January 13, 2015 - For every degree Celsius that the temperature increases, the world stands to lose 6 percent of its wheat crop, according to a new global study led by a University of Florida scientist. That’s one fourth of the annual global wheat trade, which reached 147 million tons in 2013. Senthold Asseng, a UF professor of agricultural and biological engineering, used a computer model approach to reach the finding of temperature increases and wheat production.
“We started this with wheat, as wheat is one of the world’s most important food crops,” said Asseng, whose team’s study was published online Dec. 22 in the journal Nature Climate Change. “The simulations with the multi-crop models showed that warming is already slowing yield gains, despite observed yield increases in the past, at a majority of wheat-growing locations across the globe.”
University of Florida Press Release: http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2015/01/ufifas-study-wheat-yield-to-decline-as-temperatures-increase--.html
Nature Climate Change Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2470
