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This chapter focuses on the evaluation of adaptive capacities of community-level human systems related to agriculture and food security. It highlights findings regarding approaches and domains to monitor and evaluate behavioral changes from CGIAR’s research program on climate change, agriculture and food security (CCAFS). This program, implemented in five West African countries, is intended to enhance adaptive capacities in agriculture management of natural resources and food systems. In support of participatory action research on climate-smart agriculture, a monitoring and evaluation plan was designed with the participation of all stakeholders to track changes in behavior of the participating community members. Individuals’ and groups’ stories of changes were collected using most significant change tools. The collected stories of changes were substantiated through field visits and triangulation techniques. Frequencies of the occurrence of characteristics of behavioral changes in the stories were estimated. The results show that smallholder farmers in the intervention areas adopted various characteristics of behavior change grouped into five domains: knowledge, practices, access to assets, partnership and organization. These characteristics can help efforts to construct quantitative indicators of climate change adaptation at local level. Further, the results suggest that application of behavioral change theories can facilitate the development of climate change adaptation indicators that are complementary to indicators of development outcomes. We conclude that collecting stories on behavioral changes can contribute to biophysical adaptation monitoring and evaluation.

Abstract Agricultural practice is facing multiple challenges under volatile commodity markets, inevitable climate change, mounting pest pressure and various other environment-related constraints. The objective of this research is to present a dynamic optimization model of crop rotations and farm management and show its suitability for economic analysis over a 30 year time period. In this model, we include management practices such as fertilization, fungicide treatment and liming, and apply it in a region in Southwestern Finland. Results show that (i) growing pest pressure favours the cultivation of wheat-oats and wheat-oilseeds combinations, while (ii) market prices largely determine the crops in the rotation plan and the specific management practices adopted. The flexibility of our model can also be utilized in evaluating the value of other management options such as new cultivars under different projections of future climate and market conditions.

Household Surveys performed in four villages selected from Oromia, Amhara and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) following from the ‘Ethiopian Rural Household Survey’ (ERHS) conducted in 2004.It contains detailed data on household consumption and expenditures, assets, income, agricultural activities, land allocation, demographic characteristics, and other variables. From September 2011 to January 2012 another survey of 221 households was conducted in three major regions of central and southern Ethiopia. At the time of this latest survey effort the most recent ERHS survey data available was from 2004. The selection of respondents, determination of sample size, and apportionment of the sample were based on a proportional sampling technique.In addition to addressing important questions from the ERHS survey data, the field survey was designed to generate detailed information on household biomass energy production and consumption practices; as well as farming activities; labour and land allocation; economic and demographic characteristics; and expenditures on food, non-food items, and energy. The 2011 survey effort collected detailed household biomass energy use data. The measurement of household biomass energy use was obtained in traditional units and later converted into kilograms. The conversion factors for each of the biomass were collected from the closest urban centre of each of the study areas. Information obtained on household biomass energy use was collected for a time period of one week before the survey was conducted. It was then aggregated into annual figures, although household biomass energy use may vary seasonally. Quality/Lineage: The data was collected by qualified enumerators who had participated in previous ERHS survey. In addition to myself I recruited assistant supervisor to check the accuracy and quality of data on daily basis and followup interview process closely. Before the survey commenced a pilot survey was conducted in each of the study areas to identify the different types of energy households are using and other critical variables of interest for the research. This information was used to revise and improve questionnaire. Moreover, a one day in-depth training was given to enumerators and assistant supervisor to enrich their deeper understanding of each the question in the survey and to further improve questionnaire from their earlier experiences in those villages. Purpose: Over 90% of Ethiopian rural population rely on biomass energy. However, biomass energy utilization is linked to household livelihood as in rural households produce and consume biomass energy simultaneously with other (on and off-farm)activities. With the rampant rate of deforestation that Ethiopia is facing it is important to investigate the effect of deforestation or fuelwood scarcity which is assumed affect household welfare through influence on wage and price. In light of this, the survey effort collected information on household use of biomass energy sources, expenditure and labour allocation choices and amount of labour time used for each activities.This helped me to investigate the effect of fuelwood scarcity on household welfare from three aspects: labour allocation decision, energy expenditure and fuel choice and biomass energy consumption behavior to better understand the related linkage of household production and utilization of biomass with livelihoods or food security. This dataset was first published on the institutional Repository "Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung: ZEF Data Portal" with ID={c08e08aa-3055-4651-801b-0383610c1987}.

Livestock grazing is among the most intensive land-use activities in grasslands and can affect plant communities directly or indirectly via grazing-induced soil legacies. Under climate change, grasslands are threatened globally by recurrent drought. However, the extent to which drought influences grazing-induced soil legacy effects on plant biomass production and community composition remains largely unexplored. We grew five naturally co-occurring plant species (three dominants and two subordinates) in mixed communities in a glasshouse experiment in live and sterilized soil that had or had not been subjected to 19 years of grazing; these plant communities were then exposed to a subsequent drought. We tested the treatment effects on plant community biomass, proportional aboveground biomass of individual species, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal root colonization, and soil nutrient availability. Under drought-free conditions, soils from grazed plots produced significantly higher plant aboveground and total community biomass compared to soils from ungrazed plots. In contrast, plant aboveground and total community biomass were similar between grazed and ungrazed soils under drought conditions. Similarly, soils from grazed plots increased the proportional biomass of dominant species but decreased the proportion of subordinate species; however, the proportional biomass of dominant and subordinate species was similar between grazed and ungrazed soils under drought conditions. Soil NO3--N in grazed soil was significantly higher compared to ungrazed soil. Drought dramatically increased soil NO3--N in sterilized soil and had a more pronounced increase in grazed soil than in ungrazed soil. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal root colonization from grazed soil was lower compared to ungrazed soil. Drought significantly increased the soil available phosphorus concentration, as well as plant community AM fungal root colonization. Synthesis. Our study suggests that drought can neutralize positive grazing effects on plant community biomass production via altered plant-soil interactions. Also, we found that drought can alleviate the negative effects of grazing legacies on subordinate species by reducing the competitiveness of dominant species. Our study provides new insights for understanding the underlying mechanisms of grazing effects on grassland productivity under climate change. Please see the README document and the accompanying published article: Duan, DD., Tian, Z., Wu, NN., Feng, XX., Hou, FJ., Nan, ZB., Kardol, P., and Chen, T. 2023. Drought neutralizes positive effects of long-term grazing on grassland productivity through altering plant-soil interactions. Functional Ecology. 

There is limited attention to impacts of climate change on pigs in Uganda by stakeholders, despite the potential vulnerability of pigs to climate change. Pigs are sensitive to heat-stress, as they do not have functioning sweat glands as other livestock species do, and have small lungs which reduces their ability to disseminate heat by panting. The objectives of the study were to i) determine the heat-stress status in pigs, ii) analyze factors influencing heat-stress, and iii) explore the heat-stress adaptation options in Lira District, Uganda. Lira was selected because of presence of both rural & urban areas and expected heat stress throughout the year in the district. The data including household demographics, management systems, age, color, breeds, body/skin temperature, rectal temperature and others were collected from 104 households and 259 pigs during the hot months in Ojwina and Barr sub-counties- Lira district. We collected data on adaptation options during the four gender disaggregated focus group discussions. Weather data was collected during the time of administering the questionnaire, and it was complemented with data from Ngetta Meteorological Station, Lira. STATA, 14

Prediction of the potentially suitable areas of Leonurus japonicus habitability zones with maxent occurrence points：By sorting out the information of Leonurus japonicus specimens recorded in the Chinese Digital Herbarium (CVH, http://www.cvh.ac.cn/), and combining with the L. japonicus presence points in the Global Biodiversity Information Platform (GBIF, https://www.gbif.org/), the existing distribution positions of L. japonicus were preliminarily obtained, and then the corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates of each distribution point were obtained by Baidu coordinate system. All were used for modeling. environmental variables：Species’ ecoloical niches are affected by climate, topography, biology, and other factors. In consideration of the comprehensiveness and complexity of ecological factors, 34 environmental variables which could reflect species’ ecoloical niches were selected. The list included 19 bioclimatic factors, 14 soil factors and a topographic factor (altitude).The current (1970–2000), 2050s (2041–2060), and 2090s (2081–2100) bioclimatic factor data used in this research were derived from the world climate database Worldclim (http://www.worldclim.Org), and the pixel size of the data was 2.5 arc-minutes (-5 km). The climate data of the 2050s and 2090s were obtained from the Beijing Climate Center-Climate System Model-Medium Resolution (BCC-CSM2-MR), one of the Coupled Model Inter-Comparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) datasets, which included three scenarios: sustainable development (SSP126), intermediate development (SSP245) and conventional development (SSP585). SSP scenarios have a high accuracy and separation rate and can integrate local development factors, and so are more convincing than CMIP5 data. The data of soil factors and topographic factors were obtained form the World Soil Database (HWSD) of the FAO (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data), and the provincial national vector map were from China’s Ministry of Natural Resources (http://www.mnr.gov.cn/). The environmental variables is in ASCii format. ASCii can be viewed using standard GIS software such as: environmental variables\\climate\\50126\\bio1.asc Naming convention: Type Variables Description UNITS Bio1 Annual Mean Temperature ℃×10 Bioclimatic Bio2 Mean Diurnal Range ℃×10 Variables Bio3 Isothermality 1 Bio4 Temperature Seasonality 1 Bio5 Max Temperatur ℃×10 Bio6 Min Temperature of Coldest Month ℃×10 Bio7 Temperature Annual Range ℃×10 Bio8 Mean Temperature of Wettest Quarter ℃×10 Bio9 Mean Temperature of Driest Quarter ℃×10 Bio10 Mean Temperature of Warmest Quarter ℃×10 Bio11 Mean Temperature of Coldest Quarter ℃×10 Bio12 Annual Precipitation mm Bio13 Precipitation of Wettest Month mm Bio14 Precipitation of Driest Month mm Bio15 Precipitation Seasonality 1 Bio16 Precipitation of Wettest Quarter mm Bio17 Precipitation of Driest Quarter mm Bio18 Precipitation of Warmest Quarter mm Bio19 Precipitation of Coldest Quarter mm T\_GRAVEL Topsoil Gravel Content %vol. Top Soil Variable T\_SAND Topsoil Sand Fraction % wt. T\_SILT Topsoil Silt Fraction % wt. T\_CLAY Topsoil Clay Fraction % wt. T\_USDA\_TEX\_CLASS Topsoil USDA Texture Classification name T\_REF\_BULK\_DENSITY Topsoil Reference Bulk Density kg/dm3 T\_OC Topsoil Organic Carbon % weight T\_PH\_H2O Topsoil pH (H2O) -log(H+) T\_CEC\_CLAY Topsoil CEC (clay) cmol/kg T\_CEC\_SOIL Topsoil CEC (soil) cmol/kg T\_BS Topsoil Base Saturation % T\_TEB Topsoil TEB cmol/kg T\_ESP Topsoil Sodicity (ESP) % T\_ECE Topsoil Salinity (Elco) dS/m Terrain ELEV Elevation m ENMeval package: To avoid overfitting due to the high complexity of the model constructed with the default parameters, which may cause the predicted distribution of the potential habitat of L. japonicus to deviate too much from the actual situation, this study used the ENMeval package in R 4.3.1, and adjusted the two most important parameters, namely, regularization multiplier (RM) and feature combination (FC), to improve the prediction accuracy of the model. CoordinateCleaner：The R software package ‘CoordinateCleaner’ was used to removing records without coordinate precision and suspected outliers. Based on the ‘subset’ ‘clean\_coordinates’ operation in CoordinateCleaner, we obtained the results of bias corrections on the datasets. SpThin package: Spatial thinning of species occurrence records can help address problems associated with spatial sampling biases. Ideally, thinning removes the fewest records necessary to substantially reduce the effects of sampling bias, while simultaneously retaining the greatest amount of useful information. Spatial thinning can be done manually; however, this is prohibitively time consuming for large datasets. Using a randomization approach, the ‘thin’ function in the spThin R package returns a dataset with the maximum number of records for a given thinning distance, when run for sufficient iterations. geosphere package:The geosphere package in the R environment was used to calculate the centroid range shift distance of L. japonicus under different climate change scenarios. SDMTools：The package in R language was used to calculate the location of centroid in the suitable area of Leonurus japonicus under 6 different economic paths in the current and future periods. VIF package: The usdm package provides a set of functions to support dealing with problematic situations in species distribution modelling (e.g., multicollinearity, positional uncertainty).To detect whether predictor variables are subjected to multicollinearity, you may use vif (variance inflation factor) metric, and some methods implemeted in this package including vifstep or vifcor (a stepwise procedure to identify collinear variables). Leonurus japonicus Houtt. is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant with high medicinal and edible value. Wild L. japonicus resources have been reduced dramatically in recent years. This study predicted the response of distribution range of L. japonicus to climate change in China, which provided the scientific basis for the conservation and utilization. In this study, 489 occurrence points of L. japonicus were selected based on GIS technology and spThin package. The default parameters of the Maxent model were adjusted by using ENMeva1 package of the R environment, and the optimized Maxent model was used to analyze the distribution of L. japonicus. When the feature combination in the model parameters is hing and the regularization multiplier is 1.5, the Maxent model has a higher degree of optimization. With the AUC of 0.830 our model showed a good predictive performance The results showed that L. japonicus was widely distributed in the current period. The maximum temperature of the warmest month, the minimum temperature of the coldest month, the precipitation of the wettest month, the precipitation of the driest month and altitude were the main environmental factors affecting the distribution of L. japonicus. Under the three climate change scenarios, the suitable distribution area of L. japonicus will range-shift to high latitudes, indicating that the distribution of L. japonicus has a strong response to climate change. The regional change rate is the lowest under the SSP126-2090s scenario and the highest under the SSP585-2090s scenario.

Climate trends during maize growing period and their impacts on maize yield in Southern hills was investigated. This dataset contains: 1) information of stations in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills; 2) Trend in temperature and its effect on yield in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills; 3) Trend in radiation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills; 4) Trend in precipitation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills. Climate trends during maize growing period and their impacts on maize yield in Southern hills was investigated. This dataset contains: 1) information of stations in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills; 2) Trend in temperature and its effect on yield in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills; 3) Trend in radiation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills; 4) Trend in precipitation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for maize in Southern hills.

1. Predicted changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events in the UK have the potential to disrupt terrestrial ecosystem function. However, responses of different trophic levels to these changes in rainfall patterns, and the underlying mechanisms, are not well characterised. 2. This study aimed to investigate how changes in both the quantity and frequency of rainfall events will affect the outcome of interactions between plants, insect herbivores (above- and below- ground) and natural enemies. 3. Hordeum vulgare L. plants were grown in controlled conditions and in the field, and subjected to three precipitation scenarios: ambient (based on a local 10 year average rainfall); continuous drought (40% reduction compared to ambient); drought/ deluge (40% reduction compared to ambient at a reduced frequency). The effects of these watering regimes and wireworm (Agriotes species) root herbivory on the performance of the plants, aphid herbivores above-ground (Sitobion avenae, Metapolophium dirhodum and Rhopalosiphum padi), and natural enemies of aphids including ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis) were assessed from measurements of plant growth, insect abundance and mass, and assays of feeding behaviour. 4. Continuous drought decreased plant biomass, whereas reducing the frequency of watering events did not affect plant biomass but did alter plant chemical composition. In controlled conditions, continuous drought ameliorated the negative impact of wireworms on plant biomass. 5. Compared to the ambient treatment, aphid mass was increased by 15% when feeding on plants subjected to drought/ deluge; and ladybirds were 66% heavier when feeding on these aphids but this did not affect ladybird prey choice. In field conditions, wireworms feeding below-ground reduced the number of shoot-feeding aphids under ambient and continuous drought conditions but not under drought/ deluge. 6. Predicted changes in both the frequency and intensity of precipitation events under climate change have the potential to limit plant growth, but reduce wireworm herbivory, while simultaneously promoting above-ground aphid numbers and mass, with these effects transferring to the third trophic level. Understanding the effect of future changes in precipitation on species interactions is critical for determining their potential impact on ecosystem functioning and constructing accurate predictions under global change scenarios. Controlled environment and field experimental dataData file containing all data reported in the paper including plant, soil and insect data from controlled environment and field experiments. First spreadsheet in the data file contains a key to explain all abbreviations used throughout the file.Experimental data.xlsx