Showing posts with label climate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate. Show all posts

Sunday 10 December 2023

Drought in rainy places


A new study of forests suffering from climate change has suggested that forests in typically wet climates may be more vulnerable than those already adapted to drier environments. That's my premise with vines: the roots remain shallower in wetter regions, whereas in drier regions they have to grow deeper to find water.

I don't know if that's been proven, but it's why the first couple of years, we let the vines grow very long above ground, hoping that would encourage them to grow equally long roots below ground. We had 6 weeks with almost no rain early this year followed by 6 weeks of extraordinary rain and the vines thrived. So I am hopeful that my strategy for adaptation to a shifting climate worked. 


Drought sensitivity in mesic forests heightens their vulnerability to climate change

ROBERT HEILMAYR, JOAN DUDNEY, AND FRANCES C. MOORE 

SCIENCE

7 Dec 2023

Vol 382, Issue 6675

pp. 1171-1177

DOI: 10.1126/science.adi1071


Editor’s summary

The increase in drought conditions caused by climate change threatens tree growth and survival. Heilmayr et al. investigated whether trees are most stressed by drought in relatively wet or dry regions. In drier areas, trees increasingly experience more severe conditions but may also be better adapted to withstand drought. Using tree ring measurement records from more than 100 tree species, the authors found that trees growing in the wetter parts of their range are more drought-sensitive, and hot, wet regions are predicted to have the greatest declines in growth under future climate change. Therefore, land management and policy focused solely on drought effects in drier regions will underestimate climate change vulnerability in forests. —Bianca Lopez

Abstract

Climate change is shifting the structure and function of global forests, underscoring the critical need to predict which forests are most vulnerable to a hotter and drier future. We analyzed 6.6 million tree rings from 122 species to assess trees’ sensitivity to water and energy availability. We found that trees growing in wetter portions of their range exhibit the greatest drought sensitivity. To test how these patterns of drought sensitivity influence vulnerability to climate change, we predicted tree growth through 2100. Our results suggest that drought adaptations in arid regions will partially buffer trees against climate change. By contrast, trees growing in the wetter, hotter portions of their climatic range may experience unexpectedly large adverse impacts under climate change.

Thursday 3 February 2022

January weather conditions

We had a lot less rain than normal and warmer temperatures than the mean expected, but equivalent to 2020. A lot of plants were confused and we had many things blooming and leafing way ahead of schedule. We've already mowed the lawn and the vineyard once. 

It's raining today, but thankfully we missed the worst of it which tracked south toward Galway. We are expecting a short-lived cold snap after the rain, but then it's promised to return to balmy at the weekend.  

What a long strange January it's been. But there is a grand stretch in the day. And we finished pruning in the vineyard before St Vincent's feast day. We broke out a supposedly very good bottle of wine (not ours) to celebrate but found it unpalatable. What, pray tell, could be the meaning of this?


















MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 02-FEB-2022

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
202298.81.5100.3
2021225.6147.6141.145.6113.564.159.7155.6137.0265.7183.3186.61725.4
2020139.5342.8178.225.554.7164.5187.9137.9153.4228.0206.6232.72051.7
2019146.8115.0228.5100.7112.576.682.7228.9175.5160.7148.1220.61796.6
LTA166.7126.5141.296.894.789.7100.9132.5131.5176.0170.4180.21607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
20227.210.47.4
20215.06.77.99.010.413.317.516.415.211.99.37.610.9
20207.26.06.611.012.813.814.416.013.810.59.16.110.6
20196.98.47.910.211.713.116.315.513.710.37.17.110.7
LTA6.16.17.39.011.513.815.415.413.510.88.36.510.3

Mean 10cm soil temperature for NEWPORT at 0900 UTC

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
20226.2n/a6.2
20213.65.06.88.210.914.317.916.315.211.38.66.610.4
20205.74.75.49.713.014.814.916.313.79.58.05.110.1
20196.16.16.88.912.213.816.715.713.59.46.25.610.1
LTAn/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/an/a

Tuesday 2 November 2021

Hotter, wetter and more extremes

Pinot Noir year 2 looking good

How climate change is forecast to impact Ireland ...

Senior Met Eireann climatologist Keith Lambkin told the Irish Times that the average temperature in the State has increased by about one degree C over the last 120 years. By 2050, we are to get slightly more rain but in patterns that differ from today. Honestly, they already differ from when I first started coming here 20+ years ago. We are to get wetter Autumn and Winter and drier summers. Moreover, the rain will fall in heavier amounts rather than in the showers alternating with sunshine that we used to get. It's why we're associated with so many rainbows. 

There always have been severe weather events and always will be. But the UN's WMO issued a report in concert with COP 26 which indicates that the events are becoming more extreme and are clearly associated with man's actions. To better predict these events the WMO is launching the Global Basic Observation Network, strategically placed in areas that do not currently have extensive meteorological observation capacity. 

Today, the cold arrived and it is certainly wet up in the field. The donkeys were complaining so I brought them carrots. They complained even more loudly. What a difference a day makes. The leaves have started dropping quickly. Autumn is clearly here.  The days are getting noticeably shorter. And daylight savings time has confused my sleep-wake cycle. Now I count the days until December 21. 

We worked in the vineyard again, tying up vines, clearing grass and removing plastic ties. I got the Pinot Noir row done. The vines are looking really good for the most part. A few are weaker, some are more robust, but overall they are doing great, much better than the Albarino planted at the same time.


Yesterday I made grape juice from the remaining white grapes at Ross House. It's delicious without even adding sugar, the grapes were so sweet. Our wine continues to bubble away, so I am hopeful. 

And just for the heck of it, yesterday's delicious chicken pot pie with oyster mushrooms I grew in a mail-order kit. It's always something.




Sunday 4 July 2021

Happy July 4th!

Can you believe it's July? I still haven't taken out the kayak because it's been so cold. Yet the numbers show that our temperature average was, well, average. Yet I remember last year being so much warmer. The vines have grown but the flowers still have not opened. Last year, I noted bloom on July 8. We still have a few days to catch up. 

Our rainfall total for June is quite low again and significantly less than last year but similar to 2018. The truth is that the variability of our climate is increasing. Better than the record heat along the West coast of the states. 

I've noted that we have an extraordinary number of clusters so I have to learn how to reduce the number to improve the yield. It's always something. 




MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 03-JUL-2021

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
2021225.6147.6141.145.6113.564.19.0746.5
2020139.5342.8178.225.554.7164.5187.9137.9153.4228.0206.6232.72051.7
2019146.8115.0228.5100.7112.576.682.7228.9175.5160.7148.1220.61796.6
2018274.6155.686.294.370.465.958.6179.1148.3140.9172.6201.01647.5
LTA166.7126.5141.296.894.789.7100.9132.5131.5176.0170.4180.21607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAnnual
20215.06.77.99.010.413.315.48.8
20207.26.06.611.012.813.814.416.013.810.59.16.110.6
20196.98.47.910.211.713.116.315.513.710.37.17.110.7
20185.94.65.59.113.116.116.115.012.410.98.38.110.5
LTA6.16.17.39.011.513.815.415.413.510.88.36.510.3


Note on the orchard. The new peach tree has one set of leaves, the apples have very few apples, the cherries are shrivelling and dropping off (I think they have leaf curl fungus), one cherry is dying completely most likely due to canker and there are few crabapples and no plums. Only the pear tree is doing okay.


The peach tree in the greenhouse definitely has peach leaf curl and almost all the leaves are yellowing with a touch of red and curling before they fall off. That means Bordeaux mix treatment in the Autumn and no moving it into the polytunnel before then. Looks like the cherry trees and roses (which have had aphid infestation as well as black spot) will need Bordeaux mix as well.  

I think I should give up on gardening.