These economic responses to climate change could lead to indirect consequences in changing pollutant runoff and leaching rates as well as soil erosion rates, which may increase or diminish pollution from agriculture assuming no economic or policy response. Also various strategies for mitigating greenhouse gases in agriculture would for the most part be beneficial for water systems, such as through afforestation and other increases in green cover providing a buffer for soil sediment and contaminant flows across agricultural land (Wilcock et al., But the expectations are that whatever the impacts on water quality, the task of achieving water quality objectives in agriculture will become more difficult in the coming years as a result of climate change.