Assessing future drought risks and wheat yield losses in England

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Clarke, D., Hess, T. M., Haro-Monteagudo, D., Semenov, M. A. and Knox, J. W 2021. Assessing future drought risks and wheat yield losses in England. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 297, p. 108248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108248

AuthorsClarke, D., Hess, T. M., Haro-Monteagudo, D., Semenov, M. A. and Knox, J. W
Abstract

Droughts pose a major risk to agricultural production. By comparing the outputs from an ecophysiological crop model (Sirius) with four drought severity indicators (DSI), a comparative assessment of the impacts of drought risk on wheat yield losses has been evaluated under current (baseline) and two future climate scenarios. The rationale was to better understand the relative merits and limitations of each approach from the perspective of quantifying agricultural drought impacts on crop productivity. Modelled yield losses were regressed against the highest correlated variant for each DSI. A cumulative distribution function of yield loss for each scenario (baseline, near and far future) was calculated as a function of the best fitting DSI (SPEI-5July) and with the equivalent outputs from the Sirius model. Comparative analysis between the two approaches highlighted large differences in estimated yield loss attributed to drought, both in terms of magnitude and direction of change, for both the baseline and future scenario. For the baseline, the average year differences were large (0.25 t ha−1 and 1.4 t ha−1 for the DSI and Sirius approaches, respectively). However, for the dry year, baseline differences were substantial (0.7 t ha−1 and 2.7 t ha−1). For the DSI approach, future yield losses increased up to 1.25 t ha−1 and 2.8 t ha−1 (for average and dry years, respectively). In contrast, the Sirius modelling showed a reduction in future average yield loss, down from a baseline 1.4 t ha−1 to 1.0 t ha−1, and a marginal reduction for a future dry year from a baseline of 2.7 t ha−1 down to 2.6 t ha−1. The comparison highlighted the risks in adopting a DSI response function approach, particularly for estimating future drought related yield losses, where changing crop calendars and the impacts of CO2 fertilisation on yield are not incorporated. The challenge lies in integrating knowledge from DSIs to understand the onset, extent and severity of an agricultural drought with ecophysiological crop modelling to understand the yield responses and water use relations with respect to changing soil moisture conditions.

KeywordsCrop model ; Sirius ; Drought; Indices; Risk; Wheat
Year of Publication2021
JournalAgricultural and Forest Meteorology
Journal citation297, p. 108248
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108248
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Natural Environment Research Council
Funder project or codeDesigning Future Wheat - WP1 - Increased efficiency and sustainability
ASSIST - Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Publisher's version
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online24 Nov 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted11 Nov 2020
PublisherElsevier Science Bv
ISSN0168-1923

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