Jenifer Wightman

My current research at Cornell University is developing the GHG inventory, mitigation, and future scenarios for the agricultural sector to assist New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in meeting its mandate to reduce GHG 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 (New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, 2019). Next steps are to help build out measuring and monitoring systems to ensure Real and Permanent GHG mitigation strategies are promoted.

Outreach and Extension Focus

Throughout my career, I have focused on analyzing environmental systems to propose pragmatic management of current issues. Increasingly, I am working at extending research for policy purposes at the intersection of climate change and agriculture, connecting the dots between land-users and infrastructure to reduce net emissions from human systems.
 

Selected Publications

• Wightman & Woodbury. 2019. Maximizing social benefit from finite energy resource allocation. Energy, Sustainability and Society.
• Wightman & Woodbury. 2016. New York Dairy Manure Management Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Costs (1992–2022). Journal of Environmental Quality.
• Wightman et al. 2015. Assessing Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock Production Potential by Integrated Geospatial Analysis of Land Use and Land Quality. Bioenergy Research.
• Wightman et al. 2015. Land Quality and Management Practices Strongly Affect Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Bioenergy Feedstocks. Bioenergy Research.

Policy White Papers

• Wightman & Woodbury. 2020. New York Agriculture and Climate Change: Key Opportunities for Mitigation, Resilience, and Adaptation. NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets Report.
• McDonnell et al. 2020. Sources and Sinks of Major Greenhouse Gases Associated with New York State’s Natural and Working Lands: Forests, Farms, and Wetlands. NYSERDA Report Number 20-06.
• Wightman & Woodbury 2014. Current and Potential Methane Production for Electricity and Heat from New York State Wastewater Treatment Plants. New York State Water Resources Institute Report.
• Wojnar, et al. 2010. Renewable Fuels Roadmap and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock Supply for New York. NYSERDA Report Number 10-05.

I am also a science-based conceptual artist, exploring the co-evolution of life and landscape. View work featured in an exhibit at Mann Library on the Cornelly University campus in 2022: Mud Paintings - Sensing chemical and physical changes of microbial industry.