Due to devastating droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, climatic and environmental change in the West African Sahel has attracted a great deal of scientific research. While many of these studies documented a long-term trend of declining rainfall, analyses conducted in the last few years suggest that a 'recovery' is underway. Drawing on ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and participant observation in two Provinces of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso, we elicited local perspectives on these rainfall trends from the people who are most directly affected, namely local farmers. Fieldwork revealed that farmers in the research sites perceive that both overall seasonal rainfall and the number of 'big rains' during the rainy season have decreased over the last 30 years. We then tested these perceptions against rainfall records from nearby meteorological stations and found them to be corroborated. This paper illustrates how farmers of the Central Plateau now view drought as 'normal', having incorporated drought-mitigation adaptations into their agricultural systems. Our case study highlights the need for ground truthing scientific analyses and assessing livelihood implications at the local level. It also advocates for sustained institutional support for rural communities, to increase their ability to adapt to climate change.

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Daphnia pulicaria from three different populations were observed to express within-population variation in habitat-choice behavior in field assays. Individuals from different habitats (i.e., lake depths) were isolated and cultured as clonal lines under standard conditions. Habitat choices by clonal descendants were then estimated in the field, using replicate experimental columns. There was significant heritable and ontogenetic variation in habitat choice, but the heritable effect was small relative to the phenotypic variation of the original isolates. In a second set of experiments, D. pulicaria that were acclimatized to different habitats showed a strong tendency to choose the habitat to which they had been acclimatized. These data suggest that a given genotype can use a wide range of habitats, given appropriate acclimatization. Although genetic variation is significant, we hypothesize that natural selection on correlated ecological traits is more likely to maintain patterns of genotypic segregation among habitats in Daphnia.

The nature of adaptation to climate variability in the Southwest US is explored using the Middle San Pedro River Valley in southern Arizona as a case study. An integrated vulnerability assessment focuses on the dynamic interaction of natural climatic and hydrological systems with socio-economic systems. This approach reveals that residents in the study region do not perceive short-term or long-term vulnerability to climate variability or climate change. The paper uses an ethnographic field approach to examine the technical and organizational factors that constitute the adaptation process and reduce vulnerability to climate in the valley. It concludes by discussing the potential dangers of ignoring climate in a rapidly growing, semi-arid environment. KEY WORDS: Climate variability · Climate vulnerability · US Southwest · Livelihood · AdaptationResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

This article examines the unfolding of integrated water resource management (IWRM)