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Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
Elsevier Science Publishers
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Elsevier Science Publishers

0167-8809

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment/Journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
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    Wheat yield losses from pests and pathogens in China

    Ouyang, FangZhang, QingqingMen, XingyuanHui, Cang...
    7页
    查看更多>>摘要：Wheat is a main food source for more than 40% of the world's population, while pests and pathogens are widely recognized as a significant obstacle to food security. Assessing the impact of pests and pathogens on yield losses is therefore critical to maintaining global food supply. However, quantitative estimation of wheat yield losses is notoriously challenging. Here, we report on an experiment-based quantitative assessment of wheat yield losses in China caused by pests and pathogens from 2000 to 2018. We found that wheat yield losses caused by pests and pathogens in six main wheat planting regions (the Yellow and Huai River valleys, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Southwest China, the Loess Plateau, the Northeast China and the Xinjiang province) were 16.29%, 7.46%, 11.71%, 12.64%, 6.54% and 4.84%, respectively, of the regional yield. The proportions of yield losses caused by aphids, wheat mites, scab and sharp eyespot have been on the rise, while those of underground pests have declined. Wheat powdery mildews were shown to have increased in the Xinjiang province but declined in the Northeast China. Future breeding research should focus on varieties resistant to rising group like aphids, wheat mites, scab, sharp eyespot and powdery mildews. The greatest yield loss occurred in the Yellow and Huai River valleys which was also the place with the highest wheat yield. More efforts are needed to provide management measures on wheat health management in the Yellow and Huai River valleys. Our results provide an accurate assessment of wheat yield losses in main wheat production regions of China and help devise region-specific agricultural management strategies to secure food supply to an increasingly aging population.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Impact of organic fertilizer substitution and biochar amendment on net greenhouse gas budget in a tea plantation

    Lin, HaiyanXu, PinshangLi, ZhutaoWang, Jinyang...
    7页
    查看更多>>摘要：Tailoring agricultural practices to enhance the soil carbon (C) stock is seen as a promising mitigation tactic to offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in croplands. Tea plantations are not only the important part of economic industry but also one of the crucial agricultural sources of non-carbon dioxide emissions. Although many studies have measured GHG emissions from tea plantations, it remains unknown about the effect of knowledge-based mitigation options on the entire C budget from Chinese rapidly expanding tea plantations. Thus, we carried out a 2-year field trial to provide an insight into the influence of organic fertilizer substitution for synthetic fertilizer and biochar amendment on net ecosystem carbon budget (NECB), net greenhouse gas budget (NGB), and yield-scaled greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) from a subtropical tea plantation. Results showed that when averaged a 2-year experimental period, both full organic substitution and biochar amendment contributed significantly to the increment in NECB, mainly due to the enhanced soil organic C content in the tea field. Compared with the conventional farm practice, the application of full organic substitution can induce a 52% decrease in both NGB and GHGI. Regardless of fertilizer type, both NGB and GHGI were negative and 2.4 times lower in the treatments with biochar amendment relative to the control. In addition to their roles in maintaining soil health and alleviating soil acidification, our results suggest that organic fertilizer substitution and biochar addition may achieve low carbon development for tea plantations. Our findings will inform efforts to implement and evaluate these tailored mitigation options in tea plantations at a national scale.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Pollen and landscape diversity as well as wax moth depredation determine reproductive success of bumblebees in agricultural landscapes

    Schweiger, Sandra ElenaBeyer, NicoleHass, Annika LouiseWestphal, Catrin...
    11页
    查看更多>>摘要：Bumblebees are important pollinators in agricultural landscapes that are facing global declines. Main pressures include food scarcity mainly due to the reduction of semi-natural habitats (SNH) and parasite-induced vulner-ability. Even though intensive agricultural landscapes are poor habitats for bumblebees, the cultivation of mass-flowering crops (MFC) can provide a high amount of floral resources and therefore can promote pollinators. In contrary to SNH, which provide a high diversity of floral resources, MFC provide only monofloral, short-term and unbalanced resources for bees. We explored the direct and indirect effects of landscape composition (proportions of MFC, SNH, urban areas), landscape diversity, diversity of pollen diets and wax moth depredation on the growth and reproductive success of bumblebee colonies. We placed 44 experimental Bombus terrestris L. colonies in 22 agricultural landscapes. The study landscapes represented gradients of the cover of SNH, urban areas and oilseed rape (OSR) and differed in the availability of the mid-season flowering MFC faba bean (Vicia faba L.). We recorded colony growth and reproductive success of the bumblebee colonies, diversity of collected pollen types and depredation by the specialized wax moth Aphomia sociella L. We found no effects of landscape composition or landscape diversity on the diversity of pollen collected by the bees. However, we found a positive effect of landscape diversity on the reproductive success of bumblebees. Moreover, pollen diversity and the availability of faba bean interacted and resulted in higher numbers of young queens in landscapes without faba bean. In addition, colonies that collected a higher pollen diversity had a reduced A. sociella depredation. Increased parasitism had a cascading negative effect on the reproductive success of bumblebees by limiting colony growth. Our study showed that high landscape diversity and diverse pollen diets can enhance the reproductive success of bumblebees. A diverse diet even mitigated depredation by wax moths. To sustain vital bumblebee populations and their pollination services, diverse and floral rich habitat types should be conserved or restored in agricultural landscapes.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Silvopasture in the USA: A systematic review of natural resource professional and producer-reported benefits, challenges, and management activities

    Smith, Matthew M.Bentrup, GaryKellerman, ToddMacFarland, Katherine...
    15页
    查看更多>>摘要：Silvopasture is the deliberate integration of trees, forage, and grazing livestock on the same piece of land. These agroecosystems are intensively managed for multiple benefits, providing both short-and long-term income. Research suggests that silvopasture systems can increase systemwide productivity, while providing multiple ecosystem services. Due to these benefits, silvopasture adoption is increasing across the United States of America (USA), as described in regional case studies exploring silvopasture adoption. However, most of these case studies have a limited sample size, making it difficult to assess broader trends that help or hinder silvopasture adoption. To address this issue, we conducted a systematic review of silvopasture adoption studies in the USA. Our key objectives were to understand the primary benefits and challenges reported by producers using silvopasture, assess how satisfied producers are with their silvopasture systems, and understand how agricultural and natural resource professionals view silvopasture management. In total, 53 studies from 1983 to 2021 related to silvo-pasture adoption were included. When analyzed collectively, diversification of farm income and shade for livestock were the primary benefits of implementing silvopasture. This was similar to benefits reported from international studies that were compared. Regarding challenges, lack of information was identified as a primary concern by producers. Producers reported using a wide range of livestock that included cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, horses, bison, pigs, geese, and ducks. Results indicate that producers almost exclusively use some form of rotational or management intensive grazing in their silvopasture systems, with 98% using one of these practices. Furthermore, 96% of producers reported using silvopasture in combination with paddocks in open pasture, suggesting that silvopastures are primarily used as a complementary component of their pasture rotation system. Silvopasture retention was also found to be high across studies, with 88% of producers indi-cating they would continue the practice into the future. With increasing interest to diversify agricultural man-agement under the uncertainty of a changing climate and the need for agricultural landscapes to sequester more carbon, silvopasture may be an effective strategy for some livestock operators to diversify farm income, enhance animal productivity and wellbeing, and increase ecosystem resilience.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    High bee functional diversity buffers crop pollination services against Amazon deforestation

    Campbell, Alistair JohnLichtenberg, Elinor M.Carvalheiro, Luisa GiganteMenezes, Cristiano...
    10页
    查看更多>>摘要：Predicting outcomes of land use change on biodiversity and ecosystem services remains a key priority for ecologists, but may be particularly challenging in diverse tropical ecosystems. Trait-based approaches are a key tool to meet this challenge. Such approaches seek functional mechanisms underpinning species' responses to environmental disturbance and contributions to ecosystem services. Here, we use a functional trait approach to study effects of land use change on stingless bee communities and on pollination services to a:cal palm (Euterpe oleracea, Arecaceae) in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We compared traits of stingless bees visiting a:cal inflorescences across a land use intensity gradient (low to high forest cover) to determine: (1) the role of traits in bee species' responses to deforestation; (2) how deforestation affects functional composition of bee communities; and (3) whether bee traits better explain variation in a:cal fruit production than species diversity metrics. We found that bee species' responses to deforestation were non-random and predicted by body size, with small-sized bees more susceptible to forest loss, and changes in functional diversity of bee communities were important for pollination services. However, not all changes in functional diversity were associated with forest loss. Together, these results suggest that: (1) large tracts of minimally disturbed tropical rainforest are vital for the conservation of diverse stingless bee communities; (2) efficient pollination is contingent on bee species not only having divergent trait values (functional dispersion), but also traits' relative abundance in communities (functional evenness); and (3) high functional diversity in stingless bee communities buffers asai pollination services to loss of sensitive species. Thus, conservation strategies must focus on protecting wider biodiversity, not just ecosystem services, to guarantee conservation of native eusocial bee taxa. Doing so will safeguard crop pollination services, the pollination of native plant communities, and the long-term resilience of Amazon forest ecosystems.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Paddy soils have a much higher microbial biomass content than upland soils: A review of the origin, mechanisms, and drivers

    Wei, LiangGe, TidaZhu, ZhenkeYe, Rongzhong...
    11页
    查看更多>>摘要：Many studies have shown that the microbial biomass content in paddy soils is much higher than that in upland soils, but a comprehensive review of the underlying mechanisms and processes is lacking. We conducted a meta-analysis of published literature on the microbial biomass content in continuous paddy soils (>1700 data pairs) and paddy-upland rotation soils (>1100 data pairs) as compared to that in adjacent upland soils (>360 data pairs), measured by the fumigation extraction or fumigation incubation method. The microbial biomass carbon (MBC) content in paddy soils was double that in upland soils. This MBC surplus in paddy soils compared to upland soils was explained by (1) higher input of root C and rhizodeposits by rice plants compared with upland crops; (2) lower oxygen availability and consequently slower microbial turnover; (3) higher microbial C assimilation efficiency in paddy soils; and (4) additional C stabilization on iron (oxyhydr)oxides in paddy soils. The proportion of MBC in total soil organic C in paddy-upland rotation, paddy, and upland soils was 3.5%, 2.5%, and 2.1%, respectively. The higher microbial biomass C/N ratio in paddy soils (12.4 +/- 0.11) compared to upland soils (9.9 +/- 0.21) reflects greater N losses (through nitrate leaching and denitrification) in relation to slower C losses under anoxic conditions. Despite higher temperature and better water availability, microbial biomass turnover was 1.1-1.6 times slower in paddy soils than in upland soils because of oxygen limitation. Multiple stepwise regression and redundancy analyses showed that microbial biomass in continuous paddy and paddy-upland rotation soils was affected by similar soil factors (such as total N and organic C), whereas microbial biomass in upland soils was mainly affected by pH and the organic C content. Paddy-upland rotation soils undergo oxic-anoxic cycles and consequently can absorb and coprecipitate organic compounds with iron (oxyhydr) oxides as an additional advantage for C stabilization. We conclude that the reduced microbial activity and slower microbial turnover under oxygen-limited conditions lead to nearly two times higher microbial biomass content in paddy than in upland soils.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Recovered grassland area rather than plantation forest could contribute more to protect epigeic spider diversity in northern China

    Hu, WenhaoMei, ZulinLiu, YunhuiYu, Zhenrong...
    10页
    查看更多>>摘要：Several studies have documented the semi-natural habitats and heterogeneous landscape patterns play a crucial role in maintaining spider diversity in agricultural landscapes. However, which types of semi-natural habitat contribute more to conserve spider diversity and functional traits, and how they respond to landscape patterns at different landscape scales are still poorly understood. Thereby, we sampled epigeic spider communities by pitfall traps within recovered grasslands, plantation forests and croplands around three villages with different altitudes in northern China and surveyed the surrounding landscape structures in both 2017 and 2018. The results confirmed the diverse distribution of spiders in different habitat types. There was a greater spider activity density in recovered grasslands than that of plantation forests or croplands significantly. Furthermore, both recovered grasslands and plantation forests contained more species richness than croplands. Moreover, the spider com-munity in the recovered grasslands and cropland had more similar functional trait compositions (including hunting types, body size and ballooning ability) comparing to the plantation forests, which mainly due to the higher proportion of ambush hunters in recovered grassland and cropland. Secondly, the study also indicated that the proportion area of plantation forest negatively affected spider diversity at multi-scales. Meanwhile, recovered grassland with high landscape diversity would benefit spider diversity only on a small scale like a 100 m radius. The spider functional traits were insensitive to landscape patterns. Overall, the study implies that increasing recovered grassland rather than plantation forest could protect spider diversity in northern China. The findings presented in this paper added to our understanding of how landscapes and different semi-natural affect the diversity of spiders and their functional traits. Meanwhile, the research results represent a further step to-wards developing more suitable landscape patterns and choosing restoration semi-natural types for policymakers to enhance biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    The value of two agri-environment scheme habitats for pollinators: Annually cultivated margins for arable plants and floristically enhanced grass margins

    McHugh, Niamh M.Bown, BelindaMcVeigh, AdamPowell, Roseanne...
    9页
    查看更多>>摘要：We investigate the potential benefits to pollinators of two agri-environment scheme habitats, annually cultivated and floristically enhanced grass margins. The former encourages annual plant species whereas the latter targets the provision of perennial plants, both may benefit foraging pollinators, many of which have declined in the UK since the 1980s. We surveyed thirty cultivated margins and thirty floristically enhanced grass margins across the UK for pollinators, which included bumblebees Bombus spp., solitary bees and hoverflies Syrphidae. Pollinator abundance was then related to margin attributes such as age, width, soil fertility and adjacent habitat type. For cultivated margins we also investigated relationships with cultivation and rotation, and for floristically enhanced margins time cut. Plant preferences of foraging pollinators were recorded in 2019. On cultivated margins, target annual plants were frequently recorded on plots and were repeatedly visited by pollinators with management significantly influencing visitation rates. For example, plots which had been created with ploughing attracted fewer solitary bees and bees overall than those created with minimum tillage. Annually rotated cultivated margins were associated with lower flower abundance, broad leaved species cover and vegetation heights which resulted in lower total bee abundance. We therefore advise that cultivated margins be left in situ on farmland over longer periods. Older floristically enhanced grass margins became dominated by grass and contained fewer flowerheads to support foraging pollinators. Compared to those established via natural regeneration, sown margins were associated with increased bee and Syrphidae abundance, which is probably linked to the high flowerhead abundance and coverage of broad-leaved species on sown plots. Our pollinator foraging data from 2019 showed that tolerance of some agricultural weeds should be advocated. Our results highlight the complementary benefits of these agri-environment scheme habitats to pollinators. We suggest that where arable pollinator conservation is a priority both habitats be provided.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Biochar reduced soil nitrous oxide emissions through suppressing fungal denitrification and affecting fungal community assembly in a subtropical tea plantation & nbsp;

    Zheng, FengweiWu, ShuangWang, JinyangWang, Jidong...
    9页
    查看更多>>摘要：Biochar amendment has been shown to reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from acidic soils in tea plantations. Given that both soil bacterial and fungal denitrifications can produce N2O, their relative contributions to the decrease in N2O emissions following biochar amendment remain unclear. Here, we examined soils sampled from a subtropical tea plantation that had received 2 years of biochar amendment. Measurements of the relative contributions of fungi and bacteria to N2O production were taken by the substrate-induced respiration method implemented with the addition of selective inhibitors. The abundances of total fungi, bacteria, and key N2O-related bacterial genes were quantified by q-PCR, and the composition of the fungal community was analyzed by 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The results showed that the contribution of fungi toN(2)O production (52%) was greater than that of bacteria (18%) for the N-applied acidic soils. Biochar amendment significantly decreased the fungal abundances and the fungal contribution to N2O production (by 28%). In contrast, biochar amendment significantly increased the abundances of N2O-related bacteria (e.g., ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), nirS, nosZ). Structural equation models (SEMs) revealed that biochar decreased the fungal contribution to N2O production through enhancing the soil pH and shifting the fungal community composition. Our results highlight that the decreased N2O & nbsp;emissions could be ascribed to the stimulated N2O consumption process (driven by N2O-consuming bacteria encoded by the nosZ gene) and suppressed fungal dominance in acidic soils from tea plantations. This study presents relatively comprehensive insights into the regulatory roles of biochar on soil microbe mediated N2O production processes.& nbsp;& nbsp;
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier

    Evaluating hedgerows for wild bee conservation in intensively managed agricultural landscapes

    Clausen, Martina A.Elle, ElizabethSmukler, Sean M.
    11页
    查看更多>>摘要：Wild bees provide essential pollination services to both agricultural crops and wild flowering plant species. The decline of wild bee species has been associated with a number of different threats, primarily the loss of natural habitats. The Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust (DF&WT), a non-profit conservation organization, incentivizes farmers to plant hedgerows consisting of native shrubs and trees on the edge of their production fields, mainly to create habitat for wildlife in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) of Delta in British Columbia, Canada. In this study, the value of the planted hedgerows was evaluated as foraging habitat for wild bees specifically. During the summers of 2015 and 2016, we surveyed bees and flowers in planted hedgerows, as well as the two other most dominant field margin habitats, remnant hedgerows and grass margins. The relationship between available floral resources and bee abundance and diversity, as well as bee-flower interactions, was analyzed and compared among these three habitat types. Overall, wild bees collected from flowers and pan traps were more abundant, species rich and significantly more diverse in grass margins compared to planted and remnant hedgerows. However, significant results were inconsistent between sampling methods and years, implying none of the habitat types stood out as clearly better. While the strongest relationship was found between floral abundance and bee abundance, it did not explain the differences between habitat types alone. Bee-flower interaction records showed that bees primarily visited herbaceous species mostly found in grass margins while only a few of the recommended woody plant species for hedgerow plantings were visited. The results indicate that grass margins could be a valuable alternative conservation approach or addition to woody hedgerows if properly planned and managed. These results can be used to help improve field edge management for the conservation of wild bee species.
      原文链接:
    • NSTL
    • Elsevier