Beregnungsbedürftigkeit von Mais und Winterweizen in Sachsen vor dem Hintergrund des Klimawandels

Abstract

Lilienthal, F., Böttcher, F.: The need of irrigation of maize and winter wheat in the context of climate change. - Hercynia N. F. 45 (2012): 161 – 171. To discuss the need of irrigation in Saxony (Germany) we analyse Chemnitz, Görlitz and Oschatz according to the given soils. We study one summer crop (maiz) and one winter crop (winter wheat). To calculate the moisture of the soils between 1961 and 2050 we use the soil water household model METVER (Müller & Müller 1988a, b, 1989). For the need of irrigation we set a boundary value for soil moisture of 30 and 50 % AWC (available water content). For the whole time interval we build up decades and calculate the corresponding mean number of days undershooting the given values for each crop. The results for the different places turn out to be very different according to their geographical location. For places like Chemnitz that benefit from the northern rain accumulation of the mountains Erzgebirge the need of irrigation is least critical.This means that Chemnitz only needs irrigation to keep quality high. In opposite Görlitz and Oschatz need to focus more on stabilizing the harvest. Comparisons between the models show similar tendencies that can be proven in different intensities to be trends. However, our results show that we have to expect a strong increase in need of irrigation only in the last considered decade. Key words: soil moisture, irrigation, climate change