| 1. |
- Sattler, Cornelia, et al.
(författare)
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Pesticide diversity in rice growing areas of Northern Vietnam
- 2018
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Ingår i: Paddy and Water Environment. - : Springer. - 1611-2490 .- 1611-2504. ; 16:2, s. 339-352
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pesticide use in developing countries increases rapidly. In many regions, we miss knowledge of how frequently pesticides are applied and which active ingredients are used. We present a new cost-efficient and rapid assessment method of recording pesticides diversity in rice-dominated landscapes and present some evidence of the misuse of active ingredients in our study regions. We investigated 17 rice fields in two regions of Northern Vietnam in 2014 and 2015. At each region, we explore the abundance of pesticides used with three methods including (1) the novel approach of collecting pesticide packages close to our target rice fields, (2) observations of farmers spraying pesticides in the surrounding and (3) interviewing local farmers. By collecting pesticide packages, we found 811 packages containing 74 different active ingredients. On average, 19 active ingredients (ranging from four to 40 active ingredients) were applied with an average content of 275.3 g of active ingredients per site. Insecticide packages (39%) were most abundant followed by those of fungicides (31%), herbicides (16%) and other active ingredients (14%). On all sites, active ingredients banned in the European Union were applied by the farmers. Collecting pesticide packages proved to be an efficient and rapidly implemented method to obtain some baseline information about pesticide application (for Northern Vietnam). We suspect that improved agricultural extension services could contribute to good agricultural practices in pest management. Generally, better information and education for local farmers for appropriate use of pesticides seem a necessity.
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| 2. |
- Sattler, Cornelia, et al.
(författare)
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Pesticides and land cover heterogeneity affect functional group and taxonomic diversity of arthropods in rice agroecosystems
- 2020
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Ingår i: Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0167-8809 .- 1873-2305. ; 297, s. 1-8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biodiversity can be characterised across several dimensions, which are crucial for the evaluation of ecosystem services. Functional diversity, a key aspect of biodiversity, provides a more realistic characterisation of the functioning of ecological communities than only studying their taxonomic diversity. The relevance of functional ecology studies has steadily increased in agroecosystems. However, the combined effects of pesticides and land cover heterogeneity on the taxonomic and functional diversity of arthropod communities have been studied less frequently. We sampled arthropods during the dry season in 19 rice fields located in two different regions of Northern Vietnam. We assorted the arthropods into functional groups corresponding to different feeding habits and calculated the taxonomic and functional group diversifies. Finally, we analysed the impacts of pesticide applications and land cover heterogeneity on both diversity measures. Taxonomic and functional group diversity measures were highly correlated. In turn, both diversity measures responded similarly to land cover heterogeneity and pesticides. Land cover heterogeneity had positive effects on taxonomic and functional group diversity, mainly at the early stage of rice crops. Conversely, the impact of pesticide application on both diversity measures was strongly negative. Our results suggest that rice agroecosystems can be more sustainable by increasing landscape heterogeneity and a reduced pesticide use. Such schemes may help to maintain higher levels of biodiversity that ensure ecosystem functioning, which will be therefore likely beneficial to provide ecosystem services in agroecosystems.
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| 3. |
- Schrader, Julian, et al.
(författare)
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Woody habitats promote pollinators and complexity of plant–pollinator interactions in homegardens located in rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras
- 2018
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Ingår i: Paddy and Water Environment. - : Springer. - 1611-2490 .- 1611-2504. ; 16:2, s. 253-263
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bees are important pollinators of wild plants and crops, but little is known about bee habitat requirements and pollinator management in tropical mountainous agricultural regions. Here, smallholder farmers produce fruits and vegetables in homegardens that depend upon or benefit from bee pollination. We hypothesized that abundance and richness of wild and domesticated bees and the complexity of plant–pollinator interactions are higher in homegardens surrounded by woody habitats than in homegardens found farther from woodlands. Bees were sampled in 20 homegardens in the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras. We used linear mixed effect models to analyse effects of woody habitats around homegardens on bee richness and abundance. Based on pooled observations for each garden category, we built pollinator–plant interactions networks to illustrate shifts in interaction frequencies. We recorded 354 bee individuals of 13 wild and one domesticated bee species (Apis cerana). Wild bee richness was significantly higher in homegardens surrounded by woody habitats. Bee abundance increased significantly with increasing flower cover. Wild bees visited cultivated plants significantly more often than domesticated bees. Six vegetable species and 76% of all flower visits on cultivated plants in total were performed by wild bees and three plant species and 24% by domesticated bees. Pollinator–plant networks were more complex in homegardens surrounded by woody habitats. We conclude that woody habitats increase abundance and richness of wild and domesticated bees. Increasing availability of floral resources also promotes bee abundance. In order to promote pollination services in the landscape mosaic of smallholder rice farms, woody habitats and forest fragments together with numerous floral resources should be protected and restored.
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| 4. |
- Settele, Josef, et al.
(författare)
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Rice ecosystem services in South-east Asia
- 2018
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Ingår i: Paddy and Water Environment. - : Springer. - 1611-2490 .- 1611-2504. ; 16:2, s. 211-224
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
- Ward-Caviness, Cavin K., et al.
(författare)
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Improvement of myocardial infarction risk prediction via inflammation-associated metabolite biomarkers
- 2017
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Ingår i: Heart. - : BMJ. - 1355-6037 .- 1468-201X. ; 103:16, s. 1278-1285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective The comprehensive assaying of low-molecular-weight compounds, for example, metabolomics, provides a unique tool to uncover novel biomarkers and understand pathways underlying myocardial infarction (MI). We used a targeted metabolomics approach to identify biomarkers for MI and evaluate their involvement in the pathogenesis of MI.Methods and results Using three independent, prospective cohorts (KORA S4, KORA S2 and AGES-REFINE), totalling 2257 participants without a history of MI at baseline, we identified metabolites associated with incident MI (266 cases). We also investigated the association between the metabolites and high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP) to understand the relation between these metabolites and systemic inflammation. Out of 140 metabolites, 16 were nominally associated (p<0.05) with incident MI in KORA S4. Three metabolites, arginine and two lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC 17: 0 and LPC 18:2), were selected as biomarkers via a backward stepwise selection procedure in the KORA S4 and were significant (p<0.0003) in a meta-analysis comprising all three studies including KORA S2 and AGES-REFINE. Furthermore, these three metabolites increased the predictive value of the Framingham risk score, increasing the area under the receiver operating characteristic score in KORA S4 (from 0.70 to 0.78, p=0.001) and AGES-REFINE study (from 0.70 to 0.76, p=0.02), but was not observed in KORA S2. The metabolite biomarkers attenuated the association between hsCRP and MI, indicating a potential link to systemic inflammatory processes.Conclusions We identified three metabolite biomarkers, which in combination increase the predictive value of the Framingham risk score. The attenuation of the hsCRP-MI association by these three metabolites indicates a potential link to systemic inflammation.
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