scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Climate change and livestock: Impacts, adaptation, and mitigation

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the global impacts of climate change on livestock production, the contribution of livestock production to climate change, and specific climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the livestock sector.
About: This article is published in Climate Risk Management.The article was published on 2017-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 741 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Livestock & Food security.
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2018-Animal
TL;DR: It is critical to identify agro-ecological zone-specific climate resilient thermo-tolerant animals to sustain livestock production in an environment challenged by climate change.
Abstract: Livestock plays an important role in the global economy. Climate change effects are not only limited to crop production, but also affect livestock production, for example reduced milk yields and milk quality, reduced meat production and reduced fertility. Therefore, livestock-based food security is threatened in many parts of the world. Furthermore, multiple stressors are a common phenomenon in many environments, and are likely to increase due to climate change. Among these stresses, heat stress appears to be the major factor which negatively influences livestock production. Hence, it is critical to identify agro-ecological zone-specific climate resilient thermo-tolerant animals to sustain livestock production. Livestock responds to the changing environments by altering their phenotypic and physiological characters. Therefore, survivability of the animal often depends on its ability to cope with or adapt to the existing conditions. So to sustain livestock production in an environment challenged by climate change, the animals must be genetically suitable and have the ability to survive in diversified environments. Biological markers or biomarkers indicate the biological states or alterations in expression pattern of genes or state of protein that serve as a reference point in breeding for the genetic improvement of livestock. Conventionally, identification of animals with superior genetic traits that were economically beneficial was the fundamental reason for identifying biomarkers in animals. Furthermore, compared with the behavioural, morphological or physiological responses in animals, the genetic markers are important because of the possibility of finding a solution to animal adaptability to climate change.

204 citations


Cites background from "Climate change and livestock: Impac..."

  • ...Indigenous livestock breeds in many developing countries, in contrast to European breeds (exotic), are portrayed as being the hardiest breeds, being able to cope and produce in harsh environments due to physiological and genetic adaptations (Rojas-Downing et al., 2017)....

    [...]

  • ...…12:S2, pp s431–s444 © The Animal Consortium 2018 doi:10.1017/S1751731118001945 animal s431 (Baumgard et al., 2012), milk production (Das et al., 2016), reproductive performance (Rhoads et al., 2009), meat production (Archana et al., 2018) and disease occurrences (Rojas-Downing et al., 2017)....

    [...]

  • ...Indigenous livestock breeds in many developing countries, in contrast to European breeds (exotic), are portrayed as being the hardiest breeds, being able to cope and produce in harsh environments due to physiological and genetic adaptations (Rojas-Downing et al., 2017)....

    [...]

  • ...Climate change affects all dimensions of food security and nutrition: food availability, food access, food utilization and food stability (Rojas-Downing et al., 2017)....

    [...]

  • ...Climate change affects all dimensions of food security and nutrition: food availability, food access, food utilization and food stability (Rojas-Downing et al., 2017)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The environmental impact of current livestock practices is reviewed and the advantages offered by Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), as a potential strategy to mitigate environmental risks are discussed.

176 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A number of practices, such as increased food productivity, dietary change and reduced food loss and waste, can reduce demand for land conversion, thereby potentially freeing‐up land and creating opportunities for enhanced implementation of other practices, making them important components of portfolios of practices to address the combined land challenges.
Abstract: There is a clear need for transformative change in the land management and food production sectors to address the global land challenges of climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, combatting land degradation and desertification, and delivering food security (referred to hereafter as "land challenges"). We assess the potential for 40 practices to address these land challenges and find that: Nine options deliver medium to large benefits for all four land challenges. A further two options have no global estimates for adaptation, but have medium to large benefits for all other land challenges. Five options have large mitigation potential (>3 Gt CO2 eq/year) without adverse impacts on the other land challenges. Five options have moderate mitigation potential, with no adverse impacts on the other land challenges. Sixteen practices have large adaptation potential (>25 million people benefit), without adverse side effects on other land challenges. Most practices can be applied without competing for available land. However, seven options could result in competition for land. A large number of practices do not require dedicated land, including several land management options, all value chain options, and all risk management options. Four options could greatly increase competition for land if applied at a large scale, though the impact is scale and context specific, highlighting the need for safeguards to ensure that expansion of land for mitigation does not impact natural systems and food security. A number of practices, such as increased food productivity, dietary change and reduced food loss and waste, can reduce demand for land conversion, thereby potentially freeing-up land and creating opportunities for enhanced implementation of other practices, making them important components of portfolios of practices to address the combined land challenges.

163 citations


Cites background from "Climate change and livestock: Impac..."

  • ...…million people Low confidence Porter et al. (2014) Improved livestock management 1–25 million people Low confidence Porter et al. (2014), Rojas-Downing et al. (2017) Agroforestry 2,300 million people Medium confidence Lasco et al. (2014) Agricultural diversification >25 million…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review examines the impact of diet on bovine rumen function and outlines what is known about the rumen microbiome to provide comprehensive insights into the relationship between rumen microbial activity, nitrogen utilisation efficiency and methane emission.
Abstract: Methane is generated in the foregut of all ruminant animals by the microorganisms present. Dietary manipulation is regarded as the most effective and most convenient way to reduce methane emissions (and in turn energy loss in the animal) and increase nitrogen utilization efficiency. This review examines the impact of diet on bovine rumen function and outlines what is known about the rumen microbiome. Our understanding of this area has increased significantly in recent years due to the application of omics technologies to determine microbial composition and functionality patterns in the rumen. This information can be combined with data on nutrition, rumen physiology, nitrogen excretion and/or methane emission to provide comprehensive insights into the relationship between rumen microbial activity, nitrogen utilisation efficiency and methane emission, with an ultimate view to the development of new and improved intervention strategies.

158 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
04 Sep 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors advocate traditional agriculture as a climate-smart approach for the sustainable food production and also deliberates the correlation between climate change and agriculture, and also argue that traditional agriculture is one of the largest sectors that sustain livelihood to maximum number of people and contribute to climate change.
Abstract: Sustainable food production is one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century in the era of global environmental problems such as climate change, increasing population and natural resource degradation including soil degradation and biodiversity loss. Climate change is among the greatest threats to agricultural systems. Green Revolution though multiplied agricultural production several folds but at the huge environmental cost including climate change. It jeopardized the ecological integrity of agroecosystems by intensive use of fossil fuels, natural resources, agrochemicals and machinery. Moreover, it threatened the age-old traditional agricultural practices. Agriculture is one of the largest sectors that sustain livelihood to maximum number of people and contribute to climate change. Therefore, a climate-smart approach to sustainable food production is the need of hour. Traditional agriculture is getting increased attention worldwide in context of sustainable food production in changing climate. The present article advocates traditional agriculture as a climate-smart approach for the sustainable food production and also deliberates the correlation between climate change and agriculture.

133 citations


Cites background from "Climate change and livestock: Impac..."

  • ...2017), livestock production (Rojas-Downing et al. 2017) and aquaculture (Porter et al....

    [...]

  • ...Climate change also affects the invasive crop pest species (Yan et al. 2017), livestock production (Rojas-Downing et al. 2017) and aquaculture (Porter et al. 2014)....

    [...]

References
More filters
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The first volume of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report as mentioned in this paper was published in 2007 and covers several topics including the extensive range of observations now available for the atmosphere and surface, changes in sea level, assesses the paleoclimatic perspective, climate change causes both natural and anthropogenic, and climate models for projections of global climate.
Abstract: This report is the first volume of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report. It covers several topics including the extensive range of observations now available for the atmosphere and surface, changes in sea level, assesses the paleoclimatic perspective, climate change causes both natural and anthropogenic, and climate models for projections of global climate.

32,826 citations

01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, a summary of issues to assist policymakers, a technical summary, and a list of frequently-asked questions are presented, with an emphasis on physical science issues.
Abstract: Report summarizing climate change issues in 2013, with an emphasis on physical science. It includes a summary of issues to assist policymakers, a technical summary, and a list of frequently-asked questions.

7,858 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
08 Jan 2004-Nature
TL;DR: Estimates of extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.
Abstract: Climate change over the past approximately 30 years has produced numerous shifts in the distributions and abundances of species and has been implicated in one species-level extinction. Using projections of species' distributions for future climate scenarios, we assess extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface. Exploring three approaches in which the estimated probability of extinction shows a power-law relationship with geographical range size, we predict, on the basis of mid-range climate-warming scenarios for 2050, that 15-37% of species in our sample of regions and taxa will be 'committed to extinction'. When the average of the three methods and two dispersal scenarios is taken, minimal climate-warming scenarios produce lower projections of species committed to extinction ( approximately 18%) than mid-range ( approximately 24%) and maximum-change ( approximately 35%) scenarios. These estimates show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.

7,089 citations

Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation, and suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.
Abstract: Presentation de l'editeur : This report aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation. The assessment takes into account direct impacts, along with the impacts of feed crop agriculture required for livestock production. The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost

3,911 citations

Trending Questions (1)
What is the relationship between global warming and livestock water intake?

Global warming is expected to increase livestock water consumption by a factor of three, which could limit livestock production.