Globally the grazing lands cover about 6.12 billion hectares of the Earth surface and supporting about 360 million cattle and over 600 million sheep and goats. Globally, the grazing animals provide 10% beef and 30% sheep and goat meatMeat. For an estimated 100 million people inArid arid areas, grazing livestockLivestock is the only potential source of livelihoodLivelihood. The grazing area coverage is approximately 1.5, 2.8, and 17 times more than the forests, cropland and urban settlements respectively. These grazing lands are located in different geographical regions, such as the countries of the humid climate (high rainfall, Europe) and low rainfall (arid regionsArid regions). The arid region is plagued with low rain fall, high temperatureTemperature, land degradation, prolonged droughtDrought and high vulnerability to climate changeClimate change and this affects the grazing lands functionality to provide enough biomass to meet the feedFeed requirements of the animals in the wild. Overall livestock sector contributes about 14.5% of global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. On one side the grazing lands are diminishing by climate change impacts, and on the other side the human populationPopulation is increasing unprecedentedly, and projected to be about 11.0 billion by 2100. This rapidly increasing population demands for livestockLivestock more than the existing requirements, as well as a general shift of human food towards protein-rich diets. Among the various sectors contributing to the GHGs emission, the livestock sector contributes to about 9.2% share of GHGs, a driving force of climate changeClimate change. Thus, the adoption of policies to mitigate GHGs is essential to shift towards sustainable and environmentally friendly livestock production systems inArid arid regionsArid regions. In this chapter a comprehensive review is completed to highlight the impact of climate change on grazing lands in the arid regions and how this will affect the livestockLivestock industry and ways are suggested to cope the climate change impact to sustain livestock industry.

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Impact of Climate Change on Grazing Lands and Response of Arid Lands Ecosystems to Livestock Industry

  • Mariam E. Al-Bahouh,
  • Samira Mohammed

摘要

Globally the grazing lands cover about 6.12 billion hectares of the Earth surface and supporting about 360 million cattle and over 600 million sheep and goats. Globally, the grazing animals provide 10% beef and 30% sheep and goat meatMeat. For an estimated 100 million people inArid arid areas, grazing livestockLivestock is the only potential source of livelihoodLivelihood. The grazing area coverage is approximately 1.5, 2.8, and 17 times more than the forests, cropland and urban settlements respectively. These grazing lands are located in different geographical regions, such as the countries of the humid climate (high rainfall, Europe) and low rainfall (arid regionsArid regions). The arid region is plagued with low rain fall, high temperatureTemperature, land degradation, prolonged droughtDrought and high vulnerability to climate changeClimate change and this affects the grazing lands functionality to provide enough biomass to meet the feedFeed requirements of the animals in the wild. Overall livestock sector contributes about 14.5% of global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. On one side the grazing lands are diminishing by climate change impacts, and on the other side the human populationPopulation is increasing unprecedentedly, and projected to be about 11.0 billion by 2100. This rapidly increasing population demands for livestockLivestock more than the existing requirements, as well as a general shift of human food towards protein-rich diets. Among the various sectors contributing to the GHGs emission, the livestock sector contributes to about 9.2% share of GHGs, a driving force of climate changeClimate change. Thus, the adoption of policies to mitigate GHGs is essential to shift towards sustainable and environmentally friendly livestock production systems inArid arid regionsArid regions. In this chapter a comprehensive review is completed to highlight the impact of climate change on grazing lands in the arid regions and how this will affect the livestockLivestock industry and ways are suggested to cope the climate change impact to sustain livestock industry.