Dono, G., Cortignani, R., Doro, L., Giraldo, L., Ledda, L., Pasqui, M., et al. (2013). Adapting to uncertainty associated with short-term climate variability changes in irrigated Mediterranean farming systems. Agricultural Systems, 117, 1–12.
Abstract: Short-term perspectives appear to be relevant in formulating adaptation measures to changed climate variability (CCV) as a part of the European Rural Development Policy (RDP). Indeed, short-run CCV is the variation that farmers would perceive to such an extent that a political demand would be generated for adapting support measures. This study evaluates some relevant agronomic and economic impacts of CCV as modelled in a near future time period at the catchment scale in a rural district in Sardinia (Italy). The effects of CCV are assessed in relation to the availability of irrigation water and the irrigation needs of maize. The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model was used to simulate the impact of key climatic variables on the irrigation water requirements and yields of maize. A three-stage discrete stochastic programming model was then applied to simulate management and economic responses to those changes. The overall economic impact of a simulated CCV was found to be primarily caused by reduced stability in the future supply of irrigation water. Adaptations to this instability will most likely lead to a higher level of groundwater extraction and a reduction in the demand for labour. Changed climate variability will most likely reduce the income potential of small-scale farming. The most CCV-vulnerable farm typologies were identified, and the implications were discussed in relation to the development of adaptation measures within the context of the Common Agricultural Policy of European Union. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Calanca, P., & Semenov, M. A. (2013). Local-scale climate scenarios for impact studies and risk assessments: integration of early 21st century ENSEMBLES projections into the ELPIS database. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 113(3-4), 445–455.
Abstract: We present the integration of early 21st century climate projections for Europe based on simulations carried out within the EU-FP6 ENSEMBLES project with the LARS-WG stochastic weather generator. The aim was to upgrade ELPIS, a repository of local-scale climate scenarios for use in impact studies and risk assessments that already included global projections from the CMIP3 ensemble and regional scenarios for Japan. To obtain a more reliable simulation of daily rainfall and extremes, changes in wet and dry series derived from daily ENSEMBLES outputs were taken into account. Kernel average smoothers were used to reduce noise arising from sampling artefacts. Examples of risk analyses based on 25-km climate projections from the ENSEMBLES ensemble of regional climate models illustrate the possibilities offered by the updated version of ELPIS. The results stress the importance of tailored information for local-scale impact assessments at the European level.
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Leogrande, R., Lopedota, O., Montemurro, F., Vitti, C., & Ventrella, D. (2012). Effects of irrigation regime and salinity on soil characteristics and yield of tomato. Ital. J. Agron., 7(1), 8.
Abstract: A field experiment was conducted in Mediterranean conditions to evaluate the effects of different irrigation volumes and water quality on yield performance of tomato crop. The tomato crop was irrigated reestablishing 50 (I1), 75 (I2) and 100% (I3) of the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) with two water quality: fresh water with EC 0.9 dS m-1 (FW) and saline water with EC 6 dSm-1 (SW). At harvest, total and marketable yield, weight, number, total soluble solids (TSS) and dry matter of fruit were calculated, The results showed no statistical differences among the three different irrigation volumes on tomato yield and quality. The salinity treatment did not affect yield, probably because the soil salinity in the root zone on average remained below the threshold of tomato salt tolerance. Instead, salinity improved fruit quality parameters as dry matter and TSS by 13 and 8%, respectively. After the first field application of saline water, soil saturated extract cations (SSEC), electrical conductivity of soil paste extract (ECe), sodium absorption ratio (SAR) and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) cations increased; the largest increase of cations, in particular of Na, occurred in the top layer. At the end of the experiment, the absolute value of SSEC, ECe and SAR, for all the effects studied, were lower than those recorded in 2007. This behavior was suitable to the reduced volumes of treatments administered in 2009 in respect to the 2007. Furthermore, the higher total rainfall recorded in 2009 increased the leaching and downward movement of salts out of the sampling depth.
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Bernardoni, E., Acutis, M., & Ventrella, D. (2012). Long-term durum wheat monoculture: modelling and future projection. Ital. J. Agron., 7(1), 13.
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Raymundo, R., Asseng, S., Prassad, R., Kleinwechter, U., Concha, J., Condori, B., et al. (2017). Performance of the SUBSTOR-potato model across contrasting growing conditions. Field Crops Research, 202, 57–76.
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