|
|
Siebert, S., Webber, H., Zhao, G., Ewert, F., Siebert, S., Webber, H., et al. (2017). Heat stress is overestimated in climate impact studies for irrigated agriculture. Environ. Res. Lett., 12(5), 054023.
Abstract: Climate change will increase the number and severity of heat waves, and is expected to negatively affect crop yields. Here we show for wheat and maize across Europe that heat stress is considerably reduced by irrigation due to surface cooling for both current and projected future climate. We demonstrate that crop heat stress impact assessments should be based on canopy temperature because simulations with air temperatures measured at standard weather stations cannot reproduce differences in crop heat stress between irrigated and rainfed conditions. Crop heat stress was overestimated on irrigated land when air temperature was used with errors becoming larger with projected climate change. Corresponding errors in mean crop yield calculated across Europe for baseline climate 1984-2013 of 0.2 Mg yr(-1) (2%) and 0.6 Mg yr(-1) (5%) for irrigated winter wheat and irrigated grain maize, respectively, would increase to up to 1.5 Mg yr (1) (16%) for irrigated winter wheat and 4.1 Mg yr (1) (39%) for irrigated grain maize, depending on the climate change projection/GCM combination considered. We conclude that climate change impact assessments for crop heat stress need to account explicitly for the impact of irrigation.
|
|
|
|
Siebert, S., Ewert, F., Rezaei, E. E., Kage, H., & Grass, R. (2014). Impact of heat stress on crop yield-on the importance of considering canopy temperature. Environ. Res. Lett., 9(4).
Abstract: Increasing crop productivity while simultaneously reducing the environmental footprint of crop production is considered a major challenge for the coming decades. Even short episodes of heat stress can reduce crop yield considerably causing low resource use efficiency. Studies on the impact of heat stress on crop yields over larger regions generally rely on temperatures measured by standard weather stations at 2 m height. Canopy temperatures measured in this study in field plots of rye were up to 7 degrees C higher than air temperature measured at typical weather station height with the differences in temperatures controlled by soil moisture contents. Relationships between heat stress and grain number derived from controlled environment studies were only confirmed under field conditions when canopy temperature was used to calculate stress thermal time. By using hourly mean temperatures measured by 78 weather stations located across Germany for the period 1994-2009 it is estimated, that mean yield declines in wheat due to heat stress during flowering were 0.7% when temperatures are measured at 2 m height, but yield declines increase to 22% for temperatures measured at the ground. These results suggest that canopy temperature should be simulated or estimated to reduce uncertainty in assessing heat stress impacts on crop yield.
|
|
|
|
Siebert, S., & Ewert, F. (2014). Future crop production threatened by extreme heat. Environ. Res. Lett., 9(4).
Abstract: Heat is considered to be a major stress limiting crop growth and yields. While important findings on the impact of heat on crop yield have been made based on experiments in controlled environments, little is known about the effects under field conditions at larger scales. The study of Deryng et al (2014 Global crop yield response to extreme heat stress under multiple climate change futures Environ. Res. Lett. 9 034011), analysing the impact of heat stress on maize, spring wheat and soya bean under climate change, represents an important contribution to this emerging research field. Uncertainties in the occurrence of heat stress under field conditions, plant responses to heat and appropriate adaptation measures still need further investigation.
|
|
|
|
Siczek, A., Horn, R., Lipiec, J., Usowicz, B., & Łukowski, M. (2015). Effects of soil deformation and surface mulching on soil physical properties and soybean response related to weather conditions. Soil and Tillage Research, 153, 175–184.
Abstract: A field experiment was conducted on Haplic Luvisol developed from loess to assess the effects of soil deformation and straw mulch on soil water status (matric potential), temperature, penetration resistance, soybean growth, seed yield and yield components including straw, protein and oil in 2006-2008. Water use efficiencies related to the amount of rainfall during the growing seasons were calculated for seeds and total above ground biomass. The soil deformation levels (main plots) comprised the following trials: non-compacted (NC, 0 tractor pass), moderately compacted (MC, 3 passes), and strongly compacted (SC, 5 passes). A uniform seedbed in all plots was prepared by harrowing before planting. The main plots included sub-plots without and with surface wheat straw mulch (0.5 kg m(-2)) and the corresponding trials were NC + M, MC + M, SC + M. The amount and distribution of rainfall during the growing season differed among the experimental years with extended drought at bloom-full seed (R2-R6) stages in 2006, good water supply in 2007, and alternative periods with relatively high and low rainfalls in 2008. The effect of soil deformation on matric potential was influenced by weather conditions, soybean growth phase, mulching and depth. The differences were greatest in 2007 and 2008 at R7-R8 growth stages. With increasing deformation level from NC to SC matric potential for 0-15 cm depth during these stages significantly decreased from -401 to -1184 kPa in 2007 and from -1154 to -1432 kPa in 2008. On mulched soil, the corresponding ranges were from -541 to -841 klpa and from -748 to -1386 kPa, respectively. In the dry summer 2006, the differences were smaller and less consistent. Irrespective of soil deformation level, mulching reduced soil temperature in most growth phases but most pronounced initially. Most yield components increased from NC to MC during the experiments which could be attributed to enhanced root water and nutrient uptake rates and decreased from MC to SC due to high soil strength that restrained root growth down to deeper depth. The yields of seeds, straw, protein and oil as well as water productivity of soybean seed and biomass were improved by mulching in 2007-2008. This improvement was more pronounced in 2007 when the mean yield of seeds, protein and oil were significantly greater by 16, 29 and 11%, respectively and was attributed to positive alterations in soil water retention. These results indicate the possibilities of improvement in soybean performance by identifying allowable amount of traffic and mulching practices at planting depending on weather fluctuations during the growing season. Since rainfall and air temperature distribution in 2007 are close to those averaged over a long period of time, the use of straw mulch may positively affect soybean performance and yields excluding anomalously dry years. The positive effect of straw mulch can be enhanced by moderate soil deformation combined with seedbed loosening before planting to avoid constraining effect of soil structure on crop establishment. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
Shrestha, S., Abdalla, M., Hennessy, T., Forristal, D., & Jones, M. B. (2015). Irish farms under climate change – is there a regional variation on farm responses? J. Agric. Sci., 153(03), 385–398.
Abstract: The current paper aims to determine regional impacts of climate change on Irish farms examining the variation in farm responses. A set of crop growth models were used to determine crop and grass yields under a baseline scenario and a future climate scenario. These crop and grass yields were used along with farm-level data taken from the Irish National Farm Survey in an optimizing farm-level (farm-level linear programming) model, which maximizes farm profits under limiting resources. A change in farm net margins under the climate change scenario compared to the baseline scenario was taken as a measure to determine the effect of climate change on farms. The growth models suggested a decrease in cereal crop yields (up to 9%) but substantial increase in yields of forage maize (up to 97%) and grass (up to 56%) in all regions. Farms in the border, midlands and south-east regions suffered, whereas farms in all other regions generally fared better under the climate change scenario used in the current study. The results suggest that there is a regional variability between farms in their responses to the climate change scenario. Although substituting concentrate feed with grass feeds is the main adaptation on all livestock farms, the extent of such substitution differs between farms in different regions. For example, large dairy farms in the south-east region adopted total substitution of concentrate feed while similar dairy farms in the south-west region opted to replace only 0.30 of concentrate feed. Farms in most of the regions benefitted from increasing stocking rate, except for sheep farms in the border and dairy farms in the south-east regions. The tillage farms in the mid-east region responded to the climate change scenario by shifting arable production to beef production on farms.
|
|
