Purpose- This paper analyses Rwandan farmers’ perceptions of historical drivers of landscape vulnerability (past), current livelihood assets (present) and, existing or potential capacities (future) to increase resilience to drought. The specific focus is on linking experiences from the past and present with ideas for a drought-resilient future. It explores how farmers' perceptions of past droughts and future visioning can contribute to rural development policy and multi-level collaborations. 

Design/methodology/approach- The study was conducted in Bugesera, a drought-prone district in south-eastern Rwanda. Empirical data was collected through participatory observation, semi- structured interviews and focus groups. The analytical points of departure are based on sustainable landscapes and livelihood approaches, combining spatial and temporal perspectives on challenges and opportunities identified by farmers’ communities in addressing droughts. 

Findings- All respondents had a high awareness of the impacts of droughts. Perceived drivers of landscape change include historical climate events, such as droughts and floods, immigration and agricultural expansion which have led to demographic pressure on land, deforestation, and infringement on natural resources. Factors enhancing resilience capacities include access to diversified sources of livelihood, knowledge of appropriate irrigation techniques, and availability of safety nets and credits. Furthermore, farmers identified collaborative opportunities as important for resilience capacity, including peer learning, and sharing best practices through knowledge exchange and on-field training. In addition, farmers brought up the need for innovative institutions that can facilitate access to markets and enable collaboration between different agricultural sectors. 

Originality/value – This study analyses farmers’ perceptions of resilience capacities to droughts through a spatiotemporal lens of past droughts, present capital and future challenges by linking scales, knowledge and human-environment nexus. This paper contributes to the knowledge of climate adaptation in Rwanda and to discussions about smallholder farming in the literature on climate change adaptation. 

This article analyses the success and failure factors underlying smallholder farmers’ resilience to drought in Sub-Saharan Africa based on a literature review of the period 2007–19. The analysis is guided by transformation theory, which states that transformation requires adequate preconditions in three spheres: practical, political and personal. While significant progress has occurred in the practical sphere, only moderate change characterizes the political sphere, and the most limited progress is within the personal sphere. We argue that increasing drought resilience requires innovative solutions, including components from all transformation spheres. Interactions with local stakeholders and the empowerment of smallholder farmers are essential.

This article deals with the interrelationship between overall chemical speciation of S, Fe, Co, and Ni in relation to metals bio-uptake processes in continuous stirred tank biogas reactors (CSTBR). To address this topic, laboratory CSTBRs digesting sulfur(S)-rich stillage, as well as full-scale CSTBRs treating sewage sludge and various combinations of organic wastes, termed co-digestion, were targeted. Sulfur speciation was evaluated using acid volatile sulfide extraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Metal speciation was evaluated by chemical fractionation, kinetic and thermodynamic analyses. Relative Fe to S content is identified as a critical factor for chemical speciation and bio-uptake of metals. In reactors treating sewage sludge, quantity of Fe exceeds that of S, inducing Fe-dominated conditions, while sulfide dominates in laboratory and co-digestion reactors due to an excess of S over Fe. Under sulfide-dominated conditions, metals availability for microorganisms is restricted due to formation of metal-sulfide precipitates. However, aqueous concentrations of different Co and Ni species were shown to be sufficient to support metal acquisition by microorganisms under sulfidic conditions. Concentrations of free metal ions and labile metal complexes in aqueous phase, which directly participate in bio-uptake processes, are higher under Fe-dominated conditions. This in turn enhances metal adsorption on cell surfaces and bio-uptake rates.

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Lakes are major sources of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere that contribute significantly to the global budget. Recent studies have shown that diffusive fluxes, ebullition and surface water CH4 concentrations can differ significantly within lakes—spatially and temporally. CH4 fluxes may be affected at longer scales in response to seasons, temperature, lake mixing events, short term weather events like pressure variations, shifting winds and diel cycles. Frequent measurements of fluxes in the same system and integrated assessments of the impacts of the spatio-temporal variability are rare. Thereby, large scale assessments frequently lack information on this variability which can potentially lead to biased estimates. In this study, we analysed the variability of CH4 fluxes and surface water CH4 concentrations across open water areas of lakes in a small catchment in southwest Sweden over two annual cycles. Significant patterns in CH4 concentrations, diffusive fluxes, ebullition and total fluxes were observed in space (between and within lakes) and in time (over diel cycles to years). Differences observed among the lakes can be associated with lake characteristics. The spatial variability within lakes was linked to depth or distance to stream inlets. Temporal variability was observed at diel to seasonal scales and was influenced by weather events. The fluxes increased exponentially with temperature in all three lakes, with stronger temperature dependence with decreasing depth. By comparing subsets of our data with estimates using all data we show that considering the spatio-temporal variability in CH4 fluxes is critical when making whole lake or annual budgets.

Students’ problems with learning science in school have been documented for a long time. Differences in student interest in and attitudes towards science due to gender and age are well documented. Fewer studies have focused on the details at a content level. This paper presents a statistical analysis of student interest in specific content areas and combines this with student experience of science and science-related activities outside school. The result shows that interest and experience are significantly linked and influence student choices for upper secondary education. The results are presented on both a detailed content and experience level, and are discussed in relation to the purpose of compulsory science education and in relation to experiences outside school. The study is an important addition to the discussion about establishing a science education curriculum that can both prepare students for future science studies and meet the need for a public understanding of science.

A common way of quantifying and communicating climate vulnerability is to calculate composite indices from indicators, visualizing these as maps. Inherent methodological uncertainties in vulnerability assessments, however, require greater attention. This study examines Swedish agricultural vulnerability to climate change, the aim being to review various indicator approaches for assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change and to evaluate differences in climate vulnerability depending on the weighting and summarizing methods. The reviewed methods are evaluated by being tested at the municipal level. Three weighting and summarizing methods, representative of climate vulnerability indices in general, are analysed. The results indicate that 34 of 36 method combinations differ signifi- cantly from each other. We argue that representing agricultural vulnerability in a single composite index might be insufficient to guide climate adaptation. We emphasize the need for further research into how to measure and visualize agricultural vulnerability and into how to communicate uncertainties in both data and methods.

This paper reports on Swedish results from a worldwide research project concerned with the Interest and Recruitment in Science Education (the IRIS-International study) together with results from a longitudinal national study on girl's views on out of school experience in science and technology in upper secondary education. The studies are framed in the structural situation of the Swedish educational system. The results show that there are reform and policy effects to consider in the discussion of recruiting more students in STEM. Interest in the subject, earlier school experience, achievement and teacher feedback is found to be important for educational choice in STEM. Specifically girls point out societal relevance as important. In addition there are elements outside the school setting with importance for educational choice. Moreover, girls point out visits to a museum and watching films and boys popularized forms of science and computer games. All students consider TV and activities outside school as important for their educational choice in STEM. When trying to implement outside school experience with girls in a longitudinal study in upper secondary education the interplay with school subject teaching is identified as missing. The friction between subject teaching in schools and connections with the surrounding world is proposed as important for future studies.

Ombrotrophic raised bogs are nutrient poor acidic peatlands accumulating organic matter. They are widely spread on northern latitudes and are substantial sources of methane emissions to the atmosphere being of great concern from a climate change perspective. We investigated the methanogen community composition along microtopographic gradients within three bogs in Scandinavia, receiving different amounts of nitrogen precipitation. Methanogenic community analyses by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism of the mcrA gene showed different profiles among the three sites, while no in- fluence of the microtopographic gradients was observed. Peat temperature and dissolved organic carbon were the major edaphic variables explaining 38% of the variation of the methanogenic community di- versity among the bogs. The family Methanoregulaceae (hydrogenotrophic methanogens) showed the largest relative proportion and highest activity in all three sites. Quantitative PCR of the mcrA gene and transcripts showed that the most northern site, receiving the lowest atmospheric nitrogen load, had significantly lower abundance and activity of methanogens (4.7 106 and 2.4 104 mcrA copies per gram of soil, respectively), compared to the most southern site (8.2 107 and 4.6 105 mcrA copies per gram of soil, respectively), receiving the highest nitrogen load. No patterns of the mcrA gene and tran- script abundances were observed along the microtopography. The results indicated that the difference in occurrence of methanogens is mainly due to geoclimatological conditions rather than site intrinsic microtopographic variation. The study further suggests that environmental changes on the site intrinsic topography will not affect the methanogenic activity, while increasing average temperatures in Scan- dinavian ombrotrophic raised bogs might contribute to an increase of the methanogenic archaeal activity resulting in an increase of methane production. 

The effects of sulfide removal by addition of Fe on chemical speciation of Co and Ni and how it may affect the microbial metal uptake processes in biogas reactors were assessed. The influent Fe concentration was increased in a semi-continuous stirred tank biogas reactor fed with sulfur-rich stillage. Performance of the reactor, turnover kinetics of volatile carboxylic acids as well as changes in the chemical speciation of Co and Ni were investigated. The results demonstrated that approximately 95% decrease in gaseous hydrogen sulfide content of the biogas, which was caused by addition of Fe, had no apparent effects on methane production and process stability, while it enhanced the short-term turnover time of propionate. Sulfide removal decreased the overall solubility of Co and Ni partially by 1) lowering the formation of the dominant Co- and Ni-sulfide complexes in the aqueous phase and 2) by promoting processes such as adsorption and coprecipitation of Co and Ni with FeS(s). Combination of chemical speciation and bio-uptake models suggested that a higher concentration of free Co and Ni ions is achieved at low sulfide concentrations which favors the active bio-uptake of these metals. However, it was argued that the decrease in soluble metal concentrations, which was induced as a result of the addition of Fe, demotes potential diffusion-driven, passive metal uptake by microorganisms.