Dr Patrick Mitchell

Patrick is using his expertise in plant biology, climate science and systems modelling to improve climate decisions in agricultural and forest systems. He is particularly interested in delivering solutions that inform risk management and adaptation under under climate variability and global change. He currently holds two positions as: Team leader for the Climate Adaptation and Thresholds team and Science Lead for the Climate Innovation hub. His projects span a range of applications including:

• Understanding and communicating climate-based risks in forest and agricultural systems

• Delivering climate-smart solutions for grains and other sectors including enhanced weather and seasonal climate forecasting.

• Building risk and reward information tools that combine climate, systems modelling and environmental data for farmers and agribusiness.

Current projects include:
- The development of a national Drought Early Warning System combining climate, productivity and farm profitability modelling
- A comprehensive climate risk appraisal for Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- New agri-climate outlooks for improving seasonal forecast info for different agricultural sectors
- Next generation pasture forecasting based on API technology and CSIRO farm systems modelling
- Various agri-climate tools for assessing physical climate risks across grains and livestock sectors

His previous work at CSIRO Land and Water looked at unravelling and quantifying climate-based stresses such as drought and heat in forest ecosystems. He also has used his strong back ground in ecohydrology to deliver basin-level assessments of water impacts from mining.