Research Projects

Research Organisation Partners

• University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical faculty
•  Agricultural institute of Slovenia    

Abstract

Environmental and climate changes require new knowledge and new approaches to agricultural practice. Slovenia is warming faster than the global and European average, and precipitation patterns are also changing. As a result, agriculture is particularly affected by heat stress, extreme precipitation and other changes in growing conditions, especially in summer. As higher temperature sums are reached faster, plant development can be accelerated, leading to more pest generations in a year, the emergence of new invasive plants and similar phenomena. The aim of the project is to present the most important agroclimatic indicators describing the effects of climate on agroecosystems and to use climate projections to illustrate the effects of climate change on various aspects of crop production until the end of the 21st century, as well as to assess the effects of climate change on the yields of the most important crops in Slovenia.

The objectives of the research project are:

• to define a set of key agroclimatic indicators to describe the influence of weather and climate on various crops,
• to use climate projections to assess the impact of climate change on various aspects of crop production in Slovenia by the end of the 21st century, and
• to select and test models for the production of some of the most important crops in Slovenia for the 21st century and various climate change scenarios.

Improving the resilience of the agricultural system is crucial and it is important that the results of agroclimatic indicators are directly linked to decision making and management in systems affected by climate change. To this end, the project results will be included in freely accessible portals such as the Climate Change Atlas and Environmental Indicators of the Slovenian Environment Agency, with ongoing recalculations for monitoring purposes. The results will thus provide Slovenia with a direct tool for agricultural adaptation planning and key strategic decisions. 

Researchers

• 36716 - Tjaša Pogačar 
• 55851 - Zala Žnidaršič 
• 11062 - Zalika Črepinšek 
• 24297 - Maja Kožar
• 32021 - Ajda Bleiweis 
• 38629 - Tanja Travnikar
• 34256 - Aleš Kolmanič 
• 13379 - Peter Dolničar 
• 50095 - Simon Ograjšek 

The phases of the project and their realization

WP1: Set of agroclimatic indicators, timeline: M1-M12

WP2: Climate projections of agroclimatic indicators, timeline: M9-M24

WP3: Crop yield models, timeline: M1-M24