Changes in rainfall patterns in the eastern area of La Pampa province, Argentina

Mudanças no regime de precipitações do este do município La Pampa, Argentina

Abstracts

The eastern area of the Province of La Pampa, Argentina lies in a transition zone between the humid temperate climate stretching east and the steppe climate stretching west. The area is very sensitive to changes in precipitation patterns, especially when changes are sudden and there is no time to take adaptive measures to cope with the impacts of climate change. In such cases, agricultural production and the balance of the environment are threatened by potential disaster. In order to determine the long-term occurrence of such phenomena, long-term annual precipitation series (1921-2009) from 14 stations in the study area were analyzed using the procedure of hydrometeorological series segmentation. The results for the study period show a succession of abrupt increases, with annual precipitation increasing by about 30%. Each increase in rainfall can be seen as a fostering factor for the expansion of crop planted area in the following years. However, in recent years, there has been an abrupt and significant decrease in precipitation with a marked return to the conditions that prevailed at the beginning of the period. Because agriculture intensified during the period of increased rainfall, the carrying capacity of the environment could be exceeded if rainfall continues to decrease over a long period of time, causing a decline in production accompanied by environmental degradation.

Agroclimatology; climatological time series; shift in the mean

O leste do Município de La Pampa, Argentina está em uma área de transição entre o clima temperado e úmido que estende para o leste e o clima de estepe que estende para o oeste, é muito sensível às mudanças no regime de precipitações, especialmente, quando elas ocorrem de forma abrupta, não dando o tempo necessário para levar a cabo medidas adaptativas, para evitar impactos negativos das mudanças climáticas que afetam a produção agrária e o equilíbrio ambiental. Com objetivo de estudar mudanças no regime de precipitação, foram analisadas séries anuais de precipitação (1921 - 2009) de 14 estações da área de estudo, usando uma metodologia de segmentação de séries hidrometeorológicas. Os resultados indicaram que no período de estudo, aconteceram uma sucessão de mudanças abruptas, de sinal positivo em que a precipitação anual aumentou ao redor de 30%. O incremento das precipitações pode ser considerado uma das causas que explicam a expansão da área cultivada nos anos subsequentes a esses aumentos na precipitação. Não obstante, nos últimos anos, foi observada uma mudança abrupta de sinal negativo que reduziu significativamente a precipitação com um retorno marcado para as condições que prevaleceram no início do período analisado. Devido à expansão da agricultura observada no período de incremento das chuvas e, posteriormente, a diminuição dessas chuvas durante um longo período, poderia resultar na queda da produtividade e resultar em uma deterioração ambiental.

Agroclimatologia; série climatológica de tempo; mudanças na precipitação

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  16 Sept 2014
• Date of issue
  Mar 2012