Search results for "Agricultural practices"
showing 10 items of 11 documents
Tillage intensity and pasture in rotation effectively shape soil microbial communities at a landscape scale
2018
International audience; Soil microorganisms are essential to agroecosystem functioning and services. Yet, we still lack information on which farming practices can effectively shape the soil microbial communities. The aim of this study was to identify the farming practices, which are most effective at positively or negatively modifying bacterial and fungal diversity while considering the soil environmental variation at a landscape scale. A long-term research study catchment (12 km2 ) representative of intensive mixed farming (livestock and crop) in Western Europe was investigated using a regular grid for soil sampling (n = 186). Farming systems on this landscape scale were described in terms…
Mapping and determinism of soil microbial community distribution across an agricultural landscape.
2015
Article en open access; International audience; Despite the relevance of landscape, regarding the spatial patterning of microbial communities and the relative influence of environmental parameters versus human activities, few investigations have been conducted at this scale. Here, we used a systematic grid to characterize the distribution of soil microbial communities at 278 sites across a monitored agricultural landscape of 13km(2). Molecular microbial biomass was estimated by soil DNA recovery and bacterial diversity by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing. Geostatistics provided the first maps of microbial community at this scale and revealed a heterogeneous but spatially structured distribution…
Contribution to development of microbial bioindicators for assessing the impact of agricultural pratices on soil
2015
Soil is the support of agricultural production. It performs many functions essential to the provision of ecosystem services necessary for the well-being of our societies. Soil physicochemical and biological properties have been altered by the development of intensive agriculture while it is a non-renewable resource, revealing the need to develop new management practices suitable for the sustainability of soil quality. This also marked the entry into the “Agroecology” era, which promotes the development of new agricultural systems optimizing services provided by biodiversity to reduce the use of inputs and energy use. To achieve this aim, the development of a range of indicators to assess th…
Knowing is half the battle: Seasonal forecasts, adaptive cropping systems, and the mediating role of private markets in Zambia
2019
Abstract This paper examines how smallholders living in regions where a drought is forecasted adapt their farm practices in response to receiving seasonal forecast information. The article draws on a unique longitudinal dataset in Zambia, which collected information from farm households before and after a significant drought caused by the 2015/2016 El-Nino Southern Oscillation. It finds that farmers residing in areas forecasted to be drought-affected and receiving seasonal forecast information are significantly more likely to integrate drought tolerant crops into their cropping systems compared to similar households not receiving this information. Moreover, the probability that a farmer imp…
Biological protection against grape berry moths. A review
2018
International audience; Grape is a major crop, covering 7.5 M ha worldwide, that is currently being confronted with three main challenges: intensive pesticide use that must be reduced, invasion by new pests/diseases, and climate change. The biological control of pests and vectors would help address these challenges. Here, we review the scientific literature on the biological control of grape moths by macroorganisms (excluding nematodes). Two components, biological control with an active human role, mainly using biocontrol agents through inundation or inoculation, and conservation biological control, are considered. The major points are the following. (1) Tortricid grape moths seriously dama…
Nitrous oxide emission by agricultural soils: a review of spatial and temporal variability for mitigation
2012
CT3 ; EnjS4; International audience; This short review deals with soils as an important source of the greenhouse gas N2O. The production and consumption of N2O in soils mainly involve biotic processes: the anaerobic process of denitrification and the aerobic process of nitrification. The factors that significantly influence agricultural N2O emissions mainly concern the agricultural practices (N application rate, crop type, fertilizer type) and soil conditions (soil moisture, soil organic C content, soil pH and texture). Large variability of N2O fluxes is known to occur both at different spatial and temporal scales. Currently new techniques could help to improve the capture of the spatial va…
Economic and Financial Comparison between Organic and Conventional Farming in Sicilian Lemon Orchards
2015
Sicily has a long tradition in citrus fruit cultivations that with vineyard and olive tree represent the main Mediterranean tree crops. In this paper we have evaluated the economic and financial sustainability of lemon production, both in organic farming and in conventional farming
Simulation study of the effects of intensified crop management in genetically manipulated maize on arable weed flora and associated fauna
2014
International audience; Cultivation of GM crops with herbicide tolerance is mostly associated with changes in crop and weed management, like simplified rotations, simplified tillage and change from selective herbicides to the broadband glyphosate. All of these management practices decrease weed densities in crops and change their composition. Although weeds cause yield loss and harvest problems, they are an important part of arable biodiversity and offer food and habitat for different groups of animals. A simulation study was conducted to analyse indirect effects of intensified cropping in GM maize on biodiversity. The dynamic crop: weed model FlorSys was used to simulate weed densities and…
Disentangling local agronomic practices from agricultural landscape effects on pest biological control
2019
International audience; The biological control of crop pests is a valuable service provided by various beneficial organisms that are naturally present in agricultural landscapes. Semi-natural habitats has long been recognized as essential to preserve beneficial insects, but proof of their efficiency to enhance biological control of pests remains non conclusive. Here, we examined the variability of landscape effect on biological pest control and the way local agronomic practices may modulate it. Biological pest control was monitored in 80 commercial fields (arable crops and orchards) during three consecutive years in four contrasting French agricultural landscapes distributed along a double …
Ecology of N2O reducing bacteria in arable soils
2016
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) and the main ozone depleting substance. Agricultural soils are the main anthropogenic-induced source of this GHG. The concentration of N2O in the atmosphere is steadily increasing, but we still lack knowledge on the factors controlling its production and consumption in soils. The reduction of N2O to N2 by microorganisms harboring the N2O reductase gene (nosZ) is the only known biological process able to consume this GHG. Recent studies revealed a previously unknown clade of N2O-reducers which was shown to be important to the N2O sink capacity of soils. This thesis seeks to gain a greater understanding on the ecology of N2O-reducers in…