Cherries: good to eat, better to study.

A visiting professor discussed a cooperative project to study the effects of climate on tart cherries at OU Thursday.

The event was part of an ongoing seminar series that has brought scientists to Norman from a variety of scientific fields.

The event, which was co-sponsored by the School of Geography and the National Severe Storms Laboratory, featured a presentation by Julie Winkler, a geography professor from Michigan State University.

The presentation discussed the Pileus Project, which investigated the potential impacts of climate variability and change on agriculture and tourism in the Great Lakes region.

The project, which was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, had many goals including the need to identify the influence of weather on Michigan agriculture and tourism, create models to show weather variability and build strong relationships between researchers and stakeholders.

The project studied the effects of weather on the tart cherry crop, which is grown mainly in Michigan and central Europe.

Winkler said tart cherries were studied for a number of reasons.

"Tart cherries are extremely vulnerable to temperature extremes," Winkler said.

Winkler also said this crop was studied because yields are extremely variable and that Michigan produces nearly 70 percent of the tart cherries found in the U.S.

The project developed multiple models to track cherry growth, yield and economic effects of weather.

"We need a model of how climate affects cherry production," Winkler said.

The project developed these models using data from 1960-2003. The data, which was taken from 15 stations throughout Michigan, studied daily temperature and precipitation data.

Using this data, researchers could deduce how climate variations affected the tart cherry crop.

The project also developed models to understand how cherry yields will change in the future.

This model uses several factors to try and create scenarios of how weather events in the future will impact the crop.

Winkler said this model does produce reasonable data, but some uncertainties are unavoidable.

"A scenario is not a prediction," Winkler said. "Several uncertainties exist that can affect these models."

The project created several future weather scenarios, and then tested them against data from 1990-1999 to test the accuracy of the model.

Winkler said these scenarios are trying to judge future growing periods, rainfall and seasonal variations.

The project also formed models to predict the economic life of a tart cherry tree, tracking factors such as predicted production prices, yields and costs for the life of a tart cherry tree.

In the future, the project will examine how international trade and emerging or declining markets affect the yield and production of the tart cherry.

Winkler has taught numerous geography and meteorology classes and is currently a candidate for the vice presidency of the Association of American Geographers.

Fred Shelley, academic chairman for the school, said Winkler not only studies geographic issues, but also works hard to bring women and minorities into the field of geography.

David Schultz, research meteorologist at the NSSL, said the purpose of these seminars is to develop interactions between the NSSL and other scientific groups.

"Part of my rationale for these seminars was to bring many different groups of scientists together," Schultz said.

Winkler will continue the series at 10:30 a.m. today when she gives a speech discussing low-level winds in central North America. The speech will be held at the NSSL conference room, 1313 Halley Circle.
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