Innovative Pulses for Western European Temperate Regions: A Review

In Europe, there is an increasing interest in pulses both for their beneficial effects in cropping systems and for human health. However, despite these advantages, the acreage dedicated to pulses has been declining and their diversity has reduced, particularly in European temperate regions, due to several social and economic factors. This decline has stimulated a political debate in the EU on the development of plant proteins. By contrast, in Southern countries, a large panel of minor pulses is still cropped in regional patterns of production and consumption. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential for cultivation of minor pulses in European temperate regions as a complement to common pulses. Our assumption is that some of these crops could adapt to different pedoclimatic conditions, given their physiological adaptation capacity, and that these pulses might be of interest for the development of innovative local food chains in an EU policy context targeting protein autonomy. The research is based on a systematic review of 269 papers retrieved in the Scopus database (1974–2019), which allowed us to identify 41 pulses as candidate species with protein content higher than 20% that are already consumed as food. For each species, the main agronomic (e.g., temperature or water requirements) and nutritional characteristics (e.g., proteins or antinutritional contents) were identified in their growing regions. Following their agronomic characteristics, the candidate crops were confronted with variability in the annual growing conditions for spring crops in Western European temperate areas to determine the earliest potential sowing and latest harvest dates. Subsequently, the potential sum of temperatures was calculated with the Agri4cast database to establish the potential climatic suitability. For the first time, 21 minor pulses were selected to be grown in these temperate areas and appear worthy of investigation in terms of yield potential, nutritional characteristics or best management practices.

Comparative Water Environment Simulation Study of Two Typical Models with BMPs in a Karst Basin

Carbonate rocks are widely distributed in southwest China, forming a unique karst landscape. The Lijiang River Basin provides a typical example of an area with concentrated karst. Research on the laws of hydrology and water quality migration in the Lijiang River Basin is important for the management of the water resources of Guilin City and similar areas. In this study, we combined three meteorological data with the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model and the hydrological simulation program-Fortran (HSPF) model to simulate the hydrological and water quality processes in the Lijiang River Basin separately. We chose the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) coefficient, coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR), and mean absolute error (MAE) as the metrics used to evaluate the models. The results, combined with the time-series process lines, indicated that the SWAT model provides a more accurate performance than the HSPF model in streamflow, ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), and dissolved oxygen (DO) simulations. In addition, we divided the karst and non-karst areas, and we analyzed the differences between them in water balance, sediment transport, and pollution load. We further identified the key source areas of pollution load in the Lijiang River Basin, evaluated the pollution reduction effect of best management practices (BMPs) on surface source pollution, and proposed some pollution control countermeasures. Each scenario, especially returning farmland to forest and creating vegetation buffer zones, reduces the NH3-N and DO pollution load.

Fishers and whales in Iceland

In Iceland, as in many places globally, the detrimental impacts of whale interactions with fishing gear on both fisheries and whales are not well understood and managed. This study conducted anonymous questionnaires of Icelandic fishers and interviews of capelin purse seine boat captains to gather first-hand knowledge of the issues fishers face due to whale interaction with their fishing gear. Results suggest that the humpback whale is the large whale species that is most often entangled or encircled in fishing gear and causing damage, however on occasion other large whale species are interacting with gear as well. Interactions between humpback whales and fishing gear appears to be primarily concentrated in the north/northeast and southwest of the country where there is high fishing effort and known humpback whale feeding habitat. Humpback whale interactions with gear occurred most often with capelin purse seines, which are targeting humpback whale prey, and data suggests that bycatch of whales in this fishery may be underreported. Damage and losses due to whale collisions with gear were reported to cost fishers up to 55.000.000ISK, suggesting this can be a costly issue for which mitigation measures should be explored. The use of acoustic “pingers” is one mitigation measure that has been previously tested by capelin purse-seiners and is something that captains indicated they would be interested in continuing to try. The creation of a whale entanglement/whale-gear interaction reporting system in Iceland would aid in gathering more data and quantifying how often these events are witnessed and what the consequences of these events are to both the fishers and the whales. This study provides new information about the consequences of large whale interactions with Icelandic fisheries and suggests that future collaboration with fishers can provide insight contributing to best management practices for sustainable fishing and whale conservation.

Lessons Learned from Developing Best Management Practices for Urban Tree Care and Wildlife

Urban forests create indispensable habitat for declining wildlife populations. The tree care industry is essential to the viability of urban forests and thus the survival of urban wildlife. At the same time, tree care operations such as tree removal and branch pruning present clear threats to urban wildlife and their habitats. Here we describe the development of a grassroots coalition of arborists and wildlife advocates in the Western United States and the process of charting a path to best management practices and professional training to mitigate the impacts of tree care practices to wildlife. In particular, we describe the unique challenges and opportunities that arose through this multi-disciplinary process and build a case for the benefits of uniting diverse communities of practice around complex urban ecological problems. We finish by laying out recommendations to the international arboriculture and urban forestry practitioner and research communities.

Use of Narrow Rows in Sprinkler-Irrigated Corn Systems to Increase Grain Yields, Aboveground Biomass, and Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies

Narrow rows and optimum nitrogen applications are effective best management practices (BMPs) to enhance crop yield in an economically viable way. In a set of four studies, we aimed to compare the traditional method of planting (TMP) in wider rows (76.2 cm) with a lower plant population (84,600 seeds ha−1) against a new BMP of planting in narrow rows (38.1 cm) with a higher plant population (158,000 seeds ha−1). Implementation of the BMP resulted in 29.9 Mg ha−1 of dry matter (DM) silage, which was 42.5% higher than the 21.0 Mg ha−1 observed with the TMP. The p-values for the BMP versus TMP silage comparisons were p < 0.05, p < 0.05 and p < 0.001 for studies 2, 3, and 4, respectively, showing the significantly higher production with the BMP. Silage production water use efficiency (WUE) and agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (AE) were also higher with the BMP in studies 2, 3 and 4. The average harvested grain DM of the three BMP studies (9.9 Mg ha−1) was 9.5% higher than the 9.0 Mg ha−1 harvested grain DM with the TMP. The BMP of narrow rows with higher plant populations increases silage and grain production in sprinkler-irrigated systems.