Search results for " AGRICULTURE"

Microwear textures associated with experimental near-natural diets suggest that seeds and hard insect body parts cause high enamel surface complexity…

2022

In mammals, complex dental microwear textures (DMT) representing differently sized and shaped enamel lesions overlaying each other have traditionally been associated with the seeds and kernels in frugivorous diets, as well as with sclerotized insect cuticles. Recently, this notion has been challenged by field observations as well as in vitro experimental data. It remains unclear to what extent each food item contributes to the complexity level and is reflected by the surface texture of the respective tooth position along the molar tooth row. To clarify the potential of seeds and other abrasive dietary items to cause complex microwear textures, we conducted a controlled feeding experiment wi…

Age-related changes in ultra-triathlon performances

2012

International audience; BackgroundThe age-related decline in performance has been investigated in swimmers, runners and triathletes. No study has investigated the age-related performance decline in ultra-triathletes. The purpose of this study was to analyse the age-related declines in swimming, cycling, running and overall race time for both Triple Iron ultra-triathlon (11.4-km swimming, 540-km cycling and 126.6-km running) and Deca Iron ultra-triathlon (38-km swimming, 1,800-km cycling and 420-km running).MethodsThe age and performances of 423 male Triple Iron ultra-triathletes and 119 male Deca Iron ultra-triathletes were analysed from 1992 to 2010 using regression analyses and ANOVA.Resu…

Snowpack concentrations and estimated fluxes of volatile organic compounds in a boreal forest

2012

Abstract. Soil provides an important source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to atmosphere, but in boreal forests these fluxes and their seasonal variations have not been characterized in detail. Especially wintertime fluxes are almost completely unstudied. In this study, we measured the VOC concentrations inside the snowpack in a boreal Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forest in southern Finland, using adsorbent tubes and air samplers installed permanently in the snow profile. Based on the VOC concentrations at three heights inside the snowpack, we estimated the fluxes of these gases. We measured 20 VOCs from the snowpack, monoterpenes being the most abundant group with concentrations …

A simple CO 2 equilibration method for measuring blood oxygen isotope compositions

2022

2021

Nitrogen (N) is one of the key nutrients supplied in agricultural production worldwide. Over-fertilization can have negative influences on the field and the regional level (e.g., agro-ecosystems). Remote sensing of the plant N of field crops presents a valuable tool for the monitoring of N flows in agro-ecosystems. Available data for validation of satellite-based remote sensing of N is scarce. Therefore, in this study, field spectrometer measurements were used to simulate data of the Sentinel-2 (S2) satellites developed for vegetation monitoring by the ESA. The prediction performance of normalized ratio indices (NRIs), random forest regression (RFR) and Gaussian processes regression (GPR) f…

Sentinel-1 & Sentinel-2 Data for Soil Tillage Change Detection

2018

In this paper, an algorithm using Sentinel-1 (S-1) and Sentinel-2 (S-2) data to identify changes of tillage over agricultural fields at approximately similar to 100m resolution is presented. The methodology implements a multiscale temporal change detection on S-1 VH backscatter in order to single out VH changes due to agricultural practices only. The algorithm can be applied over bare or scarcely vegetated agricultural fields, which are identified from S-2 NDVI measurements. An initial assessment at farm scale using in situ and S-1 and SPOT5-Take5 data, acquired over the Apulian Tavoliere in southern Italy in 2015, is illustrated. A full validation of the approach is in progress over three …

The effect of substituted urea herbicides on the growth of excised tomato roots

1983

Summary The action of 23 herbictdal substituted ureas on the growth of excised tomato roots was studied in order to determine whether there is a link between the effects of these herbicides on oxidative phosphorylation and on the growth of non-photosynthetic tissues. Fourteen of these herbicides were inhibitory; chlortoluron and TBU were stimulatory but only in the light. Substituted ureas known to affect plant mitochondria inhibited root growth but to a lesser extent than some which had no action on mitochondria. No clear relationship was found between actions on mitochondria and on root growth. It is suggested that targets other than photosynthesis and oxidative phosphorylation exist for …

Behaviour of the herbicide EL-107 in wheat and rape grown under controlled conditions

1987

Summary The behaviour of 14C-EL-107 has been evaluated in winter wheat and rape, which are tolerant and susceptible, respectively, under field conditions. After 10- to 13-days’growth under controlled conditions, seedlings were allowed to absorb the herbicide through the roots. Two experiments were conducted to study the absorption and the metabolism of EL-107. Absorption was estimated during a 5-day treatment at the rate of 1–47 μM, and metabolism was studied after a 1-day treatment at 14.7 μM. The results showed that (i) rape plants absorbed more herbicide than wheat, and translocated less radioactivity into their shoots, and (ii) the metabolism of EL-107 proceeded actively only in the sho…

Influence of resource quality on the composition of soil decomposer community in fragmented and continuous habitat

2004

Abstract The aim of this field experiment was to explore the combined effects of two factors potentially affecting the local composition of soil decomposer community: resource quality and habitat fragmentation. We created humus (habitat) patches with three different resource quality: (1) pure homogenised humus; (2) humus enriched with needle litter; and (3) humus enriched with needle and leaf litter. These patches were embedded either in a mineral soil matrix, thus representing fragmented habitat, or in natural forest soil, representing continuous (non-fragmented) habitat. The development of faunal (colonisations/extinctions of soil animal populations) and microbial communities in the patch…

Soil processes are not influenced by the functional complexity of soil decomposer food webs under disturbance

2002

Abstract A 3 yr experiment, using field lysimeters with seedlings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) growing in raw humus, was established to study how functional complexity of the soil decomposer food web affects ecosystem functioning. The functional complexity of decomposer system was manipulated by (1) allowing either microfauna (fine mesh) or microfauna+mesofauna (coarse mesh) to enter the initially defaunated systems, and (2) treating half of the lysimeters with wood ash. To test whether altering functional complexity of the decomposer community is related to the system's ability to resist disturbance, the lysimeters were later on disturbed with drought. Ecosystem function, measured as l…