Which agriculture can face climate change? Focus on varietal adaptation

AMICE Adaptation of the Meuse to the Impacts of Climate Evolutio

Hydrological response to climate change in the Lesse and the Vesdre catchments: contribution of a physically based model (Wallonia, Belgium)

The Meuse is an important rain-fed river in North-Western Europe. Nine million people live in its catchment, split over five countries. Projected changes in precipitation and temperature characteristics due to climate change would have a significant impact on the Meuse River and its tributaries. In this study, we focused on the impacts of climate change on the hydrology of two sub-catchments of the Meuse in Belgium, the Lesse and the Vesdre, placing the emphasis on the water-soil-plant continuum in order to highlight the effects of climate change on plant growth, and water uptake on the hydrology of two sub-catchments. These effects were studied using two climate scenarios and a physically based distributed model, which reflects the water-soil-plant continuum. Our results show that the vegetation will evapotranspirate between 10 and 17% less at the end of the century because of water scarcity in summer, even if the root development is better under climate change conditions. In the low scenario, the mean minimal 7 days discharge value could decrease between 19 and 24% for a two year return period, and between 20 and 35% for a fifty year return period. It will lead to rare but severe drought in rivers, with potentially huge consequences on water quality.Amice - Adaptation of the Meuse to the impacts of climate evolutio

How adaptation strategies of crops could counteract climate change effects? The case of four catchments in Wallonia, Belgium.

peer reviewedA sharp increase in extreme heat and drought stress is projected in Belgium by the end of the 21st century, with the potential to significantly reduce crops’ yields under current agricultural practices. This contribution uses an agro-hydrological model in order to assess the potential effects of climate evolution on crop development, yield, and water balance for the main agricultural productions in the Meuse catchment. Erosion risk is also evaluated. We show that grasslands and maize yield decrease and yield variability increases under climate change scenarios. The leaf area index study permits to put in emphasis the earlier start of the vegetation due to warmer climate. It appears that all the sensitive stages occur earlier in the season and that crops are negatively affected by summer drought stress. The better understanding of crops development under evolving climate allows us to propose some changes in agricultural practices and to assess their effectiveness. We evaluate different strategies of adaptation in agricultural practices in order to reduce the potential negative effects of climate change on grasslands and maize production. Adaptation strategies proposed are advanced sowing and harvesting date, introduction of a cover crop for maize and advance in the cutting dates for grasslands. In the particular case of the Vesdre catchment, shifting the growth period of maize permits to avoid the water-deficit period and allow increased yield. This shift makes it possible to introduce a cover crop that will drastically reduce winter soil erosion. For grassland, the adjustment of the cutting dates favored the first cut and the earlier start of the vegetation. The second cut is less profitable due to summer drought stress. The vulnerability assessments focused on the main rotation encountered in the cultivated areas and in the difference in the cover type of these crops.AMICE- Adaptation of the Meuse to the Impact of Climate Evolutio

Using agro-hydrology to adapt to climate evolutions

AMICE Adaptation of the Meuse to the Impacts of Climate Evolutio

Hydrologic modelling and dendrochronology as tool of site-species adequation assessment in a changing climate context

A hydrologic model is related to dendrochronological measurements performed in a 52 years old Spruce stand. The site is situated on a hillside with shallow and acid brown soil in the ecoregion of Ardenne (Wallonia, Southern Belgium). Hydrologic modelling The hydrologic simulation runs from 1971 to 2005 at daily time step. The model is based on an EPIC code, adapted to the site concerning soil reservoirs depth, characteristic water contents, root profile and water uptake. Weather data come from the Royal Meteorological Institute. Outputs from the model are real evapotranspiration, surface runoff; interflows, deep percolation and soil moisture at daily time step. Dendrochronological study Tree ring thickness is measured on 24 core samples extracted from 12 dominant trees of the stand. Annual increments are standardised by the ARIMA function in order to produce the annual deviation of ring thickness. Means of annual deviation for the 12 trees are then related to annual soil drought intensities. Results Years 1976 and 1996 are emphasised by both the modelling outputs and the dendrochronological measurements as very dry. Model shows a severe drought and tree ring shows a very low growth. Years like 1990, 1992, 1994 and 2004 shows a less severe drought event but a drought that occurs in June-July, which seems to penalize spruce’s growth. On the other hand, years 1981 and 1998 show an important growth and a high value of mean soil moisture during June and July. The poster will show how the time evolution of the ARIMA index is related to some meaningful hydrologic indexes. These considerations will allow us to progress towards forecasting forest trees reaction to climate events and change. With this in mind, we will use a climate scenario build up in the frame of the AMICE interreg project.AMIC

A story of attitudes and aptitudes?: investigating individual difference variables within the context of interpreting

Unlike in the early days of interpreter training, most student interpreters nowadays are still in the process of acquiring their target language(s), which raises questions as to which skills - linguistic as well as non-linguistic - may be required at the outset of interpreter training. This study focuses on individual difference variables and how these relate to interpreting students' performance. It aims to investigate the ways in which the profiles of translation and interpreting students differ by obtaining information regarding their self-perceived communication competence, self-perception of language skills, anxiety levels and integrative motivation. These profiles are then related to the students' sight translation performances, arguably a hybrid activity between translating and interpreting that is as cognitively demanding as simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. The students' performances were assessed by a 'blind judge' along two parameters: (1) overall interpreting performance and (2) fluency. The results suggest that the two groups indeed differ significantly with regard to some of the individual difference variables. However, no significant correlations between these variables and students' sight translation performance were found

How Climate Change Could Affect The Hydrology In Walloon Region ?

Research on climate change and its impacts on hydrology are increasingly important nowadays. AMICE project focuses on the adaptation of the Meuse to the impacts of climate change. On this study, we focus on the Walloon tributaries of the Meuse river, and more specifically on the Vesdre and the Lesse sub-catchments. Climate change scenarios are outputs of the CCI-HYDR Perturbation Tool for time slice 2020-2050 and 2070-2100. This tool allows us to build climate change time series and to use it as input of our hydrological models. The most pessimistic and the most optimistic scenarios are selected. The hydrological model used is called EPICGrid and it is a physically based distributed model at catchment scale. EPICGrid used the perturbed meteorological data to provide hydrograms for the different scenarios and time slice for the Vesdre and the Lesse sub-catchments. It appears that for the Vesdre daily discharge with a return period of 100 years (Qd100) could varies between -3% and +27% when the mean annual 7-day Minimum flow with a return period of 50 years (MAM750) varies between -37% and +16% for 2070-2100. For the Lesse, Qd100 varies between -30% and +50% when MAM750 varies between -21% and +28% for 2070-2100. The broad range of discharge variations reflects the broad range of meteorological variation. These results will be used further in the AMICE project to build an adaptation strategy.AMIC