Redesigning Industrial Agroecosystems

Summary

The development and mixed benefits of high-input industrial agriculture are reviewed, then illustrated with findings from a Georgia landscape study. As a basis for considering ways to reduce the serious negative aspects of industrial agriculture, we compared the basic ecological energetics and processes of natural ecosystems with pre-industrial, industrial, and reduced-input conservation tillage agroecosystems. We also reviewed our 20-year comparison of conventional tillage with no-till systems. The conclusion is that current trends to redesign industrial agriculture along the lines of reduced-input conservation tillage systems should be accelerated in order to maintain and restore soil quality, and to reduce pollution and soil erosion at the landscape scale.     

Organic Fertilization in Traditional Mediterranean Grapevine Orchards Mediates Changes in Soil Microbial Community Structure and Enhances Soil Fertility

Soil microbial populations and their functions related to nutrient cycling contribute substantially to the regulation of soil fertility and the sustainability of agroecosystems. A field experiment was performed to assess the medium‐term effect of a mineral fertilizer and two organic fertilization systems with different nitrogen sources on the soil microbial community biomass, structure, and composition (phospholipid fatty acids, pattern, and abundance), microbial activity (basal respiration, dehydrogenase, protease, urease, β‐glucosidase, and total amount of phosphomonoesterase activities), and physical (aggregate stability) and chemical (total organic C, total N, available P and water‐soluble carbohydrates) properties in a vineyard under semiarid Mediterranean conditions after a period of 10 years. The three fertilization systems assayed were as follows: inorganic fertilization, addition of grapevine pruning with sheep manure (OPM), and addition of grapevine pruning with a legume cover crop (OPL). Both treatments, OPM and OPL, produced higher contents of total organic carbon, total N, available P, water‐soluble carbohydrates, and stable aggregates. The organic fertilization systems increased microbial biomass, shifted the structure and composition of the soil microbial community, and stimulated microbial activity, when compared with inorganic fertilization. The abundances of fungi and G+ bacteria were increased by treatments OPM and OPL, without significant differences between them. Organic and inorganic fertilization produced similar grapevine yields. The ability of the organic fertilization systems for promoting the sustainability and soil biological and chemical fertility of an agroecosystem under semiarid conditions was dependent of the organic N source. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictions of soil water and crop growth dynamics using the agroecosystem models THESEUS and OPUS

The agroecosystem models THESEUS and OPUS were tested with data obtained from three agricultural experimental field plots on sandy soils without groundwater located at the moraine landscape in East Brandenburg, Germany. At each of these plots, a separate agricultural management practice was applied. Measurements of soil water contents, pressure heads, above‐ground crop biomass, and crop yield from these three plots were compared with the corresponding simulation results of both models. The comparisons of simulated with measured outputs were analyzed using the modeling‐efficiency index IA. According to these analyses, both models simulated adequately the time courses of volumetric soil water contents and above‐ground crop biomass, but the time courses of pressure heads were predicted with a lower quality by both models. As for the pressure heads, the yields simulated with both models showed greater discrepancies in comparison with the observed ones. This indicates the need of a site‐specific parameter calibration of the crop‐growth modules, especially for that included in OPUS .     

氮磷肥对黑土玉米农田生态系统土壤微生物量碳、氮的影响

通过田间氮磷肥配施试验研究了氮磷配施对黑土玉米农田生态系统玉米不同生育时期微生物量碳、氮的影响。微生物量随玉米不同生育期的动态变化表明,氮磷肥对微生物量碳和微生物量氮的动态影响并不同步,微生物量碳和微生物量氮变化最显著的时期均是授粉期,但此时微生物量碳是最低的谷值,而微生物量氮是最高的峰值。不同氮磷配比对微生物量碳影响的回归分析表明,氮肥是影响微生物量碳的主导因素,无论是适量施用还是过量施用都是氮肥对微生物量碳的影响较大。不同氮磷配比对微生物量氮影响的回归分析表明,过量氮肥的施用减少了土壤微生物量氮的含量。磷肥无论高量和低量均能增加微生物量氮的含量,但随着施用量的增加对微生物量氮的正效应减小。氮磷配合施用可增加土壤的微生物量氮,由此可见无论单施氮肥还是单施磷肥,过量施用对微生物量氮的增加都是不利的,只有氮磷配合施用才是增加土壤微生物量氮的有效途径。     

除草剂对农田中小型土壤动物群落结构的影响

采用野外定点试验方法,分析除草剂乙草胺、2,4滴丁酯、噻吩磺隆对农田中小型土壤动物群落结构的影响。结果表明,3次取样共获得中小型土壤动物2 748只,隶属于2门,4纲,10目,其中占优势的类群有甲螨亚目、中气门亚目,分别占总个体数量的51.16%和26.82%,常见类群包括前气门亚目、弹尾目、膜翅目和鞘翅目,占总个体数量的20.27%,稀有类群占总个体数量的1.75%。喷施除草剂使中小型土壤动物个体数量明显减少,尤其是使优势类群个体数量减少最大,使群落多样性指数和均匀度指数增高,优势度指数降低,但没有使土壤动物类群数发生明显变化;3种除草剂影响下的土壤动物个体数量、类群数量、群落特征指数没有很大的差异,在不同层次的表现也没有明显的规律性。     

Free-living nematode community structure and distribution within vineyard soil aggregates under conventional and organic management practices

Soil biota play a crucial role in soil ecosystem stability, promoting organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Compared to conventional farming,organic farming is known to improve soil properties such as aggregation. Despite the importance of soil microbial communities in soil biogeochemical processes, our knowledge of their dynamics is rudimentary, especially under different agricultural management practices. Here we studied the effects of vineyard management practices(conventional an...     

基于压力-状态-响应模型的农业生态系统健康评价方法

农业是经济发展与环境保护矛盾最突出的区域,农业生态系统健康评价作为农业可持续发展的基础研究,应得到足够的重视。本文根据农业生态系统的特征和压力-状态-响应（PSR）模型,选取了若干较为公认的反映农业生态健康的指标,依据其意义建立了类型识别的物元评判模型。应用于大兴区7个乡镇,得到了以下结论：农业生态系统处在“健康”标准的有魏善庄镇、礼贤镇;处在“临界状态”标准的有长子营镇、安定镇、瀛海镇;处在“不健康”标准的有西红门镇、旧宫镇。评价结果基本与实际相符,说明建立的评价方法是切实可行的。     

A report on the conservation status of segetal weeds in Tajikistan

Intensification of agriculture has significantly diminished the populations of segetal weeds worldwide in recent decades. Remarkable changes to the entire flora and vegetation of man‐made habitats are being observed in agroecosystems. The present study analyses, for the first time, the threat status of segetal weeds in Tajikistan. A group of 871 weed species were evaluated against IUCN criteria. The assessment of threat status revealed that 214 weed taxa have to be regarded as threatened in Tajikistan, including 18 endemic and four subendemic plants. Five species have been classified as extinct, 27 as critically endangered, 27 as endangered, 39 as vulnerable, 34 as near threatened and 44 as in the ‘least concern’ category. For 38 species, the threat level was not possible, due to lack of data. The most threatened group of taxa is related to rice paddy fields. Numerous losses and disappearances were also observed in cereal communities. Percentages of threatened species in different chorological groups amounted to 58% in the Irano–Turanian, 17% in the Pluriregional, 11% in the Mediterranean, 9.5% in the Cosmopolitan and 4% in the Euro–Siberian species group. Assessment of the threatened status of the rich segetal flora of Tajikistan affords the opportunity to raise awareness of the value of this group of species in the country and may be useful in the conservation management of arable habitats. The results show that even though agriculture in Tajikistan is still based on traditional management and manual work, weed control causes a serious threat to its segetal flora.