Evolution of drought severity and its impact on corn in the Republic of Moldova

Droughts in Moldova were evaluated using meteorological data since 1955 and a long time series (1891?C2009). In addition, yields for corn (Zea mays L.), a crop widely grown in Moldova, were used to demonstrate drought impact. The main aim is to propose use of the S _i (S _i-a and S _i-m) drought index while discussing its potential use in studying the evolution of drought severity in Moldova. Also, a new multi-scalar drought index, the standardized precipitation?Cevapotranspiration index (SPEI), is tested for the first time in identifying drought variability in Moldova while comparing it with the commonly used standardized precipitation index (SPI). S _i-m, SPI, SPEI, and S _i-a indices show an increasing tendency toward more intensive and prolonged severely dry and extremely dry summer months. Drought frequency increased through six decades, which included long dry periods in the 1990s and 2000s. Moreover, the evolution of summer evapotranspiration recorded a positive and significant trend (+3.3?mm/year, R ²?=?0.46; p????0.05) between 1955 and 2009. A yield model based on the S _i-a agricultural index and historic corn yields explained 43% of observed variability in corn production when drought occurred in May, July, and August. Increasing severity of the 20-year drought during the critical part of the growing season is raising corn yield losses, as net losses have so far exceeded net gains.     

How is CO2 affecting yields and technological progress? A statistical analysis

This paper analyzes the impact of climate, crop production technology, and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) on current and future crop yields. The analysis of crop yields endeavors to advance the literature by estimating the effect of atmospheric CO₂ on observed crop yields. This is done using an econometric model estimated over pooled historical data for 1950–2009 and data from the free air CO₂ enrichment experiments. The main econometric findings are: 1) Yields of C3 crops (soybeans, cotton, and wheat) directly respond to the elevated CO₂, while yields of C4 crops (corn and sorghum) do not, but they are found to indirectly benefit from elevated CO₂ in times and places of drought stress; 2) The effect of technological progress on mean yields is non-linear; 3) Ignoring atmospheric CO₂ in an econometric model of crop yield likely leads to overestimates of the pure effects of technological progress on crop yields of about 51, 15, 17, 9, and 1 % of observed yield gain for cotton, soybeans, wheat, corn and sorghum, respectively; 4) Average climate conditions and climate variability contribute in a statistically significant way to average crop yields and their variability; and 5) The effect of CO₂ fertilization generally outweighs the effect of climate change on mean crop yields in many regions resulting in an increase of 7–22, 4–47, 5–26, 65–96, and 3–35 % for yields of corn, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, and wheat, respectively.     

Combining the standardized precipitation index and climatic water deficit in characterizing droughts: a case study in Romania

This paper characterizes droughts in Romania using the approach of both the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and climatic water deficit (WD). The values of the main climatic factors (rainfall, temperature, reference evapotranspiration, etc.) were obtained from 192 weather stations in various regions of Romania. Penman–Monteith reference evapotranspiration (ET_o-PM) was used to calculate WD as the difference between precipitation (P) and ET_o-PM. SPI was calculated from precipitation values. There is a clear difference between drought and aridity. Drought occurrence determines higher WD values for plains and plateaus and lower climatic excess water (EW) values for high mountains in Romania, depending on the aridity of the specific region considered and drought severity. WD calculated as mean values for both normal conditions and, for all locations studied, various types of drought was correlated with mean annual precipitation and temperature, respectively. The combined approach of WD and SPI was mainly carried out for periods of 1 year, but such studies could also be done for shorter periods like months, quarters, or growing season. The most arid regions did not necessarily coincide with areas of the most severe drought, as there were no correlations between WD and SPI and no altitude-based SPI zones around the Carpathian Mountains, as is the case for other climate characteristics, soils and vegetation. Water resource problems arise where both SPI values characterize extremely droughty periods and WD values are greatly below ?200 mm/year. This combined use of SPI and WD characterizes the dryness of a region better than one factor alone and should be used for better management of water in agriculture in Romania and also other countries with similar climate characteristics.     

新疆塔城地区1961—2021年季节性干旱演变特征

利用塔城地区9个国家气象观测站1961—2021年逐月降水资料,基于标准化降水量指数(SPI)运用最小二乘法和Mann-Kendall检验等方法分析塔城地区干旱时空分布特征。结果表明：(1)年尺度上,塔城地区干旱发生频率为30.37%,轻旱发生最多,中旱次之；2/3站点SPI呈显著增大趋势,年站次比和干旱强度呈显著减小趋势,干旱程度有所减轻,在1987年之后塔城干旱程度整体偏轻。(2)季节尺度上,夏、秋、冬季在1980年代中期发生干旱减轻的突变,且秋季和冬季分别在2002年和1997年达到显著。(3)在影响范围方面,各季以局域性和全域性干旱为主,全域性干旱发生频率介于20～30%之间；在干旱强度方面,各季轻度干旱发生频率最高,中度以上干旱发生频率介于33～38%之间。(4)近60a塔城地区季节性干旱呈现影响范围缩小,强度减弱的变化趋势,尤其是冬季干旱站次比和干旱强度分别以-7.79%.(10a)-1^和-0.11.(10a)-1^的倾向率显著减小,干旱减轻趋势在四季中最为显著。     

Climate change impact assessment: the role of climate extremes in crop yield simulation

This work was aimed at assessing the role of climate extremes in climate change impact assessment of typical winter and summer Mediterranean crops by using Regional Circulation Model (RCM) outputs as drivers of a modified version of the CropSyst model. More specifically, climate change effects were investigated on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) development and yield under the A2 and B2 scenarios of the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). The direct impact of extreme climate events (i.e. heat stress at anthesis stage) was also included. The increase in both mean temperatures and temperature extremes under A2 and B2 scenarios (2071?C2100) resulted in: a general advancement of the main phenological stages, shortening of the growing season and an increase in the frequency of heat stress during anthesis with respect to the baseline (1961?C1990). The potential impact of these changes on crop yields was evaluated. It was found that winter and summer crops may possess a different fitting capacity to climate change. Sunflower, cultivated in the southern regions of the Mediterranean countries, was more prone to the direct effect of heat stress at anthesis and drought during its growing cycle. These factors resulted in severe yield reduction. In contrast, the lower frequency of heat stress and drought allowed the winter wheat crop to attain increased yields with respect to the baseline period. It can be concluded that the impact of extreme events should be included in crop-modelling approaches, otherwise there is the risk of underestimating crop yield losses, which in turn would result in the application of incorrect policies for coping with climate change.     

作物气象灾害危害性的多目标灰色局势决策

计算了１９９１年７月４－９日的梅雨锋强度降水过程的热源Ｑ１和水汽汇Ｑ２，结果表明，存在着两类云系即对流云和层状云对Ｑ１和Ｑ２的结构产生影响。对流加热发生在强降水区上空，而层状云加热发生在对流区周围的弱降水区上空，在对流加热区，大量的潜热释放形成最的热源和水汽汇，热源峰值出现在上部对流层，水汽汇峰值出现在下部对流层，在层状云区，通常０℃层以上为热源和水汽汇，０℃层以下的热汇和水汽源，层状云引起的Ｑ１     

内蒙古典型农牧交错区作物优化布局决策分析

利用线性规划方法,以赤峰地区的巴林左旗为例,分析了内蒙古典型农牧交错区在各种干旱年型以及干旱年型未定的情况下,农作物的最优种植方案。并将此优化方案结果与实际作物种植情况进行效益分析评价,以验证此方案的增产效益,降低种植风险。结果表明:使用确定型或随机型优化方案,实际产量均有明显增产,并且确定型优化方案的增产效益高于随机型方案。但由于受到长期天气预报技术水平的限制,有时未来的干旱年型难以准确判定,此时使用随机型方案,粮食作物增产效益稳定,风险性低。     

基于SPI的1961－2020年昌吉地区作物生长季气象干旱时空特征研究

基于昌吉地区7个气象站1961－2020年降水量资料，计算昌吉地区作物生长季标准化降水指数（SPI-7）。运用趋势分析法、M-K突变检验法和小波分析法探究了昌吉地区作物生长季SPI-7指数的年际和年代变化特征；在此基础上分析了作物生长季干旱的站次比和干旱强度的年际变化,并结合该区实际发生的旱灾对SPI进行了验证。结果表明：1961—2020年昌吉地区作物生长季标准化降水指数以0.08/10 a的速率呈微弱的正趋势（变湿），在年代变化趋势中呈现出变干-变湿-变干的变化波动, 1981年标准化降水指数由低到高突变；干旱强度呈增加趋势，干旱发生的区域面积有轻微减少的趋势；干旱强度在全区范围内主要为轻旱和中旱等级，并表现为全域性干旱和区域性干旱；空间分布上看干旱率最高区域在东部地区，轻旱主要集中在东部，中旱、重旱和特旱集中在西部地区，干旱强度大的区域大致分布在西部地区；在周期性变化方面，SPI指数存在着6年、9年、16年周期震荡；历史旱灾与SPI指数干旱评价结果吻合率较高，SPI指数在昌吉地区作物生长季的干旱监测与分析中具有较好的实用性。     

Variability of droughts in the Czech Republic, 1881–2006

We analyze droughts in the Czech Republic from 1881–2006 based on the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) and the Z-index using averaged national temperature and precipitation series for the calculations. The standardized precipitation index (SPI), PDSI and Z-index series show an increasing tendency towards longer and more intensive dry episodes in which, for example, droughts that occurred in the mid-1930s, late 1940s–early 1950s, late 1980s–early 1990s and early 2000s were the most severe. Cycles at periods of 3.4–3.5, 4.2–4.3, 5.0–5.1 and 15.4 years exceeded 95% confidence levels in application of maximum entropy spectral analysis. These are expressed at different intensities throughout the period studied. The occurrence of extremely dry and severely dry months is associated with a higher frequency of anticyclonic situations according to the classification employed by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. Principal component analysis documents the importance of the ridge from the Siberian High over Central Europe when extreme and severe droughts in months of the winter half-year are considered in terms of sea-level pressure. In the summer half-year, the ridge of the Azores High over Central Europe is the most important. Drought episodes have a profound effect on national and regional agricultural production, with yields being consistently lower than in normal years, as is documented through the example of spring barley, winter wheat, forage crops on arable land, and hay from meadows. Seasons with pronounced drought during the April–June period (e.g., 1947 and 2000) show the most significant yield decreases. Forests appear to be very vulnerable to long-term drought episodes, as it was the case during the dry years of 1992–1994. This study clearly confirms the statistically significant tendency to more intensive dry episodes in the region, driven by temperature increase and precipitation decrease, which has already been suggested in other studies.     

气象干旱指数在东北春玉米干旱监测中的改进

利用土壤相对湿度数据和县级春玉米单产数据,在气象干旱指数SWAP（standardized weighted average of precipitation）的基础上,研究我国东北地区春玉米受干旱影响的界限指标,结果表明:SWAP在春玉米播种-出苗期低于-0.9,出苗-拔节期低于-1.0,拔节-抽穗期低于-1.2,抽穗-乳熟期低于-0.7时,土壤相对湿度偏低,即气象干旱一般为中旱时,不利于春玉米生长。以此构建春玉米干旱指数,对比我国东北地区春玉米干旱指数与省级农作物干旱受灾面积的关系,发现两者相关关系显著,尤其在典型干旱年份,两者对应关系更好,说明构建的东北地区春玉米干旱指数能够较好地反映干旱对春玉米的实际影响。利用东北地区县级春玉米单产数据对春玉米干旱指数进行等级划分,划分结果可为东北地区春玉米防旱减灾和安全生产提供参考。     

Drought episodes over Greece as simulated by dynamical and statistical downscaling approaches

Drought over the Greek region is characterized by a strong seasonal cycle and large spatial variability. Dry spells longer than 10 consecutive days mainly characterize the duration and the intensity of Greek drought. Moreover, an increasing trend of the frequency of drought episodes has been observed, especially during the last 20 years of the 20th century. Moreover, the most recent regional circulation models (RCMs) present discrepancies compared to observed precipitation, while they are able to reproduce the main patterns of atmospheric circulation. In this study, both a statistical and a dynamical downscaling approach are used to quantify drought episodes over Greece by simulating the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for different time steps (3, 6, and 12 months). A statistical downscaling technique based on artificial neural network is employed for the estimation of SPI over Greece, while this drought index is also estimated using the RCM precipitation for the time period of 1961–1990. Overall, it was found that the drought characteristics (intensity, duration, and spatial extent) were well reproduced by the regional climate models for long term drought indices (SPI12) while ANN simulations are better for the short-term drought indices (SPI3).

     

Evolution of meteorological drought characteristics in Vietnam during the 1961–2007 period

The drought conditions over the seven sub-climatological regions in Vietnam are examined using three meteorological drought indices: de Martonne J, PED, and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). According to the seasonal probabilities of drought occurrence estimated by the de Martonne index, droughts mainly occur between November and March in all the sub-regions. The PED index and the SPI index generally show high probabilities of drought occurrence from April to August and from May to October, respectively. In the southern sub-regions of Vietnam, droughts more frequently occur in El Niño years and wet conditions are more frequently observed in La Niña years. However, such El Niño–Southern Oscillation influences are not clearly observed in the northern sub-regions. During 1961–2007, droughts significantly increased in the northern part of Vietnam. In the southern regions, PED shows increasing drought conditions while J and SPI show decreasing drought trends for almost all the stations.     

A Measurement Based Sensitivity Analysis of the Penman-Monteith Actual Evapotranspiration Model for Crops of Different Height and in Contrasting Water Status

Summary This paper presents a study of the sensibility of the Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration model to climatic (available energy and vapour pressure deficit) and parametric (aerodynamic and canopy resistances, r _a and r _c respectively) factors in a semi-arid climate, for crops in contrasting water status (well irrigated and under water stress) and of different heights. Three experiments were carried out in southern Italy on reference grass (≈ 0.1 m), grain sorghum (≈ 1 m) and sweet sorghum (≈ 3 m). For this analysis the sensitivity coefficients, taken as hourly means, were evaluated during the growth season when the crops completely covered the soil. The relative errors on evapotranspiration were also evaluated for r _a and r _c . The results showed that, for reference grass, available energy and aerodynamic resistance play a major role. For crops under water stress the most important term to evaluate is canopy resistance. For a tall crop, as sweet sorghum, the role of the vapour pressure deficit is fundamental, both when the crop is in good water status and under water stress. Received July 14, 1997 Revised February 5, 1998     

Impacts of extreme weather on wheat and maize in France: evaluating regional crop simulations against observed data

Extreme weather conditions can strongly affect agricultural production, with negative impacts that can at times be detected at regional scales. In France, crop yields were greatly influenced by drought and heat stress in 2003 and by extremely wet conditions in 2007. Reported regional maize and wheat yields where historically low in 2003; in 2007 wheat yields were lower and maize yields higher than long-term averages. An analysis with a spatial version (10?×?10?km) of the EPIC crop model was tested with regards to regional crop yield anomalies of wheat and maize resulting from extreme weather events in France in 2003 and 2007, by comparing simulated results against reported regional crops statistics, as well as using remotely sensed soil moisture data. Causal relations between soil moisture and crop yields were specifically analyzed. Remotely sensed (AMSR-E) JJA soil moisture correlated significantly with reported regional crop yield for 2002–2007. The spatial correlation between JJA soil moisture and wheat yield anomalies was positive in dry 2003 and negative in wet 2007. Biweekly soil moisture data correlated positively with wheat yield anomalies from the first half of June until the second half of July in 2003. In 2007, the relation was negative the first half of June until the second half of August. EPIC reproduced observed soil dynamics well, and it reproduced the negative wheat and maize yield anomalies of the 2003 heat wave and drought, as well as the positive maize yield anomalies in wet 2007. However, it did not reproduce the negative wheat yield anomalies due to excessive rains and wetness in 2007. Results indicated that EPIC, in line with other crop models widely used at regional level in climate change studies, is capable of capturing the negative impacts of droughts on crop yields, while it fails to reproduce negative impacts of heavy rain and excessively wet conditions on wheat yield, due to poor representations of critical factors affecting plant growth and management. Given that extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and perhaps severity in coming decades, improved model representation of crop damage due to extreme events is warranted in order to better quantify future climate change impacts and inform appropriate adaptation responses.     

Multivariate drought frequency estimation using copula method in Southwest China

This study reveals the impacts of climatic variable trends on drought severity in Xinjiang, China. Four drought indices, including the self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (sc-PDSI), Erinç’s index (I _m), Sahin’s index (I _sh), and UNEP aridity index (AI), were used to compare drought severity. The ensemble empirical mode decomposition and the modified Mann-Kendall trend test were applied to analyze the nonlinear components and trends of the climatic variable and drought indices. Four and six climatic scenarios were generated in sc-PDSI, I _m, I _sh, and AI with different combinations of the observed and detrended climatic variables, respectively. In Xinjiang, generally increasing trends in minimal, average, and maximal air temperature (T _min, T _ave, T _max) and precipitation (P) were found, whereas a decreasing trend in wind speed at 2 m height (U ₂) was observed. There were significantly increasing trends in all of the four studied drought indices. Drought relief was more obvious in northern Xinjiang than in southern Xinjiang. The strong influences of increased P on drought relief and the weak influences of increased T _min, T _ave, and T _max on drought aggravation were shown by comparing four drought indices under different climate scenarios. Decreased U ₂ had a weak influence on drought, as shown by the AI in different climate scenarios. The weak influences of T and U ₂ were considered to be masked by the strong influences of P on droughts. Droughts were expected to be more severe if P did not increase, but were likely milder without an increase in air temperature and with a decrease in U ₂.     

Calibration of weather radar using region probability matching method (RPMM)

In this paper, spatiotemporal variability of drought in Xilingol grassland during pasture growing season (from April to September) was investigated, using 52 years (1961–2012) of precipitation data recorded at 14 rain gauge stations in the study area. The Standardized Precipitation Index was used to compute the severity of drought. The Mann-Kendall test, the linear trend, and the sequential Mann-Kendall test were applied to standardized precipitation index (SPI) time series. The results indicate that drought has become increasingly serious on the region scale during pasture growing season, and the rate of SPI decreases ranged from ?0.112 to ?0.013 per decade. As for the MK test, most of the stations, the Z value range is from ?1.081 to ?0.005 and Kendall’s τ varies from ?0.104 to ?0.024. Meanwhile, drought is increased obviously from the northwest to the southeast region. Meanwhile, the occurrence probability of each severity class, times for reaching different drought class from any drought severity state, and residence times in each drought class have been obtained with Markov chain. Furthermore, the drought severities during pasture growing season in 2013–2016 are predicted depending on the weighted Markov chain. The results may provide a scientific basis for preventing and mitigating drought disaster.     

The impacts of climate change on the winter hardiness zones of woody plants in Europe

The potential impacts of climate change on potatoes cropping in the Peruvian highlands (Altiplano) is assessed using climate projections for 2071–2100, obtained from the HadRM3P regional atmospheric model of the Hadley Centre. The atmospheric model is run under two different special report on emission scenarios: high CO₂ concentration (A2) and moderate CO₂ concentration (B2) for four locations situated in the surroundings of Lake Titicaca. The two main varieties of potato cultivated in the area are studied: the Andean potato (Solanum tuberosum) and the bitter potato (Solanum juzepczukii). A simple process-oriented model is used to quantify the climatic impacts on crops cycles and yields by combining the effects of temperature on phenology, of radiation and CO₂ on maximum yield and of water balance on yield deficit. In future climates, air temperature systematically increases, precipitation tends to increase at the beginning of the rainy season and slightly decreases during the rest of the season. The direct effects of these climatic changes are earlier planting dates, less planting failures and shorter crop cycles in all the four locations and for both scenarios. Consequently, the harvesting dates occur systematically earlier: roughly in January for the Andean potato instead of March in the current situation and in February for the bitter potato instead of April. Overall, yield deficits will be higher under climate change than in the current climate. There will be a strong negative impact on yields for S. tuberosum (stronger under A2 scenario than under B2); the impact on S. juzepczukii yields, however, appears to be relatively mixed and not so negative.     

Climatology of water excesses and shortages in the La Plata Basin

This study presents a multitemporal climatology of water excess and shortage during the 20th century in the La Plata Basin. The climatology is based on 0.5^o?×?0.5^o grid across the region. We transform monthly precipitation series for each point into index series at different time scales using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). A month is under water excess (shortage) conditions at different time scales (i?=?6, 9, 12, and 18 months), when SPI[i](j)?>?1.5 (SPI[i](j)?<?1.5), where j is the current month. Trends in precipitation were determined using mean regional series of average values over the entire basin. A month when more than 30% of the total basin is under water excesses (shortages) is defined as an excess (shortage) critical month. From the vulnerability point of view, we analyzed the occurrence of critical months. The number of excess critical months increase with time scale of index, and almost all the critical months occurred after 1950 as a consequence of the low-frequency precipitation pattern. That means a noticeable increase in the vulnerability to extended excesses (more than 30% of the area under water excesses) after 1950, especially over the Upper Paraná and the Uruguay basins. For shortage critical months, the behavior depends on time scales. At large time scale (18 and 12 months), almost all the shortage critical months occurred in the period 1901–1950 and only at shorter time scale (9 and 6 months), some critical months appeared after 1950. That means a noteworthy decrease in the basin vulnerability to extended water shortage after 1950 and a moderate decrease in vulnerability to generalized shortage. If we analyze the frequency and mean duration of water excess and shortage events across the basin, we can appreciate that there is a tendency to relate higher frequency regions with regions with lower mean duration events, and conversely.     

Using the satellite data in dynamic models of crop yield forecasting

Considered is a possibility to use the satellite data in the dynamic models of crop yield forecasting. The interrelation between the surface and satellite data is established. It is demonstrated that the NDVI vegetation index of arable lands indicates rather well the seasonal variations of crop photosynthesis. Obtained is the equation of computing the leaf area index using the satellite data for grain crops. Presented are the results of the use of satellite information in the operating dynamic model of spring wheat yield forecast in Krasnodar krai.     

干旱指数在淮河流域的适用性对比

利用淮河流域河南、安徽、山东、江苏4省170个站1961—2010年逐日气温、降水以及土壤墒情和干旱灾情资料,从干旱年际变化、季节演变、空间分布、典型干旱过程诊断、不合理跳跃点以及与土壤墒情、干旱灾情相关性等方面,对比分析降水距平百分率 (Pa)、Z指数、标准化降水指数 (SPI)、相对湿润度指数 (MI)、综合气象干旱指数 (CI) 和改进的CI (CINew) 在淮河流域的适用性。结果表明:各干旱指数对淮河流域的典型旱年均有较好的诊断能力;在干旱季节演变及空间分布的诊断方面,Pa,MI,CI和CINew与实际较为吻合,而Z指数和SPI诊断效果较差;在典型干旱过程诊断以及不合理跳跃次数方面,CI和CINew更能刻画出干旱发生发展机制,而Pa,Z指数,SPI,MI效果较差;与土壤墒情和历史干旱灾情相关性方面,CI和CINew比Pa,Z指数,SPI,MI具有更好的相关性。即对于淮河流域的干旱监测诊断,CI和CINew要优于Pa,Z指数,SPI及MI,具有更好的适用性。