Vulnerability of the oasis ecosystem and strategies to adapt to climate change

Abstract EN

The date palm cultivation is an irrigated cropping system and the most adequate production in the south of Tunisia.

Currently, the effect of climate change puts pressure on the management of natural resources in the oasis ecosystem.

In this study, we have identified the climatic needs of the most existing cultivars and analyzed their behavior depending on climatic parameters.

In fact, changes in parameters affect the quality of dates as they play a key role in the maturation of dates.

With the exception of the cultivar «Deglet Nour», some cultivars have established a great capacity for tolerance and a wide range of adaptation aspects to changing climatic conditions.

Therefore, these cultivars offer a promising alternative development to mitigate the impact of these changes and introduce the crop in new growing areas to enhance their natural resources.

In terms of this work, we propose a strategy based on : [1] Establishment of a multidisciplinary platform based on the collection of information to evaluate the impact of climatic parameters on the cultivation of date ; [2]Proposal of appropriate cultural practices to mitigate the impact of these changes on the current culture and test new introduction with other cultivars in new growing areas; |[3]Conservation of biodiversity and the development of a database and selection of the most resistant cultivars to climate change, and [4] overall strategy Proposal to maintain agricultural productivity in the oasis and ensure the development of sustainable oasis ecosystems.