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Title

Regional assessment of climate change impacts on maize productivity and associated production risk in Switzerland
Authors
Torriani, Daniele
Calanca, Pierluigi
Lips, Markus
Ammann, Helmut
Beniston, Martin
Fuhrer, Jürg
Published in Regional Environmental Change. 2007, vol. 7, no. 4, p. 209-221
Abstract A simple model of yield was used along with climate scenarios to assess the impact of climate change on grain maize productivity and associated economic risk in Switzerland. In a first application, changes in the precipitation regime alone were shown to affect the distribution of yield considerably, with shifts not only in the mean but also in the standard deviation and the skewness. Production risk was found to respond more markedly to changes in the long-term mean than in the inter-annual variability of seasonal precipitation amounts. In a further application, yield projections were generated with respect to a full climate scenario, with the emission pathway as specified in the IPCC A2 scenario. Anticipation of the sowing date was found to reduce the negative impact of climate change on yield stability, but was not sufficient to ensure average productivity levels comparable to those observed at present. We argued that this was caused by the reduction in the duration of the growing season, which had a stronger impact than suggested by previous studies. Assuming no change in price relations, the results also revealed a strong increase in production risk with climate change, with more than a doubling in the probability of yield falling short of a critical threshold as compared to today’s situation.
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Article (Author postprint) (385 Kb) - public document Free access
Other version: http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s10113-007-0039-z
Structures
Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement
Research groups ISE Pôle Sciences
ISE Climat
Citation
(ISO format) 		TORRIANI, Daniele et al. Regional assessment of climate change impacts on maize productivity and associated production risk in Switzerland. In: Regional Environmental Change, 2007, vol. 7, n° 4, p. 209-221. https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:18443

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Deposited on : 2012-02-20

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