Search results for "forest"

Farming Efficiency and the Survival of Valuable Agro-Ecosystems: A Case Study of Rice Farming in European Mediterranean Wetlands

2009

Beyond the conventional role of providing food, rice farming in European Mediterranean wetlands performs a valuable non-marketable function related to the provision of environmental services. Rice and biodiversity are jointly produced, so that provision of flooded-rice-fields based environmental services depends crucially on private profitability of rice farming. Recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and increasing access of third party countries to the domestic European market are challenging the competitiveness of European rice growers. This paper combines conventional competitiveness indicators and non-parametric efficiency analysis to ascertain the economic profitabilit…

Economic assessment of Eucalyptus (spp.) for biomass production as alternative crop in Southern Italy

2015

The increase in energy prices and the stagnation of sales prices of the main agricultural commodities required a rethinking of farm production strategies. Since during the last years, thanks to a series of policies aimed at promoting renewable sources it has been a rapid diffusion of lignocellulosic biomass species, this paper aimed at evaluating the economic feasibility of the introduction of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) as energy crop for farmers of Southern Italy, by comparing it with traditional crop rotations. In particular, economic analysis has been carried out in a representative case study located in the Sicilian hilly hinterland where, in 2013, it has been built a biomass plant fo…

Climate Change Effects on Agricultural Insect Pests in Europe

2015

Abstract In this chapter, we will discuss observations of climate change effects on agricultural pests in Europe, the possible mechanisms behind these observed effects and finally delve into more detail through some relatively well studied model species (the Colorado potato beetle and the rape beetle). Direct effects of climate change on agricultural pests in Europe are difficult to dissect from all the human-induced changes that have taken place in parallel with an increased mean annual temperature. During the past decade, agriculture has become more professionalized in terms of land use, crop cultivation techniques and pest management strategies. We review the effect of climate change on …

Comprehensive Strategy for Proton Chemical Shift Prediction: Linear Prediction with Nonlinear Corrections

2014

A fast 3D/4D structure-sensitive procedure was developed and assessed for the chemical shift prediction of protons bonded to sp3carbons, which poses the maybe greatest challenge in the NMR spectral parameter prediction. The LPNC (Linear Prediction with Nonlinear Corrections) approach combines three well-established multivariate methods viz. the principal component regression (PCR), the random forest (RF) algorithm, and the k nearest neighbors (kNN) method. The role of RF is to find nonlinear corrections for the PCR predicted shifts, while kNN is used to take full advantage of similar chemical environments. Two basic molecular models were also compared and discussed: in the MC model the desc…

A New Wireless Device for Real-Time Mechanical Impact Evaluation in a Citrus Packing Line

2020

Abstract. Postharvest handling of fresh fruit is a potential source of bruising and damage, with significant consequences for fruit quality and marketability. In the last 30 years, different types of impact-recording devices (also called electronic fruits or pseudo-fruits) have been developed with the aim of measuring the impacts experienced by fruits during postharvest operations. The aim of this study was to develop and test a novel wireless instrumented sphere to study the critical points in a citrus packing line by measuring the impacts experienced by fruits in real-time. The non-commercial device was based on a MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) sensor node with a sensing range fro…

Machine Learning Methods for Spatial and Temporal Parameter Estimation

2020

Monitoring vegetation with satellite remote sensing is of paramount relevance to understand the status and health of our planet. Accurate and constant monitoring of the biosphere has large societal, economical, and environmental implications, given the increasing demand of biofuels and food by the world population. The current democratization of machine learning, big data, and high processing capabilities allow us to take such endeavor in a decisive manner. This chapter proposes three novel machine learning approaches to exploit spatial, temporal, multi-sensor, and large-scale data characteristics. We show (1) the application of multi-output Gaussian processes for gap-filling time series of…

Controlling of geosmin and 2‐methylisoborneol induced off‐flavours in recirculating aquaculture system farmed fish—A review

2018

Forest ecosystem inventory and monitoring as a framework for terrestrial natural renewable resources survey programmes

2002

The established practice of forest ecosystem inventory and monitoring is recognised as a main support for terrestrial natural renewable resource survey programmes. Inventory and monitoring programmes focused on an overall assessment of ecosystem attributes evolving into global environmental survey programmes have been devised, but implementation is still quite contradictory. The state-of-the-art is discussed here, with special reference to the European Union and Italy. Topical issues are reviewed, with selective concern to: remote sensing capability, probability sampling, forest type (habitat) classification and landscape ecology, sustainable management indicators. Benefits brought by infor…

The effect of Shallow Tillage on soil erosion in a semi-arid vineyard

2019

Soil erosion has been considered a threat for semi-arid lands due to the removal of solid materials by water and wind. Although water erosion is currently considered the most important process of soil degradation, a growing interest has been drawn to the impact of soil tillage. Although numerous studies on tillage erosion have been carried out on arable land using a moldboard plow, a chisel, and a tandem disc for different crops, there are no studies on the effect of shallow tillage on soil redistribution in vineyards. The aim of this work was to evaluate the soil tillage erosion rate in a vineyard using a 13C natural abundance tracer. A strip of soil (C3-C soil) was removed, mixed with C4-…

Soil interpretation in the context of anthropedogenic transformations and pedotechniques application

2018

Abstract Following a long and vigorous study carried out by the International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils (ICOMANTH), the Soil Taxonomy (ST) classification system recently incorporated a number of changes to include Human-Altered and Human-Transported soils, generally called anthropogenic soils. These changes underwent careful scrutiny as they affect the current classification of existing soil series, and as the proposals and logics are as yet untested against existing data and descriptions. Particular attention was given to the diagnostic characteristics of the anthropogenic soils and to the Subgroups for Human-Altered and Human-Transported soils. In this study, we consider a frequent…