In this article the authors assess the potential impacts of projected climate change on water, livelihoods and food security in the Basin Focal Projet basins. The authors consider expected change within the context of recently observed climate variability in the basins to better understand the potential impact of expected change and the options available for adaptation. They use multi-global circulation model climate projections for the AR4 SRES A2a scenario, downscaled and extracted for each basin. They find significant differences in the impacts (both positive and negative impacts) of climate change, between and within basins, but also find large-scale uncertainty between climate models in the impact that is projected.

Chances are examined for the identification and determination of pesticides of different types and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 46 items, in water and food by means of gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection. The detection limits make from 0.01 to 0.5 mg/L if the injected volume of samples is 1 μL; the analytical range is 0.02–10 mg/L. In the mode of selective ion registration and preliminary preconcentration by liquid and solid-phase extraction, the detection limits of analytes make from 2 to 100 ng/L in water and from 0.2 to 10 μg/kg for solid samples.

This report describes the major achievements of CPWF over the year 2010. It also provides a number of stories and lessons learned from the basin development research programs.

Phenological development is the single most important attribute of crop adaptation to shifting climates. Climate change may alter the rate of phenological development and the amount and distribution of rainfall during the growing season. These changes may in turn result in mismatch between water demand by crops and water availability from rainfall. This paper illustrates how an understanding of the impact of climate shifts on key crops will enable the Asia-Pacific farmers, community workers and policy agencies to better prepare and adapt to climate change. Strategies include changes to existing policy and practices, for example, timing of planting, managing rainwater resources, use of new varieties, disease management protocols, alternate crops and shift in geographic distribution of crops. An international project is described which combines a new analysis of realized changes in meteorological parameters, and use of estimates from published work on future climates to assess temporal shifts in crop phenology, likely shifts in the pattern of rain and water availability, mismatch between crop phenology and water availability, and the expected consequences of this mismatch for food security.

Lotic systems in many regions of the country have experienced habitat degradation and biodiversity loss due to agricultural activity and urbanization. Southeastern Michigan is no exception, as agriculture in the River Raisin watershed and increased urbanization in the Huron River watershed threatens both systems. To further understand the ecological impact of land use on trophic interactions in Midwestern streams and assess the use of a selected set of weighted, quantitative food web metrics as a tool for investigating the influence of anthropogenic disturbance on these systems we compared summer food webs for nine second-order streams. All streams were categorized as developed, undeveloped, or agricultural based on land cover data. Developed and undeveloped streams were located in the Huron River watershed and agricultural streams were located in the River Raisin watershed. Reach-level habitat quality was also assessed at each study site using the EPA's Rapid Habitat Assessment. Fish diets (n = 410) were analyzed to create summer food webs for each site. Comparisons of food webs were made using a suite of weighted, quantitative metrics to identify differences in fish-macroinvertebrate interactions across streams with differing land cover at the sub-basin scale and habitat quality at the local scale. Although undeveloped streams had higher species richness and less habitat degradation, no significant patterns were observed in the quantitative metrics across the three stream categories or based on reach-level habitat conditions. Decapoda, terrestrial Hymenoptera, and Chironomidae were the primary prey taxa in all stream categories. Decapods accounted for the majority of biomass consumed and the pattern of this consumption strongly influenced metric scores. The suite of quantitative metrics tested in this study did not detect significant differences in fish-macroinvertebrate food webs across land use categories, likely in part due to the dominance of a large, tolerant prey taxa in fish diets, regardless of land use and local habitat quality.

Phenological development is the single most important attribute of crop adaptation to shifting climates. Climate change may alter the rate of phenological development and the amount and distribution of rainfall during the growing season. These changes may in turn result in mismatch between water demand by crops and water availability from rainfall. This paper illustrates how an understanding of the impact of climate shifts on key crops will enable the Asia-Pacific farmers, community workers and policy agencies to better prepare and adapt to climate change. Strategies include changes to existing policy and practices, for example, timing of planting, managing rainwater resources, use of new varieties, disease management protocols, alternate crops and shift in geographic distribution of crops. An international project is described which combines a new analysis of realized changes in meteorological parameters, and use of estimates from published work on future climates to assess temporal shifts in crop phenology, likely shifts in the pattern of rain and water availability, mismatch between crop phenology and water availability, and the expected consequences of this mismatch for food security