scholarly journals A biological and economic comparison of 2 pasture-based production systems on a wetland drumlin soil in the northern region of Ireland

2012 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 484-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Patton ◽  
L. Shalloo ◽  
K.M. Pierce ◽  
B. Horan
2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Jost ◽  
D. Shurley ◽  
S. Culpepper ◽  
P. Roberts ◽  
R. Nichols ◽  
...  

Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 488
Author(s):  
Louis Amprako ◽  
Kathrin Stenchly ◽  
Martin Wiehle ◽  
George Nyarko ◽  
Andreas Buerkert

Urban and peri-urban agricultural (UPA) production systems in West African countries do not only mitigate food and financial insecurity, they may also foster biodiversity of arthropods and partly compensate for structural losses of natural environments. However, management practices in UPA systems like irrigation may also contribute to disturbances in arthropod ecology. To fill knowledge gaps in the relationships between UPA management and arthropod populations, we compared arthropods species across different irrigation sources in Tamale. During a 72-h sampling period, 14,226 arthropods were caught with pitfall traps and pan traps from 36 fields. These specimens comprised 13 orders, 103 families, 264 genera, and 329 taxa (243 identified species, 86 unidentified species) and categorized into five feeding guilds (carnivores, decomposers, herbivores, omnivores, and pollinators). Species richness, species accumulation curves, and diversity functions (richness, evenness, and dispersion) were calculated to characterize the arthropod community. Non-metric multidimensional scaling was applied to examine structural similarity of arthropod communities among sites. To account for the effects of soil-related data, we furthermore applied a redundancy analysis. Arthropods grouped according to the irrigation water source, whereby the dipterans were most dominant under wastewater conditions. Here, particularly the eye gnat, Hippelates pusio, a disease-causing vector for humans, accounted for the dipterans. The occurrence of three alien ant species suggested community shifts through invasive species, while the occurrence of seven ant species (at least one ant species occurred under each water source) that form mutualistic relationships with aphids highlighted future risks of aphid pest outbreak. Future studies on these taxa should specifically target their ecological and economic effects and potential countermeasures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (5) ◽  
pp. 4455-4465
Author(s):  
B. McClearn ◽  
L. Shalloo ◽  
T.J. Gilliland ◽  
F. Coughlan ◽  
B. McCarthy

2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Jost ◽  
D. Shurley ◽  
S. Culpepper ◽  
P. Roberts ◽  
R. Nichols ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darliane Evangelho Silva ◽  
Joseane Moreira Nascimento ◽  
Anderson De Azevedo Meira ◽  
Liana Johann ◽  
Luiz Liberato Costa Corrêa ◽  
...  

Knowledge about phytoseiid species associated with vines is a preliminary step in the development and implementation of integrated management strategies against phytophagous mites such as Panonychus ulmi. The aim of this study was to perform a comparative survey of phytoseiids present in abandoned, organically managed, and conventionally managed vineyards, as well as to compare ecological indices in these production systems. Samplings were conducted between July and September 2017 in vineyards situated in the Subregions of Lima and Cávado, the Vinho Verde region. A total of 50 leaves/vineyard were collected from 12 vineyards, kept in containers at low temperature and taken to Escola Superior Agrária-Instituto Politécnico Viana do Castelo to be screened under a stereoscope microscope. A total of 3.153 phytoseiid mites were sampled, belonging to eight species distributed across the vineyards analyzed. The most common species were Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri (45.7%), Kampimodromus aberrans (39%), and Phytoseius macropilis (8.7%). Higher richness occurred in abandoned vineyards, with seven species, and the most abundant were K. aberrans (46.5%) and T. (T.) pyri (28.9%). Only two predatory species were present (in similar proportions) in organically managed vineyards, T. (T.) pyri and K. aberrans, while T. (T.) pyri predominated in conventionally managed vineyards (93.8%). Kampimodromus aberrans, P. macropilis, and T. (T.) pyri were eudominant in abandoned vineyards while K. aberrans and T. (T.) pyri were eudominant in organic vineyards. Typhlodromus (T.) pyri was eudominant and T. (T.) exhilaratus was dominant in conventionally managed vineyards. Therefore, we might conclude that phytoseiid abundance significantly differs among vineyard management types, with higher ecological indices in abandoned vineyards, and lower indices in conventional managed vineyards in the northern region of Portugal.


1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Nkowani ◽  
Murray Mcgregor ◽  
Barry Dent

Food security is seriously threatened by the low productivity of smallholder farmers, endemic poverty and widespread land degradation in the Northern Region of Zambia, The challenge is how to raise smallholder productivity at farm level in the face of developmental conflicts caused by demographic change, economic growth, strife and insecurity. The government is caught between the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) drawn up to enable it to pay off its huge foreign debt on the one hand, and the need to cushion the vulnerable sections of society (mostly smallholder farmers) from the worst aspects of the monetary squeeze on the other, Current evidence points to a dangerous imbalance, with the poor being hit hardest, but there are further steps which could be taken to support smallholders.


2007 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 1493-1505 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. McCarthy ◽  
B. Horan ◽  
P. Dillon ◽  
P. O’Connor ◽  
M. Rath ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
R. Kakeeto ◽  
J. Sibiya ◽  
R. Melis ◽  
M. Biruma

A participatory rural appraisal was conducted in selected groundnut growing areas of Uganda to determine how smallholder farmers perceive and cope with drought, identify farmers’ constraints, and study the production systems, and varietal preferences in groundnut production. Majority of farmers surveyed, agreed that drought is a major production constraint. The local drought perceptions were described by farmers (55.7%) as warm/hot windy conditions in eastern (55.7%), while in the northern region, little rainfall (82.5%) and hot sunny weather in the mid-western region (48.3%). The majority of farmers surveyed, 81.7%, 77.6%, and 86.6% from eastern, northern and mid-western region, respectively, indicated that the major impact of drought was low yields. However, most of farmers especially from northern and mid-western grow landraces and use early planting to cope with drought. Therefore, knowledge of farmers’ perceptions on drought and coping strategies provides an entry point for improving farmers’ preferred varieties for drought tolerance.


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