scholarly journals Collation of indigenous and local knowledge as evidence base for herpetofauna conservation outside protected areas: Case study from an agricultural landscape in Eastern India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deyatima Ghosh ◽  
Parthiba Basu
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Agricultural Intensification ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Control Agent ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Biological Pest Control ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
The Impact

Systematic appraisal of community knowledge as evidence for biodiversity conservation has been widely recognized. For conserving the rich biodiversity in the rural landscape outside the protected areas, it is important to document the knowledge and perception of the farming community. Although such appraisal is available for different taxa, no such systematic study is available for herpetofauna- one of the most vulnerable faunal groups. Our study attempts to document the impact of agricultural intensification on herpetofauna in an agricultural landscape through knowledge and perception appraisal of the farming community. A semi-structured questionnaire survey and validation was conducted in areas of low, medium, and high agricultural intensification. In all areas, farmers indicated an overall decrease in herpetofauna abundance. Farmers at the mid and high agricultural intensification zones reported a more significant decrease in herpetofauna sightings specifically for amphibians and snakes compared to those under low intensification regions. Farmers at low intensification areas recognized significantly more herpetofauna. Farmers attributed five major threats to herpetofauna and ranked pesticide as the most significant reason, especially those in higher intensification. The majority were aware of the importance of herpetofauna as a biological pest control agent. The level of education or farming experience did not seem to have any influence on the farmers knowledge. Our findings integrated with other quantitative studies will facilitate future community-driven conservation in the studied agricultural landscapes.

scholarly journals Relevance of Intermittent Rivers and Streams in Agricultural Landscape and Their Impact on Provided Ecosystem Services—A Mediterranean Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 2693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Kaletová ◽  
Luis Loures ◽  
Rui Alexandre Castanho ◽  
Elena Aydin ◽  
José Telo da Gama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Intermittent Rivers ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Classification Tool ◽  
The Impact

Ecosystem services (ES), as an interconnection of the landscape mosaic pieces, along with temporal rivers (IRES) are an object of research for environmental planners and ecological economists, among other specialists. This study presents (i) a review on the importance of IRES and the services they can provide to agricultural landscapes; (ii) a classification tool to assess the impact of IRES to provide ES by agricultural landscapes; (iii) the application of the proposed classification to the Caia River in order to identify the importance of this intermittent river for its surrounding agricultural landscape. The classification of the ES follows the Common International Classification of Ecosystem (CICES) classification that was adapted for the purposes of this study. Firstly, the list of ES provided by agricultural landscape was elaborated. In the next step, we assessed the potential of IRES to provide ES. Next, IRES impacts to ES within the agricultural landscape were evaluated according to observations from the conducted field monitoring in the study area. This study focuses on the relevance of the intermittent Caia River—a transboundary river in Spain and Portugal—and its ephemeral tributaries in the agricultural landscape. Our study estimates that each hydrological phase of IRES increases the ES provided by the agricultural landscape. However, the dry phase can potentially have negative impacts on several services. The intensification of the agricultural sector is the main provision of the water resource within the Caia River basin, but we were able to identify several other ES that were positively impacted. The present study is in line with the conclusions of other authors who state that IRES constitute a valuable resource which should not be underestimated by society.

scholarly journals Social networks influence farming practices and agrarian sustainability

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0244619
Author(s):  
Amaia Albizua ◽  
Elena M. Bennett ◽  
Guillaume Larocque ◽  
Robert W. Krause ◽  
Unai Pascual
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Agricultural Intensification ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

The social-ecological effects of agricultural intensification are complex. We explore farmers’ perceptions about the impacts of their land management and the impact of social information flows on their management through a case study in a farming community in Navarra, Spain, that is undergoing agricultural intensification due to adoption of large scale irrigation. We found that modern technology adopters are aware that their management practices often have negative social-ecological implications; by contrast, more traditional farmers tend to recognize their positive impacts on non-material benefits such as those linked with traditions and traditional knowledge, and climate regulation. We found that farmers’ awareness about nature contributions to people co-production and their land management decisions determine, in part, the structure of the social networks among the farming community. Since modern farmers are at the core of the social network, they are better able to control the information flow within the community. This has important implications, such as the fact that the traditional farmers, who are more aware of their impacts on the environment, rely on information controlled by more intensive modern farmers, potentially jeopardizing sustainable practices in this region. We suggest that this might be counteracted by helping traditional farmers obtain information tailored to their practices from outside the social network.

scholarly journals Dispersion of the epigeic fauna groups in the agricultural landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-155
Author(s):  
Vladimír Langraf ◽  
Kornélia Petrovičová ◽  
Zuzana Krumpálová ◽  
Andrea Svoradová ◽  
Janka Schlarmannová
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Pitfall Traps ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Fragmented Forest ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Suburban Landscape ◽  
The City

Abstract Changes in the structure of epigeic animal groups indicate ecological stability, which are influenced by urbanization, agriculture, and forestry. The aim of the paper was to assess the impact of agrarian land in the vicinity of urban and suburban landscape and non-fragmented forest in the vicinity of rural landscape on the occurrence of epigeic groups. We recorded the pitfall traps - 19, 676 individuals belonging to 20 taxonomic groups at 9 localities representing 7 types of habitat. Our results indicate a year-on-year increase in the number of individuals of epigeic groups in the city, with surrounding agrarian land. We found a correlation between eudominant epigeic groups of Aranea and Hymenoptera and rural landscape with the non-fragmented surrounding. Coleoptera has shown a link between the conditions of urban and suburban landscape with the surrounding developed agriculture. We confirmed a statistically significant effect for luminosity (p = 0.002), humidity (p = 0.025) and pH (p = 0.017).

scholarly journals Review of Lessons Learned in Changing Agricultural Landscapes in Ethiopia: What Worked Well and What Didn’t Work so Well?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amare Haileslassie ◽  
Wolde Mekuria ◽  
Petra schmitter ◽  
Stefan Uhlenbrook ◽  
Eva Ludi
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Land And Water Management ◽  
The Impact

Ethiopia has decades of experience in implementing land and water management interventions. Nonetheless, there remains persisting challenges to follow an adaptive management (AM) approach in efforts of restoring and transforming agricultural landscapes. This review was carried out to synthesize evidences on the impact on agricultural landscapes following the implementation of land and water management practices and to evaluate the use of AM approaches. We explored how elements of the structures and functions of landscapes have been transformed, and how the components of AM, such as structured decision-making and learning processes, have been applied. Despite numerous environmental and economic benefits of land and water management interventions in Ethiopia, this review revealed gaps in AM approaches. These include: (i) insufficient efforts in relation to evidence based contextualization of interventions, (ii) insufficient efforts in monitoring of bio-physical and socio-economic processes and changes post implementation, (iii) lack of trade-off analyses, and (iv) inadequacy of local community engagement and provision of feedback. Given the many uncertainties we must deal with, efforts to restore and transform agricultural landscapes cannot follow a business-as-usual approach. Future investment, in AM approach, tailored to the needs and context would help to achieve the goals of sustainable agricultural landscape transformation. The success depends on three interdependent pillars of action: the ability to make a robust, co-developed plan of interventions, the ability to continuously monitor changes based on key variables, and to learn from the knowledge generated and apply the learning as implementation evolves.

scholarly journals Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: different non-crop habitats increase diversity of ground-dwelling beetles (Coleoptera) but support different communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Rischen ◽  
Tobias Frenzel ◽  
Klaus Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Intensification ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Field Margins ◽  
Farmland Biodiversity ◽  
Permanent Grassland ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Western Germany

AbstractAgricultural intensification poses a major threat to the conservation of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Since non-crop habitats are regarded as important refuges for farmland biodiversity, various greening measures have been proposed to halt biodiversity loss. However, the effectiveness of these measures for biodiversity conservation is still under debate. Therefore, we here compared ground-dwelling beetle (Coleoptera) assemblages of different non-crop habitats (field margins, set-aside fields sown with wildflowers, and permanent grassland fallows) and wheat fields within an intensively used agricultural landscape in western Germany. Taxonomic diversity of Carabidae, Staphylinidae and other coleopteran families and their conservation value were higher in all non-crop habitats than on wheat fields. Surprisingly, though, different types of non-crop habitats did not differ in species richness or the number of threatened species. Thus, field margins and sown wildflower fields were as effective in promoting beetle diversity as grassland fallows. However, different non-crop habitats supported different species assemblages, and several species, in particular especially large ones, were restricted to grassland fallows. These results suggest that different greening measures are effective in promoting the biodiversity of beetles, and that permanent grassland fallows are essential for nature conservation. The fact that habitat types harbored different assemblages stresses the need to combine a variety of greening measures to yield the highest benefit for biodiversity.

scholarly journals HISTORICAL AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES: MAPPING SEASONAL CONDITIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

2021 ◽  
Vol XLVI-M-1-2021 ◽  
pp. 641-646
Author(s):  
A. Rolando ◽  
A. Scandiffio
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Sustainable Tourism ◽  
Paddy Rice ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Rice Fields ◽  
Rice Cultivation ◽  
Gis Mapping ◽  
Ecological Processes

Abstract. The current research aims at exploring the relationships between historical agricultural landscapes and sustainable tourism, by combining the potential of aerial and ground observation methods, that are able to detect the seasonal landscape changes. These phenomena are strongly interlaced with the annual cycle of plants, which have many implications for ecological processes, agriculture, health, tourism, regional/urban planning and economy. In many countries, similar phenomena as the timing of spring-blooming or the timing of autumn coloring foliage are of great visual value and can be of touristic interest, so to enhance the overall attractiveness of a territory. The research analyzes the case study of the historical agricultural landscape, localized in the in-between territories Turin and Milan, which is characterized by large portions of paddy-rice fields, which assume different aesthetical configurations over the year. This landscape, made up of an articulated system of waterways that support large portions of rice cultivation, protected natural areas, historical farmhouses, urban settlements, is the result of a long process of interaction between natural elements and human activities. Remote sensing and ground observations can play an important role in a high-accuracy mapping of the seasonal conditions of this kind of landscape. The flooding of paddy-rice fields determines a high scenic value of large portions of the rural landscape, that can be detected through remote sensing. The specificity of rice cultivation is that plants grow on flooded soils. Such a temporary condition of the landscape can become an unexpected tourist destination. From the methodological point of view, the research combines the potential of time series of satellite high-resolution imagery, for computing vegetation indexes (i.e. NDVI, NDWI etc.), and ground observations, through GIS mapping tools. This interpretation tools are useful to trace a network of slow scenic routes that allow perceiving such temporary landscape conditions and that support a territorial strategy aiming at a sustainable development of these fragile territories.

Long-term population dynamics of the red deer and European roe deer at the protected and not-protected areas in Mountain Crimea

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
V. N. Shmagol' ◽  
V. L. Yarysh ◽  
S. P. Ivanov ◽  
V. I. Maltsev
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Nature Reserve ◽  
Roe Deer ◽  
Precipitation Amount ◽  
Annual Precipitation ◽  
Population Number ◽  
The Impact

<p>The long-term population dynamics of the red deer (<em>Cervus elaphus</em> L.) and European roe deer (<em>Capreolus</em> <em>capreolus</em> L.) at the mountain and forest zone of Crimea during 1980-2017 is presented. Fluctuations in numbers of both species are cyclical and partly synchronous. Period of oscillations in the population of red deer is about 25 years, the average duration of the oscillation period of number of roe deer is 12.3 years. During the fluctuations in the number the increasing and fall in population number of the red deer had been as 26-47 %, and roe deer – as 22-34 %. Basing on the dada obtained we have assumed that together with large-scale cycles of fluctuations in population number of both red deer and roe deer the short cycles of fluctuations in the number of these species with period from 3.5 to 7.5 years take place. Significant differences of the parameters of cyclical fluctuations in the number of roe deer at some sites of the Mountainous Crimea: breaches of synchronicity, as well as significant differences in the duration of cycles are revealed. The greatest deviations from the average values of parameters of long-term dynamics of the number of roe deer in Crimea are noted for groups of this species at two protected areas. At the Crimean Nature Reserve the cycle time of fluctuations of the numbers of roe deer was 18 years. At the Karadag Nature Reserve since 1976 we can see an exponential growth in number of roe deer that is continued up to the present time. By 2016 the number of roe deer reached 750 individuals at a density of 437 animals per 1 thousand ha. Peculiarity of dynamics of number of roe deer at some sites proves the existence in the mountain forest of Crimea several relatively isolated groups of deer. We assumed that "island" location of the Crimean populations of red deer and European roe deer, their relatively little number and influence of permanent extreme factors of both natural and anthropogenic origination have contributed to a mechanism of survival of these populations. The elements of such a mechanism include the following features of long-term dynamics of the population: the reduction in the period of cyclic population fluctuations, while maintaining their amplitude and the appearance of additional small cycles, providing more flexible response of the population to the impact of both negative and positive environmental factors. From the totality of the weather conditions for the Crimean population of roe deer the recurring periods of increases and downs in the annual precipitation amount may have relevance. There was a trend of increase in the roe deer population during periods of increasing annual precipitation.</p>

scholarly journals The Relict Ecosystem of Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea in an Agricultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future Scenarios

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Antonio J. Mendoza-Fernández ◽  
Fabián Martínez-Hernández ◽  
Esteban Salmerón-Sánchez ◽  
Francisco J. Pérez-García ◽  
Blas Teruel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Maytenus Senegalensis

Maytenus senegalensis subsp. europaea is a shrub belonging to the Celastraceae family, whose only European populations are distributed discontinuously along the south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, forming plant communities with great ecological value, unique in Europe. As it is an endangered species that makes up plant communities with great palaeoecological significance, the development of species distribution models is of major interest under different climatic scenarios, past, present and future, based on the fact that the climate could play a relevant role in the distribution of this species, as well as in the conformation of the communities in which it is integrated. Palaeoecological models were generated for the Maximum Interglacial, Last Maximum Glacial and Middle Holocene periods. The results obtained showed that the widest distribution of this species, and the maximum suitability of its habitat, occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum, when the temperatures of the peninsular southeast were not as contrasting as those of the rest of the European continent and were favored by higher rainfall. Under these conditions, large territories could act as shelters during the glacial period, a hypothesis reflected in the model’s results for this period, which exhibit a further expansion of M. europaea’s ecological niche. The future projection of models in around 2070, for four Representative Concentration Pathways according to the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, showed that the most favorable areas for this species would be Campo de Dalías (southern portion of Almería province) as it presents the bioclimatic characteristics of greater adjustment to M. europaea’s ecological niche model. Currently, some of the largest specimens of the species survive in the agricultural landscapes in the southern Spain. These areas are almost totally destroyed and heavily altered by intensive agriculture greenhouses, also causing a severe fragmentation of the habitat, which implies a prospective extinction scenario in the near future.

scholarly journals Predation on Drosophila suzukii within Hedges in the Agricultural Landscape

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 305
Author(s):  
Alexandra Siffert ◽  
Fabian Cahenzli ◽  
Patrik Kehrli ◽  
Claudia Daniel ◽  
Virginie Dekumbis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Gut Content ◽  
Drosophila Suzukii ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Host Fruit ◽  
Molecular Gut Content Analysis ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Diverse Community

The invasive Drosophila suzukii feeds and reproduces on various cultivated and wild fruits and moves between agricultural and semi-natural habitats. Hedges in agricultural landscapes play a vital role in the population development of D. suzukii, but also harbor a diverse community of natural enemies. We investigated predation by repeatedly exposing cohorts of D. suzukii pupae between June and October in dry and humid hedges at five different locations in Switzerland. We sampled predator communities and analyzed their gut content for the presence of D. suzukii DNA based on the COI marker. On average, 44% of the exposed pupae were predated. Predation was higher in dry than humid hedges, but did not differ significantly between pupae exposed on the ground or on branches and among sampling periods. Earwigs, spiders, and ants were the dominant predators. Predator communities did not vary significantly between hedge types or sampling periods. DNA of D. suzukii was detected in 3.4% of the earwigs, 1.8% of the spiders, and in one predatory bug (1.6%). While the molecular gut content analysis detected only a small proportion of predators that had fed on D. suzukii, overall predation seemed sufficient to reduce D. suzukii populations, in particular in hedges that provide few host fruit resources.

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