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Weed-insect pollinator networks as bio-indicators of ecological sustainability in agriculture. A review

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2016

The intensification of agricultural practices contributes to the decline of many taxa such as insects and wild plants. Weeds are serious competitors for crop production and are thus controlled. Nonetheless, weeds enhance floral diversity in agricultural landscapes. Weeds provide food for insects in exchange for pollination. The stability of mutualistic interactions in pollination networks depends on conservation of insect pollinator and weed communities. Some agricultural practices can destabilize interactions and thus modify the stability of pollination networks.

Evaluating Shuttle radar and interpolated DEMs for slope gradient and soil erosion estimation in low relief terrain

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2013
Australia

The error in slope gradient estimates provided by digital elevation models propagates to spatial modelling of erosion and other environmental attributes, potentially impacting land management priorities. This study compared the slope estimates of Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) DEMs with those generated by interpolation of topographic contours, at two grid cell resolutions. The magnitude and spatial patterns of error in DEM slope, and derived erosion estimates using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), were evaluated at three sites in eastern Australia.

Nitrate transport modeling to evaluate source water protection scenarios for a municipal well in an agricultural area

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011
Canada

Fertilizers that are spread on agricultural fields can leach into aquifers and contaminate groundwater sources for drinking water particularly with nitrate. Modeling this phenomenon can help in evaluating the impact of current or future agricultural practices on nitrate content within an aquifer. The three-dimensional Water flow and Nitrate transport Global Model (WNGM), that was previously developed and applied to a well-capture zone, is actually used to simulate future land management scenarios over the same zone.

Crofting and bumblebee conservation: The impact of land management practices on bumblebee populations in northwest Scotland

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2010

The northwest of Scotland is a stronghold for two of the UK's rarest bumblebee species, Bombus distinguendus and Bombus muscorum. The predominant form of agricultural land management in this region is crofting, a system specific to Scotland in which small agricultural units (crofts) operate rotational cropping and grazing regimes. Crofting is considered to be beneficial to a wide range of flora and fauna. However, currently there is a lack of quantitative evidence to support this view with regard to bumblebee populations.

Effect of different agricultural management systems on chemical fertility in cultivated tepetates of the Mexican transvolcanic belt

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2009
Mexico

Volcanic soils in their natural state often require some amelioration to accommodate their use for agriculture. Tepetates are defined as hardened volcanic tuffs derived from geo-pedological processes; they have been partially altered by weathering. Tepetates occupy extensive areas of Mexico's Central Highlands and some of them have been adapted for agricultural use after the mechanical breaking up of this hard material. In their native condition tepetates contain only traces of C, N and available P.

Emergy evaluation and economic performance of banana cropping systems in Guadeloupe (French West Indies)

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2009
Guadeloupe

Banana is the second most important agricultural commodity in Guadeloupe (French West Indies--FWI) and, to compensate the decline in international prices during the last 15 years, banana growers have intensified their production systems by increasing the use of technological inputs. Such intensification strategies, that require both material and investment increases, may impose economic as well as environmental risks, given the fragile island ecosystems.

Ascribing soil erosion types for sediment yield using composite fingerprinting technique

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2014
Iran

Soil erosion and eroded sediment are serious threats to sound land management. However, less attention has been given to quantifying the importance of different soil erosion features based on appropriate control measures that could be designated. Accordingly, this research was planned to quantify the contribution of potential sediment sources, i.e. sheet, rill and gully erosion, in Idelo watershed in Zanjan Province, Iran, using composite fingerprinting. Toward this aim, 16 geochemical and organic tracers were detected in sediment sources and sediment deposited at the outlet.

Access to cryptic arthropod larvae supports the atypical winter breeding seasonality of Meyer’s Parrot (Poicephalus meyeri) throughout the African subtropics

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2013
Tanzania
Zambia

Meyer’s Parrot Poicephalus meyeri has the widest distributional range of any African parrot. There are six subspecies distributed throughout the African subtropics, all of which manage to breed successfully during the winter dry season when few other cavity-nesting birds are actively nesting. In 2004, we recorded Meyer’s Parrots feeding on four cryptic arthropod larvae incubating inside fruits and pods in their seasonal diet. All of these were previously unknown in the diet of African parrots.

Internal Validation of Predictive Logistic Regression Models for Decision-Making in Wildlife Management

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2009

Predictive logistic regression models are commonly used to make informed decisions related to wildlife management and conservation, such as predicting favourable wildlife habitat for land conservation objectives and predicting vital rates for use in population models. Frequently, models are developed for use in the same population from which sample data were obtained, and thus, they are intended for internal use within the same population. Before predictions from logistic regression models are used to make management decisions, predictive ability should be validated.

Effects of land management on CO₂ flux and soil C stock in two Tanzanian croplands with contrasting soil texture

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2012
Tanzania
Africa

Evaluation of carbon dynamics is of great concern worldwide in terms of climate change and soil fertility. However, the annual CO₂ flux and the effect of land management on the carbon budget are poorly understood in Sub-Saharan Africa, owing to the relative dearth of data for in situ CO₂ fluxes. Here, we evaluated seasonal variations in CO₂ efflux rate with hourly climate data in two dry tropical croplands in Tanzania at two sites with contrasting soil textures, viz. clayey or sandy, over four consecutive crop-cultivation periods of 40 months.

Assessing gender roles in a changing landscape: diversified agro-pastoralism in drylands of West Pokot, Kenya

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2015
Kenya

Previous studies in drylands have shown that while gender roles are becoming more flexible, privatization and formalization of land tenure tends to marginalize women in drylands while environmental degradation leads to differential changes in gender workload. Chepareria, a ward in West Pokot County, has undergone the above-mentioned tenure and environmental changes and is nowadays dominated by private enclosures as a land management approach.