Hydrology : Asian glaciers are a reliable water source

PostprintPeer reviewe

Assessing the adaptive capacity of agriculture in the Netherlands to the impacts of climate change under different market and policy scenarios (AgriAdapt project).

The AgriAdapt project has developed methodologies that enable (a) the assessment of impacts, risks and resiliencies for agriculture under changes in climatic conditions but also under changes of other drivers (market, technology, policy, etc.) and (b) the evaluation of adaptation strategies at farm type and regional scale. The methodologies are applied to arable farming over Europe and in a more integrated way, to that in Flevoland, the Netherlands as the key case. The methodologies at European level include (a) Crop modelling and (b) Market modelling. The methodologies at regional level cover the following main areas: (a) Integrated sustainability assessment, (b) Development of scenarios of farm structural change towards 2050, (c) Calculation of crop yields for different scenarios in 2050 inclusive agro-climate calendars, and (d) Partial and fully integrated analysis of farming systems in 2050, inclusive the aggregation to the regional level. Results from the application of the different methodologies are presented here. For example, exploring future farming systems shows that the most important driving factors towards 2050 within the A1-W scenario with a globalized economy, are (a) the yield increase due to climate change, (b) the expected product price change and (c) the degree of innovation in crop productivity. The effects of climate change are projected to have a positive economic effect on arable farming

Demographic, clinical and antibody characteristics of patients with digital ulcers in systemic sclerosis: data from the DUO Registry

OBJECTIVES: The Digital Ulcers Outcome (DUO) Registry was designed to describe the clinical and antibody characteristics, disease course and outcomes of patients with digital ulcers associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: The DUO Registry is a European, prospective, multicentre, observational, registry of SSc patients with ongoing digital ulcer disease, irrespective of treatment regimen. Data collected included demographics, SSc duration, SSc subset, internal organ manifestations, autoantibodies, previous and ongoing interventions and complications related to digital ulcers. RESULTS: Up to 19 November 2010 a total of 2439 patients had enrolled into the registry. Most were classified as either limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc; 52.2%) or diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc; 36.9%). Digital ulcers developed earlier in patients with dcSSc compared with lcSSc. Almost all patients (95.7%) tested positive for antinuclear antibodies, 45.2% for anti-scleroderma-70 and 43.6% for anticentromere antibodies (ACA). The first digital ulcer in the anti-scleroderma-70-positive patient cohort occurred approximately 5 years earlier than the ACA-positive patient group. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides data from a large cohort of SSc patients with a history of digital ulcers. The early occurrence and high frequency of digital ulcer complications are especially seen in patients with dcSSc and/or anti-scleroderma-70 antibodies

Scenario development and assessment of the potential impacts of climate and market changes on crops in Europe : AgriAdapt project reports no. 2 & 3, July 2011

vokMTT Mikkel

Modelling impacts of climate change and technology development on crops in Europe

vokMTT Mikkel

Scenario development and assessment of the potential impacts of climate and market changes on crops in Europe : Assessing the adaptive capacity of agriculture in the Netherlands to the impacts of climate change under different market and policy scenarios (AgriAdapt project)

The Netherlands are an important producer and exporter of agricultural products. Changes in climate, markets and policies may have a large impact on the agricultural sector and farmers will need to adapt to these changes. Sector and policy documents have, so far, insufficiently considered the impacts of climate change and increased climate variability on the sector