About

Julianne Dillon is a graduate student in the French and Francophone Studies program at Pennsylvania State University. She earned a double major in French and Global Studies from the University of Kansas, where her study abroad experiences—first in a summer program in Paris and later during a semester in Angers, France—greatly influenced her passion for cross-cultural exploration. After graduating in 2022, Julianne lived and worked in Bangkok, Thailand for two and a half years, allowing her to expand her intellectual horizons to include the Thai language and culture. She has a particular interest in the global Middle Ages and the complex intersections between literature, culture, and politics across societies.

Research topics

• Animal science
• Ecology
• Business
• Medicine
• Biology
• Veterinary medicine
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• Regenerative Grazing as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy: A Systematic Review

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-10-12 · 1 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Abstract Ruminant livestock production is a meaningful contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Regenerative grazing has been proposed as a climate change mitigation strategy for offsetting livestock GHG emissions by potentially causing additional soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. We review the current state of the literature and collect reported and inferred SOC sequestration from regenerative grazing experiments, ranking their study designs by ascending evidentiary strength: observational, cross-sectional and longitudinal. Across 28 studies that compare regenerative to conventional grazing, the reported and inferred SOC sequestration rates in regenerative grazing treatments varied widely, with the highest values reported in lower-strength observational studies. Among higher-strength cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies, median additional SOC sequestration rates in regenerative grazing treatments were not significantly different than zero, indicating no significant enhancement of SOC across all regenerative grazing interventions. Currently, higher-strength evidence does not support widespread claims of SOC sequestration from regenerative grazing. To clarify its potential for climate mitigation, a greater number of longitudinal studies are needed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 161 Use of life cycle assessments for carbon monitoring in beef cattle systems.

  Journal of Animal Science · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a standardized approach for assessing the life cycle environmental impacts of goods and services over their product life cycle. Carbon monitoring is the tracking of carbon storage and fluxes over time, including CO2 and CH4. The power of LCA is in its ability to integrate these and other short- and long-lived climate pollutants into an estimate of the cumulative impact of beef production systems—from cow-calf production through finishing, processing, consumption, and waste. To this end, LCA can be used to evaluate both carbon and climate neutrality of livestock systems. There are several metrics used to estimate climate impact: global warming potential (GWP, also referred to as carbon footprint), global warming potential* (GWP*), and global temperature change potential (GTP), though GWP is by far the most used metric to date. Where measured carbon emissions data are not available for integration into LCA (i.e., from eddy covariance towers, SF6 tracers, respiration chambers, or commercially available monitoring technology), modeling approaches may be used. Modeling approaches range from static (i.e., use of IPCC emission factors) to mechanistic (i.e., use of process models that simulate CH4 production as a function of diet composition and rumen microbial activity). Of particular interest in carbon monitoring of beef systems is the potential for soil carbon sequestration to mitigate climate impacts. Some evidence suggests that grazing management can contribute to soil carbon sequestration, though the magnitude and persistence of the sequestration is context dependent. Critical to the inclusion of soil carbon data in LCA for this purpose is a study design with a non-grazed control, a robust soil sampling protocol (addressing change over time, spatial variability in soil properties, land management history, and carbon fractionation), and inclusion of uncertainty analyses. Though infrequently reported to date, uncertainty analysis is critical to be able to make definitive conclusions about soil carbon contributions to carbon and/or climate neutrality in beef systems. A final consideration for the use of LCA for carbon monitoring in beef systems is the potential for technological interventions to stimulate rebound effects. Capturing rebound effects in LCA methodology has not yet been widely adopted, but is critical to a complete picture of the impacts of management and climate mitigation technologies on the climate impact of beef.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparative analysis of thermal indices for modeling cold and heat stress in US dairy systems

  Journal of Dairy Science · 2024-04-11 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Quantifying the effect of thermal stress on milk yields is essential to effectively manage present and future risks in dairy systems. Despite the existence of numerous heat indices designed to communicate stress thresholds, little information is available regarding the accuracy of different indices in estimating milk yield losses from both cold and heat stress at large spatiotemporal scales. To address this gap, we comparatively analyzed the performance of existing thermal indices in capturing US milk yield response to both cold and heat stress at the national scale. We selected 4 commonly used thermal indices: the temperature-humidity index (THI), black globe humidity index (BGHI), adjusted temperature-humidity index (THIadj), and comprehensive climate index (CCI). Using a statistical panel regression model with observational and reanalysis weather data from 1981 to 2020, we systematically compared the patterns of yield sensitivities and statistical performance of the 4 indices. We found that the US state-level milk yield variability was better explained by the THIadj and CCI, which combine the effects of temperature, humidity, wind, and solar radiation. Our analysis also reveals continuous and nonlinear responses of milk yields to a range of cold to heat stresses across all 4 indices. This implies that solely relying on fixed thresholds of these indices to model milk yield changes may be insufficient to capture cumulative thermal stress. Cold extremes reduced milk yields comparably to those affected by heat extremes on the national scale. Additionally, we found large spatial variability in milk yield sensitivities, implying further limitations to the use of fixed thresholds across locations. Moreover, we found decreased yield sensitivity to thermal stress in the most recent 2 decades, suggesting adaptive changes in management to reduce weather-related risks.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Quantifying biodiversity impacts of livestock using life‐cycle perspectives

  Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · 2023-05-02 · 10 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Biodiversity impacts are rarely included in systems analyses of livestock production. We piloted two approaches toward quantifying biodiversity impacts, pressure‐state‐response (PSR) and potential species loss (PSL), at a cow–calf operation in Florida for which extensive environmental data were available. Using these approaches, we compared livestock production on two vegetation types, semi‐native pasture (SNP) and improved pasture (IMP), and we found fewer deleterious effects on biodiversity associated with SNP (characterized by low stocking rates and no fertilizer) than with IMP, as evidenced by a lower PSL and greater biotic integrity under PSR. Both approaches agreed in the direction of the outcome, but we argue that, when possible, they should be applied complementarily to inform both absolute and per‐unit product biodiversity impacts of livestock production. This research demonstrates how to incorporate biodiversity into life‐cycle perspectives of livestock sustainability assessments when data availability varies, supporting the expansion of multi‐metric, holistic evaluations that are absent from most livestock system analyses.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• PSIII-9 Hempseed Meal as an Effective Protein Supplement for Finishing Wethers

  Journal of Animal Science · 2022-09-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract As our global agriculture landscape continues to change it has become more important than ever to find sustainable alternatives to feed livestock. Hempseed and its derivatives may provide alternative sources of nutrients for inclusion in livestock diets, however, due to the paucity of research on hemp and its byproducts, there is no authorization of the inclusion of these products in food animal diets. We hypothesized that the digestibility and use of hempseed meal would be similar to other livestock protein sources. Forty Western White-Faced wethers were used in a completely randomized block design with 5 treatments. These treatments included diets formulated to be near isonitrogenous with 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20% of diet DM as hemp seed meal, primarily as a substitute for dried distillers grains with solubles. Wethers were fed the diets individually for 90 d, which was followed by a 5 d balance trial with a total collection of urine and feces. There were no differences in DM intake (P = 0.44) or average daily gain (P= .16) between treatments. There were no differences in DM digestibility (P = 0.86) or N digestibility (P = 0.29) between treatments, although there was a slight increase in P digestibility as hemp meal inclusion increased until it represented 15% of the dietary DM (P = 0.02). There were no differences in the digestibility of Ca (P=0.44), Mg (P = 0.10), K (P = 0.85), or Na (P = 0.54). There were no differences in urinary N excretion (P=0.33) or urinary urea excretion (P=0.34) between treatments. Additionally, blood chemistry constituents were also not affected by treatment (P ≥ 0.10). Based on these data, it is concluded that hemp seed meal is a comparable protein supplement for sheep with no identified deleterious effects.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The 2020 Social and Environmental Apocalypse: Reimagining Black America

  American studies · 2021-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  The 2020 Social and Environmental Apocalypse:Reimagining Black America Tatiana Height, Olivia T. Ngadjui, Fushcia-Ann Hoover, and Jasmine A. Dillon Prelude: Writing as Community While the COVID-19 pandemic has had disastrous impacts on marginalized communities, the global situation has also set the stage for a number of activist movements and virtual writing spaces as a form of resistance. In the midst of the pandemic, the founder of Black Women PhDsⓇ and a former colleague/friend came up with the idea of starting a writing accountability group for women of color. Women of color from several countries and generations began convening to write together in a virtual setting. Writing soon evolved into inviting speakers, holding virtual happy hours, sharing resources, and creating a sisterhood. This article is a product of that virtual space of accountability, and we are all ever grateful to have the opportunity to work together. The lead author, an environmental justice scholar-activist, came across the call and first thought that it would be great to blend their voice with that of a counselor educator and cross-cultural relations enthusiast. This circle was then expanded to bring in the perspectives of two others who would add breadth, depth, and biophysical considerations to the piece. As we each proposed our ideas for the direction of this writing, we realized our ideas were all connected. This article embodies the cohesive, transdisciplinary vision of four scholars and scholar-activists across three time zones. Inception Just what is a "shared" planet? Equitable distribution of resources? Optimization of population dynamics across taxa? Shared governance of [End Page 163] resources and communities? Has the planet ever been "shared," or is it even "shareable?" While arguments abound as to whether or not Earth has ever been a truly shared planet, since colonialism, humanity has existed in an unshared or inequitable sharing of planet. This is evidenced by the exploitation and marginalization of Black, brown, and Indigenous communities to support the mass proliferation and outsized consumption of communities of European descent. As it stands, unshared space is a hotbed for inequity and degradation of both the land and the communities who occupy it. Space (shared or unshared) is an important factor in any future visioning, as food, water, shelter, and space are the basic needs for survival. Humanity's current inequitable consumption of Earth's resources is driven by socioeconomic ideologies developed by white oppressors. Much of these beliefs lie at the root of myriad contemporary environmental, economic, and social injustices—which are both the source and an exacerbating factor of the disparate effects of climate change (Martinez 2020). Perhaps the most perverse thing about racist policies and ideals, as both source and aggravator of climate change, is that the very countries most responsible for the massive anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions leading to this humanmade phenomenon are those least negatively affected (Nugent 2019). Indeed, climate change itself is a result of racism (Martinez 2020) and is so deeply tied to other social issues that it is considered by Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States, to be a national security threat (Harris 2019). Despite the promise of free markets, buy-ins to this economic system have magnified preexisting inequitable distributions of exploitative power structures that not only create but also preserve Earth's status as an unshared planet. The U.S. environmental justice movement has arisen to triage some of the damage caused by an unshared planet by marrying the civil rights and environmental movements. In desperate attempts to rectify the impacts of centuries of discriminatory housing, lending, and policing policies, as a society we keep repackaging the injustices of the past; this is the basis for reform. This is why revolution is the necessary step toward justice and a shared planet. However, as we will illustrate in this article, revolution has been long stifled in the United States because it has been intertwined with reformist attitudes and actions. In this article, we first set the stage for how the planet has never been a shared space, citing examples from the U.S. police and vigilante brutality and longstanding environmental trauma that has existed as a result. Next, we discuss one activist response...

  PublisherDOI

• Current state of enteric methane and the carbon footprint of beef and dairy cattle in the United States

  Animal Frontiers · 2021 · 36 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Animal science
  • Veterinary medicine
  • Environmental science
  PublisherDOI

• One Place Doesn't Fit All: Improving the Effectiveness of Sustainability Standards by Accounting for Place

  Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · 2020-09-22 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  The growing interest in incentivizing sustainable agricultural practices is supported by a large network of voluntary production standards, which aim to offer farmers and ranchers increased value for their product in support of reduced environmental impact. To be effective with producers and consumers alike, these standards must be both credible and broadly recognizable, and thus are typically highly generalizable. However, the environmental impact of agriculture is strongly place-based and varies considerably due to complex biophysical, socio-cultural, and management-based factors, even within a given sector in a particular region. We suggest that this contradiction between the placeless generality of standards and the placed-ness of agriculture renders many sustainability standards ineffective. In this policy and practice review, we examine this contradiction through the lens of beef production, with a focus on an ongoing regional food purchasing effort in Denver, Colorado, USA. We review the idea of place in the context of agricultural sustainability, drawing on life cycle analysis and diverse literature to find that recognition of place-specific circumstances is essential to understanding environmental impact and improving outcomes. We then examine the case of the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP), a broad set of food-purchasing standards currently being implemented for institutional purchasing in Denver. The GFPP was created through a lengthy stakeholder-inclusive process for use in Los Angeles, California, USA, and has since been applied to many cities across the country. The difference between Los Angeles’ process and that of applying the result of Los Angeles’ process to Denver is instructive, and emblematic of the flaws of generalizable sustainability standards themselves. We then describe the essential elements of a place-based approach to agricultural sustainability standards, pointing toward a democratic, process-based, and outcome-oriented strategy that results in standards that enable rather than hinder the creativity of both producers and consumers. Though prescription is anathema to our approach, we close by offering a starting point for the development of standards for beef production in Colorado that respect the work of people in place.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 239 Grazing Distribution of Beef Cattle: Acronyms of Technology and Spatial Measures

  Journal of Animal Science · 2020-11-02

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Grazing distribution is an important aspect of pasture management, yet measuring traits for sustainable forage consumption is challenging. Uplands are often un-grazed by beef cattle due to rugged terrain while riparian zones are often heavily grazed; thus, sustainable consumption may be achieved if improved landscape utilization by cattle is encouraged. Modifying grazing behaviour with fencing and (or) water-source and feeding location(s) is effective in improving grazing patterns; however, these infrastructure improvements are typically expensive, supporting the concept of genetic selection for improved grazing distribution. Efforts funded by the Western Sustainable Research and Education Program (WSARE; SW15-015) using global positioning systems (GPS) indicated a genetic influence on quantitative traits describing grazing distribution of 330 Angus-influenced cows (i.e. distance from water, slope, elevation, vertical climb, etc.). Collars fitted with GPS devices for data collection accrued measures at intervals of 5 to 15 min and 10 m resolution for 3-19 weeks in 16 pastures on 14 ranches and experiment stations. Genome-wide association studies involving trait-measures and high-density genotypes (n = 777,962 single nucleotide polymorphisms; SNP) indicated these traits were polygenic. Combining SNP genotypes with trait measures and pedigree has become the norm in genetic evaluation and improvement processes (i.e. genome-enhanced expected progeny difference (GE-EPD). These processes require data from large numbers of animals (n > 10,000). Collecting grazing distribution phenotypes with GPS collars is accurate, but time-consuming; therefore, collaborative research is being conducted in the 2019-2020 academic year exploring the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and cameras to ascertain spatial measures of beef cow grazing distribution. This collaboration involves scientists in the Colorado State University Drone Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Animal Sciences. The project objective is to determine if UAV can expedite data collection to support development of genetic evaluation and improvement programs for grazing distribution.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 391 Linking Nutrition, Production, and Environmental Aspects of Ruminant Livestock Production

  Journal of Animal Science · 2020-11-03 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The relationship between nutrition, production and environmental aspects of ruminant livestock production systems is a complex and highly nuanced subject that has long suffered from oversimplification and assumptions associated within these practices. However, with the advent of new and evolving models and a growing understanding of these complexities and their interactions with each other, there has been a large and welcome growth in recent literature regarding new and emerging technologies, and insights that will allow for appropriate and impactful changes in livestock management that will affect overall change for the benefit of society as a whole. The primary means through which environmental impacts may be modified are separated into four distinct, but interconnected mechanisms, which include 1) improvements in use of dietary nutrients, 2) use of dietary additives that impact certain functions in the digestive tracts of the animal, 3) improvements in genetics, and 4) improvements in productive efficiency. While it is obvious that there are significant overlaps between these practices, it is imperative to consider all these aspects to prevent “leakage” of impacts to other industries and processes. In this presentation, we will review recent developments in all of these areas with a specific emphasis on the use of energy in ruminant production systems.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• C. Alan Rotz

  6 shared

• S. L. Archibeque

  Colorado State University

  3 shared

• David G. Riley

  3 shared

• Heather D. Karsten

  Pennsylvania State University

  2 shared

• Ryan S. Miller

  University of Maryland, Baltimore

  2 shared

• Senorpe Asem-Hiablie

  2 shared

• R. M. Thallman

  Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center

  2 shared

• E. Kebreab

  University of California, Davis

  2 shared