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A large range of climate change impacts is expected during the twenty-first century in vulnerable regions such as West Africa, where local populations largely rely on livestock systems as their main food production and income source. As climate change threatens livestock systems in various ways, here we assess how regional livestock could be exposed to cumulated climate-related stressors in the future. Using the world's largest multi-model climate impacts simulations database ISIMIP, we find that a large part of West Africa will experience at least 5–6 cumulated multiple climate stressors before the 2030s, including amplified severe heat stress conditions and flood risks. Consequently, about 30% of the current total regional livestock could be exposed to these cumulated stressors, with sheep and goat as the most affected species. This paper brings new quantifications that may help policy makers to prioritize decisions that could prepare local populations to face multiple climate-related impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orphan legume crops play an important role in smallholder farmers' food systems. Though less documented, they have the potential to contribute to adequate nutrition in vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, data are scarce about the potential of those crops to withstand current and future climate variations. Using Macrotyloma geocarpum as an example, we used ecological niche modeling to explore the role of ecology on the current and future distributions of genetic populations of Kersting's groundnut. Our findings showed that: (1) the models had good predictive power, indicating that M. geocarpum's distribution was correlated with both climatic and soil layers; (2) identity and similarity tests revealed that the two genetic groups have identical and similar environmental niches; (3) by integrating the genetic information in niche modeling, niches projections show divergence in the response of the species and genetic populations to ongoing climate change. This study highlights the importance of incorporating genetic data into Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) approaches to obtain a finer information of species' future distribution, and explores the implications for agricultural adaptation, with a particular focus on identifying priority actions in orphan crops conservation and breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]