As this newsletter goes to press, Bureau of Meteorology rainfall records show most of NSW and substantial parts of south-west Queensland remain in drought. Beyond the immediate agricultural, hydrologic and ecologic impacts, many small rural towns are starting to run out of water.
The past four months have seen a lot of activity around workshops, the continuing submission of research briefs (which allows us to post about the research on social media), plenty of classic traditional media activity and a new social media account.
The aim of this student project is to investigate the relationships between hydrological extremes (especially soil moisture drought) and wheat production in Australia. The outcome of the project may inform the development seasonal forecasts of hydrological indicators for agricultural production in Australia.
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.