Impacts of the NAO on Mediterranean Crop Production

Meteorological conditions can influence the main biological processes responsible of plant growth and development affecting vegetative growing, setting and ripening of different plant organs, onset and duration of phenological stages and the final production, exerting a strong impact on agricultural activities. In particular, the study of the variability of timing and length of the plants growing season is gaining importance because plant phenology is a sensitive indicator of climate change and has large impacts on terrestrial ecosystems through changes in productivity and in the annual carbon and water cycles. For many years, starting from meteorological information, mathematical descriptions of these effects have been formulated in order to provide users (farmers, technicians, extension services, researchers, etc.) with operational tools for improving management and planning activities. Besides common meteorological information supplied by local or synoptic weather stations, the use of large-scale climatic variables has also been investigated in order to forecast agricultural yields and production quality in several regions of the world. In Europe, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) seems to be responsible for a large component of climate variability, particularly influencing winter and, through climate interactions on plants, crop production quality and quantity characteristics. The use of large-scale meteorological information showed great potential, particularly for the development of crop production forecasting systems.