Climate change impact assessment on cropping systems. A case of study at three sites of the pampas region

MEIRA S. GUEVARA E., DONATELLI M., BELLOCHI G., PENALBA O., BOULANGER J.P.

Scilia, Italia

Congreso; Farming Systems Design Symposium.; 2007

ESA, ASA

Agriculture is particularly sensitive to climate changes and crop models have been extensively used in impact assessment studies to simulate the effects of elevated CO2 and Global Circulation Models (GCM)-generated climate scenarios on crop growth and yield (e.g. Tubiello et al., 2006). The magnitude and direction of climate change impacts on crop yields will vary locally, because of regional differences in both natural and anthropogenic factors that control plant response. Several studies have assessed the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity at various scales, but more case-studies remain to be assessed (especially in the Southern hemisphere, Tingem et al., 2007) to give more focus to generalizations that often characterize regional and global assessments. Argentina is a major farming country, where climate variability is one of the most important sources of risk for agricultural production. The main objective of this study was to explore the impact of climate change on the agriculture of an Argentinean region (La Pampa Huméda