Study Explores Climate Change Impact on U.S. Corn Belt

来源:PennState

Air humidity is more important than soil moisture in influencing whether it rains in the U.S. Corn Belt, an agricultural area in the Midwest, stretching from Indiana to Nebraska and responsible for more than 35% of the world’s most important grain crop, according to a new study by Penn State researchers.

根据全球气候观察系统，土壤水分被认为是必不可少的气候变量，因为它决定了地球表面附近空气的蒸发量和冷却。随着土壤水分量的减少，无论是在干旱期间还是由于气候变化而导致的，蒸发量的减少可以放大变暖。

“This study is important also because Corn Belt agriculture is mainly rainfed, rather than irrigated,” said Andrew Carleton, one of the study's authors.

“So the Corn Belt is much more susceptible to year-to-year climate variations, like droughts and wet periods, and to the impacts from climate change which are likely to increase this variability and lead to even greater extremes.”

For the Corn Belt, continued warming is likely to shift crop types northward and with a longer growing season, likely increasing climatic and market economic uncertainties going forward.

Read the full reporthere.