Abstract

CORCEGA PITTA, Eladys  and  MARTELO PENA, María Teresa. Agricultural and environmental consequences of climate change in human and animal comfort conditions in the experimental stations of the Facultad de Agronomía of the Universidad Central de Venezuela. Rev. Téc. Ing. Univ. Zulia [online]. 2007, vol.30, n.Especial, pp.1-10. ISSN 0254-0770.

Climate change constitutes a global scale problem and albeit the uncertainties that exist, scientists from around the world have determined that the present climatic alterations are occurring at a rate that could exceed any other such changes in the last 10 thousand years. The most common agricultural and environmental implications that derive from changes in precipitation and temperature levels, affect such aspects as water availability and human and animal comfort. Since the effects of climate change on the environment and agriculture are increasingly evident, it was considered pertinent to undertake a study on the consequences of these changes in the Experimental Stations of the School of Agronomy of the UCV. First of all, the future temperature series were obtained, employing the findings of Martelo [1], for two Models of General Circulation of the Atmosphere (MGCA). Subsequently, the possible changes in the temperature regimes for each station were determined, using human and animal comfort analysis; and with this information, the possible agricultural and environmental consequences of these changes were analyzed. In general, the results show an increase in the human and animal discomfort conditions for both models.

Keywords : Climate change; experimental stations; temperature regime; models of general circulation of the atmosphere (MGCA); comfort.