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SEDAC/GISS CROP-CLIM DBQ
In an effort to better understand the potential global impacts of climate change on agriculture, in 1990 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contracted the Goddard Institute for Space Studies to coordinate a major study of the effects of changing temperature and precipitation regimes and increased CO2 concentrations on crop production and its economic implications. The central aim of the study was to provide an assessment of potential climate change impacts on world crop production, including quantitative estimates of yield changes of major food, cash and industrial crops, prices, trade and risk of hunger. Agricultural scientists from 18 countries estimated potential changes in crop growth and production at 125 key agricultural sites using compatible crop models and consistent climate change scenarios. The study assessed the implications of climate change for world crop yields taking into account uncertainty in the level of climate change expected, physiological effects of CO2 on plant growth, and different adaptive responses. Projected yields at the agricultural sites were then aggregated to major trading regions, and fed into a global trade model (the Basic Linked System or BLS) in order to produce regional estimates of potential price increases, food shortages, and risk of hunger. Project URL: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/giss_crop_study/ [Summary provided by SEDAC.]