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Yin, X. (2015). Effects of climatic factors, drought risk and irrigation requirement on maize yield in the northeast farming region of China over 1961 to 2010 (Vol. 5).
Abstract: The Northeast Farming Region (NFR) is the most important and the largest rain-fed maize production region in China, accounting for 30% of China’s maize. We investigated the effects of climatic factors, drought risk and irrigation requirement on maize yield in different maize growth phases during 1961 to 2010 using a statistical analysis of observed yield from 44 stations in NFR. We divided the maize growing season into four growth phases, comprising seeding, vegetative, flowering and maturity. The dual crop coefficient was used to calculate crop evapotranspiration and soil water balance during the maize growing season. The effects of mean temperature, radiation, effective rainfall, water deficit, drought stress days, actual crop evapotranspiration (ETa) and irrigation requirement in different growth phases were included in the statistical model to predict maize yield. During the period 1961 to 2010, mean temperature increased significantly in all growth phases in NFR, while radiation decreased significantly in southern NFR in the seeding, vegetative and flowering phases. Effective rainfall increased in the seeding and vegetative phases leading to less water deficit, whereas decreased effective rainfall in the flowering and maturity phases enhanced water deficit. More days with drought stress were concentrated in western NFR where larger volumes of irrigation were needed. Our results indicate that the increase of mean temperature in the seeding and maturity phases was beneficial for maize yield, higher ETa in each growth phase would lead to yield increase, but too high rainfall would damage maize yield. The results also show that water deficit and drought stress days had significant negative effects on maize yield, and the absence of irrigation would manifest such effects on maize production in NFR. Therefore, the development of irrigation and drainage systems is highly needed for ensuring the stability of maize production in NFR. In addition, other adaptation measures like introducing new cultivars and optimizing soil and crop management to better conserve soil water would be beneficial for future maize production. No Label
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Wu, L., Whitmore, A. P., & Bellocchi, G. (2015). Modelling the impact of environmental changes on grassland systems with SPACSYS. Advances in Animal Biosciences, 6(01), 37–39.
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Woolnough, S. (2015). Climate Modelling and Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction: Opportunities and Challenges (Vol. 5).
Abstract: Dr Steve Woolnough is a Principal Research Fellow in the Climate directorate of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and leads their Tropical Group. His interests are in the variability of the Tropical Climate System on intraseasonal to seasonal timescales, and the representation of the tropical climate system in weather and climate prediction models. He is a member of three international panels of the WMO including the Steering Group of their sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction project. Dr Woolnough will discuss the current state of climate modelling and introduce some of the uncertainties in prediction of regional climate change, and the opportunities to narrow these uncertainties. He will also discuss the current state of sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction and introduce the WCRP/WWRP Sub-seasonal Prediction Project, a new WMO project to promote research into and application of operational prediction systems. No Label
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Wolf, J., Ouattara, K., & Supit, I. (2015). Sowing rules for estimating rainfed yield potential of sorghum and maize in Burkina Faso. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 214-215, 208–218.
Abstract: To reduce the dependence on local expert knowledge, which is important for large-scale crop modelling studies, we analyzed sowing dates and rules for maize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L)) at three locations in Burkina Faso with strongly decreasing rainfall amounts from south to north. We tested in total 22 methods to derive optimal sowing dates that result in highest water-limited yields and lowest yield variation in a reproducible and objective way. The WOFOST crop growth simulation model was used. We found that sowing dates that are based on local expert knowledge, may work quite well for Burkina Faso and for West Africa in general. However, when no a priori information is available, maize should be sown between Julian days 160 and 200, with application of the following criteria: (a) cumulative rainfall in the sowing window is >= 3 cm or available soil moisture content is >2 cm in the moderately dry central part of Burkina Faso, (b) cumulative rainfall in this period is >= 2 cm or available soil moisture content is >1 cm in the more humid regions in the southern part of Burkina Faso. Sorghum should also be sown between Julian days 160 and 200 with application of the following criteria: (a) in the dry northern part of Burkina Faso the long duration sorghum variety should be sown when cumulative rainfall is >2 cm in the sowing window, and the short duration sorghum variety should be sown later when cumulative rainfall is >= 3 cm, (b) in central Burkina Faso sowing should start when cumulative rainfall in this period is >= 2 cm or when available soil moisture content is >1 cm. Sowing date rules are shown to be generally crop and location specific and are not generic for West Africa. However, the required precision of the sowing rules appears to rapidly decrease with increasing duration and intensity of the rainy season. Sowing delay as a result of, for example, labour constraints, has a disastrous effect on rainfed maize and sorghum yields, particularly in the northern part of West Africa with low rainfall. Optimization of sowing dates can also be done by simulating crop yields in a time window of two months around a predefined sowing date. Using these optimized dates appears to result in a good estimate of the maximal mean rainfed yield level. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Wolf, J., Kanellopoulos, A., Kros, J., Webber, H., Zhao, G., Britz, W., et al. (2015). Combined analysis of climate, technological and price changes on future arable farming systems in Europe. Agricultural Systems, 140, 56–73.
Abstract: In this study, we compare the relative importance of climate change to technological, management, price and policy changes on European arable farming systems. This required linking four models: the SIMPLACE crop growth modelling framework to calculate future yields under climate change for arable crops; the CAPRI model to estimate impacts on global agricultural markets, specifically product prices; the bio-economic farm model FSSIM to calculate the future changes in cropping patterns and farm net income at the farm and regional level; and the environmental model INTEGRATOR to calculate nitrogen (N) uptake and losses to air and water. First, the four linked models were applied to analyse the effect of climate change only or a most likely baseline (i.e. B1) scenario for 2050 as well as for two alternative scenarios with, respectively, strong (i.e. A1-b1) and weak economic growth (B2) for five regions/countries across Europe (i.e. Denmark, Flevoland, Midi Pyrenees, Zachodniopomorsld and Andalucia). These analyses Were repeated but assuming in addition to climate change impacts, also the effects of changes in technology and management on crop yields, the effects of changes in prices and policies in 2050, and the effects of all factors together. The outcomes show that the effects of climate change to 2050 result in higher farm net incomes in the Northern and Northern-Central EU regions, in practically unchanged farm net incomes in the Central and Central-Southern EU regions, and in much lower farm net incomes in Southern EU regions compared to those in the base year. Climate change in combination with improved technology and farm management and/or with price changes towards 2050 results in a higher to much higher farm net incomes. Increases in farm net income for the B1 and A1-b1 scenarios are moderately stronger than those for the B2 scenario, due to the smaller increases in product prices and/or yields for the B2 scenario. Farm labour demand slightly to moderately increases towards 2050 as related to changes in cropping patterns. Changes in N2O emissions and N leaching compared to the base year are mainly caused by changes in total N inputs from the applied fertilizers and animal manure, which in turn are influenced by changes in crop yields and cropping patterns, whereas NH3 emissions are mainly determined by assumed improvements in manure application techniques. N emissions and N leaching strongly increase in Denmark and Zachodniopomorski, slightly decrease to moderately increase in Flevoland and Midi-Pyrenees, and strongly decrease in Andalucia, except for NH3 emissions which zero to moderately decrease in Flevoland and Denmark. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All tights reserved.
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