Monitoring outcomes of climate smart agricultural options at multiple levels: understanding adoption, synergies and tradeoffs

This framework will support field practitioners in tracking over time, the progress and dynamic changes in adoption of CSA options and their related impacts at household and farm level

Making Tactile Textures with Predefined Affective Properties

A process for the design and manufacture of 3D tactile textures with predefined affective properties was developed. Twenty four tactile textures were manufactured. Texture measures from the domain of machine vision were used to characterize the digital representations of the tactile textures. To obtain affective ratings, the textures were touched, unseen, by 107 participants who scored them against natural, warm, elegant, rough, simple, and like, on a semantic differential scale. The texture measures were correlated with the participants' affective ratings using a novel feature subset evaluation method and a partial least squares genetic algorithm. Six measures were identified that are significantly correlated with human responses and are unlikely to have occurred by chance. Regression equations were used to select 48 new tactile textures that had been synthesized using mixing algorithms and which were likely to score highly against the six adjectives when touched by participants. The new textures were manufactured and rated by participants. It was found that the regression equations gave excellent predictive ability. The principal contribution of the work is the demonstration of a process, using machine vision methods and rapid prototyping, which can be used to make new tactile textures with predefined affective properties

Tortillas en el comal: los sistemas de maíz y fríjol de América Central y el cambio climático

El maíz y el fríjol son un componente vital de las dietas alimenticias de los humanos y la cultura en América Central. Más de un millón de familias de pequeños agricultores siembran estos cultivos para su subsistencia y producen el 70% del maíz y 100% del fríjol que se consume localmente. Sin embargo, los rendimientos promedio son bajos —1.5 t/ha para maíz y 0.7 t/ha para fríjol — en las cerca de 2.5 millones de hectáreas de tierra sembradas con estos cultivos (40% del área total cosechada) en El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua. En los próximos años, el cambio climático junto con la degradación del suelo, la pobreza generalizada y el acceso limitado de la población rural a servicios e infraestructura plantearán obstáculos desafiantes para la producción. Para el 2025, estas presiones podrían producir pérdidas anuales totales de la producción de maíz y fríjol en los cuatro países de alrededor de 350.000 t — con un valor bruto de producción cercano a US$120 millones. Para detener esta amenaza para la seguridad alimentaria de alrededor de 100.000 hogares, se deben desarrollar unas estrategias de adaptación efectivas en colaboración con los interesados directos de las cadenas de valor del maíz y el fríjol. Estas estrategias requieren un apoyo público firme y deben aprovechar tanto el conocimiento científico como el saber de las comunidades

Diversity and functional structure of soil animal communities suggest soil animal food webs to be buffered against changes in forest land use

Forest soil and litter is inhabited by a diverse community of animals, which directly and indirectly rely on dead organic matter as habitat and food resource. However, community composition may be driven by biotic or abiotic forces, and these vary with changes in habitat structure and resource supply associated with forest land use. To evaluate these changes, we compiled comprehensive data on the species composition of soil animal communities and environmental factors in forest types varying in land-use intensity in each of three regions in Germany, i.e., coniferous, young managed, old managed, and unmanaged beech forests. Coniferous forests featured high amounts of leaf litter and low microbial biomass concentrations contrasting in particular unmanaged beech forests. However, soil animal diversity and functional community composition differed little between forest types, indicating resilience against disturbance and forest land use. Structural equation modelling suggested that despite a significant influence of forest management on resource abundance and quality, the biomass of most soil fauna functional groups was not directly affected by forest management or resource abundance/quality, potentially because microorganisms hamper the propagation of nutrients to higher trophic levels. Instead, detritivore biomass depended heavily on soil pH. Macrofauna decomposers thrived at high pH, whereas mesofauna decomposers benefitted from low soil pH, but also from low biomass of macrofauna decomposers, potentially due to habitat modification by macrofauna decomposers. The strong influence of soil pH shows that decomposer communities are structured predominantly by regional abiotic factors exceeding the role of local biotic factors such as forest type

High resistance towards herbivore-induced habitat change in a high Arctic arthropod community

Mammal herbivores may exert strong impacts on plant communities, and are often key drivers of vegetation composition and diversity. We tested whether such mammal-induced changes to a high Arctic plant community are reflected in the structure of other trophic levels. Specifically, we tested whether substantial vegetation changes following the experimental exclusion of muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) altered the composition of the arthropod community and the predator-prey interactions therein. Overall, we found no impact of muskox exclusion on the arthropod community: the diversity and abundance of both arthropod predators (spiders) and of their prey were unaffected by muskox presence, and so was the qualitative and quantitative structure of predator-prey interactions. Hence, high Arctic arthropod communities seem highly resistant towards even large biotic changes in their habitat, which we attribute to the high connectance in the food web

How are smallholder farmers coping with and adapting to climate-related shocks in Kaffrine Climate-Smart Village, Senegal?

This synthesis presents an analysis of the results from the 2019 implementation of the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Monitoring framework in Kaffrine (Senegal). This work contributes to the Activity 2.2 ‘Mainstreaming of evidence-based CSA options within the selected value chains’, in the context of the CCAFS-EU-IFAD grant reference 2000002575 for the research project “Building livelihoods and resilience to climate change in East & West Africa: Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) for large-scale implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture” led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

A shared socio-economic pathway based framework for characterising future emissions of chemicals to the natural environment

Chemicals are used in all aspects of our lives and are either intentionally or unintentionally released into the natural environment, leading to chemical pollution which negatively effects biodiversity and ecosystem and human health. The world is going through socio-economic, climate and technological changes that will affect chemical emissions to the natural environment but the extent of these affects is unknown. Scenarios of future chemical emissions are therefore needed to inform research and policy decisions to protect the health of humans and ecosystems into the future. In this article, we present a framework, based on Shared Socio-economics Pathways (SSPs) in combination with Representative concentration pathways (RCPs), to develop future chemical environmental emissions scenarios for single molecules or groups of chemicals sharing similar features. The framework has 4 steps: 1) determination of the characteristics of the scenario; 2) review and prioritisation of socio-economics and climate drivers; 3) development of scenarios; and 4) consistency checks. The framework is demonstrated for antidepressant and insecticide emissions into European freshwater-systems in 2050. Output narratives provide multiple pathways of chemical emissions in the future and can be used by researchers, regulators, politicians, governments, and the private sector to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies to chemical pollution issue

Past and future impacts of land-use changes on ecosystem services in Austria

Environmental and socio-economic developments induce land-use changes with potentially negative impacts on human well-being. To counteract undesired developments, a profound understanding of the complex relationships between drivers, land use, and ecosystem services is needed. Yet, national studies examining extended time periods are still rare. Based on the Special Report on land use, land management and climate change by the Austrian Panel on Climate Change (APCC), we use the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework to (1) identify the main drivers of land-use change, (2) describe past and future land-use changes in Austria between 1950 and 2100, (3) report related impacts on ecosystem services, and (4) discuss management responses. Our findings indicate that socio-economic drivers (e.g., economic growth, political systems, and technological developments) have influenced past land-use changes the most. The intensification of agricultural land use and urban sprawl have primarily led to declining ecosystem services in the lowlands. In mountain regions, the abandonment of mountain grassland has prompted a shift from provisioning to regulating services. However, simulations indicate that accelerating climate change will surpass socio-economic drivers in significance towards the end of this century, particularly in intensively used agricultural areas. Although climate change-induced impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain, it can be expected that the range of land-use management options will be restricted in the future. Consequently, policymaking should prioritize the development of integrated land-use planning to safeguard ecosystem services, accounting for future environmental and socio-economic uncertainties

Technische Zusammenfassung

Die Technische Zusammenfassung des APCC-Sonderberichts ″Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich″ umfasst die Kernbotschaften der Kapitel 1–9. In ihr sind die Hauptaussagen zu den sozioökonomischen und klimatischen Treibern der Landnutzungsänderungen, zu den Auswirkungen von Landnutzung und -bewirtschaftung auf den Klimawandel, zu Minderungs- und Anpassungsoptionen im Kontext nachhaltiger Entwicklungsziele sowie zu Synergien, Zielkonflikten und Umsetzungsbarrieren von Klimamaßnahmen enthalten