Compared to other climate regions of the world, Mediterranean regions are likely to experience more severe effects of climate change as rainfall decreases and temperatures increase. Global climate change models predict a reduction in rainfall and rise in the temperature of rivers in South Africa's Cape Fold Ecoregion (CFE) – a Mediterranean region in the south-west corner of the country.
Humans, through agricultural fertilizer application, inject more reactive nitrogen (Nr) to terrestrial ecosystems than do natural sources. Ammonia volatilization is a major pathway of agricultural Nr loss. Using a process-based dynamic model, Shen et al. show that ammonia volatilization from agricultural land in the US will increase by up to 81% by the end of this century due to climate change alone, posing threats to food security, air quality, and ecosystem health, but mitigation strategies are available.
