Abstract: Nitrate leaching from agricultural systems constitutes a severe environmental effect in regions with valuable groundwater resources and vulnerable aquatic ecosystems. Therefore cropping systems should in many parts of Europe reduce the amount of nitrate leached from the root zone. Since soil nitrogen transformation and loss processes are highly influenced by climate, including temperature and precipitation, estimates of climate change effects on nitrate leaching is in high demand for evaluating future groundwater and surface water protection policies. Modelling studies using both the FASSET and Daisy models for cereal crops as well as arable crop rotations in Denmark have shown increased nitrate leaching under projected climate change. Sensitivity analyses using these models have shown a higher response to changes in temperature than to precipitation, although in particular precipitation responses differ between soil types. Simulations for crop rotations show that current catch crop management may not be sufficient to maintain low nitrate leaching levels in future. These effects of temperature and precipitation as well as crop management are confirmed in an empirical analysis of nitrate leaching from a long-term cropping system experiment in Denmark. The main uncertainties on climate change effects on future nitrate leaching appears to be related to effects of climate change on soil organic matter and thus on the amount of soil total N available for mineralization as well as the effects of enhanced atmospheric CO2 concentration on crop residue quality and N mineralization.

Abstract: An integrated modelling framework (IMF) is developed to analyse impacts of climate andpolicy changes on farm welfare and the environment. The IMF is applied on two contrasting grassland (south) and cropland (north) dominated Austrian landscapes. The IMF combines the crop rotation model CropRota, the bio-physical process model EPIC and the bio-economic farm model FAMOS[space] and applies combined climate change and policy scenarios. Changing policies reduce farm gross margins by -36% and -5% in the two landscapes respectively. Climate change increases gross margins and farms can reach pre-reform levels on average. Climate induced intensification such as removing of landscape elements andincreasing fertilization can be moderated by an agri-environmental program (AEP). However, productivity gains from climate change increase the opportunity costs for AEP participation.

Abstract: The aim of this presentation is to illustrate the activities performed by the LiveM-Task L1.2. group based at the University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy. Three different pluriannual databases were built to perform retrospective studies aimed at establishing the relationships between temperature humidity index (THI) and parameters of interest for dairy cow farms. The THI combines temperature and humidity in a single value and has been widely used to quantify heat stress in farm animals. The first database was built to assess the relationships between THI and mortality over a 6 yr period (2002-2007); the second one was a 7 yr database (2001-2007) which was built to establish the relationships between THI and milk yield; the last database included THI, milk somatic cell counts, total bacterial counts, fat and protein percentages data collected over a 7 yr period (2003-2009). The analysis of the three databases provided several equations which demonstrated and quantified an increase of mortality, reduction of milk yield and a worsening of milk quality in hot environment. Results of these analyzes authorized speculations about risks for dairy cows and their productivity in a warming planet. Furthermore, the same results are being utilized by economists also working within MACSUR at the University of Tuscia for an integrated study aimed at establishing the economic impact of climate change in the dairy sector. Combining this information with climate change regional scenarios might permit prediction of the impact of global warming and identification of adaptation measures that are appropriate for specific contexts.