Abstract
Agricultural production is an important sector for peoples to live, but it is highly affected by climate change. To have a good production we need to understand the climatic parameters which adversely affect production. Hamelmalo, which is located in the semi-arid area of Eritrea, is vulnerable to climate change and this is realised in the total production loss. Nevertheless, there is no concrete reference about the climate of the region due to lack of data for a long time. Changes in precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET) and, implicitly, in the climatic water balance (CWB), are imminent effects of climate change. However, changes in the CWB, as a response to changes in P and ET, have not yet been analysed thoroughly enough in many parts of the world, including Eritrea. This study also explores the changes of the CWB in the Hamelmalo region, based on a wide range of climatic data (P, relative air humidity and evaporation pan necessary for computing potential evapotranspiration (PET) with the pan evaporation method) recorded at Hamelmalo from 2015-2019. This analysis shows that the annual cumulative CWB for Hamelmalo is negative in 67% of the years. The dry season without precipitation leads to negative CWB and the change in CWB only starts from the raining or crop season. Based on this recent study, 2015 had the highest PET and lowest P, and this resulted in the lowest CWB in the investigated period. Opposite to this, 2019 had lower PET and highest P, which led to the highest CWB. However, the monthly values of CWB did not correlate with the annual P or ET. On the base of our study, it can be concluded that PET and P were very variable in the investigated years and P was the most influential elements of CWB.
Highlights
Climate change guides to a rise in the frequency and intensity of weather extremes, droughts, heavy precipitation and storms (Hasson et al, 2016) which are highly disastrous to the environment
Global warming is alarming since the 20th century (IPCC, 2013) and it is the most motivation of several environmental changes, including precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET) changes, which are the principal climatic parameters for any crop growth, and changing of these two climatic variables leads to a change in climatic water balance (CWB)
We analysed some meteorological data recorded in Hamelmalo, Eritrea in order to quantify some fractions of climate change
Summary
Climate change guides to a rise in the frequency and intensity of weather extremes, droughts, heavy precipitation and storms (Hasson et al, 2016) which are highly disastrous to the environment. The whole earth's water cycle adjusts as a consequence of the entire rise in precipitation and evapotranspiration. Greater content of water in the atmosphere impacts rainfall amount (IPCC, 2007) and the net change of water cycle builds up on evapotranspiration dynamics. Climate change and its influence on crops may be the main concern for many researchers and policy makers (Kang et al, 2014) and its negative consequence has already been accomplished by many food producers in the world (Ndawayo, et al, 2017). Global warming is alarming since the 20th century (IPCC, 2013) and it is the most motivation of several environmental changes, including precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET) changes, which are the principal climatic parameters for any crop growth, and changing of these two climatic variables leads to a change in climatic water balance (CWB). Climate change influence in water resource is especially common in regions with limited amount of water for economic development (Cudennec et al, 2007) and the involvement of climate changes on agriculture dependent livelihood and hydrological systems are outstanding at regional extent (Bastakoti et al, 2014)
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