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Climate extremes explain 18%-43% of global crop yield variations

May 2, 2019 1:24 pm Published by Comments Off on Climate extremes explain 18%-43% of global crop yield variations

CLEX researchers and colleagues from Australia, Germany and the US have quantified the effect of climate extremes, such as droughts or heatwaves, on the yield variability of staple crops around the world. Overall, year-to-year changes in climate factors during the growing season of maize, rice, soy and spring wheat accounted for 20%-49% of yield fluctuations, according to research published in Environmental Research Letters.

Research brief: Do wet soils affect rainfall?

March 8, 2019 9:27 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Do wet soils affect rainfall?

How wet the soil is before a storm can determine the amount of rain that falls. This research also produced some interesting findings for rainfall in Australia.

Research brief: Calibration in the GIMMSv3.0g dataset may have affected dryland NDVI values globally

February 12, 2019 9:21 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Calibration in the GIMMSv3.0g dataset may have affected dryland NDVI values globally

Calibration errors in the widely used Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling System Version 3 NDVI (GIMMSv3.0g) dataset caused significant errors in the trends over some of Australia’s dryland regions. Though identified over Australia, the problematic calibration in the GIMMSv3.0g dataset may have effected dryland NDVI values globally. These errors have been addressed in the updated GIMMSv3.1g which is strongly recommended for use in future studies.

Research brief: Australian climate policy inaction threatens lives

February 5, 2019 3:31 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Australian climate policy inaction threatens lives

Overall, the inaugural Australian Countdown finds that Australia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on health, and that policy inaction in this regard threatens Australian lives. In a number of respects, Australia has gone backwards and now lags behind other high income countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Examples include the persistence of a very high carbon-intensive energy system in Australia, and a slow transition to renewables and low-carbon electricity generation.

Research brief: How to avoid overconfidence in climate model ensembles

January 30, 2019 3:06 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How to avoid overconfidence in climate model ensembles

In this review paper, researchers contextualise the broad and seemingly disparate range of attempts to define and address model dependence within climate model ensembles, and offer concrete advice on how best to avoid overconfidence.