BLACK, E.

CUADRA, S. V.

VERHOEF, A.

VIDALE, P. L.

Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from Embrapa

Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 14, EGU2012-10059-2, 2012EGU General Assembly 2012© Author(s) 2012The environmental sustainability of sugarcane cultivation under scenariosof climate change: case studies for Brazil and GhanaE. Black (1), P.L. Vidale (1), A. Verhoef (2), and S.V. Cuadro (3)(1) Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, United Kingdom, (2)Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO BOX 233, Reading RG66DW, United Kingdom, (3) Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Federal Center of Technological Education Celso Suckowda Fonseca (CEFET/RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20271-110, BrazilOver the next decades increasing oil and carbon prices will lead to a proliferation of energy crop cultivationinitiatives. Many of these will be based in developing countries, and hence will affect some of the poorest peoplein the world. The capacity of such initiatives to alleviate poverty in the long term depends on their environmentalsustainability. Specifically, the exploitation of water resources in an unsustainable manner may permanentlydamage vulnerable ecosystems and ultimately deepen poverty. These issues have motivated a collaborative project- Integrated Carbon, Water and Land Management for Poverty Alleviation (ICWALPA), which asks whether theexport of bio-fuel technology from Brazil to Ghana will alleviate poverty. This presentation will describe theinitial results from ICWALPA - including the development of an integrated environmental modelling frameworkand its application to sugarcane cultivation under scenarios of climate change. The environmental model used torepresent the biophysical interactions is process-based and implemented in the framework of the Joint UK LandEnvironment Simulator (JULES). Crop growth is predicted dynamically by accumulating the carbon assimilatedduring photosynthesis and is then allocated according to well-established allometric principles.Two contrasting case studies will be presented: the Sao Paulo region of Brazil (where there is an estab-lished sugarcane industry) and the Daka River region of Ghana (where commercial sugarcane cultivation isplanned). We show that our model is capable of reproducing both the spatial and temporal variability in sugarcaneyield for the Sao Paulo province of Brazil – lending credence to the projections for Ghana. For Ghana, we showthat, providing there is sufficient irrigation, it is possible to generate approximately 75% of the yield achieved inthe Sao Paulo province. In the final part of the study, the behaviour of sugarcane under an idealized climate changescenario is explored. It is shown that the increased drought tolerance that results from higher CO2 concentrationsmitigates the greater water stress associated with higher evaporation.

The environmental sustainability of sugarcane cultivation under scenarios of climate change: case studies for Brazil and Ghana.

http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/bitstream/doc/955055/1/00000011762012EmilyBlackEGU2012100592.pdf

The environmental sustainability of sugarcane cultivation under scenarios of climate change: case studies for Brazil and Ghana.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from Embrapa