Showing papers in "Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment in 2013"

TL;DR: In this article, a review highlights knowledge of the amount of carbon stored in soils globally, and the potential for carbon sequestration in soil, and discusses successful methods and models used to determine and estimate carbon pools and fluxes.

TL;DR: An analysis of the scientific literature to assess how the proportion of different land covers at the landscape level is related to the abundance of pests or to their control by natural enemies confirmed the suspected suppressive effect of landscape scale amounts of semi-natural areas on in-field pests.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared Mediterranean croplands with a number of recommended management practices (RMPs) with neighboring conventional plots under Mediterranean climate and found that the highest response was achieved by those practices applying largest amounts of C inputs (land treatment and organic amendments).

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a methodology for quantifying and assessing changes in multiple ecosystems services as a result of land use change using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model.

TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis of compliant reviewed experiments revealed significantly lower N2O emissions for organic as opposed to synthetic fertilizers (23% reduction) when organic materials were segregated in solid and liquid, only solid organic fertilizer emissions were significantly lower than those of synthetic fertilizer emissions.

TL;DR: A meta-analysis of published experimental results from agricultural irrigated systems was conducted to identify those strategies that have proven effective at reducing nitrogen leaching and to quantify the scale of reduction that can be achieved as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated the performance of four cropping system scenarios (treatments), which were designed to be adapted to current and future drivers of agricultural changes, and concluded that adopting the principles of conservation agriculture together with best management practices would improve system productivity and overall efficiency.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the dependency of direct N 2 O emission on N input using 26 published datasets where at least four different levels of N input had been applied, and found that the relationship of direct emissions to N input was nonlinear (exponential or hyperbolic) while the relationship was linear in four datasets.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors applied sediment tracing techniques within the Burdekin River basin to identify the contributions of surface versus subsurface soil, and spatial areas to fine sediment export.

TL;DR: In this article, a global quantitative synthesis was performed to assess the impact on biodiversity and on ecosystem services of the conversion of natural forest into cacao and coffee agroforestry and further intensification of agricultural plantations.

TL;DR: In this paper, the medium-term impact of tillage (conventional and reduced) and crop residue management (retention and removal) on soil and crop performance in a maize-soybean rotation was quantified.

TL;DR: In this article, the impact of management practices on the net global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) of rice cropping systems is not well documented.

TL;DR: The design of the cropping system mosaics could be complementary to the design of natural areas to manage populations, notably for species of economic interest (pests, natural enemies or pollinators).

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimated the carbon stocks in a network of 229 permanent sample plots in cacao-based agroforestry systems and natural forests in five Central American countries.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adapted the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework in the GBR's Tully-Murray catchment to identify trade-offs between linked ecosystem services and stakeholders, and applied four land use scenarios to assess outcomes for the ecosystem service of water quality regulation.

TL;DR: In this article, crop growth and yield of 14 wheat varieties grown on 18 sites in key agro-ecological zones of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in response to climate change were assessed.

TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis was conducted to quantify the impacts of rice cropping practices on the global warming potential (GWP) of GHG emissions at yield-scale rather than area-scale in China.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors quantify long-term land use and land cover changes (LULCC) and identify the spatial determinants of locations of most systematic transitions for the period 1957-2009 in the Jedeb watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin.

TL;DR: Investigation of whether the three bee groups typically targeted by agri-environmental schemes differ in the way they use those semi-natural habitats relative to common mass-flowering crops in an intensive agricultural farming system finds a clear segregation pattern in the use of floral resources between honey bees and wild bees.

TL;DR: Current predictions of [CO2]-stimulated yield increases may be overstated, so key targets for future plant breeding programs are to select new wheat genotypes which have higher sink capacity for photosynthetic products and are capable of increasing nitrogen uptake under elevated CO2.

TL;DR: The risk is now great that a singular focus on increasing yields will divert attention from the linked problem of biodiversity decline, and the historical pattern will continue.

TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive data set of 384 cropland soils and 333 grassland soils within the state of Bavaria in southeast Germany was analyzed in order to provide representative information on total amount, regional distribution and driving parameters of soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) in agricultural soils of central Europe.

TL;DR: It is found that behavioural differences between honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees alter the likelihood of pollen transfer from their bodies to the plant stigma, and that honeybees are perhaps the most suitable taxa for use as a pro-active mitigation measure against pollinator deficits.

TL;DR: In this article, a combination of GIS/remote sensing techniques, drought vulnerability analyses, field observation and surveying were employed to evaluate land-use and land cover (LULC) changes in the Central Rift Valley dry lands of Ethiopia, and determine the role of drought vulnerability as a driver.

TL;DR: In this article, a two-year on-farm experiment was conducted from 2010-2012 to test the hypothesis that optimal N rates result in maximum agronomic productivity and minimal yield-scaled GWP in water-seeded rice systems experiencing continuously flooded conditions during the growing season and fallow period.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conclude that water harvesting remains a promising option for sustainable agricultural intensification in the water scarce tropics, resulting in both risk reduction and yield improvements, while at the same time improving resilience to drought and dry spells.

TL;DR: In this paper, the dynamics of off-site paddock-scale pesticide movement and subsequent concentrations in local receiving environments in fully irrigated sugarcane farming systems of the lower Burdekin floodplain region, the largest sugar producing area in Australia, were determined.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of various agricultural management practices on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions is studied. And the authors highlight the potential for decreasing N2O emissions while simultaneously improving the use of water and fertilizer for plant production.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors carried out fieldwork in 12 sites in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to understand changes in farming systems in the recent past, and to test the hypothesis that sedentary farmers in zones that may become warmer and drier in the future may be forced to increase their reliance on livestock vis-a-vis cropping.

TL;DR: This article analyzed the changes in crop rotation patterns from 2003 to 2010 using the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), which provides remotely sensed land cover layers for agricultural crops in the Central United States.