Search results for "Agroforestry"

Accounting More Precisely for Peat and Other Soil Carbon Resources

2012

In the context of “recarbonization”, it is important to know where the soil C stocks are located and how much of these are prone to emission to the atmosphere. While it may appear to be a trivial question considering available global estimates and maps, yet there is a strong need to emphasize that erroneous estimates are made in assessing the global soil C stocks. Without doubt, peatlands hold the single most important soil C stock at the global scale, and these soils are mostly located in the northern latitudes between 50°N and 70°N. However, there are additional wetlands or other ecosystems which also hold potentially relevant amounts of soil C stocks. From the soil science perspective, i…

Phytosociology and ecology of deciduous forests in Tajikistan (Middle Asia)

2017

Aims: To present the first syntaxonomical classification for the mesophilous deciduous forests of the PamirAlai Mountains in Tajikistan with some remarks on its environmental gradients. Location: Tajikistan. Methods: Altogether 201 relevés were sampled between 2008‒2013 using the seven-degree cover-abundance scale of Braun-Blanquet. They were classified by the modified TWINSPAN method using the four-step interval scale with cutoff levels of 0%, 2%, 5% and 10% and total inertia as a measure of cluster heterogeneity. Diagnostic species were identified using the phi coefficient as a fidelity measure. Detrendended Correspondence Analysis was used to determine the relation between samples, veget…

Combined effect of crop rotation and carabid beetles on weed dynamics in arable fields

2020

AbstractWeed management is a resource-intensive practice in arable agriculture, with direct and long-term impacts on both productivity and biodiversity (e.g. plant, pollinators and farmland wildlife). In conventional systems, weed control relies on crop management and herbicide inputs, but for more sustainable production systems, use of herbicides needs to be reduced. This requires a good understanding of the processes that regulate arable weed dynamics in arable fields.We adopted a systems framework to understand and model interacting components that drive the weed dynamics in 168 arable fields. Within this framework, we built a structural equation model (SEM) to quantify the direct and in…

First insights into weed communities of rice agrocoenoses in southern Thailand

2015

The study presents the results of geobotanical investigations conducted in rice fields in southern Thailand in 2013. It is focussed on the classification of plant communities poorly investigated from a geobotanical standpoint. Altogether 125 phytosociological relevés were collected, using the Braun-Blanquet method. We noted more than 100 species in the vegetation plots, including many rare ones. We classified the vegetation into seven communities, including six associations. Five associations are proposed as new: Nymphaeetum nouchali, Fimbristylido miliaceae-Sphenocleetum zeylanicae, Ischaemo rugosi-Cyperetum pulcherrimi, Pentapeto phoeniceae-Aeschynomenetum indicae and Marsileetum minutae.…

2017

Enhancement of the Diversity of Pollinators and Beneficial Insects in Intensively Managed Vineyards

2021

Simple Summary The continuous intensification of agricultural production has resulted in higher yields and more yield security. However, these achievements went along with the substitution of heterogeneous agricultural landscapes by homogeneous ones with poor crop diversity, short crop rotations, and thanks to the high efficacy of modern herbicides and also to minimum in-crop diversity. A severe increase in plot size led to the elimination of ecologically valuable structural elements that had provided floral resources and nesting sites. Over the few last decades, several studies have been conducted to try to find solutions against insect decline and to preserve biodiversity. In the present …

Effect of Organic Amendments on the Evolution of Soil Organic Matter in Soils Stressed by Intensive Agricultural Practices

2013

Losses of soil organic carbon often occur because of intensive agricultural practices that lead to removal of organic carbon following harvest production and to insufficient inputs. Organic amendments can be a very appropriate matrix for enhancing organic carbon content in very stressed agricultural soils. In general, they, enhancing soil organic matter, play an important role in environmental matrices due, for example, to their capacity in retaining water, in interacting with organic and inorganic pollutants, and in enhancing nutrient availability to plants. For this reason, the understanding of the mechanisms with which organic amendments interact with other chemicals in the environment i…

Technology for plant food support in Antarctica

2011

Relationships Between Birds and Habitats in Latvian Farmland

2001

This point-count based study (1995-99) provides information on the avifauna of different farmland habitats in Latvia. Ordinations identify the main gradients within the species composition pattern: from arable land to natural habitats and from woodland across open, dry areas to wet meadowlands with rivers and ponds. Regression models describing the relationship between species richness and habitat show that the best positive predictors of species richness are woodland, scrub, natural meadows, unfarmed patches such as piles of stones or brushwood, and ponds. Regression models of the habitat affinities of the 30 most frequently recorded bird species are used to describe the present-day situat…

Optimal timing of power line rights-of-ways management for the conservation of butterflies

2012

Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the main threats to biodiversity. Human activities also create new habitat types that might fulfil ecological requirements for a variety of species. This study investigates whether the vegetation clearing (=shrub and tree cutting) on drained mire patches on power line rights-of-ways (ROWs) keep plant communities in an early successional stage and thus provide habitats for mire specialist and non-mire butterflies. It was further studied what would be the optimal clearing interval in terms of butterfly species richness and abundance. The results show that tree height, especially the height of birch, increases linearly over the 7-year period fol…