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Tea-CUP Project: A joint initiative to provide climate change services to support the tea industry

The cover photo, taken by study co-author Zhou Tianjun at a tea plantation in China’s Yunnan province, emphasizes the importance of Yunnan as a major tea-producing region. Credit: Advances in Atmospheric Science

Tea is a globally important commodity, with an industry worth tens of billions of dollars and growing. However, its production, both in terms of quantity and quality, is highly sensitive to climate change, especially in the context of long-term anthropogenic global warming and associated short-term impacts such as extreme weather events.

A joint initiative between UK and Chinese scientists and tea industry stakeholders has been launched to tackle this challenge. The project, known as ‘Tea-CUP’ (Cooperative Development of Useful Predictions), aims to develop actionable climate information, or ‘climate services’, to inform adaptation measures and decision-making within the tea industry. The purpose is

Progress in this effort is detailed in a paper published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Recognizing the importance of this research, the journal’s editor, Professor Zhongliang Yang of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, nominated the paper for the issue’s cover.

“This collaboration embodies the goal of climate science to provide climate services that directly benefit society,” Professor Yang said.

The cover photo was taken by Professor Zhou Tianjun, one of the study’s authors and a key figure in promoting long-term cooperation between the UK Met Office and the Chinese Academy of Atmospheric Physics, at a tea plantation in China’s Yunnan province. degree in science – emphasizes the importance of Yunnan province as a major tea-producing region.

Professor Zhou said: “Drought conditions are expected to become more common in the southeastern region of the Tibetan Plateau, including Yunnan province, as the warm water pool of the Western Pacific continues to warm. For the industry, accurate seasonal information, daily information and local forecasts will be invaluable in decision-making.”

A key takeaway from the Tea-CUP project is that collaborative development of climate services tailored to the tea industry is essential to producing effective and usable climate information.

“The UK-China collaborative approach will strengthen the tea sector’s resilience to climate variability and change by integrating scientific knowledge and local expertise, creating a more effective climate for the tea industry. “We have demonstrated that it is possible to develop adaptive strategies,” said Dr. Stacey New, an applied climate scientist at the Met Office and lead author of the paper.

The Tea-CUP project focuses on key regions in Yunnan province, where tea plant growth is particularly sensitive to climate fluctuations and changes, and recent extreme weather events have directly affected tea yield and quality. , impacting the livelihoods of local farmers and hindering sustainable tea production. This finding has broader implications for development.

“In Yunnan province, we collected a variety of data on tea yield, plantation area and price, temperature and precipitation to build a model that reveals the interaction between climate change and tea production.” Yunnan University of Finance Professor Xiaojuan Li explains. economy.

These models will help Tea-CUP scientists identify key weather indicators that influence tea production and help stakeholders understand how these factors affect yield and quality. understand and guide business decisions in a changing climate.

Currently, the climate service developed under the Tea-CUP project is a prototype. Future steps include improving and implementing these services, including jointly developing subseasonal forecasts for Yunnan and continued engagement with tea farmers.

“The ultimate goal is to foster continued cross-cultural knowledge exchange, inform adaptation strategies, and ensure that climate information is tailored to the needs of tea farmers and other stakeholders. , to help build a climate-resilient tea industry,” he concluded. . new.

The Tea-CUP project represents a significant advance in climate change services for the tea industry. But importantly, the framework serves as a model for user engagement not only in other tea-producing regions of China, but across different sectors of the world.

Further information: Stacey New et al, Towards a Climate Service for the Tea Industry: A Collaborative Approach between the UK and China, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-024-4302-8

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences

Citation: Tea-CUP Project: A joint initiative to provide climate services to support the tea industry (October 23, 2024) from https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tea-cup-joint- 2024 Retrieved October 23, climate industry.html

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