Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** wild blueberry agroecosystems…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** wild blueberry agroecosystems provide valuable ecosystem services including water regulation, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration/storage, pollination, biodiversity, and provisioning services. Climate change is altering these agroecosystems, though the effects of these changes on ecosystem services and the wild blueberry industry are unclear. Our first goal is to investigate tradeoffs in ecosystem services under probable future climate scenarios, improving our understanding of ecosystem services in temperate perennial crops. Our second goal is to work together as an interdisciplinary team to deliver actionable recommendations to the wild blueberry industry, informing climate smart agricultural management strategies that conserve natural resources. Our team, supported by graduate and undergraduate students, will conduct a climate manipulation experiment in wild blueberries at a new, long-term research trial site at the university of maine. In this field-based study, we will manipulate temperature and precipitation, and assess soil-water dynamics, cropphenology, symbiotic relationships with ericoid mycorrhizae and pollinators, and disease pressure. We will use our results to validate a new crop wild blueberry model, and project several futures based on plausible temperature and precipitation scenarios. Maps producedthrough this effort will be shared with the community of wild blueberry growers and processors. In addition, we will hold grower focus groups where qualitative and quantitative data will be collected to identify perceptions of production and financial risks, and theprotective benefit of a variety of climate risk mitigation strategies, including supplemental irrigation. Project results will support resilient and sustainable wild blueberry management within socioeconomically challenged, rural communities impacted by climate change.