Rebecca Darbyshire

• PhD
• Researcher at Agriculture and Food, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Given the significant role climate plays in phenology the chapter gives an overview of each country’s climate. It provides details on citizen science—historical and current, horticulture, pollen, phenocams, and land surface phenology. The chapter highlights that with the use of alternative data sources such as government records, naturalist diaries...

Australia's first National Climate Risk Assessment is built on the latest science as well as learnings from other countries’ national risk assessments. The goal of the risk assessment was to identify the priority risks of climate change to Australia as a nation. Due to timeline obligations, this process needed to be completed in 4 months, a conside...

Climate services can support on-farm decisions, yet this potential is currently not fully realized. Here, using a participatory qualitative risk analysis framework, we introduced 24 Australian farmers to My Climate View, an Australian online, multi-decadal climate service, and asked them to identify, assess and discuss management of long-term risks...

Background and Aims. Australia’s changing climate is already impacting the agriculture sector and will continue to do so in the future. To help respond to these impacts, the Climate Services for Agriculture (CSA) platform presents readily accessible climate data, including future climate projections, relevant to specific agricultural commodities. T...

Temperate perennial fruit and nut trees play varying roles in world food diversity-providing edible oils and micronutrient, energy, and protein dense foods. In addition, perennials reuse significant amounts of biomass each year providing a unique resilience. But they also have a unique sensitivity to seasonal temperatures, requiring a period of dor...

Australia’s primary production sector operates in one of the world’s most variable climates with future climate change posing a challenge to its ongoing sustainability. Recognising this, Australia has invested in understanding climate change risks to primary production with a substantial amount of research produced. Recently, focus on this research...

The Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of the scientific literature relevant to climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The report recognizes the interactions of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societie...

Seasonal climate forecasts (forecasts) aim to reduce climate‐related productivity risk by helping farmers make decisions that minimise losses in poor years and maximise profits in good years. Most Australian forecast valuations have focused on fertiliser decisions to wheat operations, and few assessments have evaluated the benefit of incremental im...

A dataset of cherry full bloom dates across the full diversity of Australian growing regions was compiled and utilised for the first time. The primary data source was from growers located across Australia's major cherry growing districts. Records were of varying length and were used to investigate the potential of using data that substitute 'space-...

Spatial modelling of agricultural production has been more frequently analysed to assist with regional and long‐term planning. Typically, point‐scale crop models are used to construct these analyses with researchers using various sources of input data, including observed and interpolated gridded climate data. Understanding the implication of data c...

Download link until 20 Nov 2019 https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1ZpyK15Dynd6ct Future climate change is predicted to lead to reduced winter chill accumulation in many temperate fruit-tree growing regions of the world. Reliable measures of chilling requirement (CR) are necessary for growers in mild winter production locations to determine phenotypic...

Seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs) provide opportunities for pastoralists to align production decisions to climatic conditions, as SCFs offer economic value by increasing certainty about future climatic states at decision-making time. Insufficient evidence about the economic value of SCFs was identified as a major factor limiting adoption of SCFs in...

Management strategies that improve water efficiency in water-limited rice systems are needed for sustainable production. In southeast Australia growers are increasing implementing drill seeding and also delayed permanent water (DPW) irrigation practice to improve water productivity. This change in timing of permanent water application has a large i...

Many key phenological stages of temperate fruit trees are highly dependent on environmental conditions. This includes the timing of dormancy release and flowering which are essential to ensure good fruit production and quality. Global changes in environmental conditions including warmer winters and higher risks of frosts in the early spring, may le...

Evaluation of chilling requirements of cultivars of temperate fruit trees provides key information to assess regional suitability, according to winter chill, for both industry expansion and ongoing profitability as climate change progresses. Traditional methods for calculating chilling requirements use climate-controlled chambers and define chillin...

Background and Aims Grapevine phenology is closely linked with growing season temperature. Rising temperature related to anthropogenic climate change has the potential to advance winegrape ripening. This study updated and validated previous research that considered changes to the timing of winegrape maturity and to the warming temperature of the gr...

Evaluation of chilling requirements (CR) of cultivars of temperate fruit trees provides key information to assess regional suitability, according to winter chill, for both industry expansion and ongoing profitability as climate change continues. Traditional methods for calculating CR use climate controlled chambers and define CR using a fixed budbu...

Seasonal variations in winegrape production are intimately connected with growing season weather, with unusually hot or cold temperatures impacting grape and subsequent wine composition. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) phases impact weather across Australia, particularly at the start of the Southern Hemisphere...

Pear fruit are subject to sun damage from high fruit surface temperature (FST). Shade netting has been shown to decrease FST and sunburn damage of apples but also decreased fruit colour. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of netting on FST, fruit sunburn and fruit colour of the red-blushed pear cultivar ‘ANP-0131’. FST was measure...

Many key phenological stages of temperate fruit trees are highly dependent on environmental conditions. This includes the timing of dormancy release and flowering which are essential to ensure good fruit production and quality. Global changes in environmental conditions including warmer winters and higher risks of frosts in the early spring, may le...

Seasonal timing of winegrape maturity is influenced by weather conditions. Significant changes to day-of-year-of-maturity (DOYM), both earlier and later than average, causes logistical problems during harvest, impacting on grape and wine quality. Shifts in climate circulation patterns resulting from atmospheric teleconnections to changes in sea sur...

This study presents the first evaluation of apple flowering phenology models using data from 14 sites across the globe. The dataset includes large variability in growing climates, a prerequisite to investigate phenology models for use in climate change applications. Two flowering stages, early and full, were investigated allowing for unique model e...

Historical temperature data and maturity records were analyzed for 45 vineyard blocks in 15 winegrowing regions across Australia in order to evaluate the suitability of common viticultural indices to estimate date of grape maturity. Five temperature-based viticultural indices (mean January temperature, mean growing season temperature, growing degre...

Accumulation of sufficient winter chill under anthropogenic climate change may be a constraint for the future production of fruit and nut crops. To evaluate potential impacts and to implement adaptation strategies, reliable estimates of varietal chilling requirements (CR) are needed. Often CRs are estimated statistically as parameters in flowering...

This study seeks to highlight the range of chilling requirement values that can be obtained for one cherry cultivar (‘Lapins’) across different Australian locations by using the same data but different approaches in calculating chilling requirement (CR). We seek to test the assumption that chill thresholds are fixed. The physiological and in-field...

Observed climate changes are already increasing pressure on agricultural productivity, highlighting the need for the construction of reliable assessments of projected climate change impacts on plant processes. Such impact assessments underpin adaptive options and indicate pathways to manage expected risk and illustrate future opportunities. Using p...

Climate change impact assessments are predominantly undertaken for the purpose of informing future adaptation decisions. Often, the complexity of the methodology hinders the actionable outcomes. The approach used here illustrates the importance of considering uncertainty in future climate projections, at the same time providing robust and simple to...

Pear fruit are subject to sun damage from high fruit surface temperature (FST). Threshold FST for the occurrence of sunburn are currently unknown and basic relationships between FST of pears and weather parameters have not been reported. Such knowledge is needed to aid implementation of management practices and improve orchard design to minimise su...

Anthropogenic climate change will influence winter chill accumulation, with future declines likely in temperate locations. However, these declines only translate as impacts when cultivar winter chilling requirements are not satisfied. This study presents a methodology to evaluate future impacts of declining winter chill through a cultivarspecific a...

Reliable models of fruit tree flowering phenology that are stable across different climate conditions and for a range of cultivars are required to better anticipate and adapt to anthropogenically induced climate change. Two phenology models, the commonly applied sequential model and the newly defined chill overlap model, were investigated to evalua...

This document reports the results of a small exploratory study of the barriers to climate change adaptation by Australian temperate perennial fruit growers. It was carried out as part of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (PICCC) Project 440: Crossing the threshold: adaptation tipping points for Australian fruit trees. While there is...

This study estimated minimum air temperatures for potential sun damage for sunburn browning (non-netted and netted) and sunburn necrosis (non-netted) for Royal Gala apple in Australia. The approach estimated when conditions may be conducive to the development of sun damage in some fruit. The approach provides a measure of potential damage. This all...

The climate conditions for world horticultural regions are projected to change. Farmers will be required to cope with increasing temperatures, changes to water availability, lack of winter chilling and increased extreme weather exposure. Compared with other agricultural pursuits, horticulture remains particularly exposed due to higher infrastructur...

Climate projection data were applied to two commonly used pome fruit flowering models to investigate potential differences in predicted full bloom timing. The two methods, fixed thermal time and sequential chill-growth, produced different results for seven apple and pear varieties at two Australian locations. The fixed thermal time model predicted...

Temporal and temperature driven analyses were conducted for eight spring phenology datasets from three Australian pome fruit growing regions ranging from 24 to 43 years in length. This, the first such analysis for Australia, indicated significant temporal change in phenophase timing for only one of the datasets. To determine relationships to temper...

Increases in temperature as a result of anthropogenically generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are likely to impact key aspects of horticultural production. The potential effect of higher temperatures on fruit and nut trees' ability to break winter dormancy, which requires exposure to winter chilling temperatures, was considered. Three chill mo...

Trends in phenological phases associated with climate change are widely reported--yet attribution remains rare. Attribution research in biological systems is critical in assisting stakeholders to develop adaptation strategies, particularly if human factors may be exacerbating impacts. Detailed, quantified attribution helps to effectively target ada...

Deciduous fruit trees require exposure to cold winter temperatures to fulfil chilling requirements allowing production of normal harvests. Trends in chill accumulation over the last 100 years were investigated at a number of important horticultural locations in Australia. Historical analysis is a necessary first step when considering potential impa...

Because of the lack of observations, the behavior of air‐sea interfacial flux coefficients at extreme wind speeds is not well known. In this study, simulations of a three‐ dimensional ocean model are forced by extreme tropical cyclone winds (up to 155 knots) under various drag and exchange coefficient representations and flux parameterizations. The...

We conducted comparisons for exotic mammal species introduced to New Zealand (28 successful, 4 failed), Australia (24, 17) and Britain (15, 16). Modelling of variables associated with establishment success was constrained by small sample sizes and phylogenetic dependence, so our results should be interpreted with caution. Successful species were su...

We assess the performance of wire leaders, which some jurisdictions have banned to reduce shark mortality from pelagic longline fishing. Experiments were conducted off northeastern Australia on commercial vessels that deployed equal numbers of wire and nylon monofilament leaders randomly along their longlines. Catch rates of several species, includ...

We assess the performance of wire leaders, which some jurisdictions have banned to reduce shark mortality from pelagic longline fishing. Experiments were conducted on commercial vessels that deployed equal numbers of wire and nylon monofilament leaders randomly along their longlines. Catch rates of several species, including sharks, were significan...