Sjálfbær landnýting og gæðastýrð sauðfjárframleiðsla: Óþvinguð þátttaka eða kvöð?

A large portion of Iceland’s soil and vegetation has been lost over the centuries, with the productivity of the land often being far below its full potential. In order to address this issue, farmers have become increasingly involved in sustainable land use and restoration efforts, for example through voluntary participation in Quality Management in Sheep Farming (QMS). This study explores the effectiveness of the scheme regarding land improvement measures and participation processes, based on farmers’ experiences, views and expectations. Data was collected through qualitative interviews with farmers within a specific study area, who all participated in the QMS scheme and then analysed using the methods of grounded theory. There is evidence to suggest that carrying out reclamation projects influences environmental behaviour to some extent. However, a gap seems to exist between the land use part of QMS and other aspects of the scheme, with the objectives of restoration and sustainable land use needing to be clarified, and subsidies better linked to restoration achievements. A consensus and consistency needs to be developed among the different actors, institutional and legal framework, when it comes to the priorities and methods used within the scheme. The scheme is more or less ‘top-down’ oriented, with farmers regarded as passive assistants for advancing a certain agenda rather than influential or valuable voices within the system. Thus, for the QMS to reach its potential, information flow and communication within and outside of the system needs to be enhanced with incentive and innovation enabled and encouraged.Stór hluti gróðurs og jarðvegs á Íslandi hefur glatast í gegnum aldirnar og er framleiðni landsins víðs vegar mun minni en það hefur burði til. Til að taka á þessum vanda hafa bændur í vaxandi mæli horft til sjálfbærari landnýtingar og uppgræðslu, meðal annars í gegnum þátttöku í gæðastýrðri sauðfjárframleiðslu. Rannsókn þessari er ætlað að varpa ljósi á árangur og skilvirkni gæðastýringarinnar hvað varðar landbætur og þátttökuaðferðir útfrá upplifunum, viðhorfum og væntingum bænda. Í þessum tilgangi voru tekin eigindleg viðtöl við bændur á ákveðnu rannsóknasvæði sem síðan voru greind útfrá aðferðum grundaðrar kenningar. Færa má rök fyrir því að landbótaaðgerðir hafi áhrif á umhverfisvitund og -hegðun bænda í einhverjum mæli. Vanta virðist þó upp á tengingu milli landnýtingarhluta gæðastýringar og annarra þátta kerfisins. Skýra mætti betur markmið landbóta og sjálfbærrar landnýtingar auk þess sem styrkveitingar ætti að tengja betur við árangur slíkra aðgerða. Samstöðu og samræmi þarf að gæta milli hagsmunaaðila, stofnana og lagaumhverfis hvað varðar forgangsröðun og aðferðir. Toppstjórnun virðist almennt ríkja innan gæðastýringarinnar þar sem bændur eru fremur álitnir hlutlaus verkfæri til að ná fram ákveðnum markmiðum fremur en uppspretta mikilvægra og gagnlegra upplýsinga og hugmynda. Því er nauðsynlegt að styrkja upplýsingaflæði og samskipti innan sem utan kerfisins og hvetja til aukins frumkvæðis og nýsköpunar ef gæðastýringin á að ná takmarki sínu á sviði sjálfbærrar landnýtingar

Early stage litter decomposition across biomes

Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litter and methodologies, adding major uncertainty to syntheses, comparisons and meta-analyses across different experiments and sites. In the TeaComposition initiative, the potential litter decomposition is investigated by using standardized substrates (Rooibos and Green tea) for comparison of litter mass loss at 336 sites (ranging from −9 to +26 °C MAT and from 60 to 3113 mm MAP) across different ecosystems. In this study we tested the effect of climate (temperature and moisture), litter type and land-use on early stage decomposition (3 months) across nine biomes. We show that litter quality was the predominant controlling factor in early stage litter decomposition, which explained about 65% of the variability in litter decomposition at a global scale. The effect of climate, on the other hand, was not litter specific and explained <0.5% of the variation for Green tea and 5% for Rooibos tea, and was of significance only under unfavorable decomposition conditions (i.e. xeric versus mesic environments). When the data were aggregated at the biome scale, climate played a significant role on decomposition of both litter types (explaining 64% of the variation for Green tea and 72% for Rooibos tea). No significant effect of land-use on early stage litter decomposition was noted within the temperate biome. Our results indicate that multiple drivers are affecting early stage litter mass loss with litter quality being dominant. In order to be able to quantify the relative importance of the different drivers over time, long-term studies combined with experimental trials are needed.This work was performed within the TeaComposition initiative, carried out by 190 institutions worldwide. We thank Gabrielle Drozdowski for her help with the packaging and shipping of tea, Zora Wessely and Johannes Spiegel for the creative implementation of the acknowledgement card, Josip Dusper for creative implementation of the graphical abstract, Christine Brendle for the GIS editing, and Marianne Debue for her help with the data cleaning. Further acknowledgements go to Adriana Principe, Melanie Köbel, Pedro Pinho, Thomas Parker, Steve Unger, Jon Gewirtzman and Margot McKleeven for the implementation of the study at their respective sites. We are very grateful to UNILEVER for sponsoring the Lipton tea bags and to the COST action ClimMani for scientific discussions, adoption and support to the idea of TeaComposition as a common metric. The initiative was supported by the following grants: ILTER Initiative Grant, ClimMani Short-Term Scientific Missions Grant (COST action ES1308; COST-STSM-ES1308-36004; COST-STM-ES1308-39006; ES1308-231015-068365), INTERACT (EU H2020 Grant No. 730938), and Austrian Environment Agency (UBA). Franz Zehetner acknowledges the support granted by the Prometeo Project of Ecuador's Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) as well as Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (2190). Ana I. Sousa, Ana I. Lillebø and Marta Lopes thanks for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017), to FCT/MEC through national funds (PIDDAC), and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. The research was also funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT, through SFRH/BPD/107823/2015 (A.I. Sousa), co-funded by POPH/FSE. Thomas Mozdzer thanks US National Science Foundation NSF DEB-1557009. Helena C. Serrano thanks Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (UID/BIA/00329/2013). Milan Barna acknowledges Scientific Grant Agency VEGA (2/0101/18). Anzar A Khuroo acknowledges financial support under HIMADRI project from SAC-ISRO, India