Future climate-zone shifts are threatening steep-slope agriculture

Steep-slope agricultural systems are important for food production worldwide. Here we provide a high-resolution global map of steep-slope agricultural landscapes and their spatial distribution in the Köppen–Geiger climate zones for the present day (1980–2016) and future (2071–2100) scenarios. Our analysis demonstrates that steep-slope agricultural areas are much more affected by shifting climate zones than average global agricultural lands, especially by the expansion of arid zones.