Calidad ecológica y beneficio económico de la producción transgénica y orgánica de la soja en dos fincas del Departamento de Itapúa, Paraguay / Ecological quality and economic benefit of transgenic and organic soybean production in two farms in the Department of Itapúa, Paraguay

La soja es una especie agrícola de gran producción en el Paraguay. El buen rendimiento y cuidados al ambiente no siempre van acompañados en el rubro, existen alternativas de producción de soja como la orgánica, que proponen prácticas cuidando al ambiente. Se analizó en el 2017 un sistema de producción de soja orgánica y un sistema de producción convencional transgénico con las prácticas ambientales y el beneficio económico de ambos. El objetivo general de la investigación fue analizar el sistema productivo de la soja transgénica y de la orgánica, mediante indicadores ecológicos y económicos. Las variables cuantitativas económicas fueron margen bruto y rentabilidad y las variables cualitativas ecológicas fueron conservación de vida del suelo, riesgo de erosión y uso de agroquímicos. Las cualitativas fueron caracterizadas tomando parte de la metodología de Marques y Julca (2015). Los resultados arrojaron que la producción de soja orgánica posee mayor beneficio económico y calidad ecológica que la de soja transgénica.

Study on the quality improvement on black land in Northeast China under the environment of sustainable agricultural development

PurposeThe authors are committed to providing the Chinese government with a foundation for making decisions that will protect black land and ensure long-term agricultural development.Design/methodology/approachUsing the grounded theory approach, this study investigates the influencing factors affecting the quality of black land in Northeast China and proposes a hypothetical model for the mechanism of the influencing factors on the quality of black land in Northeast China.FindingsThe factors influencing the quality of black land include not only soil quality, ecological quality and environmental quality, but also economic quality and management quality, and can be classified into five categories. There are complex influence relationships between various factors and black land quality, with soil quality, ecological quality, environmental quality and management quality having a positive influence on economic quality. Soil quality, ecological quality and environmental quality are all improved as a result of good management. Black land quality is influenced positively by environmental quality, economic quality and management quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe quality of black land is a major concern in terms of food production and long-term agricultural development. The black land in Northeast China was chosen as the subject of this study, and the research findings have some limitations. The next step will be to expand from studying the black land in Northeast China to the black land worldwide.Originality/valueIn Northeast China, the quality of the five dimensions of black land must be improved in a coordinated and consistent manner.

Forest ecological monitoring of the Shiyang River basin based on Google Earth Engine

The Shiyang River basin is a typical inland arid region and one of the most fragile and sensitive areas of terrestrial ecosystems in China, and it is important to understand its ecological changes in a timely and accurate manner. This article selects the Shiyang River basin forest as the research area and uses Google Earth Engine (GEE) to evaluate and monitor the ecological environment quality of the Shiyang River basin from 1990 to 2020. The geographical detector model (GDM) was also used to analyse the sensitivity of the forest ecological environment to three natural factors: elevation, temperature and altitude. The results showed that the ecological quality of the natural forest is significantly better than that of the man-made forest area, and the ecological quality grade is higher. The forest change area RSEI has a large annual variation in ecological quality and is vulnerable to external factors. Among the influencing natural factors, the sensitive factors of precipitation and altitude are both greater than 84%. The temperature sensitivity of natural forests is stronger than that of man-made forests, ranging from 66% to 92% overall.

Diagnosis of ecological quality of Dohou Lake on the basis of environmental parameters and phytoplankton community, Western Côte d’Ivoire

The ecological quality of Dohou Lake in Duékoué was determined from the phytoplankton community and physico-chemical parameters. All of the stations in Dohou Lake are dominated by Cyanobacteria and Bacillariophyta individuals, with high monthly proportions observed during the study period. Ecological indicators such as total phosphorus, transparency and chlorophyll made it possible to assess the physico-chemical quality of the environment. Thus, mean total phosphorus values ranged from 970 to 1150 µg/L from station D7 to station D6. Minimum transparency values ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 m from station D7 to D3, and mean values ranged from 0.3 m (station D7) to 0.69 m (station D1). For chlorophyll a, mean values ranged from 3.52 µg/L to 12.98 µg/L from station D7 to station D2, with maximum values for this parameter ranging from 13.4 µg/L (station D7) to 46.73 µg/L (station D2). All of the stations on Dohou lake are therefore in an eutrophic state. The monthly variations in the different proportions of phytoplankton groups observed indicate a clear predominance of Cyanobacteria followed by Bacillariophyta. The values of the Planktonic Index (PI) indicate that the stations are in average ecological condition, except for station D7, which is in poor ecological condition. These ecological qualities are reflected by the spatial and temporal dominance of 4 functional groups which are C, LM, K, and S1.

A new fish-based index of biotic integrity for lowland rivers in Flanders (Belgium)

The first fish-based index to assess the ecological quality of lowland rivers in Flanders (Belgium) is based on data obtained from different fishing techniques without considering the gear specificity. As a consequence, this index could not be intercalibrated with other European indices which concentrate on one gear type only. In order to comply with the European Water Framework Directive, we developed a new fish-based index using data obtained from surveys in rivers with electric gear only. All 293 selected rivers belonged to the bream or barbel zone. An updated reference list of fish species was compiled based on previous work and recent data. Abiotic data were collected according to standard methods and habitat quality of all surveyed sites was pre-classified using pressure indicators. To develop the new index candidate metrics were selected from the literature and metric values were calculated. Linear mixed regression models selected metrics based on their response to the pre-classified habitat status. Correlation tests were performed to avoid redundancy among responsive metrics. Boundaries for metric scores were defined based on the calculated metric values. The new index of biotic integrity (IBI) was calculated by summation of the metric scores, and transformed to an ecological quality ratio (EQR), ranging between 0 and 1. Five integrity classes, ranging from bad to maximal ecological potential, were attributed and compared to the pre-classified habitat status of the site. In addition, the new index was also validated with an independent set of data. The new IBI proved to successfully assess the ecological status of the rivers.

Landsat TM/OLI-Based Ecological and Environmental Quality Survey of Yellow River Basin, Inner Mongolia Section

The monitoring and maintenance of the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River Basin is of great significance to the safety and development of China’s Yellow River Economic Belt and to the protection of the Yellow River ecology. In this study, we calculated diagnostic values from a total of 520 Landsat OLI/TM remote sensing images of the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia from 2001 to 2020. Using the RSEI and the GEE Cloud Computing Jigsaw, we analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution of diagnostic values representative of the basin’s ecological status. Further, Mantel and Pearson correlations were used to analyze the significance of environmental factors in affecting the ecological quality of cities along the Yellow River within the study area. The results indicated that the overall mean of RSEI values rose at first and then fell. The RSEI grade to land area ratio was calculated to be highest in 2015 (excellent) and worst in 2001. From 2001 to 2020, ecological quality monitoring process of main cities in the Inner Mongolia region of the Yellow River Basin. Hohhot, Baotou, and Linhe all have an RSEI score greater than 0.5, considered average. However, Dongsheng had its best score (0.60, good) in 2005, which then declined and increased to an average rating in 2020. The RSEI value for Wuhai reached excellent in 2010 but then became poor in 2020, dropping to 0.28. The analysis of ecological quality in the city shows that the greenness index (NDVI) carried the most significant impact on the ecological environment, followed by the humidity index (Wet), the dryness index (NDBSI), the temperature index (Lst), land use, and then regional gross product (RGP). The significance of this study is to provide a real-time, accurate, and rapid understanding of trends in the spatial and temporal distribution of ecological and environmental quality along the Yellow River, thereby providing a theoretical basis and technical support for ecological and environmental protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

Assessment of Urban Ecological Quality and Spatial Heterogeneity Based on Remote Sensing: A Case Study of the Rapid Urbanization of Wuhan City

Rapid urbanization significantly affects the productivity of the terrestrial ecosystem and the foundation of regional ecosystem services, thereby detrimentally influencing the ecological environment and urban ecological security. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also require accurate and timely assessments of where people live in order to develop, implement and monitor sustainable development policies. Sustainable development also emphasizes the process of protecting the ecological environment for future generations while maintaining the current needs of mankind. We propose a comprehensive evaluation method for urban ecological quality (UEQ) using Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI/TIRS images to extract remote sensing information representing four ecological elements, namely humidity, greenness, heat and dryness. An improved comprehensive remote sensing ecological index (IRSEI) evaluation model is constructed by combining the entropy weight method and principal component analysis. This modeling is applied to the city of Wuhan, China, from 1995 to 2020. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted on the geographic clusters of the IRSEI. The results show that (1) from 1995 to 2015, the mean IRSEI of Wuhan city decreased from 0.60 to 0.47, indicating that environmental deterioration overwhelmed improvements; (2) the global Moran’s I for IRSEI ranged from 0.535 to 0.592 from 1995 to 2020, indicating significant heterogeneity in its spatial distribution, highlighting that high and low clusters gradually developed at the edge of the city and at the city center, respectively; (3) the high clusters are mainly distributed in the Huangpi and Jiangxia districts, and the low clusters at the city center, which exhibits a dense population and intense human activity. This paper uses remote sensing index methods to evaluate UEQ as a scientific theoretical basis for the improvement of UEQ, the control of UEQ and the formulation of urban sustainable development strategies in the future. Our results show that the UEQ method is a low-cost, feasible and simple technique that can be used for territorial spatial control and spatiotemporal urban sustainable development.