Water is the bloodstream of the biosphere that makes agricultural activities possible. Agricultural land use now covers large parts of the terrestrial planetary surface. While producing food for a growing world population it also pushes against many of the planetary boundaries and thus impairing social-ecological resilience.This theme works on a range of scales, from local landscapes to analysis of global freshwater and agricultural changes, and cross-scale teleconnections. It focuses particularly on operationalising resilience in relation to the water-food-poverty nexus in semi-arid to dry sub-humid parts of the world. Theme members have substantial fieldwork in e.g. the West African Sahel, India, Tanzania and South Africa.
The theme also looks at relationships among multiple ecosystem services and how these can generate synergies or trade-offs between e.g. food production, carbon sequestration, and water availability.
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