| Popis: |
The productive characteristics and agricultural potential of a region are strongly related to its climate conditions, and these have changed in an unprecedented way worldwide in the last 70 years. While the warming since the late nineteenth century has been established as between 0.3 and 0.6 °C, the variation of other climatic elements such as precipitation, cloudiness and evaporation, has been much less explored. Climate change and variability in the central region of Argentina between 1941 and 2010 was studied, with special emphasis on water balance information, and the impact on agricultural suitability was assessed both temporally and spatially. Time series of 7 successive decades of climatic and agroclimatic variables expressed spatially were used, with Sen's nonparametric tests to assess the rate of change, and Mann–Kendall's to establish the significance of the trend. While no major change was seen in the annual values of potential evapotranspiration (ETP), with significant rates that were positive in only 6% and negative in 2% of the territory, 57% of the territory presents an increasing total annual rainfall trend, which significantly reduced aridity. There is a general downward trend in water deficiency (Def), so that this indicator of aridity and productivity has negative rates over time (P |
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