Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6536575 | Agricultural and Forest Meteorology | 2018 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
We found that due to its finer representation of topography, weather and crop growth spatio-temporal variations were better represented in the fine than in the coarse resolution domain. The magnitude of crop growth variables such as Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Length of the Growing Season (LGS) obtained with weather from the coarse resolution domain were unrealistically low, hence unacceptable. Nevertheless, the resulting potato yields in the coarse resolution domain were comparable with the yields from the fine resolution domain. We explain this paradoxical finding in terms of a compensating effect, as the opposite effects of temperature and precipitation on yield compensated for each other along the major potato growing transect in the Gamo Highlands. These offsetting effects were also dependent on the correct estimations of the LGS, LAI. We conclude that a well-resolved representation of complex topography is crucial to realistically model meteorology and crop physiology in tropical mountainous areas.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Atmospheric Science
Authors
Thomas T. Minda, M.K. van der Molen, Paul C. Struik, Marie Combe, Pedro A. Jiménez, Muhammad S. Khan, Jordi Vilà -Guerau de Arellano,