The contribution of agriculture to the state of climate: Workshop summary and recommendations

An international workshop to discuss the contribution of agriculture to climate was held in Ottawa, Canada, from 27 to 30 September 2004. It was organized under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Topics included the development of agriculture, land use change, the interactions between physiological properties of vegetation, ecosystem physical properties and climate, the impact of agriculture on weather and climate, interactive mechanisms resulting from human activities, the acquisition of relevant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission data, and the promotion/adoption of management practices to reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment. It was demonstrated that important biophysical forcing with significant climate feedback exist as a result of agriculture-related land use change. It was concluded that biogeochemical forcing is usually considered but that biophysical impacts are not well characterized, and few studies have included both of these aspects. For example, human disturbances of the earth's surface that affect the energy budget might be as important climatologically as GHG emissions arising from land disturbance. It was suggested that current GHG mitigation practices should be reassessed to account for both the biogeochemical and the biogeophysical forcing, and that there are significant opportunities and risks that occur in the complex interactions between agriculture and the environment. Workshop recommendations on how to minimize the impact of agriculture on climate were developed for the scientific community, funding agencies, and the agricultural community. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.