Vulnerability of mediterranean agricultural systems to climate: from regional to field scale analysis
Résumé
Mediterranean agricultural systems are vulnerable to the climate. Increased variability of temperature and precipitations, for example, would impact natural resources, cropping systems, and farmers' income. The objective of this paper is to describe, based on a large literature review, the possible behaviors of natural resources, farming systems, and cropping systems in light of climate uncertainty. Climate could probably reduce the availability and quality of water resources and increase soil degradation, mainly the soil salt accumulation. In addition, under the combined pressure of temperature increase and the drop in precipitations, cropping systems could suffer from a shortening in crop development stage and increase the yield variability inducing an increase of farmers' income variability. Overall, possible behavior of agricultural systems in Mediterranean regions would differ through regions based on biophysical, socioeconomic, and institutional contexts.