Climate Variability and the Global Harvest: Impacts of El Nino and Other Oscillations on Agro-Ecosystems

Much public attention has being given lately to the process of climate change, and concern has been expressed over its potential effects on natural ecosystems and on human societies. Climate may be defined as the long-term average of weather phenomena, for example, the mean temperature and precipitation values affecting different regions. Less attention, however, has been devoted to the patterns of variation in the short-term weather, in part induced by oscillations related to the linkages among the sea, land, and atmosphere, and to the increasingly intense manifestations of climate extremes affecting agriculture.

Prologue 1. Climate Variability in the Context of Climate Change: El Nino and Other Oscillations 2. Impacts of El Nino-La Nina Cycles; Systems and Sectors 3. Links to Agroecosystems: Processes and Productivity 4. Recent El Ninos and Their Manifestations: Evolving Understanding 5. Analysis of El Nino Effects: Methods and Models 6. Seasonal Climate Predictions: Farmers, Planners, and Policy-makers 7. Regional Activities in a Global Framework: Developed and Developing Countries 8. Climate, Society, and Sustainable Development: Assessing Vulnerability, Building Adaptive Capacity Epilogue

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Keywords: Climate Variability, El Nino, Climate Change, Methods and Models, Seasonal Climate Predictions