Division: Special Sessions

Title: Symposium--Perspectives on Climate Effects on Agriculture: The International Efforts of AgMIP

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor: Climatology & Modeling
Community Cosponsor: Agroclimatology and Agronomic Modeling Community, Global Climate Change Community, Model Applications in Field Research Community
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords:

Session Description: Climate effects on agriculture are of increasing concern in both the scientific and policy community because of the growing population and the greater uncertainty in the weather during a growing season. Changes in production are directly linked to variations in temperature and precipitation during the growing season and often to the offseason changes in weather because of soil water storage to replenish the soil profile. This is not an isolated problem but one of worldwide interest because each country has a concern about their food security. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) was developed to begin to evaluate crop models and intercompare their ability to predict climate impacts on crop production. Currently there are efforts to improve these models through better understanding of the CO2 x temperature x water interactions on plant growth and development. This aspect is critical to ensure models can adequately address plant response to the changing climate. This session is established to provide a forum for exchange of results from different regions and cropping systems around the world. AgMIP has grown into a project which has participants from 40 countries and this session will allow these groups to share their information and results in order to develop interactions and collaborations at the global scale. One of the outcomes of this session will be the third volume in the Handbook on Climate Change which will include chapters from the presenters in this session.

Reviewer's Comments: