The implications of climate change on forage-based livestock systems in Scotland

Topp, Cairistiona Frances Elizabeth (1999) The implications of climate change on forage-based livestock systems in Scotland. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The thesis examined the effects of climatic change on livestock production within Scotland. In order to achieve this, a systems model of the dairy, beef and sheep enterprises was developed.

Climatic change primarily affects livestock production through its effects on forage production. Under climatic change, the model predicted that the length of the growing and grazing season will increase with the extensions occurring at both ends of the season. Relative to current climatic conditions elevated CO2 concentrations coupled with the associated changes in climate resulted in an enhancement in harvestable dry-matter yield that ranged from 20% to nearly 60% and increases in the percentage of white clover in the harvestable material by up to 126%

In general, global warming is predicted to increase forage and livestock production within Scotland. However, the location of the site is also important in determining the effect of climate change as the magnitude and, in some cases, the directions of the changes varied between sites. The effects of climate change were also dependent on the actual level of changes in temperature. In addition, there were interactions between CO2 concentration and both temperature and rainfall, as well as interactions between temperature and rainfall. Although the three enterprises showed similar trends in their response to climate change, there were differences in the magnitude of the response as well as differences in the factors that resulted in significant changes. There were also differences in the response of the grazed and the ungrazed swards. This underlines the complexity of the interactions and the difficulty of extrapolating the results to other locations and to other levels of climatic conditions. The advantage of developing a model is that all these complex interactions can be captured and potentially the site - specific consequences of climate change on forage and livestock production predicted.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: S Agriculture > SF Animal culture; S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering
• Supervisor's Name: Doyle, Prof. Chris
• Date of Award: 1999
• Depositing User: Mrs Marie Cairney
• Unique ID: glathesis:1999-3107
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 11 Jan 2012
• Last Modified: 04 Feb 2014 10:40
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/3107