Early heat waves over Italy and their impacts on durum wheat yields

G Fontana,A Toreti,G De Sanctis,A Ceglar

doi:10.5194/nhess-15-1631-2015

G Fontana, A Toreti + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-1631-2015

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Abstract

Abstract. In the last decades the Euro-Mediterranean region has experienced an increase in extreme temperature events such as heat waves. These extreme weather conditions can strongly affect arable crop growth and final yields. Here, early heat waves over Italy from 1995 to 2013 are identified and characterised and their impact on durum wheat yields is investigated. As expected, results confirm the impact of the 2003 heat wave and highlight a high percentage of concurrence of early heat waves and significant negative yield anomalies in 13 out of 39 durum wheat production areas. In south-eastern Italy (the most important area for durum wheat production), the percentage of concurrent events exceeds 80 %.

Highlights

According to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, the warming of the climate system is unequivocal and has been pronounced since the 1970s (Hartmann et al, 2013)
Heat stress impact on wheat has been widely investigated by using different approaches: plots covered with tunnels (Ferris et al, 1998), temporary transferring pots to glasshouse during grain filling (Corbellini et al, 1997) or late sowing and supplemental infrared heating in the field (Ottman et al, 2012)
Yield reduction related to heat stress has been quantified by using crop models

Summary

Introduction

According to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, the warming of the climate system is unequivocal and has been pronounced since the 1970s (Hartmann et al, 2013). In the Euro-Mediterranean region, significant changes in temperature extremes (e.g. increase in warm days and nights, warm spells and heat waves) have been reported (Hartmann et al, 2013; Kuglitsch et al, 2010; Toreti and Desiato, 2008; Della-Marta et al, 2007). In 2003, Europe experienced an exceptionally warm and dry summer (Black et al, 2004), with summer temperature anomalies, with respect to the 1961–1990 mean, greater than 3 ◦C in a very large area (Schär et al, 2004). The main critical responses under warmer conditions are faster crop development leading to shorter growing periods and lower yields, limited crop growth and acceleration of senescence, greater water evaporation from soil and transpiration from crops (Eyshi Rezaei et al, 2015)

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