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

issues (finding the right people, dissemination method, and time to meet), trust in the scientist, as well as group dynamics like belief systems (culture) and politics. The challenges were also variable across stakeholder groups with only three (stakeholder knowledge, timescale, and uncertainty) present for all five stakeholders (Table 2). These common challenges across stake- holder groups are highlighted below. Scientists reported communicating with their stakeholder groups can be a challenge because stakeholders’ scientific knowledge/training can be limited. Many scientists listed these issues for the general public, with a few listing them for each of the other stakeholder groups. “Most people have very little science training and remember little about what they have been taught. They do have a strong inherent interest about science; hence, the broad audiences of many public outlets about science.” “Education is the key to make the public more aware of the issues and understand the sources. Public needs to be educated enough to question and understand the motives of the policy- makers and politicians.” Stakeholder groups have difficulty conceptualizing the timescale of climate change. Thus, scientists reported challenges in helping their stakeholders think in terms of long-term trends rather than in the number of years needed for decision making. This theme was coded most frequently for all stakeholder groups except the general public. Table 2. Communication challenges by stakeholder group.

Challenge Agribusinesses Crop Advisors Producers General Public Policymakers (n = 20) (n = 10) (n = 69) (n = 65) (n = 58) Stakeholder knowledge ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Timescale ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Uncertainty ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Culture ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Economics ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Making it personal ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Pathway of information ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Politics ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Trust ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Using layperson language ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Disinformation ✓ ✓ ✓ Pipeline to right people ✓ ✓ ✓ Variability ✓ ✓ ✓ Access to stakeholder ✓ ✓ Collective strategy ✓ ✓ None ✓ ✓ Overworked ✓ ✓ Scientist knowledge ✓ ✓ Fear of regulation ✓ Knowledge gap ✓ Risk management ✓ Time management ✓ Notes. Survey question: “In your opinion, what is the fundamental challenge in communicating climate change issues to [stakeholder]?” A representative quote for each code is supplied in S6 Table. The checkmark indicates at least one respondents’ answer was coded for the theme. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269927.t002 PLOS ONE Understanding scientists’ communication challenges at the intersection of climate and agriculture PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269927 August 2, 2022 11 / 22