Agriculture

1. Agriculture Aaron Le’Toille

2. Agriculture Agriculture involves redirecting nature's natural flow of the food web.  The natural flow of the food web is the sun provides light to plants.  Plants convert sunlight into sugars which provide food for the plants and the process is called photosynthesis. Plants provide food for herbivores which are plant-eating animals like sloths and the herbivores provide food for carnivores which are meat-eating animals like jaguars. Decomposers or bacteria, break down plants or animals that have died.  Nutrients from the plants and animals go back into the soil and the whole process starts anew • Butler, Rhett, Kids Mongabay, http://kids.mongabay.com/lesson_plans/lisa_algee/agriculture.html

3. (What) A study published in Science suggest that, due to climate change, "southern Africa could lose more than 30% of its main crop, maize, by 2030. In South Asia losses of many regional staples, such as rice, millet and maize could top 10%". • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_agriculture

4. (Where)Projected climate change impacts for agriculture in Africa, in potential cereal output for 2080 Map

5. Where Continued • Africa is one of the regions that will be dramatically effected the most by climate change, and it will likely slow down or reduce the. The projected changes for possible changes in agriculture are not very clear. • Nordpil, Mappery, http://mappery.com/Projected-climate-change-impacts-for-agriculture-in-Africa-in-potential-cereal-output-for-2080-Map

6. (When) Agriculture and Rural department have evidence that European farming is first in line to be affected. Decreasing average annual and seasonal rainfall will be a serious problem in many regions,more sudden heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods across the European Regions. Even if some climate changes may be positive for some Northern European Regions, most will be negative, affecting regions already suffering from environmental or other changes. Farming will be most affected in the southern and south-eastern regions. According to the Intergovernmental panel on climate change, the worst consequences may not be felt until 2050, but major impacts are expected even in the short term from more frequent extreme conditions. Agriculture and Rural Development, http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/climate_change/index_en.htm

7. (When) Projected impacts from climate change in different European regions

8. (How/Why) • Diagram • Processes • Source • StatisticsAgriculture also influences climate change. Mainly by producing two powerful greenhouse gases: methane - from livestock digestion processes and stored animal manure, nitrous oxide - from organic and mineral nitrogen fertilisers. However in Europe the production of the gases are limited and falling. Approximately 9% of the European Greenhouse gas emissions are from Agriculture. Fortunately agricultural emissions in 27 European countries fell by 20% between 1990 and 2006 as a consequence of decline in livestock numbers.

9. Land Use (What Impacts) Agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas increases through land use in four main ways: • CO2 releases linked to deforestation • Methane releases from rice farming • Methane releases from fermentation in cattle • Nitrous oxide releases from fertilizers • Together, these agricultural processes contains 54% of methane emissions, roughly 80% of nitrous oxide emissions, and virtually all carbon dioxide emissions tied to land use. • The planet's major changes to land cover since 1750 have resulted from deforestation in temperate regions: when forests and woodlands are cleared to make room for fields, the albedo of the affected area increases, which can result in either warming or cooling effects, depending on local conditions.Deforestation also affects regional carbon, which can result in increased of CO2, the dominant greenhouse gas. Land-clearing methods such as slash and burn compound these effects by burning biomatter, which releases greenhouse gases and particulate matter such as soot into the air.

10. Livestock (What Impacts) • Livestock and livestock-related activities such as deforestation and increasing fuel-intensive farming practices are responsible for over 18% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, including: • 9% of global carbon dioxide emissions • 35-40% of global methane emissions (due to fermentation and manure) • 64% of global nitrous oxide emissions (due to fertilizer use.) • Livestock activities also contribute extremely to land-use effects, since crops such as corn and alfalfa are cultivated in order to feed the animals. • Worldwide, livestock production occupies 70% of all land used for agriculture, or 30% of the land surface of the Earth

11. Fischer G, Shah M, and van Velthuizen H, Climate Change and Agricultural Vulnerability, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_agriculture

12. (Evaluate) • Climate change has had a drastic affect on Agriculture, especially in Africa, Africa is an undeveloped country and it is being affected largely. Some crops need a certain temperature to grow and if the temperature increases then the crops wont be able to grow, and some farms only grow certain crops and if there area is spoiled from climate change for example if the soil isn't fertile then they would have to either shut down there farm or spend money to move to another location.

13. (Conclusion) Agriculture in low latitude developing countries is expected to be especially vulnerable because climates of many of these countries are already too hot. Further warming is consequently expected to reduce crop productivity harmfully. These effects are provoked by the fact that agriculture and agro-ecological systems are especially noticeable in the economies of African countries and the systems tend to be less capital and technology intensive. Predictions of impacts across regions therefore suggest large changes in the agricultural systems of low latitude under-developed countries. Climate Change and Agriculture in Africa, http://www.ceepa.co.za/Climate_Change/index.html

14. (Predict) There are already some changes happening because of global warming. Sea level is rising and some animals are already moving to new homes. It’s already too late to stop global warming completely.If the warming gets worse, as scientists expect, there may be some kinds of plants and animals that become extinct (disappear completely) because they can’t move to new homes. There may be more storms and floods. Sea level may rise so much that people have to move away from the coasts. Some areas may become too dry for farming. Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/kidspage.cfm