For assessing yields under extreme climatic events using crop simulation models: Aerosol layer effects on growth and yield of wheat, rice and sugarcane

摘要

Aerosol presence reduces sunshine hours and the amount of radiation received. The extent of reduction in radiation during this extreme event (January-March 1999) was relatively lower, as the extent of the diffused radiation increases. During this time, the reduction ranged from 5-12%. The differential response of the crops (wheat, rice and sugarcane) under changed proportion of direct and diffused radiation due to haze was seen through using crop simulation models (WTGROWS for wheat, DSSAT for rice and sugarcane). The growing conditions were optimal. Regions chosen for simulation were north-west India for wheat, coastal and southern regions for rice and north-eastern, western and southern regions for sugarcane. Simulation results were obtained in terms of phenology, biomass and economic yield at harvest. There was slight reduction in the yield of these three crops due to reduction in the radiation, but coupled weather changes (lowering of temperature, etc.) due to cloudy condition could benefit the crops through phenology modifications and other crop process activities, which can some times give higher yields of crops under the aerosol layer when compared to no haze layer situation. Diffused radiation is more photo-synthetically active, and this feature has still to be included in most of the existing crop growth models, as the existing crop models do not differentiate between direct and diffused radiation. The scope of using remote sensing for assessing the haze layer (spatial and temporal extent) could be employed in the crop simulation models for regional impact analysis.