Exploiting Information on Global Environmental Risks – Agriculture

Overall Aim
The objective of the EIGER-Ag project is to enhance available knowledge and data on yield and land suitability of key agricultural crops under climate change conditions. Improved spatiality referenced datasets of crop yield and land use for different climate change scenarios will be produced in order to assist decision making and environmental risk assessments.

These objectives will be met through the enhancement of the FAO/IIASA Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ) model.

• Firstly, the assessment capability of GAEZ will be improved through the inclusion of additional crop species and parameterization in the model databases.
• Secondly, the response of crops to climate change related damage-factors (e.g. tropospheric ozone, heat stress and pests and diseases) will be included in the model framework.

The EIGER-Ag project is a joint effort of the Land Use Change and Agriculture Program, the Plant Production System Group at Wageningen University (PPS-WU), and the Sustainable Agriculture Research Division of Unilever.

Postdoctoral Research in the Context of EIGER-Ag
The principal goal of the project's postdoctoral research activity is to develop crop damage modules for use in global/regional agro-ecological assessments. The research comprises of three components:

The first is to review knowledge and data on the effects of

1. tropospheric ozone,
2. thermal-damage and
3. damage caused by pests and diseases on crop yields under climate change conditions.

Ozone  Tropospheric ozone is a major secondary air pollutant, known to decrease crop productivity. Current ozone levels are rising in the troposphere due to increasing pollution from the transport sector and industrialization. The impact on crop yield depends on patterns of spatial and temporal pollutant emissions, environmental conditions and the susceptibility of different species. The work is carried out in collaboration with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and IIASA's Atmospheric Pollution and Economic Development Program (APD).

Temperature stress  Episodes of extreme temperatures are projected to become more frequent and severe with climate change. Peaks of temperature are an important limitation to crop adaptation and yield, mainly when temperature extremes coincide with critical stages of crop development such as flowering time.

Pests and diseases  Biotic constraints, such as pests and diseases, significantly decrease the yield of crops worldwide but the intensity and frequency of responses varies with host susceptibility and the suitability of environmental conditions. The projected changes in global climate may influence the rates and stages of pathogen development, the level of host resistance, the physiology of host-pathogen interaction, the geographical distribution of host and pathogen and the efficacy of current control strategies.

Secondly, functional relationships will be developed for integrating the effects of the three above-mentioned damage factors into the GAEZ methodology.

And finally, by linking data sets of current and projected levels of ozone and climate, GAEZ will assess yields of relevant crops in response to these damage factors considering various climate change scenarios. 

Responsible for this page: Elisabeth Kawczynski
Last updated: 09 Nov 2009