Climate Change Impacts on Water Use in Horticulture

The evidence for anthropogenic global climate change is strong, and the projected climate changes could greatly impact horticultural production. For horticulture, two of the biggest concerns are related to the scarcity of water for crop production and the potential for increased evapotranspiration (ET). While ET is known to increase with air temperature, it is also known to decrease with increasing humidity and atmospheric CO2 concentration. Considering all of these factors and a plausible climate projection, this paper demonstrates that ET may increase or decrease depending on the magnitude of atmospheric changes including wind speed. On the other hand, the evidence is still strong that water resources will become less reliable in many regions where horticultural crops are grown.