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A comprehensively quantitative method of evaluating the impact of drought on crop yield using daily multi-scale SPEI and crop growth process model

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 61, pages 685–699 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

The quantitative evaluation of the impact of drought on crop yield is one of the most important aspects in agricultural water resource management. To assess the impact of drought on wheat yield, the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) crop growth model and daily Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which is based on daily meteorological data, are adopted in the Huang Huai Hai Plain. The winter wheat crop yields are estimated at 28 stations, after calibrating the cultivar coefficients based on the experimental site data, and SPEI data was taken 11 times across the growth season from 1981 to 2010. The relationship between estimated yield and multi-scale SPEI were analyzed. The optimum time scale SPEI to monitor drought during the crop growth period was determined. The reference yield was determined by averaging the yields from numerous non-drought years. From this data, we propose a comprehensive quantitative method which can be used to predict the impact of drought on wheat yields by combining the daily multi-scale SPEI and crop growth process model. This method was tested in the Huang Huai Hai Plain. The results suggested that estimation of calibrated EPIC was a good predictor of crop yield in the Huang Huai Hai Plain, with lower RMSE (15.4 %) between estimated yield and observed yield at six agrometeorological stations. The soil moisture at planting time was affected by the precipitation and evapotranspiration during the previous 90 days (about 3 months) in the Huang Huai Hai Plain. SPEIG90 was adopted as the optimum time scale SPEI to identify the drought and non-drought years, and identified a drought year in 2000. The water deficit in the year 2000 was significant, and the rate of crop yield reduction did not completely correspond with the volume of water deficit. Our proposed comprehensive method which quantitatively evaluates the impact of drought on crop yield is reliable. The results of this study further our understanding why the adoption of counter measures against drought is important and direct farmers to choose drought-resistant crops.

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Acknowledgments

This research received financial support from the International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (grant numbers: 2013DFG21010), and also supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT15R06), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41601562 and No. 41271437), Research Project for Young Teachers of Fujian Province (No. JAT160085) and Scientific Research Foundation of Fuzhou University (No. XRC-1536). We would like to thank Ming Liu, Xiaoran lv, Zhitao Wu, Leizhen Liu, and Guangyu Li for providing helpful editorial support.

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Affiliations

  1. Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Qianfeng Wang, Jianjun Wu, Xiaohan Li, Hongkui Zhou, Jianhua Yang, Guangpo Geng, Xueli An & Leizhen Liu

  2. College of Environment and Resource, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

    Qianfeng Wang

  3. Center for Drought and Risk Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Qianfeng Wang, Jianjun Wu, Xiaohan Li, Hongkui Zhou, Jianhua Yang, Guangpo Geng, Xueli An & Leizhen Liu

  4. Community and Regional Planning Program, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

    Zhenghong Tang

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  1. Qianfeng Wang
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  2. Jianjun Wu
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Correspondence to Jianjun Wu.

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Wang, Q., Wu, J., Li, X. et al. A comprehensively quantitative method of evaluating the impact of drought on crop yield using daily multi-scale SPEI and crop growth process model. Int J Biometeorol 61, 685–699 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-016-1246-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-016-1246-4

Keywords

  • Evaluating
  • Crop growth process model
  • EPIC
  • Drought
  • SPEI
  • Huang Huai Hai Plain