Interlinking climate change with water-energy-food nexus and related ecosystem processes in California case studies

Liu, Qinqin

doi:10.1186/s13717-016-0058-0

Ecological Processes

Table 2 Key points for interlinkages of climate change, water, energy, and food nexus and related ecosystem processes

From: Interlinking climate change with water-energy-food nexus and related ecosystem processes in California case studies

Key connections	Climate change (CC)	Water	Energy	Food	Ecosystem process
Climate change^a in temperature, snowpack, precipitation, fire, and sea level rise	Mitigation and adaptation	Leads to hydrological changes in surface water and ground water, increase water stress, drought and flood, sea water intrusion, reduce in stream flow and water quality, affect water supply and uses	Affects energy production life cycle (Table 1) and energy uses by affecting water resources for energy with increased water stress	Affects food life cycle (Table 1) by affecting water supply and use for food with increased water stress	Changing ecosystem process by increasing temperature, fire and GHG, deceased stream flow, water quality, increased air pollution with impacts on forest, biodiversity, land and watersheds
Water^b	Fossil energy use in water life cycle could increase GHG for CC and renewable energy use in water mitigate CC	Integrated water management	Water affects in energy production life cycle (Table 1)	Water affects in food life cycle (Table 1)	Affects environment water for species habitats in wetland and watersheds
Energy^c	Fossil energy generation and uses increase GHG for CC and renewable energy mitigates CC	Energy affects in water cycle (Table 1)	Integrated energy management	Energy affects in food life cycle (Table 1)	Affects ecosystem processes with land and habitat conflict from energy generation and distribution
Food^d	Fossil energy use for soil, crop, and other food practices increase GHG for CC; renewable energy mitigates CC	Food production and uses as well as waste could reduce water quality in watersheds	Food products used in energy biofuels	Integrated food management	Affects ecosystem process with land and habitat conflict and reduces water quality in watersheds
Ecosystem process^e	Environmental management for CC mitigation and adaptation	Increase water quality and benefits for biological and hydrological conditions	Interactions of species and landscape with energy distribution and production	Interactions of biodiversity, agricultural lands, and practices	Integrated environmental management

^aClimate change affects temperature, snowpack, precipitation, fire, and sea level rise for water, energy, food, and ecosystem processes
^bWater is used (1) for energy production, including cooling and extraction of fossil fuels, hydropower, biofuels, and renewables; (2) for food and biomass production; (3) for drinking and it has multiple beneficial uses, including species and habitats for ecosystem processes
^cEnergy is used (1) for water production, including water pumping, desalination, conveyance, distribution, and treatment, as well as urban and agricultural water use and (2) for food and biomass production, including energy for water pumping, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, food supply chain, food transportation, and processing
^dFood crops and biomass are used (1) for energy biofuel production; (2) agricultural food and biomass affects water, including water quality influences resulting from food waste, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides from agricultural runoff
^eEcosystem process (1) provides ecological function and services for water, energy, food, biomass, and the environment; (2) interconnects natural resources for ecosystem function and process; (3) provides physical, chemical, and biological connections for the environment, including climate and hydrology; environments are physical, chemical, and biological conditions affecting ecosystem processes for water, energy, and food related to climate change

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