Longer monsoon seasons with increased daily rainfall, aspects of climate change, are contributing to reduced tea yield in regions of China, with implications for crop management and harvesting strategies, according to findings by a global interdisciplinary team led by Tufts University researchers and published online recently in Climate.
Studying historical weather and production data from 1980 to 2011, the researchers applied a novel technique to estimate the onset, duration, and retreat of the East Asian Monsoon for each province, using the cumulative precipitation to identify when significant weather changes occurred each year. Previous studies had approximated monsoon periods by using historical averages that place start and end dates at fixed times.
The new approach reflects the dynamic nature of weather and yields more accurate data to advance understanding of how changing monsoon patterns affect crop productivity in an industry of significant economic, nutritional and social importance, researchers say. Enabling farmers to more accurately estimate yields could influence their decisions on when to harvest, which, according to previous studies, can have an impact on the quantity of chemicals in tea that have been associated with its beneficial health effects.