Impact of Soil Moisture on Crop Yields over Brazilian Semiarid

Impact of Soil Moisture on Crop Yields over Brazilian Semiarid

The objective of this work was to investigate the relationship between soil water content and rainfall with rice, beans, cassava and corn yields of in the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil. Precipitation and modeled soil water content were compared to yields recorded at the county levels in this r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in environmental science Vol. 5
Main Authors: Rossato, Luciana, Alvalá, Regina C. dos Santos, Marengo, José A., Zeri, Marcelo, Cunha, Ana P. M. do Amaral, Pires, Luciana B. M., Barbosa, Humberto A.
Format: Journal Article Publication
Language:English
Published: Lausanne Frontiers Research Foundation 07-11-2017
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects:
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Beans
Brazilian semiarid region
Cassava
Climate change
Collites
Corn
Correlation coefficient
Correlation coefficients
Crop yield
Crop yields
Crops
Desenvolupament humà i sostenible
Drought
Enginyeria ambiental
Environmental science
Humitat
Hydrologic cycle
Hydrology
Measurement
Mesurament
Moisture content
Municipalities
Pluja
Precipitation
Productivity
Rain and rainfall
Rainfall
Rendiment
Semi arid areas
Semiarid climates
Semiarid lands
Soil investigations
Soil layers
Soil moisture
Soil water
Soil water storage
Soils
Studies
Sòls
Tractament dels sòls
Water balance
Water content
Water shortages
Water storage
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
Brazil
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Summary:The objective of this work was to investigate the relationship between soil water content and rainfall with rice, beans, cassava and corn yields of in the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil. Precipitation and modeled soil water content were compared to yields recorded at the county levels in this region. The results were also integrated over the area of the nine States that lie within the officially recognized region of semiarid climate in Brazil. The influence of water balance components was quantified by calculating their correlation coefficient with yields of the different crop species over the municipalities of the region. It was found that rainfall had higher correlation to crop yields over most of the region, while soil water content had lower values of correlation. This result is consistent with the fact that average root depth is 40 cm, lower than the layer of soil used in the model used to estimate soil water content (100 cm). Plants respond better to the precipitation in the top layers of soil, while the water storage in the deep layer of soil might be important only in other temporal and spatial scales of the hydrological cycle. It is concluded that the average crop yield is directly associated with practices that increase soil moisture at the depth of the root system in order to reduce the effects caused by drought.
ISSN:2296-665X
2296-665X
DOI:10.3389/fenvs.2017.00073