A student in Misryoum’s Climate and Society program explains how GIS, Python, and climate-variability science translate into real-world climate services and forest research.
Climate change research is often pictured as lab work or satellite maps. But for one student in Misryoum’s Climate and Society program, the real story starts with how climate powerfully shapes everyday systems—especially food, land, and policy.
Aynsley Kretschmar didn’t originally set out to pursue climate work.. As a college freshman, a seminar on food and agricultural systems shifted her direction.. She became fascinated by the way climate is braided into multiple layers of the environment and society: crop production. resource use. livelihoods. and the political choices that determine resilience.. “Climate touches everything. ” Kretschmar says. reflecting a core idea behind Climate and Society—treat climate not as a standalone topic. but as a force that interacts with economics. governance. and human behavior.
That early pivot eventually reshaped her education path, from a planned biology-and-Spanish track to environmental studies.. She later spent about six years in the renewable energy industry, working in corporate renewable energy procurement.. That professional detour mattered, even as she returned to study climate science more deeply.. In Misryoum’s program. she describes an effort to reconnect the scientific basis of climate and ecology with the social and political mechanisms that influence what solutions can work.
The program’s appeal isn’t just conceptual.. Kretschmar highlights practical technical training—particularly geographic information systems (GIS) and Python.. Those tools can turn environmental data into something usable: patterns mapped across landscapes. or relationships tested with code rather than intuition.. She says she struggled at first with Python in the workplace. so learning it in an academic setting. with climate applications. was a deliberate step toward strengthening her research toolkit.. For students aiming at climate careers, this mix of quantitative skills and domain knowledge can be a make-or-break difference.
In addition to applied training. Kretschmar points to a course called Dynamics of Climate Variability and Change as a foundational experience.. It’s physics-based, which helped her understand the mechanics behind weather and climate systems—not just the outcomes.. That kind of grounding is especially relevant in climate research because many real-world questions depend on why variability happens. not only what trend lines show.
This summer, her work extends beyond the classroom through hands-on projects.. She is joining a capstone course with CGIAR, a global research partnership, focused on climate services.. Her expected role includes stakeholder interviews—an approach that may sound social, but it’s scientific in practice.. Climate services depend on translating evidence into usable information for decision-makers. and stakeholder interviews help researchers understand which forecasts. risks. and data products actually fit the needs of communities.
She is also continuing independent research with Mukund Rao at Misryoum’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.. Her study examines carbon dynamics in a boreal forest in central Alaska—an ecosystem that matters for the global climate system because boreal forests store large amounts of carbon while also responding quickly to changing temperatures.. Kretschmar is looking at how climate variables, including temperature and moisture, affect productivity, meaning the rate at which photosynthesis occurs.. Rather than relying on broad trends alone. she’s investigating daily averages over the course of a year using measurements such as air temperature. soil temperature. and vapor pressure deficit.
There’s a widely discussed expectation that warming generally increases boreal forest productivity.. But emerging findings complicate that picture, with productivity sometimes declining even as temperatures rise.. Kretschmar notes one hypothesis: moisture stress or drought may be limiting the forest’s ability to convert favorable warmth into biological growth.. Her research design is aimed at teasing out when temperature aligns positively with productivity and when the relationship weakens—or flips—at a sub-seasonal daily timescale.
Why does this granular approach matter?. Because climate adaptation depends on timing and thresholds.. If temperature boosts photosynthesis only under certain moisture conditions, then forecasting future carbon uptake requires more than temperature alone.. It requires understanding the interactions between heat and water availability, and how those interactions shift through seasons.. For policymakers and land managers. that kind of knowledge influences everything from conservation priorities to expectations about how forests might buffer emissions.
Kretschmar’s trajectory also reflects a broader shift in climate education: training that can move between technical analysis and the human systems that decide how data is used.. She plans to stay involved in ecology, conservation, research, and education, with an eye toward pursuing a Ph.D.. in ecology.. Just as importantly. she offers advice that mirrors her own experience—keep an open mind. explore classes you wouldn’t initially choose. and seek out events that reveal the full range of climate careers.. For students who feel unsure where climate expertise leads. her story suggests that the job landscape can be uncovered by getting involved early. not by waiting until graduation to ask.
In the end. Kretschmar’s projects—from climate services and stakeholder engagement to carbon dynamics in boreal forests—illustrate a central theme: the climate field is not a single discipline.. It’s a meeting point of ecology, computation, and society’s choices.. As Misryoum’s next generation of climate researchers builds those connections. the work may become less about debating climate impacts in the abstract and more about responding to them with evidence that can actually be applied.