Climate Change and Soil-Water Balance

The semi-arid and arid regions comprise almost 40 percent of the world's land surface. The low and erratic precipitation pattern is the single most significant contributor for limiting crop production in such regions where rainfall is the source for surface, soil and ground water. In a changing climate, the semi-arid and arid regions would increasingly face the challenge of water scarcity. According to the relevant literature; under the assumption of a doubling of the current atmospheric CO2 concentration, irrigation demand was estimated to increase for wheat and to decrease for second crop maize in a Mediterranean environment of Turkey in the 2070s. Crop evapotranspiration would decrease due to stomata closure. Reference evapotranspiration and potential soil evaporation were projected to increase by 8.0 and 7.3%, respectively, whereas actual soil evaporation was predicted to decrease by 16.5%. Drainage losses below 90 cm soil depth were found to decrease mainly due to lesser rainfall amount in the future.