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Nitrogen fertilization is a key factor for coffee production but creates a risk of water contamination through nitrate (NO 3 − ) leaching in heavily fertilized plantations under high rainfall. The inclusion of fast growing timber trees in these coffee plantations may increase total biomass and reduce nutrient leaching. Potential controls of N loss were measured in an unshaded coffee (Coffea arabica L.) plot and in an adjacent coffee plot shaded with the timber species Eucalyptus deglupta Blume (110 trees ha−1), established on an Acrisol that received 180 kg N ha−1 as ammonium-nitrate and 2,700 mm yr−1 rainfall. Results of the one year study showed that these trees had little effect on the N budget although some N fluxes were modified. Soil N mineralization and nitrification rates in the 0–20 cm soil layer were similar in both systems (≈280 kg N ha−1 yr−1). N export in coffee harvest (2002) was 34 and 25 kg N ha−1 yr−1 in unshaded and shaded coffee, and N accumulation in permanent biomass and litter was 25 and 45 kg N ha−1 yr−1, respectively. The losses in surface runoff (≈0.8 kg mineral N ha−1 yr−1) and N2O emissions (1.9 kg N ha−1 yr−1) were low in both cases. Lysimeters located at 60, 120, and 200 cm depths in shaded coffee, detected average concentrations of 12.9, 6.1 and 1.2 mg NO 3 − -N l−1, respectively. Drainage was slightly reduced in the coffee-timber plantation. NO 3 − leaching at 200 cm depth was about 27 ± 10 and 16 ± 7 kg N ha−1 yr−1 in unshaded and shaded coffee, respectively. In both plots, very low NO 3 − concentrations in soil solution at 200 cm depth (and in groundwater) were apparently due to NO 3 − adsorption in the subsoil but the duration of this process is not presently known. In these conventional coffee plantations, fertilization and agroforestry practices must be refined to match plant needs and limit potential NO 3 − contamination of subsoil and shallow soil water.

The current study shows the process and the results of a methodology proposed to contribute with the issue of how to evaluate the adaptation to climate variability and future climate change. The proposed methodology consists of a standard to evaluate farmer’s adaptation to climate variability, mainly due to drought in watersheds in Central America; and was created with contributions from experts and professionals around this region. The phases for this process were: (1) literature review about the topic, (2) development of a preliminary standard, (3) expert interviews for the evaluation of this preliminary standard, (4) construction of a standard to evaluate the issue of adaptation to climate variability emphasizing drought through contributions from experts and their preliminary evaluations, (5) applicability test of this standard for the evaluation of climate variability under real conditions and (6) application of this standard through a case study in the Aguas Calientes river sub-watershed in Nicaragua, which permanently undergoes drought problems and climate variability. This standard has five main principles that go from the general, considering regional and national policies and institutionalism, to the specifics at the level of watersheds. In addition to those principles, the standard contains ten criteria, 26 indicators and 51 verifiers distributed among the main five principles. In the process for testing this standard in the Aguas Calientes river watershed in Nicaragua, the score for the general applicability to this standard was middle-level (score of 3 in a scale of 1 to 5), although, for the main principles of this standard, the score was four (high).