however, the majority had not attended formal training. Scientists had different views on climate change than producers and crop advisors but understood their perspective and were deliberate with their communication with different audiences. This suggests stakeholder knowledge and terminology use do not hinder communication between scientist and stakeholder. We also highlight three communi- cation challenges present across stakeholder groups–stakeholder knowledge, timescale, and scientific uncertainty–and others that were specific to each stakeholder group. Future research should support scientists by identifying and resolving barriers to training and effec- tive communication strategies for each stakeholder group that addresses these challenges. PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269927 August 2, 2022 1 / 22 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Getson JM, Church SP, Radulski BG, Sjo¨strand AE, Lu J, Prokopy LS (2022) Understanding scientists’ communication challenges at the intersection of climate and agriculture. PLoS ONE 17(8): e0269927. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269927 Editor: Vassilis G. Aschonitis, Soil and Water Resources Institute ELGO-DIMITRA, GREECE

Received: May 26, 2021 Accepted: June 1, 2022 Published: August 2, 2022 Copyright: © 2022 Getson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. Funding: USDA-NIFA: United States Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food and Agriculture https://nifa.usda.gov/ Yes, since this project used participants identified from a previous USDA-NIFA study. Those participants were identified by NIFA since it was a synthesis project to determine the success of their program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection