scholarly journals Drought and Subsequent Soil Flooding Affect the Growth and Metabolism of Savoy Cabbage

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 13307
Author(s):  
Alessa Barber ◽  
Caroline Müller

An important factor of current climate change is water availability, with both droughts and flooding becoming more frequent. Effects of individual stresses on plant traits are well studied, although less is known about the impacts of sequences of different stresses. We used savoy cabbage to study the consequences of control conditions (well-watered) versus continuous drought versus drought followed by soil flooding and a potential recovery phase on shoot growth and leaf metabolism. Under continuous drought, plants produced less than half of the shoot biomass compared to controls, but had a >20% higher water use efficiency. In the soil flooding treatment, plants exhibited the poorest growth performance, particularly after the “recovery” phase. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio was at least twice as high, whereas amino acid concentrations were lowest in leaves of controls compared to stressed plants. Some glucosinolates, characteristic metabolites of Brassicales, showed lower concentrations, especially in plants of the flooding treatment. Stress-specific investment into different amino acids, many of them acting as osmolytes, as well as glucosinolates, indicate that these metabolites play distinct roles in the responses of plants to different water availability conditions. To reduce losses in crop production, we need to understand plant responses to dynamic climate change scenarios.

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (33) ◽  
pp. 9222-9227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvan Ragettli ◽  
Walter W. Immerzeel ◽  
Francesca Pellicciotti

Mountain ranges are the world’s natural water towers and provide water resources for millions of people. However, their hydrological balance and possible future changes in river flow remain poorly understood because of high meteorological variability, physical inaccessibility, and the complex interplay between climate, cryosphere, and hydrological processes. Here, we use a state-of-the art glacio-hydrological model informed by data from high-altitude observations and the latest climate change scenarios to quantify the climate change impact on water resources of two contrasting catchments vulnerable to changes in the cryosphere. The two study catchments are located in the Central Andes of Chile and in the Nepalese Himalaya in close vicinity of densely populated areas. Although both sites reveal a strong decrease in glacier area, they show a remarkably different hydrological response to projected climate change. In the Juncal catchment in Chile, runoff is likely to sharply decrease in the future and the runoff seasonality is sensitive to projected climatic changes. In the Langtang catchment in Nepal, future water availability is on the rise for decades to come with limited shifts between seasons. Owing to the high spatiotemporal resolution of the simulations and process complexity included in the modeling, the response times and the mechanisms underlying the variations in glacier area and river flow can be well constrained. The projections indicate that climate change adaptation in Central Chile should focus on dealing with a reduction in water availability, whereas in Nepal preparedness for flood extremes should be the policy priority.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 905-913
Author(s):  
Polyana Comino Redivo ◽  
Luciana Sanches ◽  
Marcelo de Carvalho Alves ◽  
Jhonatan Barbosa da Silva

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Sordo-Ward ◽  
Alfredo Granados ◽  
Ana Iglesias ◽  
Luis Garrote ◽  
María Bejarano

We evaluated different management alternatives to enhance potential water availability for agriculture under climate change scenarios. The management goal involved maximizing potential water availability, understood as the maximum volume of water supplied at a certain point of the river network that satisfies a defined demand, and taking into account specified reliability requirements. We focused on potential water availability for agriculture and assumed two types of demands: urban supply and irrigation. If potential water availability was not enough to satisfy all irrigation demands, management measures were applied aiming at achieving a compromise solution between resources and demands. The methodological approach consisted of estimation and comparison of runoff for current and future period under climate change effects, calculation of water availability changes due to changes in runoff, and evaluation of the adaptation choices that can modify the distribution of water availability, under climate change. Adaptation choices include modifying water allocation to agriculture, increasing the reservoir storage capacity, improving the efficiency of urban water use, and modifying water allocation to environmental flows. These management measures were evaluated at the desired points of the river network by applying the Water Availability and Adaptation Policy Analysis (WAAPA) model. We simulated the behavior of a set of reservoirs that supply water for a set of prioritized demands, complying with specified ecological flows and accounting for evaporation losses. We applied the methodology in six representative basins of southern Europe: Duero-Douro, Ebro, Guadalquivir, Po, Maritsa-Evros, and Struma-Strymon. While in some basins, such as the Ebro or Struma-Strymon, measures can significantly increase water availability and compensate for a fraction of water scarcity due to climate change, in other basins, like the Guadalquivir, water availability cannot be enhanced by applying the management measures analyzed, and irrigation water use will have to be reduced.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Kummu ◽  
Matias Heino ◽  
Maija Taka ◽  
Olli Varis ◽  
Daniel Viviroli

<p>The majority of global food production, as we know it, is based on agricultural practices developed within stable Holocene climate conditions. Climate change is altering the key conditions for human societies, such as precipitation, temperature and aridity. Their combined impact on altering the conditions in areas where people live and grow food has not yet, however, been systematically quantified on a global scale. Here, we estimate the impacts of two climate change scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 8.5) on major population centres and food crop production areas at 5 arc-min scale (~10 km at equator) using Holdridge Life Zones (HLZs), a concept that incorporates all the aforementioned climatic characteristics. We found that if rapid growth of GHG emissions is not halted (RCP 8.5), in year 2070, one fifth of the major food production areas and one fourth of the global population centres would experience climate conditions beyond the ones where food is currently produced, and people are living. Our results thus reinforce the importance of following the RCP 2.6 path, as then only a small fraction of food production (5%) and population centres (6%) would face such unprecedented conditions. Several areas experiencing these unprecedented conditions also have low resilience, such as those within Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, and Guinea-Bissau. In these countries over 75% of food production and population would experience unprecedented climatic conditions under RCP 8.5. These and many other hotspot areas require the most urgent attention to secure sustainable development and equity.</p>


Author(s):  
John Saviour Yaw Eleblu ◽  
Eugene Tenkorang Darko ◽  
Eric Yirenkyi Danquah

AbstractClimate smart agriculture (CSA) embodies a blend of innovations, practices, systems, and investment programmes that are used to mitigate against the adverse effects of climate change and variability on agriculture for sustained food production. Food crop production under various climate change scenarios requires the use of improved technologies that are called climate smart agriculture to ensure increased productivity under adverse conditions of increased global temperatures, frequent and more intense storms, floods and drought stresses. This chapter summarizes available information on climate change and climate smart agriculture technologies. It is important to evaluate each climate change scenario and provide technologies that farmers, research scientists, and policy drivers can use to create the desired climate smart agriculture given the array of tools and resources available.


Author(s):  
Zdeněk Žalud ◽  
M. Trnka ◽  
M. Dubrovský ◽  
E. Kocmánková

The increase in the infestation pressure of various pathogens will be one the most important factors limiting the crop production under the future climate conditions. Weather driven NegFry model has been used for estimating future Phytophthora infestans occurrence at four experimental potato stations of the State Institute for Agriculture Supervision and Testing. Both the infestation dates of Phytophthora infestans occurrence and the shape of the critical number curve were analyzed using observed weather data as well as datasets constructed according to four climate change scenarios that were based on two global circulation models. The results show the shift of the infestation pressure to the beginning of the year and describe increasing trend of critical number reaching to detecting of the first Phyto­phtho­ra infestans occurrence for 2025 and 2050. Scenarios created according to HadCM and SRES – A2 seem to be more suitable for disease development.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahtsente Tadese ◽  
Lalit Kumar ◽  
Richard Koech

Understanding the hydrological processes of a watershed in response to climate change is vital to the establishment of sustainable environmental management strategies. This study aimed to evaluate the variability of potential evapotranspiration (PET) and water availability in the Awash River Basin (ARB) under different climate change scenarios and to relate these with long-term drought occurrences in the area. The PET and water availability of the ARB was estimated during the period of 1995–2009 and two future scenarios (2050s and 2070s). The representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) simulations showed an increase in the monthly mean PET from March to August in the 2050s, and all the months in the 2070s. The study also identified a shortage of net water availability in the majority of the months investigated and the occurrence of mild to extreme drought in about 40–50% of the analysed years at the three study locations (Holetta, Koka Dam, and Metehara). The decrease in water availability and an increase in PET, combined with population growth, will aggravate the drought occurrence and food insecurity in the ARB. Therefore, integrated watershed management systems and rehabilitation of forests, as well as water bodies, should be addressed in the ARB to mitigate climate change and water shortage in the area.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Casale ◽  
Daniele Bocchiola

<p>We present here preliminary results in fulfilment of the project IPCC MOUPA (Interdisciplinary Project for assessing current and expected Climate Change impacts on MOUntain PAstures) project, funded by Fondazione Cariplo of Italy, aimed to i) evaluate potentially modified productivity of pasture lands under climate change scenarios, and subsequent on socio-economic, wildlife and biodiversity impacts, within the Italian Alps, and ii) propose management strategies for pasture and multi-functional use of mountain areas.</p><p>In high mountain areas pastures are a source of living for local communities, and further agriculture and livestock supply ecosystems services (ES). In the last century, increase of temperature nearby +1.5°C was observed in the Alpine region, to increase hereon, and future climate scenarios display potential reduction of water availability, with an increase in precipitation extremes, potentially impacting soil moisture, vegetation, and pasture dynamics (phenology/timing), deeply dependent upon precipitation, temperature, and snow cover.</p><p>We here defined some fragility indices (FIs), to sketch the effects of climate change on pastures in the Alps, with special focus on Valtellina valley, in the central Alps of Italy. FIs can be used to highlight pressures experienced by pastures, and thresholds for failure, and to develop policies to i) determine zones needing particular management, and adaptation, ii) monitor trends of global environmental stability, iii) evaluate the overall impact of climate change and anthropic influence, and iv) investigate the dynamics of pasture fragility. We chose indices of climate, productivity, and water usage. Some of these FIs can be evaluated starting from observations, but others have to be calculated using models of pasture growth, and water availability. For this reason, a pasture model Poli-Pasture has been set up to simulate the pasture growth, and to evaluate FIs in the target area.</p><p>To explore the broad range of variability under uncertain future climate, FIs are calculated for present conditions of pastures, and for future projected conditions using i) three climatic scenarios of AR5 of IPCC (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) as depicted by three Global Circulation Models GCMs (EC-Earth, Echam6.0, CCSM4), and ii) four climatic scenarios of the AR6 (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 7.0, RCP 8.5) depicted by three GCMs (EC-Earth3, Echam6.3, CESM2), and some preliminary conclusion are reported for future pasture dynamics, and management therein.</p>


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