Search results for "ecosystem"
showing 10 items of 1752 documents
Conceptualizing ecosystem tipping points within a physiological framework
2017
Connecting the nonlinear and often counterintuitive physiological effects of multiple environmental drivers to the emergent impacts on ecosystems is a fundamental challenge. Unfortunately, the disconnect between the way “stressors” (e.g., warming) is considered in organismal (physiological) and ecological (community) contexts continues to hamper progress. Environmental drivers typically elicit biphasic physiological responses, where performance declines at levels above and below some optimum. It is also well understood that species exhibit highly variable response surfaces to these changes so that the optimum level of any environmental driver can vary among interacting species. Thus, specie…
A comparative analysis of the sustainability of rice cultivation technologies using the analytic network process
2010
Sustainability of local farming systems and technologies is a very important issue that faces notorious measurement difficulties. Multi-criteria methods may help researchers to solve empirical problems in the construction of composite sustainability indicators and in ranking agricultural technologies according to their sustainability. This paper shows how a multi-criteria decision-making technique, the Analytic Network Process (ANP), can be fruitfully employed to this end. Contrary to simpler and hierarchical goal-criteria-alternative approaches, in ANP all the elements in the network can be related in any possible way, which means that a network can incorporate feedback and interdependent …
Chemical Ecology of Floral Resources in Conservation Biological Control.
2023
Conservation biological control aims to enhance populations of natural enemies of insect pests in crop habitats, typically by intentional provision of flowering plants as food resources. Ideally, these flowering plants should be inherently attractive to natural enemies to ensure that they are frequently visited. We review the chemical ecology of floral resources in a conservation biological control context, with a focus on insect parasitoids. We highlight the role of floral volatiles as semiochemicals that attract parasitoids to the food resources. The discovery that nectar-inhabiting microbes can be hidden players in mediating parasitoid responses to flowering plants has highlighted the co…
Perception des adventices par les agriculteurs, conseillers, techniciens d’expérimentation et chercheurs en France
2019
Une enquête nationale ayant recueilli 1320 réponses (839 analysées dans cet article), dont 56% d'agriculteurs, 26% de conseillers, 14% de techniciens/expérimentateurs et 4% de chercheurs, a permis de sonder leur perception des adventices. Les effets positifs des adventices ont moins d’importance aux yeux des sondés que leurs effets négatifs. Pour les effets négatifs, la perte de rendement (nuisibilité primaire directe) et l’augmentation du stock semencier (nuisibilité secondaire) sont les plus importants. Entre 60% et 80% des personnes enquêtées jugent importants les effets négatifs sur la conduite des travaux agricoles et la perte de qualité la récolte. Les effets positifs « sources de pol…
Envisioning Information Systems Support for Business Ecosystem Architecture Management in Public Sector
2018
Based on our research concerning Finnish national enterprise architecture (EA) adoption in long run, we discuss here how EA concept and tool are to be developed to support business ecosystem and organization design. Our research context indicates, beyond a federal government or a state one, that even a single municipality, like a city concern, can be perceived as an ecosystem of its sectoral domains, subsidiaries etc. We outline a vision of an overall ontologybased, shared EA repository for the-whole-of-government current state descriptions. We specify the central design principles and functional requirements for such a system and illustrate some potential use cases of it. The study suggest…
New Metropolitan Perspectives Transition with Resilience for Evolutionary Development
2023
This open access book conveys attention to the theme of transition towards resilience and sustainability and its evolutionary perspective that emphasizes the complexity and uncertainty that governments and society are called to address in response to the ongoing challenges. "New Metropolitan Perspective Post COVID Dynamics: Green and Digital Transition, between Metropolitan and Return to Villages’ Perspectives”, 25–27 May 2022, Reggio Calabria, Italy. The papers included in the book are grouped around the following main topics: the envisaged transition towards resilience and sustainability; the relevance of the planning dimension for defining sustainable development pathways and managing co…
Understanding Mentoring Within an Ecosystem of Practices
2020
The aim of this article is to introduce an ecosystemic approach to mentoring, inspired by the theory of ecologies of practices (Kemmis, Edwards-Groves, Wilkinson, & Hardy, 2012). It is suggested that relationships between practices and their environment resemble in many ways the relationships between natural organisms and ecosystems. From this perspective, mentoring is understood as a social practice that exists in the midst of other social practices and derives its essential qualities and its existence from its relation to other practices. The theory of ecologies of practices is based on the conception of practices as ‘living entities’. From the perspective of ecologies of practice, pr…
Diversifying crop rotations with temporary grasslands: potentials for weed management and farmland biodiversity
2010
Fruchtfolgen können dazu dienen, die kontinuierliche Selektion von Unkrautarten zu verhindern, die an eine bestimmte Kultur angepasst sind. Dies könnte dem Unkrautmanagement, der Einsparung von Herbiziden, und der Biodiversität dienen. Heutige, sehr einfache Furchtfolgen könnten durch mehrjährige Futterkulturen diversifiziert werden. Die Einflüsse solcher mehrjähriger Kulturen auf Unkräuter wurden in vier Ansätzen untersucht : 1) Vegetationsaufnahmen auf 632 Feldern in Westfrankreich zeigten, dass die Unkrautzusammensetzung zwischen mehrjährigen Futterkulturen und einjährigen Kulturen stark variiert. Der Vergleich von Feldern vor, während und nach mehrjährigen Futterkulturen legte nahe, das…