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Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal

Recent land-use and climatic shifts are expected to alter species distributions, the provisioning of ecosystem services, and livelihoods of biodiversity-dependent societies living in multifunctional landscapes. However, to date, few studies have integrated social and ecological evidence to understan...

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Autor principal: Thorn, Jessica P. R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6882764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31183689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01202-0
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author_facet Thorn, Jessica P. R.
author_sort Thorn, Jessica P. R.
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description Recent land-use and climatic shifts are expected to alter species distributions, the provisioning of ecosystem services, and livelihoods of biodiversity-dependent societies living in multifunctional landscapes. However, to date, few studies have integrated social and ecological evidence to understand how humans perceive change, and adapt agro-ecological practices at the landscape scale. Mixed method fieldwork compared observed changes in plant species distribution across a climatic gradient to farmers’ perceptions in biodiversity and climate change in rice-cultivated farms. In contrast to the global context, farmers in the Terai Plains of Nepal are acutely aware of high levels of change observed in the last 10 years, and incrementally adapt as new invasive species emerge (93%), the incidence and severity of pest/diseases increase (66%), genetic diversity of indigenous varieties erodes (65%), forest habitats diminish (98%), irrigation water declines (60%), and wildlife ranges shift. Twenty-five changes in climate were reported by 97.5% of farmers to reduce provisioning services and food self-sufficiency, and increase exposure to waterborne pathogens, heat stress, and human or livestock mortality. The study illustrates the need for financial and institutional supports at all levels to strengthen agro-ecological practices, upscale Information Communication Technology for extension services, clarify tenure agreements, and safeguard natural ecosystems to slow biodiversity loss. Existing incentives to conserve, restore, or sustainably manage ecosystems offer lessons for other societies undergoing rapid change. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-019-01202-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-68827642019-12-12 Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal Thorn, Jessica P. R. Ambio Biodiversity Change and Human Adaptation Recent land-use and climatic shifts are expected to alter species distributions, the provisioning of ecosystem services, and livelihoods of biodiversity-dependent societies living in multifunctional landscapes. However, to date, few studies have integrated social and ecological evidence to understand how humans perceive change, and adapt agro-ecological practices at the landscape scale. Mixed method fieldwork compared observed changes in plant species distribution across a climatic gradient to farmers’ perceptions in biodiversity and climate change in rice-cultivated farms. In contrast to the global context, farmers in the Terai Plains of Nepal are acutely aware of high levels of change observed in the last 10 years, and incrementally adapt as new invasive species emerge (93%), the incidence and severity of pest/diseases increase (66%), genetic diversity of indigenous varieties erodes (65%), forest habitats diminish (98%), irrigation water declines (60%), and wildlife ranges shift. Twenty-five changes in climate were reported by 97.5% of farmers to reduce provisioning services and food self-sufficiency, and increase exposure to waterborne pathogens, heat stress, and human or livestock mortality. The study illustrates the need for financial and institutional supports at all levels to strengthen agro-ecological practices, upscale Information Communication Technology for extension services, clarify tenure agreements, and safeguard natural ecosystems to slow biodiversity loss. Existing incentives to conserve, restore, or sustainably manage ecosystems offer lessons for other societies undergoing rapid change. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-019-01202-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer Netherlands 2019-06-10 2019-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6882764/ /pubmed/31183689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01202-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Biodiversity Change and Human Adaptation
Thorn, Jessica P. R.
Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal
title Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal
title_full Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal
title_fullStr Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal
title_short Adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the Terai Plains of Nepal
title_sort adaptation “from below” to changes in species distribution, habitat and climate in agro-ecosystems in the terai plains of nepal
topic Biodiversity Change and Human Adaptation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6882764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31183689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01202-0
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