David Lobell, PhD
FSE Center Fellow; Assistant Professor Environmental Earth System Science
Energy and Environment Building
473 Via Ortega
Stanford CA 94305
David Lobell is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in Environmental Earth System Science, and a Center Fellow in Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment. His research focuses on identifying opportunities to raise crop yields in major agricultural regions, with a particular emphasis on adaptation to climate change. His current projects span Africa, South Asia, Mexico, and the United States, and involve a range of tools including remote sensing, GIS, and crop and climate models.
Lobell's work is motivated by questions such as: What investments are most effective at raising global crop yields, in order to increase food production without expansion of agricultural lands? Will yield gains be able to keep pace with global demand for crop products, given current levels of investment? And what direct or indirect effects will efforts to raise crop productivity have on other components of the Earth System, such as climate? Answering these requires an understanding of the complex factors that limit crop yields throughout the world, and the links between agriculture and the broader Earth System.
Current work focuses on three main areas of research.
- Food security, crop yields, and climate change - What are the risks that climate change poses to regional and global food production? And what are the specific adaptations that should be pursued to reduce the risk of impacts from imminent climate changes?
- Identifying constraints to regional crop yields - One of the most remarkable aspects of modern agriculture is that yields in farmers' fields vary widely, with average yields in a region consistently 30% or more below yields achieved on some fields.
- Environmental consequences of food and biofuel production - The major systems of the Earth - water, energy, food, climate, carbon, nitrogen, etc. - are tightly interconnected. This means, for example, that a decision in the energy system has implications for climate and food, and conversely that a change in the food system has consequences for energy and climate.
Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Lobell was a Senior Research Scholar at FSE from 2008-2009 and a Lawrence Post-doctoral Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2005-2007. He received a PhD in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University in 2005, and a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude from Brown University in 2000.
Publications
The 5 most recent are displayed. More publications »
- Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution
Pamela Matson, Walter P. Falcon, Ashley Dean, Rosamond Naylor Rosamond Naylor, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, Peter Jewett, Ellen McCullough, Michael Beman, Amy Luers, David Lobell, Toby Ahrens, John Harrison, Gerrit Schoups, Lee Addams, David S. Battisti, Jose Luiz Minjares
Island Press (2011) - A walk on the wild side
Luigi Guarino, David Lobell
Nature Climate Change vol. 1, 8 (2011) - Climate trend and global crop production since 1980
David Lobell, Wolfram Schlenker, Justin Costa-Roberts
(2011) - Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980
David Lobell, Wolfram Schlenker, Justin Costa-Roberts
Science (2011) - Direct Impacts on Local Climate of Sugarcane Expansion in Brazil
Scott Loarie, David Lobell, Gregory P. Asner, Qiaozhen Mu, Christopher Field
Nature Climate Change vol. 2 (2011)
Events & Presentations
The 5 most recent are displayed. More events & presentations »
- Climate change and agricultural adaptation
December 8, 2011 FSI Stanford, FSE Symposium
David Lobell, Fatima Denton
Video available presentation available - Measurements needed to better understand global agriculture's response to climate change
December 5, 2011 FSE Research Presentation
David Lobell - Food Security, Food Prices, and Climate Change
October 21, 2011 FSE Special Event
David Lobell - World Food and Agriculture Problems
October 17, 2011 FSE Seminar
David Lobell - Connecting the Dots: The Food, Energy, Water, and Climate Nexus
April 22, 2011 FSI Stanford, FSE Conference
Rosamond L. Naylor, Christopher Field, David Lobell, Barton H. Thompson, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Pamela A. Matson
11 presentations available
Research Programs & Projects
- Agricultural applications of multi-year remote sensing
FSI Stanford, FSE Project - Biomass Energy: The climate protective domain
FSI Stanford, FSE Project - Climate Change and Conflict: What are the links and where is the evidence?
FSI Stanford, FSE Project - Food Price Spikes in a Warming World
FSI Stanford, FSE Project - Prioritizing Investments in Food Security Under a Changing Climate
FSI Stanford, FSE Project - Quantification and reduction of uncertainties in projections of climate impacts on drought and agriculture for North America
FSE, FSI Stanford Project - Rethinking the Balance Between Future Obesity and Malnutrition with Climate Change
FSI Stanford, CHP/PCOR, FSE Project - Use of Climate Information in International Negotiation for Adaptation Resources
FSI Stanford, FSE Project