2020 Queensland Winter Crop Sowing Guide

The 2020 winter crop sowing guide for Queensland contains the latest information for wheat, barley and chickpea varieties. This guide draws on the advice, knowledge and experience of numerous individuals in the cropping industry. Its aim is to provide growers with relevant information which will allow them to make informed choices when deciding on what varieties of wheat, barley or chickpea to sow in their paddocks. National Variety Trials (NVT) seek to collect the most relevant varieties for each region and test them alongside the elite lines from the breeding programs. For all the information on the released wheat, barley and chickpea varieties in the NVT trials conducted in Queensland, visit the website www.nvtonline.com.au

Analyzing the discharge regime of a large tropical river through remote sensing, ground-based climatic data, and modeling

This study demonstrates the potential for applying passive microwave satellite sensor data to infer the discharge dynamics of large river systems using the main stem Amazon as a test case. The methodology combines (1) interpolated ground-based meteorological station data, (2) horizontally and vertically polarized temperature differences (HVPTD) from the 37-GHz scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) aboard the Nimbus 7 satellite, and (3) a calibrated water balance/water transport model (WBM/WTM). Monthly HVPTD values at 0.25° (latitude by longitude) resolution were resampled spatially and temporally to produce an enhanced HVPTD time series at 0.5° resolution for the period May 1979 through February 1985. Enhanced HVPTD values were regressed against monthly discharge derived from the WBM/WTM for each of 40 grid cells along the main stem over a calibration period from May 1979 to February 1983 to provide a spatially contiguous estimate of time-varying discharge. HVPTD-estimated flows generated for a validation period from March 1983 to February 1985 were found to be in good agreement with both observed arid modeled discharges over a 1400-km section of the main stem Amazon. This span of river is bounded downstream by a region of tidal influence and upstream by low sensor response associated with dense forest canopy. Both the WBM/WTM and HVPTD-derived flow rates reflect the significant impact of the 1982–1983 El Niño-;Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event on water balances within the drainage basin

Multimodel uncertainty changes in simulated river flows induced by human impact parameterizations

Human impacts increasingly affect the global hydrological cycle and indeed dominate hydrological changes in some regions. Hydrologists have sought to identify the human-impact-induced hydrological variations via parameterizing anthropogenic water uses in global hydrological models (GHMs). The consequently increased model complexity is likely to introduce additional uncertainty among GHMs. Here, using four GHMs, between-model uncertainties are quantified in terms of the ratio of signal to noise (SNR) for average river flow during 1971–2000 simulated in two experiments, with representation of human impacts (VARSOC) and without (NOSOC). It is the first quantitative investigation of between-model uncertainty resulted from the inclusion of human impact parameterizations. Results show that the between-model uncertainties in terms of SNRs in the VARSOC annual flow are larger (about 2% for global and varied magnitude for different basins) than those in the NOSOC, which are particularly significant in most areas of Asia and northern areas to the Mediterranean Sea. The SNR differences are mostly negative (-20% to 5%, indicating higher uncertainty) for basin-averaged annual flow. The VARSOC high flow shows slightly lower uncertainties than NOSOC simulations, with SNR differences mostly ranging from -20% to 20%. The uncertainty differences between the two experiments are significantly related to the fraction of irrigation areas of basins. The large additional uncertainties in VARSOC simulations introduced by the inclusion of parameterizations of human impacts raise the urgent need of GHMs development regarding a better understanding of human impacts. Differences in the parameterizations of irrigation, reservoir regulation and water withdrawals are discussed towards potential directions of improvements for future GHM development. We also discuss the advantages of statistical approaches to reduce the between-model uncertainties, and the importance of calibration of GHMs for not only better performances of historical simulations but also more robust and confidential future projections of hydrological changes under a changing environment

Integrating hydrological modelling and ecosystem functioning for environmental flows in climate change scenarios in the Zambezi River (Zambezi Region, Namibia)

The Zambezi-Chobe wetlands in Namibia are of great international importance for trans-boundary water management because of their remarkable ecological characteristics and the variety and magnitude of the ecosystem services provided. The main objective of this study is to establish the hydro-ecological baseline for the application of environmental flow regimes (EFR). The specific objectives are: (i) the assessment of environmental flow components (EFC) in the current near-natural hydrological conditions; (ii) the generation of future scenarios for climatic and socioeconomic changes; (iii) the estimation of the area duration curves and estimated annual habitat during the inundation of the critical habitats for fisheries (mulapos), under the existing conditions and future scenarios; and (iv) to provide a framework for the future application of EFRs, based on hydrological and ecological processes. To make a sound analysis of the ecological implications, first we develop a conceptual framework of the linkages between the hydrological and biological processes concerning fish communities, because of the critical role of fisheries in the region. The EFCs in near-natural hydrological conditions provide the basis for developing interim EFRs in the region, within the framework of an adaptive management of water resources. The future scenarios indicate a mitigation of the flow variability; and, in the worst-case scenario, the reduction of the maximum flow and inundated area of the mulapos would result in a reduction of the estimated annual habitat of 22%. This means a reduction in the spawning habitats for quiet-water species, in the food resources for fry and juvenile fish and a consequent reduction in fish stocks. Furthermore, the habitat loss during low events is similar and greater under both scenarios, at ca. 35%. Here we corroborate that the EFCs and their variability may become the building blocks of flow-ecology models that lead to environmental flow recommendations, monitoring and research programmes and flow protection activities.This research was part of the research project CERPA (Certification of Protected Areas), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and focused on the evaluation of new market-based instruments for biodiversity conservation and their socioeconomic implications. The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers who provided substantial input that improved the manuscript. The study has been partially funded by the national research project IMPADAPT (CGL2013-48424-C2-1-R), with MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy) and FEDER funds.Martinez-Capel, F.; García López, L.; Beyer, M. (2017). Integrating hydrological modelling and ecosystem functioning for environmental flows in climate change scenarios in the Zambezi River (Zambezi Region, Namibia). River Research and Applications. 33(2):258-275. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3058S25827533

Soybean Production Manual: A complete guide to growing soybean in Australia. [online]

The online manual, adapted from the ‘Better Soybean Training Manual’, is part of the joint initiative aimed at supporting the expansion of the Australian soybean industry by providing updated soybean training and technical resources to Australian growers and agronomists. There are ten modules: 1) marketing, 2) rotation and variety choice, 3) crop nutrition, 4) plant growth and development, 5) agronomy, 6) weed management, 7) disease management, 8) pest management, 9) harvesting, and 10) safe storag

GRDC - status report 1993

A global database of hydrological data is considered necessary for research and application-oriented hydrological and climatological projects which are undertaken on regional and global scales. These projects include basin-oriented, regional and global water balance studies, investigation of trends in long-term hydrological time series, flux of fresh water and matter into the oceans, the coupling of runoff with water quality data and the coupling of hydrological and meteorological models. The project A.5 of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) under the World Climate Programme-Water (WCP-Water) provides a general service for the collection, storage and dissemination of internationally available sets of hydrological data. Since 1988, the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) is performing this task. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 4732(4) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Analysis of long runoff series of selected rivers of the Asia-Pacific region in relation with climate change and El Nino effects

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 4732(21) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekWorld Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva (Switzerland)DEGerman