Chris Kucharik

Position title: Faculty, Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences

Email: kucharik@wisc.edu

Research Summary

My research program addresses four themes: (1) weather and climate change impacts on agriculture; (2) healthy ecosystems - supported by research projects focused on food-energy-water systems of the Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin Central Sands, and Mississippi River Basin; (3) sustainability of bioenergy, agrivoltaics, and other land management decision-making; (4) urban ecology – where I have led a long-term study on the urban heat island in Madison and Dane County since 2012. I work across disciplines and have focused on building transdisciplinary teams of scientists to meet new problem-solving challenges that face agriculture. I have provided leadership for other statewide initiatives that have provided insight into local to regional climate change and its consequences on agriculture and society. These efforts have benefitted scientists, citizens, and our state agencies. In 2023, I initiated and currently direct the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet (or Wisconet), which is part of the UW-Madison Rural Partnerships Institute. Wisconet will grow to a network of 80 weather and soil environmental monitoring stations across the state of Wisconsin.

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