Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks

Extreme climate events in breadbasket regions have become more frequent due to climate change, exposing crops to a greater frequency and intensity of abiotic stress. But by using observed crop yield statistics and an ensemble of statistical models, we demonstrate that over the last six decades the f...

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Autores principales: Chen, Xuan, Anderson, Weston, You, Liangzhi, Pope, Edward
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: IOP Publishing 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152395
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author Chen, Xuan
Anderson, Weston
You, Liangzhi
Pope, Edward
author_browse Anderson, Weston
Chen, Xuan
Pope, Edward
You, Liangzhi
author_facet Chen, Xuan
Anderson, Weston
You, Liangzhi
Pope, Edward
author_sort Chen, Xuan
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Extreme climate events in breadbasket regions have become more frequent due to climate change, exposing crops to a greater frequency and intensity of abiotic stress. But by using observed crop yield statistics and an ensemble of statistical models, we demonstrate that over the last six decades the frequency of crop yield shocks in breadbasket regions has been decreasing due to both climate and non-climate factors. Here non-climate factors refer to interannual variability unrelated to abiotic stress, such as biotic stress and management decisions. We find that although the risk posed by extreme heat to crop yields has been increasing, this risk has been offset by changes to precipitation, extremely cold days, and average growing season temperature in many breadbaskets. As a result, total climate-related crop yield shocks have been decreasing for soybeans and wheat, while they have remained roughly constant for maize. Meanwhile, non-climate risks to crop yields have decreased in nearly every breadbasket region across crops. Because non-climate risks have decreased faster than climate risks, we find that the climate accounts for a greater proportion of crop yield shocks in the recent period (1991–2020) compared to an earlier period (1961–90). Our results indicate that extreme climate events are more important than ever to the relative stability of the food production system, even as the overall frequency of multiple breadbasket yield shocks decreases.
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spelling CGSpace1523952025-12-08T09:54:28Z Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks Chen, Xuan Anderson, Weston You, Liangzhi Pope, Edward abiotic stress climate change crop yields extreme weather events food systems Extreme climate events in breadbasket regions have become more frequent due to climate change, exposing crops to a greater frequency and intensity of abiotic stress. But by using observed crop yield statistics and an ensemble of statistical models, we demonstrate that over the last six decades the frequency of crop yield shocks in breadbasket regions has been decreasing due to both climate and non-climate factors. Here non-climate factors refer to interannual variability unrelated to abiotic stress, such as biotic stress and management decisions. We find that although the risk posed by extreme heat to crop yields has been increasing, this risk has been offset by changes to precipitation, extremely cold days, and average growing season temperature in many breadbaskets. As a result, total climate-related crop yield shocks have been decreasing for soybeans and wheat, while they have remained roughly constant for maize. Meanwhile, non-climate risks to crop yields have decreased in nearly every breadbasket region across crops. Because non-climate risks have decreased faster than climate risks, we find that the climate accounts for a greater proportion of crop yield shocks in the recent period (1991–2020) compared to an earlier period (1961–90). Our results indicate that extreme climate events are more important than ever to the relative stability of the food production system, even as the overall frequency of multiple breadbasket yield shocks decreases. 2024-10-01 2024-09-25T18:21:36Z 2024-09-25T18:21:36Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152395 en Open Access IOP Publishing Chen, Xuan; Anderson, Weston; You, Liangzhi; and Pope, Edward. 2024. Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks. Environmental Research Letters 19(10): 104005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad7040
spellingShingle abiotic stress
climate change
crop yields
extreme weather events
food systems
Chen, Xuan
Anderson, Weston
You, Liangzhi
Pope, Edward
Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
title Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
title_full Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
title_fullStr Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
title_full_unstemmed Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
title_short Observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
title_sort observed trends in multiple breadbasket yield shocks
topic abiotic stress
climate change
crop yields
extreme weather events
food systems
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152395
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AT andersonweston observedtrendsinmultiplebreadbasketyieldshocks
AT youliangzhi observedtrendsinmultiplebreadbasketyieldshocks
AT popeedward observedtrendsinmultiplebreadbasketyieldshocks