Effects of climate change on US crop production: simulation results using two different GCM scenarios. Part I: Wheat, potato, maize, and citrus

Abstract

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 20:259-270 (2002) - doi:10.3354/cr020259 Effects of climate change on US crop production: simulation results using two different GCM scenarios. Part I: Wheat, potato, maize, and citrus F. N. Tubiello1,*, C. Rosenzweig1, R. A. Goldberg1, S. Jagtap2, J. W. Jones2 1Columbia University and NASA-Goddard Institute Space Studies, Armstrong Hall, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA 2College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Florida, PO Box 110270, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA *E-mail: franci@giss.nasa.gov ABSTRACT: We projected US agricultural production in 2030 and 2090 at 45 representative sites, using 2 scenarios of climate change, developed with the Hadley Centre Model and the Canadian Centre Climate Model, and the DSSAT (Decision Support Systems for Agro-technology Transfer) dynamic crop-growth models. These simulation results have previously been aggregated nationally with the aid of economic models to show an increase in overall US agricultural output under climate change. In this work, we analyzed the regional distribution of the simulated yields, showing that positive results largely depend on the precipitation increases projected by the climate scenarios. In contrast, in some important rainfed production areas where precipitation was projected to decrease, such as the Kansas and Oklahoma Bread Basket regions under the Canadian Centre Climate Model scenario, climate change resulted in significant reductions of grain yield (-30 to -40%), accompanied by increased year-to-year variability. We also discussed the response to additional factors affecting the simulated US crop production under climate change, such as higher temperature and elevated CO2. KEY WORDS: Climate change · Agriculture · Elevated CO2 · US National Assessment · Adaptation Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 20, No. 3. Online publication date: April 26, 2002 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2002 Inter-Research.