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Unraveling the logics of landscape
- 2014
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Despite conceptual oscillations through times, the concept of landscape remains highly subjective, whereupon unraveling its 'logics' opens up to a plurality of interpretations. Accordingly, by focusing on the interconnections present in the non-haphazard production of landscape, this publication elaborates on how the rural landscape is valued, monitored, changed, harbored, used and misused, be it through actions, representations or metaphors. This book covers a broad range of topics, with contributions from scholars from more than 30 countries.
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| 2. |
- Algers, Anne, 1961, et al.
(author)
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A New Format for Learning about Farm Animal Welfare
- 2011
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In: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1187-7863 .- 1573-322X. ; 24:4, s. 367-379
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Farm animal welfare is a knowledge domain that can be regarded as a model for new ways of organizing learning and making higher education more responsive to the needs of society. Global concern for animal welfare has resulted in a great demand for knowledge. As a complement to traditional education in farm animal welfare, higher education can be more demand driven and look at a broad range of methods to make knowledge available. The result of an inventory on “farm animal welfare,” “e-learning,” “learning resources,” and “open educational resources” in three different search engines is presented. A huge amount of information on animal welfare is available on the Internet but many of the providers lock in the knowledge in a traditional course context. Only a few universities develop and disseminate open learning resources within the subject. Higher education institutions are encouraged to develop open educational resources in animal welfare for the benefit of teachers, students, society, and, indirectly, animal welfare.
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| 3. |
- Hartmann, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Significant and persistent impact of timber harvesting on soil microbial communities in Northern coniferous forests
- 2012
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In: The ISME Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1751-7362 .- 1751-7370. ; 6:12, s. 2199-2218
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Forest ecosystems have integral roles in climate stability, biodiversity and economic development. Soil stewardship is essential for sustainable forest management. Organic matter (OM) removal and soil compaction are key disturbances associated with forest harvesting, but their impacts on forest ecosystems are not well understood. Because microbiological processes regulate soil ecology and biogeochemistry, microbial community structure might serve as indicator of forest ecosystem status, revealing changes in nutrient and energy flow patterns before they have irreversible effects on long-term soil productivity. We applied massively parallel pyrosequencing of over 4.6 million ribosomal marker sequences to assess the impact of OM removal and soil compaction on bacterial and fungal communities in a field experiment replicated at six forest sites in British Columbia, Canada. More than a decade after harvesting, diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities remained significantly altered by harvesting disturbances, with individual taxonomic groups responding differentially to varied levels of the disturbances. Plant symbionts, like ectomycorrhizal fungi, and saprobic taxa, such as ascomycetes and actinomycetes, were among the most sensitive to harvesting disturbances. Given their significant ecological roles in forest development, the fate of these taxa might be critical for sustainability of forest ecosystems. Although abundant bacterial populations were ubiquitous, abundant fungal populations often revealed a patchy distribution, consistent with their higher sensitivity to the examined soil disturbances. These results establish a comprehensive inventory of bacterial and fungal community composition in northern coniferous forests and demonstrate the long-term response of their structure to key disturbances associated with forest harvesting.
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| 4. |
- Jensen, Anna M, et al.
(author)
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Shrubs protect oak seedlings against ungulate browsing in temperate broadleaved forests of conservation interest: A field experiment
- 2012
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In: Forest Ecology and Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-1127 .- 1872-7042. ; 266, s. 187-193
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In many oak-rich temperate broadleaved forests of conservation value, high ungulate browsing pressure restricts oak regeneration. We examined the protection of oak (Quercus sp.) seedlings from browsing provided by naturally occurring shrubs in 10 forests across southern Sweden over 3 years. We planted oak seedlings in four plots in each forest; two with naturally regenerated shrubs and two with no shrubs. Ungulate browsers were excluded from two plots at each site, one with and one without shrubs. Fencing provided the best protection against ungulate browsers for the seedlings. The probability of a seedling being browsed (browsing frequency) was approximately 20% units lower for individuals growing among shrubs than for individuals growing in the absence of shrubs. When browsing did occur, the intensity (measured as a reduction in height growth) was significantly lower for seedlings in shrubs. Regression analyses showed that browsing frequency increased on seedlings in tall shrubs, and decreased on seedlings that had been browsed previously. Browsing intensity decreased if the seedling grew in tall and dense shrubs. Browsing frequency and intensity increased on oak seedlings that over topped the shrub canopy. Increased abundance of the prickled Rubus idaeus and Rubus fruticosus coll. in plots with shrubs did not affect browsing frequency and intensity. Two and a half years after planting, oak seedling mortality increased by the presence of shrubs. Although shrubs restricted oak seedling growth, we conclude that shrubs initially facilitated oak regeneration by concealment, and subsequently by numeric dilution. Shrubs may be used to reduce browsing damages if long-term evaluation indicates a net positive outcome for oak survival and growth.
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| 7. |
- Weslien, Per, 1963, et al.
(author)
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Carrot cropping on organic soil is a hotspot for nitrous oxide emissions
- 2012
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In: Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1385-1314 .- 1573-0867. ; 94:2-3, s. 249-253
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) were measured from a non nitrogen fertilized carrot (Daucus carota ssp. sativa) field on an organic soil in Sweden during one cropping and post-harvest season. The cumulative emission during the measuring period of 149 days was 41 (±2.8) kg N2O ha−1. Dividing the measuring period into a cropping and a post-harvest period revealed that the presence of carrots strongly stimulated N2O emissions, as the emission during the cropping period was one order of magnitude higher compared to the post-harvest period. The N2O emission from the carrot field were higher than fluxes reported from cereal crop and grass production, but in the same order as reported fluxes from vegetable cropping on organic soils. In conclusion, our results indicate that the cultivation of root vegetable, such as carrots, on organic soil can be a high point source for N2O emissions.
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| 8. |
- McGreevy, Paul, et al.
(author)
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Problems at the human-horse interface and prospects for smart textile solutions
- 2014
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In: Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 1558-7878 .- 1878-7517. ; 9:1, s. 34-42
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The significant potential for so-called “smart textiles” in the design of the next generation of devices that measure pressure, tension, moisture, and heat at the humanehorse interface is discussed in this article. Research techniques from theoretical and experimental physics laboratories, combined with wireless technology, can be readily adapted to measure and store metrics for numerous variables in equine structure and function. Activities, such as breathing, the extension and flexion of joints, limb kinematics, and cardiac function, can be logged as indicators of physiological and behavioral conditioning (training). Such metrics may also, one day, support veterinary diagnostics but also play a role in safeguarding sporthorse welfare, especially in elite contexts where the horse may be pushed to its functional limits. As such, they are likely to emerge as an area of great interest to equitation and welfare scientists. It is important to note that smart textiles sense and react to exogenous stimuli via integrated sensors. So, beyond the equitation science laboratory, the emergence of polymers and smart materials may enhance the effectiveness of, or challenge us to completely rethink, traditional items of saddlery, thus improving equitation. The integration of smart textiles in all sorts of extant and emergent equipment for everyday equestrians could, in the future, lead to equipment that responds appropriately to the demands of equitation in its various forms. Rethinking equitation through physics and the use of smart textiles seems to have merit in that it is a novel means of both investigating and addressing problems that compromise the welfare and performance of horses. The purpose of this article is to envision the use of smart textiles in research, clinical, equestrian, and horse care contexts.
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