Climate change vulnerability of confined livestock systems predicted using bioclimatic indexes in an arid region of México

Theusme, C.; Avendaño‐Reyes, Leonel; Macías‐Cruz, Ulises; Correa‐Calderón, Abelardo; García-Cueto, Rafael; Mellado, Miguel; Vargas-Villamil, Luis Manuel; Vicente-Pérez, A.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141779

Cited by 30 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Different Bioclimatic Indices (BCI) exist to assess the impact of climatic conditions on livestock reared outdoors (Theusme et al 2021). In this study we used the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) which is a suitable climatic parameter to describe heat stress conditions in sheep (Marai et al 2007; Theusme et al 2021). It is calculated as THI sheep = T – {0.31 – (0.31 x (RH/100))) x (T – 14.4)}; where T= Ambient Temperature (in °C) and RH = Relative Humidity (in %).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat stress conditions affect the social network structure of free-ranging sheep

Borthwick

Quiring

Griffith

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Extreme weather conditions, like heatwave events, are becoming more frequent with climate change. Animals often modify their behaviour to cope with environmental changes and extremes. If the environmental conditions influence the trade-off between an individual's social propensity and optimal thermoregulation through shade use for instance, then divergent social decisions may be made. Hence, such behavioural changes have the potential to influence an individual's position in its social network, and the social network structure as a whole. We investigated whether heat stress conditions (quantified through the Temperature Humidity Index) and the resulting use of shaded areas, influences the social network structure and an individual's position in it. We studied this in free-ranging sheep in the arid zone of Australia, GPS-tracking all 48 individuals in a flock. When heat stress conditions worsened, individuals spent more time in the shade and the network was more connected (higher density) and less modular. Furthermore, an individual's social connectivity scaled with its shade use behaviour. Interestingly, individuals with intermediate shade use were most strongly connected (degree, strength, betweeness), indicating their importance for the connectivity of the social network during heat stress conditions. Our study shows that heat stress conditions, which are predicted to increase in severity and frequency due to climate change, influence the resource use within the ecological environment. This has flow on effects for the animal's social environment through the changed social network structure.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat stress conditions affect the social network structure of free-ranging sheep

Borthwick

Quiring

Griffith

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Different bioclimatic indices exist to assess the impact of climatic conditions on livestock reared outdoors (Theusme et al, 2021). In this study, we used the THI which is a suitable climatic parameter to describe heat stress conditions in sheep (Marai et al, 2007;Ozella et al, 2020;Theusme et al, 2021) were representative for our study site (Leu et al, 2021). Using the weather station data, we calculated the mean THI for the 3-h midday period around the zenith of each day.…”

Section: Calculating Thi and Individual Shade Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Heat stress conditions affect the social network structure of free‐ranging sheep

Borthwick,

Quiring,

Griffith

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Extreme weather conditions, like heatwave events, are becoming more frequent with climate change. Animals often modify their behaviour to cope with environmental changes and extremes. During heat stress conditions, individuals change their spatial behaviour and increase the use of shaded areas to assist with thermoregulation. Here, we suggest that for social species, these behavioural changes and ambient conditions have the potential to influence an individual's position in its social network, and the social network structure as a whole. We investigated whether heat stress conditions (quantified through the temperature humidity index) and the resulting use of shaded areas, influence the social network structure and an individual's connectivity in it. We studied this in free‐ranging sheep in the arid zone of Australia, GPS‐tracking all 48 individuals in a flock. When heat stress conditions worsened, individuals spent more time in the shade and the network was more connected (higher density) and less structured (lower modularity). Furthermore, we then identified the behavioural change that drove the altered network structure and showed that an individual's shade use behaviour affected its social connectivity. Interestingly, individuals with intermediate shade use were most strongly connected (degree, strength, betweenness), indicating their importance for the connectivity of the social network during heat stress conditions. Heat stress conditions, which are predicted to increase in severity and frequency due to climate change, influence resource use within the ecological environment. Importantly, our study shows that these heat stress conditions also affect the animal's social environment through the changed social network structure. Ultimately, this could have further flow on effects for social foraging and individual health since social structure drives information and disease transmission.

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“…1% yield loss on average is found under 1°C warming, whereas the marginal effect of 1°C warming on cattle meat yield in high-income countries is only -0.2% (Figure 3 a, c). The marginal effect of 1 unit increase of THI on cattle meat yield in low-income countries is averagely low-and middle-income countries to adopt new species that can in the face of new thermal environment in the future (Theusme et al, 2021) because they are located in hotter regions and will experience increasing demand of livestock products simultaneously (Rahimi et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Nonlinear Response Of Cattle Meat Yield To Warmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate warming creates an unequal burden on global cattle meat yields

Liu,

Zhou,

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Climate warming is one of the major threats to global livestock production. However, the impact of climate warming on livestock meat yield at global scale is rarely investigated. In this study, we present a statistical evidence from country-level cattle meat yield that the response of global cattle meat yield to climate warming is invert-U quadratic nonlinear, which is more obvious in the grassland-based livestock system. Moreover, the nonlinear response determines that climate warming creates unequal burden between high- and low- income countries due to the divergent baseline temperature condition. Future climate warming aggravates these unequal burdens, with the most pronounced effects observed under SSP585. Our results highlight the need for focusing on the global food security under climate change from livestock meat production.

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Climate change vulnerability of confined livestock systems predicted using bioclimatic indexes in an arid region of México

Cited by 30 publications

References 47 publications

Heat stress conditions affect the social network structure of free-ranging sheep

Heat stress conditions affect the social network structure of free-ranging sheep

Heat stress conditions affect the social network structure of free‐ranging sheep

Climate warming creates an unequal burden on global cattle meat yields

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