UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The diversity of crops grown in the United States is declining, causing agricultural landscapes to become more and more simplified. Given that crop production is heavily concentrated in certain areas and crop diversity is declining, there is a critical need to understand pathways toward diversifying agricultural systems and increasing agrobiodiversity.

Kaitlyn Spangler, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography at Penn State, will discuss these topics in her talk "Beyond corn, soy and wheat? Re-imagining a diverse U.S. agricultural landscape.”

The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, in 112 Walker Building on the University Park campus and via Zoom.

Spangler is a human-environment geographer whose research works toward building more sustainable and diversified working landscapes and, therein, equitable and just climate change solutions. Her work integrates geospatial modeling, critical and feminist data science, and in-depth qualitative methodologies to mix “big” data with “deep” data.

Spangler earned her doctorate in environment and society from Utah State University, her master of science in geography from Virginia Tech, and her bachelor of arts in anthropology and a bachelor of science in community, environment and development from Penn State.

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