scholarly journals Impact of rainfall variability on soybean yields in Southern Brazil

Author(s):  
Felipe Gustavo Pilau ◽  
Fabio Ricardo Marin ◽  
Daniel Grubert ◽  
Genei Antonio Dalmago

Abstract As the third soybean-producer state in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul (RS) presents a known year-on-year unevenness for soybean production, mainly due to water availability. This study aimed to assess the weather effects, with special focus on rainfall during 25 soybean growing seasons and 11 producing regions around the State. Sites were divided into three Clusters according to soybean yield and the effect of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was considered in association with soil water balance. Neutral ENSO phases occurred in 32% of the years, while El Niño and La Ninã occurring in 36% and 32% of the years, respectively. Seasons under El Niño normally present higher accumulated rainfall, whereas those under La Niña present a reduction. Data from neutral-year sites of Clusters B and C seems to be more disturbed. No season had statistical difference of rainfall among Clusters under Neutral conditions. In addition, thermal gradient in RS from October to January benefited sites of Cluster A. Interaction of soils with higher water-storage capacity and cooler temperature reduces the water consumption by soybeans, causing lower values of water deficiency. A boundary function relating soybean yield and rainfall displays the limit of 800 mm for significant yield increments, and such amounts of rainfall were only achieved in El Niño seasons. The combined effect of rainfall and soil type on soybean yield, represented by the actual soybean yields-water deficit relationship, led to water propitiate from -3.7 to -15.2 kg mm-1 ha-1. Decision-making on public policies and investments on the soybean industry can be supported from our results, either to better planning the investments on the soybean farming systems depending on the ENSO phase predictions, either to reduce the production risks in the region inherent to local weather.

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1595-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. D. Rotstayn ◽  
M. A. Collier ◽  
R. M. Mitchell ◽  
Y. Qin ◽  
S. K. Campbell

Abstract. Average dust emissions from Australia are small compared to those from the major sources in the Northern Hemisphere. However, they are highly episodic, and this may increase the importance of Australian dust as a climate feedback agent. We compare two 160-year coupled atmosphere-ocean simulations of modern-day climate using the CSIRO Mark 3.6 global climate model (GCM). The first run (DUST) includes an interactive treatment of mineral dust and its direct radiative effects. The second run (NODUST) is otherwise identical, but has the Australian dust source set to zero. We focus on the austral spring season, when the correlation between rainfall and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is strongest over Australia. We find that the ENSO-rainfall relationship over eastern Australia is stronger in the DUST run: dry (El Niño) years tend to be drier, and wet (La Niña) years wetter. The ENSO-rainfall relationship is also weaker over north-western Australia in the DUST run. The amplification of ENSO-related rainfall variability over eastern Australia and the weaker ENSO-rainfall relationship over the north-west both represent an improvement relative to observations. The suggested mechanism over eastern Australia involves stabilisation of the surface layer due to enhanced atmospheric heating and surface cooling in El Niño years, and enhanced ascent and moisture convergence driven by atmospheric heating in La Niña years. The results suggest that (1) a realistic treatment of Australian dust may be necessary for accurate simulation of the ENSO-rainfall relationship over Australia, and (2) radiative feedbacks involving dust may be important for understanding natural rainfall variability over Australia.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (30) ◽  
pp. 1824-1844
Author(s):  
Simon Muti ◽  
◽  
W Ng'etich ◽  

Although the equatorial Eastern region of Africa is adjacent to the Indian Ocean, it tends to exhibit a drier climate rather than one characterized by abundant tropical rains. A number of studies on rainfall variability in the East African region have tended to suggest a stronger influence of local factors in controlling rainfall amounts and their characteristics rather than the global wind circulation system. A climatic phenomenon that is locally termed “June winds” is unique to East Africa’s coastal region. The study mainly involved analysing rainfall anomalies and means of 39- year meteorological data from the region and data from earlier studies about the region. The results indicate that June winds occur annually after the onset of long rains between the months of May and June. They impart subsidence, drying and cloud free conditions, altering the climatological properties in the areas they traverse. The attainment of peak June wind velocities causes a characteristic depression in rainfall probability and amounts on their course, similar to the ‘Ganges depression’ of temperatures in the Indian subcontinent, which in turn affects available soil moisture for crop growth. The results also reveal existence of years of “above-normal rains” (herein referred to as El Niño years) and years of “below-normal rains” (herein referred to as La Niña years) which are associated and modulated by El Niño southern oscillation. They also reveal that drought years tend to occur in succession and that the June winds tend to be suppressed or absent during El Niño years, but strongly associate with La Niña years. The study suggests that the frequency and therefore the ratio of La Niña years to El Niño years have been increasing. The study also suggests possibility of developing a decision support system for farmers in resource use and allocation based predicted time of occurrence of the June winds.


Agrometeoros ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Matzenauer ◽  
Bernadete Radin ◽  
Alberto Cargnelutti Filho

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a relação entre o fenômeno El Niño Oscilação Sul - ENOS e o rendimento de grãos de soja e de milho no Rio Grande do Sul e verificar a hipótese de que os eventos El Niño são favoráveis e os eventos La Niña são prejudiciais ao rendimento de grãos das culturas. Foram utilizados dados de rendimento de grãos dos anos agrícolas de 1974/75 a 2016/17, e relacionados com as ocorrências de eventos ENOS. Foram analisados os dados de rendimento observados na colheita e os dados estimados com a remoção da tendência tecnológica. Os resultados mostraram que não houve diferença significativa do rendimento médio de grãos de soja e de milho na comparação entre os eventos ENOS. Palavras-chave: El Niño, La Niña, safras agrícolas. Abstract – The objective of this work was to evaluate the relationship between the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon with the grain yield of soybean and maize in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil and to verify the hypothesis that the El Niño events are favorable and the La Niña events are harmful to the culture’s grain yields. Were used data from the agricultural years of 1974/75 to 2016/17, and related to the occurrence of ENOS events. We analyzed income data observed at harvest and estimated data with technological tendency was removed. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the average yield of soybeans and corn in the comparison between events.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7987
Author(s):  
Mehmet Balcilar ◽  
Elie Bouri ◽  
Rangan Gupta ◽  
Christian Pierdzioch

We use the heterogenous autoregressive (HAR) model to compute out-of-sample forecasts of the monthly realized variance (RV) of movements of the spot and futures price of heating oil. We extend the HAR–RV model to include the role of El Niño and La Niña episodes, as captured by the Equatorial Southern Oscillation Index (EQSOI). Using data from June 1986 to April 2021, we show evidence for several model configurations that both El Niño and La Niña phases contain information useful for forecasting subsequent to the realized variance of price movements beyond the predictive value already captured by the HAR–RV model. The predictive value of La Niña phases, however, seems to be somewhat stronger than the predictive value of El Niño phases. Our results have important implications for investors, as well as from the perspective of sustainable decisions involving the environment.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 3321-3335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masamichi Ohba ◽  
Masahiro Watanabe

Warm and cold phases of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibit a significant asymmetry in their transition/duration such that El Niño tends to shift rapidly to La Niña after the mature phase, whereas La Niña tends to persist for up to 2 yr. The possible role of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Indian Ocean (IO) in this ENSO asymmetry is investigated using a coupled general circulation model (CGCM). Decoupled-IO experiments are conducted to assess asymmetric IO feedbacks to the ongoing ENSO evolution in the Pacific. Identical-twin forecast experiments show that a coupling of the IO extends the skillful prediction of the ENSO warm phase by about one year, which was about 8 months in the absence of the IO coupling, in which a significant drop of the prediction skill around the boreal spring (known as the spring prediction barrier) is found. The effect of IO coupling on the predictability of the Pacific SST is significantly weaker in the decay phase of La Niña. Warm IO SST anomalies associated with El Niño enhance surface easterlies over the equatorial western Pacific and hence facilitate the El Niño decay. However, this mechanism cannot be applied to cold IO SST anomalies during La Niña. The result of these CGCM experiments estimates that approximately one-half of the ENSO asymmetry arises from the phase-dependent nature of the Indo-Pacific interbasin coupling.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Rivera

An alternative physical mechanism is proposed to describe the occurrence of the episodic El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and La Nina climatic phenomena. This is based on the earthquake-perturbed obliquity change (EPOCH) model previously discovered as a major cause of the global climate change problem. Massive quakes impart a very strong oceanic force that can move the moon which in turn pulls the earth’s axis and change the planetary obliquity. Analysis of the annual geomagnetic north-pole shift and global seismic data revealed this previously undiscovered force. Using a higher obliquity in the global climate model EdGCM and constant greenhouse gas forcing showed that the seismic-induced polar motion and associated enhanced obliquity could be the major mechanism governing the mysterious climate anomalies attributed to El Nino and La Nina cycles.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-211
Author(s):  
E. Dietze ◽  
A. Kleber ◽  
M. Schwikowski

Abstract. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important element of earth's ocean-climate system. To further understand its past variability, proxy records from climate archives need to be studied. Ice cores from high alpine glaciers may contain high resolution ENSO proxy information, given the glacier site is climatologically sensitive to ENSO. We investigated signals of ENSO in the climate of the subtropical Andes in the proximity of Cerro Tapado glacier (30°08' S, 69°55' W, 5550 m a.s.l.), where a 36 m long ice core was drilled in 1999 (Ginot, 2001). We used annual and semi-annual precipitation and temperature time series from regional meteorological stations and interpolated grids for correlation analyses with ENSO indices and ice core-derived proxies (net accumulation, stable isotope ratio δ18O, major ion concentrations). The total time period investigated here comprises 1900 to 2000, but varies with data sets. Only in the western, i.e. Mediterranean Andes precipitation is higher (lower) during El Niño (La Niña) events, especially at higher altitudes, due to the latitudinal shift of frontal activity during austral winters. However, the temperature response to ENSO is more stable in space and time, being higher (lower) during El Niño (La Niña) events in most of the subtropical Andes all year long. From a northwest to southeast teleconnection gradient, we suggest a regional water vapour feedback triggers temperature anomalies as a function of ENSO-related changes in regional pressure systems, Pacific sea surface temperature and tropical moisture input. Tapado glacier ice proxies are found to be predominantly connected to eastern Andean summer rain climate, which contradicts previous studies and the modern mean spatial boundary between subtropical summer and winter rain climate derived from the grid data. The only ice core proxy showing a response to ENSO is the major ion concentrations, via local temperature indicating reduced sublimation and mineral dust input during El Niño years.


Author(s):  
Arini Wahyu Utami ◽  
Jamhari Jamhari ◽  
Suhatmini Hardyastuti

Paddy and maize are two important food crops in Indonesia and mainly produced in Java Island. This research aimed to know the impact of El Nino and La Nina on paddy and maize farmer’s supply in Java. Cross sectional data from four provinces in Java was combined with time series data during 1987-2006. Paddy supply was estimated using log model, while maize supply used autoregressive model; each was estimated using two types of regression function. First, it included dummy variable of El Nino and La Nina to know their influence into paddy and maize supply. Second, Southern Oscillation Index was used to analyze the supply changing when El Nino or La Nina occur. The result showed that El Nino and La Nina did not influence paddy supply, while La Nina influenced maize supply in Java. Maize supply increased when La Nina occurred.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 1093-1098
Author(s):  
Zahidul Islam

Classification of El Niño and La Niña years in a historical time period is necessary to analyze their impacts on hydrology and water resources management. In this study, various El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices, and how they are used to classify El Niño or La Niña years have been reviewed. Based on the review, a simple method of classifying El Niño or La Niña years has been proposed.


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