Search results for "arable land"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
Reversing land degradation through grasses: a systematic meta-analysis in the Indian tropics
2017
Abstract. Although intensive agriculture is necessary to sustain the world's growing population, accelerated soil erosion contributes to a decrease in the environmental health of ecosystems at local, regional and global scales. Reversing the process of land degradation using vegetative measures is of utmost importance in such ecosystems. The present study critically analyzes the effect of grasses in reversing the process of land degradation using a systematic review. The collected information was segregated under three different land use and land management situations. Meta-analysis was applied to test the hypothesis that the use of grasses reduces runoff and soil erosion. The effect of gra…
The Cereal Market and the Role of Fermentation in Cereal-Based Food Production in Africa
2014
Cereals represent the main crop in Africa (45% of arable land) and make an important contribution to the human diet in this continent. Cereals for humans are not consumed raw. Fermentation technology is widely used in Africa to transform cereals into edible products as well as to preserve and enhance the nutritional and safety aspects of cereals. In general, in Africa, this process is not controlled and is devoid of good manufacturing practices (GMPs). Spoilage and/or pathogenic microorganisms may compromise the final quality when the fermentation is not controlled. This article focuses on the role that the fermentation process could play in creating safe food conditions in Africa. Taking i…
Soil macroarthropod communities in planted birch stands in comparison with natural forests in central Finland
2002
The aim of the study was to compare the soil macroarthropod communities in anthropogenous birch stands of different origin with each other and with natural forests at the same latitude in Finland. A total of nine forest sites was investigated: three birch stands (Betula pendula) planted ca. 30 years prior to the study after clear-cutting of spruce stands (“Birch after Spruce”, BS), three birch stands planted ca. 30 years earlier on arable soil that had been under normal cultivation until reforestation (“Birch after Field”, BF), and three “Natural Deciduous” (D) forests. These were sampled three times in 1998, animals were extracted with large Tullgren funnels, counted per square metre, and …
Pesticide doses, landscape structure and their relative effects on farmland birds
2014
International audience; tAgricultural changes related to the intensification of farming practices and the simplification of land-scape elements often occur simultaneously. Their respective effects on biodiversity are thus difficult todisentangle and are poorly understood. This study assessed the relative contribution of each componentof agricultural intensification on taxonomic and functional bird communities.The bird communities studied were composed of 70 species, both farmland and non-farmland birds,found in 66 fields covering three main cereal departments of France. Herbicide dose was related to mea-surable negative effects on the Community Specialization Index (CSI). Overall, the propo…
Effects of landscape composition on hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) in mass-flowering crop fields within forest-dominated landscapes
2022
Agricultural intensification has led to structurally simplified landscapes with reduced and fragmented resources for farmland insects. However, studies on the effects of landscape composition on farmland insects have mainly been performed in areas dominated by open arable land and semi-natural grasslands, while studies from forest-dominated landscapes are scarce. This research examined the effects of landscape composition on hoverfly species richness and abundance in arable land in boreal forest-dominated landscapes. Hoverflies were sampled in 22 mass-flowering caraway (Carum carvi) fields in Central Finland using pan traps. The effects of landscape composition on species richness and abund…
Pesticides and conservation of large ungulates: Health risk to European bison from plant protection products as a result of crop depredation.
2020
The coexistence of large mammals and humans in the contemporary landscape is a big challenge for conservationists. Wild ungulates that forage on arable fields are exposed to the negative effects of pesticides, and this problem also applies to protected species for which intoxication by pesticides may pose a health risk and directly affect the effectiveness of conservation efforts. In this paper we assessed the threat posed by pesticides to the European bison Bison bonasus, a species successfully restituted after being extinct in the wild. We studied samples of B. bonasus liver from three free-living populations in Poland (Białowieska, Knyszyńska, and Borecka forests) and captive individuals…
Aridity index, soil erosion and climate drive no-till ecosystem services trade-off in Mediterranean arable land
2021
Abstract Despite the relevant literature on the advantages of no-till (NT) management, the world area under NT is only 10% of the arable land, probably due to several limiting factors as climate, soil types, farming systems and yield. Soil conservation practices and particularly NT soil management are able to provide many ecosystem services (ESs). This paper suggests a framework to determine the area distribution of soil erosion control and food security ESs trade-offs furnished by NT, starting from the potential soil erosion and aridity index maps. The interaction between the potential soil erosion and the aridity index showed that different trade-offs and synergies of multiple ESs may occ…
Spatial relations of heavy metals in arable and greenhouse soils of a Mediterranean environment region (Spain)
2013
This study characterises and compares Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu, Zn and Cd (HMs) contents and the main edaphic parameters in arable soils (AS) from western areas of the Andalusian Autonomous Community (SE Spain) with greenhouse soils (GS) from the province of Almería, one of the most productive agricultural systems in Europe. We explored 199 GS and 142 AS, representing local and regional scales of variation in this important Mediterranean area. The hazardousness of HMs was particularly relevant in GS where agricultural practices, which centre on maximising production, end up with products that finally enter the human food chain directly. Despite their similar edaphic characteristics, the main differen…
The effects of land abandonment and long-term afforestation practices on the organic carbon stock and lignin content of Mediterranean humid mountain …
2019
Afforestation is an important strategy that can decrease atmospheric carbon by sequestering carbon in biomass and soil. In Spain, an active afforestation programme was adopted in the 1950s when the soil was severely eroded after widespread abandonment of arable land. The Araguás catchment (Central Spanish Pyrenees) is a good example of this programme because it was afforested with both Pinus sylvestris L. (PS) and Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold (PN). The soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and lignin content (based on the vanillyl, syringyl and cinnamyl contents) of these afforested soils were examined and compared to those of bare soil, secondary succession and meadow soils. Both the SOC stock and lig…
The influence of climate change on the soil organic carbon content in Italy from 1961 to 2008
2011
Abstract Soils are the biggest carbon store in the world (1500 Gt, e.g. 1.5 × 10 21 g). The European Commission indicates the accounting of soil organic carbon (SOC) variations in space and time as the first step in the strategy for soil protection. It is indeed necessary in evaluating the risk of soil organic matter decline and soil biodiversity decline, and when evaluating the role played by soils in global CO 2 accounting. Previous maps of SOC variations in Italy did not consider the direct effect of climate. There is a marked inter-dependence between SOC and climate. SOC increases with the increase in precipitations and decreases with a rise in temperatures. It is also known that land …