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

groups (S2 Table; p-value). The scientists responded that all stakeholder groups, relative to their own perspectives, would be significantly more likely to agree with two statements “Earth’s climate conditions occur at random with no cycles or trends” and “Even if climate changes, we cannot predict what those changes will be in the future.” The scientists responded that all stakeholder groups would be significantly less likely to agree to four statements: “Climate change is happening,” “Human activities are contributing to climate change,” and “Human activities are the primary driver of climate change,” and “There is enough evidence that climate is changing.” The scientists thought there would be significantly more agreement by produc- ers, public, and policymakers, with the statement regarding climate change not affecting how they live/operate. Lastly, the scientists perceived producers and policymakers were signifi- cantly more likely to agree that they as a group would distrust scientists working on climate- related issues than a general audience (Table 1). Knowledge of stakeholders Additionally, eight of the climate change statements were asked to two stakeholder groups: producers (N = 2633) [77] and crop advisors (N = 2719) [78] on separate surveys conducted in 2016. The scientists’ own perspectives were compared to the actual perspectives for these two stakeholder groups. All statement responses were statistically different across all groups (S3 Table; p-value). Scientist responses were statistically different from producers and crop advi-

sors across seven statements (exception “Earth’s climate conditions occur in cyclical pattern”). Producer and crop advisor responses were all statistically different from each other by state- ment (S3 Table; p). Finally, the scientists’ perspectives on each stakeholder group were compared to the actual perspectives of the two stakeholder groups. One statement was significantly different between Table 1. Scientists’ agreement to statements compared to scientists’ perspective on how stakeholders would respond to the same statements regarding climate change. Statement Scientists Agribusinesses Crop Advisors Producers Public Policymakers n M n ΔM n ΔM n ΔM n ΔM n ΔM Earth’s climate conditions occur at random with no cycles or trends. 245 1.4 21 +1.0� �� 10 +0.9� 75 +1.3��� 71 +1.4��� 63 +1.1�� � Earth’s climate conditions occur in a cyclical pattern. 243 3.5 21 +0.2 10 +0.3 74 +0.1 71 0 63 +0.2 Even if climate changes, we cannot predict what those changes will be in the future. 243 2.1 21 +1.2� �� 10 +0.8� 75 +1.3��� 71 +1.1��� 63 +1.0�� � Climate change is happening. 242 4.7 21 -0.7�� � 10 -0.9� �� 75 -1.1� �� 71 -0.8��� 62 -0.9��� Earth’s climate always changes. 242 4.1 21 -0.1 10 0 75 -0.2 71 -0.2� 63 -0.1 Human activities are contributing to climate change. 242 4.7 21 -1.2�� � 10 -1.1� �� 75 -1.5� �� 71 -1.0��� 63 -1.2��� Human activities are the primary driver of climate change. 242 4.2 21 -1.2�� � 10 -1.1� 75 -1.6� �� 71 -0.9��� 63 -1.3���

Climate change will not affect the way that the [stakeholders] [operate/lives]. 242 1.7 21 +0.3 10 +0.6 75 +0.6��� 71 +1.2��� 63 +1.2�� � There is enough evidence that climate is changing. 242 4.4 21 -0.7�� � 10 -0.9� � 75 -1.2� �� 71 -1.0��� 63 -1.1��� [Stakeholder] distrust scientists that work on climate-related issues. 242 2.5 21 +0.2 10 +0.1 75 +0.6��� 71 +0.3 63 +0.4� Notes. Survey questions: “Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements” and “In your opinion, what would the majority of [stakeholder’s] level of agreement be with the following statements?” Two statements were rephrased to be specific to each stakeholder (indicated with brackets). All stakeholder group statements displayed “operate” except the general public. The statements that asked about the scientists’ own perspective were “Climate change will not affect the way that I live” and “The majority of the public distrusts scientists that work on climate related issues.” scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree "p" column (Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test (two-sided) adjusted by Bonferroni correction method for multiple comparison) indicates the statistical significance of the climate scientists’ agreement with each climate statement comparing the climate scientists’ perspective of how the stakeholders would respond to the same climate

statement; �, ��, and ��� indicate a statistical significance level at 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001 respectively. The p-value column (Kruskal-Wallis test) indicates whether the distribution of the responses for all six groups were different overall by statement. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269927.t001 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 8 / 22