Crop response pattern to several drought timescales and its possible determinants: a global-scale analysis during the last decades
Abstract
Drought is one of the extreme climate events triggered by water deficit inducing subsequent severe impacts. Different precipitation deficits over time can induce different responses to each terrestrial system, including crops. Crop production is known to be affected by droughts, especially when it is highly exposed to drought (i.e., drylands). Here, we identified the response pattern of crop yield anomaly to a different time scale of meteorological drought based on past events on a global scale. Standardized Precipitation Index based on ensemble precipitation dataset was used to identify drought episodes and severity from 1981 to 2016. The crop yield anomaly was estimated by detrending the gridded global dataset of crop yields for major crops (maize, rice, soybean, and wheat) in 0.5° spatial resolution. The result indicates that crop yield loss was generally more associated with medium (5-8 months) to long (9-12 months) drought timescales globally, compared to short timescale (1-4 months). Various determinants might control the spatial pattern of crop response. This study found that climatic (i.e., precipitation, temperature) and socio-economic (i.e., GDP) conditions most likely controlled the mean difference of crop response. Other factors such as soil water capacity, crop harvested area, growing season pattern, and irrigation also might influence crop response to some extent. This study contributes to an ongoing effort to assess crop vulnerability and possible mitigation and adaptation against climate change based on past understanding.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFMGC45H0902H