Virginia Longo

I have a background in Physics and I'm interested in researching how climate change is affecting the water cycle and the consequences of the ongoing drought conditions on vegetation and crops. For this reason, my Master's thesis focused on the impact of climate change on evapotranspiration and the importance of its estimation for water management in agriculture.

My PhD project aims to deliver a new understanding of the current drought-sensitive, at-risk agricultural areas of the world, focusing on the increasing risks of multiple breadbasket failures over the 21st century. Moreover, it aims to investigate the response of drought-tolerant crops to extreme climatic conditions as well as their potential for mitigating the expected impacts by reducing agricultural water use.

The project is interdisciplinary, encompassing Climate Science and Biosciences, and it will involve working with output data of climate simulations as well as experimental data on drought-tolerant wheat.