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The impacts of climate change to the dryland areas of East Africa are especially strong, especially if it is considered that these areas have weak institutions and governance systems. Climate change has also affected many rural communities in a severe way, reducing crop yields and sometimes causing crop failure. In Kenya and Tanzania, where drylands cover over around 80 and 50% of their respective land areas, rural populations have been especially affected. Among them is the tribal group of the Maasai, legendary nomad warriors, who have been suffering from persistent droughts and the negative impacts on their cattle herds. This paper describes how climate change affects the Maasai communities in Kenya and the changes seen in their habits and diet, in order to adapt to a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures are currently being implemented in the agricultural sector across the globe. Questions have been raised about the distributional and spatial impacts of agricultural emissions mitigation policies, especially at the local level. This study examines the local impact of a low-income farming sector, beef farming, in a typical Irish beef farming county, County Clare. Input-output analysis reveals that Clare beef farmers purchase the vast majority of farm inputs within the county, with intra-county suppliers providing 90% of their inputs and overheads. We examine the impact of reducing the size of the beef herd in Co. Clare as a direct consequence of meeting national GHG emissions targets by 2030. Taking direct, indirect, and induced effects together, there is an €18.4 million reduction in economic activity in 2030 following the decrease in the beef herd with €14.72 million of that reduction taking place within the Mid-West region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sheep farming is an important branch of the animal husbandry sector in Europe. In 2023, Romania's sheep and goat herds ranked third in the European Union, with more than 10 million heads, contributing substantially to the production of meat, traditional cheeses, and wool. However, in the current climate context, with extreme weather events and especially long periods of drought, providing optimal fodder ratio becomes a challenge for farmers. As animal nutritionists provide valid alternatives, consistent with the nutritional requirements of the species, the present work aims to present some economically efficient fodder alternatives to use for milk production in sheep farms of different sizes. The study brings added value to research in the field of using fodder alternatives in animal nutrition through the economic aspects researched because profitability is pursued in any activity, thus completing the technical arguments of previous studies in the literature in the field. Several economic indicators were calculated, such as the total value by categories of expenses, the value of production, the level of profit, and the rate of gross and net return. The analysis demonstrated that regardless of their size, the sheep farms located in lowland areas can reach positive values of profitability indicators when using alternative fodder in animal feeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dairy industry requires substantial energy resources at all stages of production and supply to meet consumer needs in terms of quantity, quality and food safety. The expected future climate change effects will cause serious uncertainty to the dairy industry. Adapting to these upcoming conditions is a challenge and one that is compounded by the continuous increase in food demand, as a result of global population growth. Predictably, under current conditions, this situation might lead to a significant increase in the energy requirements of the dairy industry. Therefore, there is a clear need to mitigate energy use through enhanced energy conservation, waste reduction and waste management. This review paper presents and discusses alternative dairy operations and mitigation strategies that have the potential to lead the dairy industry towards net-zero carbon emissions. Further, the focus of this work turns to supply chain energy modelling (SCEM) as means to mitigate energy use, while relevant work in the literature is reviewed. Supply chain energy models can provide a complete overview of the energy demand and the energy mix of a dairy supply chain. Additionally, they can highlight the most energy consuming processes and allow the evaluation of alternative energy-saving operations that can lead towards the net-zero carbon target. Overall, the development or use of computational tools for simulating the energy demand in the industry has strong potential for improving sustainability across the dairy supply chain. • Insight on climate change effects on the dairy supply chain and impact on energy demand. • Understanding the relevance and importance of the "net-zero" carbon emissions target in the dairy supply chain. • Identification of novel energy mitigation strategies across the dairy supply chain. • Importance of developing supply chain energy models (SCEM) to address energy mitigation in the dairy sector. • Evaluation of modelling techniques to develop or deliver supply chain energy models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spring 2021, 50 growing steers and heifers of the Maremmana breed (average age 321 d and weight 287 kg) were rotationally stocked under two different treatments (silvopastoral and pastoral). The aim was to evaluate the influence of grazing system on cattle growth and welfare, and pasture depletion. The experiment was carried out on a real Mediterranean agrosilvopastoral farm, located in central Italy. To implement rotational grazing, 3.69 ha of temporary grassland were split into six paddocks, three for each treatment. Cattle grazed for one week in one paddock and then were moved to the next one for a total of six weeks corresponding to six grazing periods. The group maintained on the silvopastoral system were allowed to access 3.31 ha of a Turkey oak (Quercus cerris L.) forest. Regarding the average daily gain, a significant interaction was found between the treatment and time. The average daily gain of the animals grazing in the open pasture was 1.20 kg d−1, while that of the cattle grazing in the silvopastoral system was 1.02 kg d−1. Despite the rate of growth being within the expected range for the Maremmana breed, the average daily gain of cattle in the silvopastoral system was significantly lower. One of the possible causes of this difference could be the higher energy requirements of the animals due to the different activity levels. The different management did not affect animal welfare indicators. Indeed, the serum cortisol concentration did not vary between treatments and among sampling times, while the hair cortisol concentration decreased significantly during the experiment for both groups. Regarding pasture health, allowing cattle to graze in the forest reduced pasture depletion because of the lower stocking rate and grazing pressure. Further studies are necessary to increase the knowledge of the role of forests and grazing management in other seasons than spring in extensive agrosilvopastoral systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rangeland productivity is strongly conditioned by the amount and temporal distribution of precipitation. Thus, the worsening of droughts with climate change could be a serious threat to their existence. This paper presents a modelling study aimed at evaluating the sensitivity of a valuable type of commercial rangelands, namely Spanish dehesas, to increases in the frequency and intensity of droughts driven by climate change. The assessment consisted in a multi-way ANOVA carried out on the basis of 5400 simulations of a multidisciplinary integrated model. It included two blocking factors linked to climate change scenarios, namely Representative Concentration Pathway and downscaling method, and two treatment factors, namely return period and severity of droughts. The levels of all factors were included as part of the simulation scenarios. The response variables constituted a summary of model's behaviour throughout one simulation. They were average profits per farmer and average stocking rate, both calculated over the entire simulation period, and remaining soil depth at the end of the simulation. The effects of the treatment factors on the response variables were small for all blocks, thereby suggesting that the sensitivity, and thus the vulnerability, of Spanish dehesas to the worsening of droughts would be low under climate change. Farmers were defined as conservative in all model simulations, that is, they minimized changes in the size of their herds and bought supplementary feed to meet shortfalls in livestock feed unless it was excessively expensive. Thus, we conclude that this group strategy could explain the adaptive capacity of Spanish dehesas to droughts. This paper shows that multidisciplinary integrated models are valuable learning tools to acquire insights into the relationships between climate, ecologic and socio-economic factors. Although there is a recurrent call for holistic studies, they are still rare in the rangeland literature. Hopefully, this paper will motivate some researchers to consider this approach. Unlabelled Image • Climate change heralds the worsening of droughts threatening rangeland sustainability. • Modelling assessment of the sensitivity of a dehesa rangelands to increases in the frequency and intensity of droughts. • The sensitivity, and thus the vulnerability, of dehesas to the worsening of droughts would be low. • A widespread conservative strategy would provide Mediterranean commercial rangelands with adaptive capacity to droughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of the present study were (a) to evaluate the importance of climate-related variables in the vaccination patterns applied in sheep and goat farms in Greece and (b) to assess potential interactions between these factors and previously established important health management- and human resources-related factors applied in the farms. Vaccination patterns against chlamydial abortion, clostridial infections, contagious agalactia, contagious ecthyma, foot-rot, paratuberculosis, pneumonia or staphylococcal mastitis were assessed. Climatic variables (2010–2019 and 2018–2019) were obtained for 444 locations with small ruminant farms throughout Greece. Patterns of vaccine administration in the farms were obtained through interviews with farmers. The following nine outcomes were considered: 'vaccination against chlamydial abortion', 'vaccination against clostridial infections', 'vaccination against contagious agalactia', 'vaccination against contagious ecthyma', 'vaccination against foot-rot', 'vaccination against paratuberculosis', 'vaccination against bacterial pneumonia', 'vaccination against staphylococcal mastitis' and 'total number of optional vaccines administered'. Univariable and multivariable analyses were first performed to establish associations of each of the above outcomes with climatic variables. Then, the same approach was employed to assess the importance of climatic variables against health management- and human resources-related factors in the administration of vaccines in the farms of the study. Climatic variables had a higher association with vaccinations against infections in sheep flocks (26 associations) than in goat herds (9 associations) (p = 0.002) and in farms with semi-extensive or extensive management (32 associations) than in farms with intensive or semi-intensive management (8 associations) (p < 0.0001). In 26 cases (38.8% of all analyses evaluated), the climatic variables overshadowed the management- and human resources-related variables assessed as significant predictors for vaccination. In most cases, these referred to sheep flocks (nine cases) and farms with semi-extensive or extensive management (eight cases). For all eight infections, there were changes in the climatic variables found to be significant predictors from the 10-year dataset to the 2-year dataset. The results indicated that, in some cases, climate factors overshadowed factors traditionally considered for the formulation of vaccination programs. This points out the significance of taking into account climate conditions in the health management of small ruminant farms. Future studies can be focused on formulating vaccination programs in accordance with climate factors and also on setting the optimum season(s) for vaccination of animals based on the circulation of the pathogens, the risks for the development of diseases and the stage within the annual production cycle of the animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological integrity of US national parks and other protected areas are under threat in the Anthropocene. For Yellowstone National Park (YNP), the impacts that global change has already had on the park's capacity to sustain its large migratory herds of wild ungulates is incompletely understood. Here we examine how two understudied components of global change, the historical increase in atmospheric CO2 and the spread of nonnative, invasive plant species, may have altered the capacity of YNP to provide forage for ungulates over the last 200‐plus years. We performed two experiments: (1) a growth chamber study that determined the growth rates of important invasive and native YNP grasses that are forages for ungulates under preindustrial (280 ppm) versus modern (410 ppm) CO2 levels and (2) a field study that compared the effect of defoliation (clipping) on the shoot growth of invasive and native mesic grassland plants under ambient CO2 conditions in 2019. The growth chamber experiment revealed that modern CO2 increased the growth rates of both invasive and native grasses, and invasive grasses grew faster regardless of CO2 conditions. The field results showed a continuum of positive to negative responses of shoot growth to defoliation, with a subgroup of invasive species responding most positively. Altogether the results indicated that the historical increase in CO2 and the spread of invasive species, some of which were planted to provide forage for ungulates in the early and mid‐1900s, have likely increased the capacity of forage production in YNP. However, rising CO2 has also resulted in regional warming and increased aridity in YNP, which will likely reduce grassland productivity. The challenge for global change biologists and park managers is to determine how competing components of global change have already affected and will increasingly affect forage dynamics and the sustainability of Yellowstone's iconic ungulate herds in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer mountain pastures (also called alpages) are a central element for many agro-pastoral livestock systems in the alpine region, by providing the feedstock for herds during the summer transhumance. However, vegetation phenology and productivity in mountain pastures are increasingly affected by climate hazards exacerbated by climate change, such as early snow removal, late frost events, or droughts. Difficulties can then arise to match animal demand with forage resource on alpages and, in the long term, threaten the sustainable management of these highly multifunctional socio-ecological systems. To help agro-pastoral actors adapt, an essential step is to quantify the risk of impacts on the forage resource, due to an increased occurrence or intensity of climate hazards. Exposure to climate hazards on alpages is defined locally by topographic aspects in combination with the broader influence of the regional climate. Our work therefore aimed at providing a tailored assessment of potential climate risk for the forage resource at the individual scale of each alpage in the French Alps. To this end, we developed agro-climatic indicators based on atmospheric and snow cover data accounting for geographic and topographic conditions, and applied them to a database providing unique spatially explicit information at the alpage level. For the first time, we introduce a description of agro-climatic conditions and provide a classification of agro-climatic profiles of alpages in the French Alps, ranging from low to high potential risk for the forage resource, mainly following a North-South gradient combined with altitude. We also bring insights on the evolutions of the climate risk with climate change and discuss management implications for agro-pastoral livestock systems using alpages. We finally present a web-based visualization tool that aim at communicating agro-climatic profiles and their evolution to practitioners and at assisting decision makers in understanding climate-related risks on the alpages of the French Alps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recurrent droughts and long-term changes to climate, social structures, and the economy in the world's arid and semi-arid lands have impacted pastoralists' livelihood activities over time, resulting in different livelihood pathways. Some pastoralists continue to follow more traditional strategies of herd accumulation, while others frequently engage in livestock markets and value addition activities, and others still are dropping out of pastoralism. Using data collected over 6 years from 924 households in northern Kenya and applying a generalized structural dynamic multinomial logit model, this study quantitatively determined the dynamic transitions between livelihood categories conditional on drought incidences. From the results, there were considerable and frequent transitions between livelihood pathways within the panel period (2009–2015). Notably, many households that started in the low-cash income, larger herd size category denoted as hanging in, were transitioning to lower cash income with small herds (dropping out). At the same time, there was a great deal of back and forth between the category with low-cash income and small herd size (dropping out) and the category with higher cash income and small herd size (moving out), indicating that moving out was the only way out of poverty. Also, an increase in vegetation index from a drought season where the index was at a 10% level to a good season where the level was 90% decreased the likelihood of households dropping out from a predicted probability of 37.9 to 28.7% and increased the likelihood of moving up and moving out from 22.2 to 25.0% and 22.6 to 34.3%, respectively, unconditionally. The study findings imply that any livelihood interventions aimed at reducing the impact of drought and alleviating poverty among pastoral households should support the transition to market-oriented, relatively successful pathways and also protect households from falling back into the ranks of poverty by dropping out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global temperatures are increasing, affecting timing and availability of vegetation along with relationships between plants and their consumers. We examined the effect of population density, herd body condition in the previous year, elevation, plant productivity and phenology, snow, and winter onset on juvenile body mass in 63 semi-domesticated populations of Rangifer tarandus throughout Norway using spatiotemporal generalized additive models (GAMs) and varying coefficient models (VCMs). Optimal climate windows were calculated at both the regional and national level using a novel nonlinear climate window algorithm optimized for prediction. Spatial and temporal variation in effects of population and environmental predictors were considered using a model including covariates decomposed into spatial, temporal, and residual components. The performance of this decomposed model was compared to spatiotemporal GAMs and VCMs. The decomposed model provided the best fit and lowest prediction errors. A positive effect of herd body condition in the previous year explained most of the deviance in calf body mass, followed by a more complex effect of population density. A negative effect of timing of spring and positive effect of winter onset on juvenile body mass suggested that a snow free season was positive for juvenile body mass growth. Our findings suggest early spring onset and later winter permanent snow cover as reinforcers of early-life conditions which support more robust reindeer populations. Our methodological improvements for climate window analyses and effect size measures for decomposed variables provide important contributions to account for, measure, and interpret nonlinear relationships between climate and animal populations at large scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducts a review bringing together data from a large number of studies investigating energy use in EU livestock systems. Such a study has not been conducted previously, and improvements in our understanding of energy use concentrations in livestock systems will aid in developing interventions to achieve the EU's 2030 and 2050 sustainability targets. The results from the Life Cycle Assessments included in this review indicate that energy use is concentrated in feed, housing, and manure management. In most systems, animal feed is the dominant energy use category. Regarding specific livestock categories, the studies covered indicate that energy use requirements range from 2.1 to 5.3 MJ/kg per ECM for cow milk, 59.2 MJ/kg for a suckler cow–calf, and 43.73 MJ/kg for a dairy bull, 15.9 MJ/kg to 22.7 MJ/kg for pork production, 9.6 MJ/kg to 19.1 MJ/kg for broiler production, 20.5–23.5 MJ/kg for chicken egg production. Our review indicates dominance of and dependence on fossil fuel and discusses the situation and research around transitioning towards renewable energy sources and improving energy efficiency. Our analysis indicates that existing energy use data in livestock systems are fragmented and characterized by multiple methodologies and considerable data gaps. In our view, there is a need for the development of a standardized methodology for measuring energy use in livestock systems, which we consider a necessary step to develop interventions that reduce fossil energy use in livestock systems and its contribution to climatic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in temperature, along with possible decreases in rainfall, will influence the production of forage on Australian dairy farms. A biophysical simulation study was undertaken to compare the performance of perennial pastures and annual forage cropping systems under a historical scenario and two possible future climate scenarios for three key dairy locations of south-eastern Australia. Pastures and forage-cropping systems were simulated with the biophysical models DairyMod and APSIM, respectively, for a location with a heavy reliance on irrigation (Dookie, Victoria), a location with a partial reliance on irrigation (Elliott, Tasmania), and a dryland location (Terang, Victoria). The historical climate scenario (baseline scenario) had no augmentation to climate data and an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 380 ppm, whereas the two future climate scenarios had either a 1°C increase in temperatures (with an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 435 ppm) and a concurrent 10% decrease in rainfall, or a 2°C increase in temperatures (with an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 535 ppm) and a concurrent 20% decrease in rainfall. At Dookie, mean annual dry matter yields of the forage-cropping options and the pasture systems increased under both future climate scenarios but more irrigation was required. At Terang, the yield of forage-cropping systems increased whereas the yield of the pasture systems decreased under the future climate scenarios. At Elliott, yields of irrigated pastures and cropping systems increased but there was minimal or a negative impact on yields of dryland pastures and cropping systems under the future climate scenarios. At all three locations, forage production increased in the colder months of the year with a decrease in production during the warmer months. This study indicates that double-cropping and irrigated-pasture systems at all three locations appear resilient to projected changes in climate; however, for irrigated systems this assumes a reliable supply of irrigation water. The systems implications of how a shift in the seasonality of forage supply within these options impacts on the farm system as a whole warrants further investigation. Increases in temperature, along with possible decreases in rainfall, will influence the production of forage on Australian dairy farms. A simulation study investigated how forage-cropping systems and pasture systems will respond to potential future climates. Overall, forage-cropping and irrigated-pasture systems appear resilient to projected changes in climate as long as there is a reliable supply of irrigation water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Identifying the damage caused by extreme weather events due to the climate change phenomena to formulate targeted coping strategies and policies is an issue that concerns all economics sectors. To date, the impact of flooding events on agriculture, particularly livestock, has been minimally investigated. For this reason, this study seeks to identify flood damage to livestock production, focusing in particular on dairy cattle farms. In fact, the herd is the main source of income for dairy farmers and the impact of flood on dairy farm can lead to several problems that can seriously undermine dairy cattle welfare and consequently the production outcome after a flood event. Therefore, this study identified and quantified the flood damage that may affect dairy herds, as reported in the literature. This study might help the development of a strategy able to assess direct damages to livestock welfare caused by flood events, provide advantages for farm management and contribute to farm resilience after a natural disaster. For the economic sectors, the need to address the challenges posed by natural disasters due to climate change is an outstanding issue. To date, according to the European Commission (2019), there is still a gap in the estimation of the costs of flood in all European countries and the direct impact that these floods have on agricultural activities. More specifically, the damage to livestock has been minimally studied. The aim of this study is is therefore to identify the flood damage that affects dairy cattle farms, focusing on the damage to herds caused by a flood event; in fact, poor welfare conditions of dairy cattle directly affect production and thus farm revenue. To accomplish the aim of this study, a framework was first developed to identify possible damage types. Then, scientific literature focusing on the identification of flood damage to dairy herds was reviewed, and to quantify this damage to herds, literature sources providing information on the magnitude of variation in the identified damage types were used. Thus, our results provide relevant information on the variables that should be taken into account when assessing of the direct damage affecting the overall welfare of a dairy herd after a flood event. This evidence could then contribute to the development of tools aimed at assessing damage to dairy cattle on flood-affected farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the perceived influence of climate change on the health of Hamer pastoralists and their livestock in south-western Ethiopia. A combination of focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted with Hamer communities as well as local health workers, animal health workers and non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff. Thematic framework analysis was used to analyse the data. Reductions in rangeland, erratic rainfall, recurrent droughts and loss of seasonality were perceived to be the biggest climate challenges influencing the health and livelihoods of the Hamer. Communities were travelling greater distances to access sufficient grazing lands, and this was leading to livestock deaths and increases in ethnic violence. Reductions in suitable rangeland were also precipitating disease outbreaks in animals due to increased mixing of different herds. Negative health impacts in the community stemmed indirectly from decreases in livestock production, uncertain crop harvests and increased water scarcity. The remoteness of grazing lands has resulted in decreased availability of animal milk, contributing to malnutrition in vulnerable groups, including children. Water scarcity in the region has led to utilisation of unsafe water sources resulting in diarrhoeal illnesses. Further, seasonal shifts in climate-sensitive diseases such as malaria were also acknowledged. Poorly resourced healthcare facilities with limited accessibility combined with an absence of health education has amplified the community's vulnerability to health challenges. The resilience and ambition for livelihood diversification amongst the Hamer was evident. The introduction of camels, increase in permanent settlements and new commercial ideas were transforming their livelihood strategies. However, the Hamer lack a voice to express their perspectives, challenges and ambitions. There needs to be collaborative dynamic dialogue between pastoral communities and the policy-makers to drive sustainable development in the area without compromising the values, traditions and knowledge of the pastoralists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken in Laikipia County, Kenya, to identify factors influencing the choices of strategies by pastoralists to adapt to climate change. The study particularly evaluates the role of perceived climate extremes (frequency of dry spells and droughts), early warning information, and access to private ranch grazing, in determining response decisions to climate change. Besides, we test if households jointly adopt climate change adaptation strategies. The primary data collected from 440 sample households was analyzed using the multivariate probit (MVP) model. In the MVP model, we consider the following measures: increased mobility (distance & frequency), storage/purchase of fodder, change in water management, partial shift to other livelihoods, and herd management. The results reveal that these adaptation strategies are jointly adopted by pastoralists as complements and substitutes. From the empirical result, the perceived increase in the number of dry spells and drought, access to early warning information, access to private ranch grazing, main market distance from homesteads, and the highest level of education in the household are the key determinants of the choices of adaptation strategies to cope with drought and climate change. From a policy perspective, this research contributes to the ongoing debate on best practices by addressing climate change-related challenges in semi-arid land management. Therefore, there is a need for early warning institutions to increase their visibility in the semi-arid areas by exploring effective methods of delivering climate risk information in good time. Improving access to market and private ranch grazing should be promoted in the Kenyan semi-arid areas. Given that pastoralists' perceptions of climate change and climate risk is a decisive variable in adaptation decision-making, there is need to improve the understanding of pastoralists' changing climatic conditions. Furthermore, since the results indicate that mobility and storage of fodder are substitutes, the adoption of hay production could become a key production strategy for pastoralists which will increase the competitiveness of their livestock in the market and increase milk production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unanticipated environmental shocks impact the livelihoods of many resource users around the world. These shocks are likely to be more unpredictable as the effects of climate change continue to mount. Yet how households adapt to these changing climatic conditions especially in the context of rapidly changing market conditions in most areas of the world, is poorly understood. These interactions have wide implications for both smallholder livelihoods and sustainable use of natural resources. In this paper, we examine the relationship between environmental shocks and stocking rates in livestock herds in the Inner Mongolian grasslands of northern China. We uniquely examine three types of shocks and how households adapt livestock production strategies in response to each. Separately and in aggregate, we look at three common shocks in Inner Mongolia: droughts, snowstorms, and locust outbreaks. We use a difference-in-differences approach to estimate changes in stocking rates among households that experience shocks versus those that do not with a panel dataset from 2009 to 2014 of 597 households. While we find no clear impact from locusts, our results suggest droughts and snowstorms have opposite effects: droughts are associated with increases in herd sizes, but snowstorms result in decreased herds. We suggest these differences are due to interactions between shocks, emerging options to borrow on credit, and livestock markets. Household adaptation to climate change will be strategic and take advantage of both available resources as well as market conditions. • Climate change is causing stronger and more unpredictable environmental shocks. • We use a difference-in-differences model to estimate the impact of shocks on stocking rate. • Drought relates to bigger herds; snowstorms relate to smaller herds. • Households adapt to shocks taking advantage of both available resources and market conditions. • Shaping well-functioning market may reduce opportunistic resource exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has been threatening pastoral communities in Ethiopia as their economy is mainly based on rain-fed agriculture. The study area is one of the climate change prone area affected by climate induced shocks. To reduce the adverse effects of climate change, pastoral households need to recognize the changes already happening in their climate and employ climate change adaptation measures. Therefore, the present study was conducted in Fentale district, Central Ethiopia to determine the perceived adverse impacts of climate change and variability, the perception of pastoral households on the patterns of climate change and variability, and identify the adaptation/coping strategies of pastoralists to climate change impacts. A household questionnaire survey and focus group discussion were employed to collect primary data at a household level. A total of 130 pastoral households were sampled using random sampling. The data collected from household survey were analyzed using SPSS (version 20). The rainfall and temperature trends of the study area were analysed using Mann–Kendall test. The findings indicated significant decreasing trend of Belg rainfall and increasing trend of Kiremt rainfall for the period 1983–2017. The perception of pastoral households on rainfall and temperature trends was in line with the results of the recorded meteorological data analysis of the present study except the Kiremt rainfall and the long-term annual rainfall trends. The results indicated that pasture and water availability became scarce and livestock assets and productivity were highly reduced, due to adverse impacts of climate change and variability. The most important strategies deployed by the local people included (i) integrating livestock with crop production, (ii) livestock mobility, (iii) livestock diversification and herd composition change, (iv) decreased consumption, (v) remittance, (vi) cash for work and (vii) food aid. Therefore, the government should support and enhance household's indigenous adaptation strategies through the provision of market access, early warning information, affordable credit access, and development of water points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder rainfed agriculture, which is the mainstay of rural communities in Ethiopia, is negatively affected by climate change. Understanding the adaptations being practiced and factors which determine decision in adoption is vital in designing viable strategies. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to collect data from 384 randomly selected smallholder farmers to identify adaptation measures being undertaken and to estimate the prominent determinants in the adoption of adaptations in drought-prone areas of north-central Ethiopia. Data were analyzed using percentage, weighted mean index, Chi-square test, t test and multinomial regression model and triangulated with thematic analysis. Around 96% of the respondents have perceived a change in climate and 65.4% employed adaptation measures. Stone/soil bund, changing the farming calendar and switching to short maturing varieties are the most widely practiced adaptations. Barriers inhibiting smallholder farmers from taking adaptation measures were financial constraint, lack of affordable technologies, lack of knowledge, limited access to early warning, uncertainty about the future, shortage of land and scarcity of water. The results from the multinomial discrete choice model revealed that age and educational level of the head, family size, herd size, access to training, access to microfinance, extension services, remittance and perceiving that climate change can be adapted influenced the selection of adaptations. Overcoming financial constraint, strengthening extension service, providing timely information and early warning, intensifying irrigation, integration of non-farm sources of livelihood in the farming system and land resource management would enable to enhance the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grazing livestock are an important source of food and income for millions of people worldwide. Changes in mean climate and increasing climate variability are affecting grasslands' carrying capacity, thus threatening the livelihood of millions of people as well as the health of grassland ecosystems. Compared with cropping systems, relatively little is known about the impact of such climatic changes on grasslands and livestock productivity and the adaptation responses available to farmers. In this study, we analysed the relationship between changes in mean precipitation, precipitation variability, farming practices and grazing cattle using a system dynamics approach for a semi‐arid Australian rangeland system. We found that forage production and animal stocking rates were significantly affected by drought intensities and durations as well as by long‐term climate trends. After a drought event, herd size recovery times ranged from years to decades in the absence of proactive restocking through animal purchases. Decreases in the annual precipitation means or increases in the interannual (year‐to‐year) and intra‐annual (month‐to‐month) precipitation variability, all reduced herd sizes. The contribution of farming practices versus climate effect on herd dynamics varied depending on the herd characteristics considered. Climate contributed the most to the variance in stocking rates, followed by forage productivity levels and feeding supplementation practices (with or without urea and molasses). While intensification strategies and favourable climates increased long‐term herd sizes, they also resulted in larger reductions in animal numbers during droughts and raised total enteric methane emissions. In the face of future climate trends, the grazing sector will need to increase its adaptability. Understanding which farming strategies can be beneficial, where, and when, as well as the enabling mechanisms required to implement them, will be critical for effectively improving rangelands and the livelihoods of pastoralists worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and livelihood effect index (LEI) to assess vulnerability from climate variability and change of three agricultural and natural resources dependent commune in northwest Vietnam, a country that is expected to bear some of the most severe impacts of climate change. Based on a survey of 335 farm household data, complemented with secondary data on climate factors, a composite index was calculated and differential vulnerabilities were compared. The results of the analysis suggest that one of the communities, "Pa Vay Su," was more vulnerable than the others, particularly in relation to housing, knowledge and skills, socio-demographics, health and water security, social networks, and livelihood strategy. "Hien Luong" commune, on the other hand, was more vulnerable in relation to other LVI indicators with the exception of food security, climate variability, and natural disasters. "Moc Chau" community was more vulnerable in relation to water security, social demographic than Hien Luong commune. Overall, the article shows that three different vulnerability assessment indices can be broadly applied in comparable setting in other areas of country and they could usefully establish the basis for a nationally applicable index to identify and prioritize adaptation and mitigation needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated long-term patterns of abiotic drivers of mosquito activity within summer ranges of Northern Alaska caribou herds from 1979 to 2009. The North American Regional Re-analysis dataset was used to compute the theoretical Mosquito Activity Index (MAI). It was found that the differences in spatial wind patterns affected the magnitude of MAI among the herds for any given year.

Simple Summary: Egypt is one of the hottest countries on the planet, with significant warming predicted to occur over the course of this century. It has a substantial livestock population to feed its growing human population, but the hotter temperatures will constrain the production of ruminants in particular because of their high internal heat production during the digestion of fibrous material by micro-organisms. The net result will be the diminished availability of animal products per human member of the Egyptian population. Some products can be imported, but this is difficult for products with a short shelf life, such as milk. We use estimates of climate change, population growth and the impact of higher temperatures on cow productivity to predict that milk availability per person will decline from 61 kg/year in 2011 to 26 kg/year in 2064. We discuss the range of alternative options available to make up for diminished animal product availability per person as the century progresses. Egypt is one of the hottest countries in the world, and extreme climate events are becoming more frequent, which is consistent with the warming of the planet. The impact of this warming on ecosystems is severe, including on livestock production systems. Under Egyptian conditions, livestock already suffer heat stress periods in summer. The predicted increases in temperature as result of climate change will affect livestock production by reducing growth and milk production because of appetite suppression and conception rate reductions and will increase animal welfare concerns. In severe cases, these effects can result in death. We review the heat stress effects on livestock behaviour, reproduction, and production in the context of predicted climate change for Egypt over the course of this century and offer alternative scenarios to achieve food security for a growing human population. As an example, we combine predictions for reduced milk production during heat stress and human population trajectories to predict that milk availability per person will decline from 61 kg/year in 2011 to 26 kg/year in 2064. Mitigation strategies are discussed and include the substitution of animal-based foods for plant-based foods and laboratory-grown animal products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]