ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING IN AGRICULTURE: NUTRIENT ACCOUNTING AND OTHER ASPECTS

While traditional accounting focuses on accounting for capital assets, costs, yields valued and sold in the market, environmental accounting intends to do the same with non-marketed capital assets, costs and yields, that is, externalities. The farm level nutrient balances are based on an input-output comparison, in which the nutrients entering the farm within inputs are compared to nutrients leaving the farm within the sold products. The method considers the amounts of nutrients entering the farm but not leaving it with the products to be wastes polluting the environment. The weakness of this approach is the handling of stock changes. In a farming year high amounts of nutrients contained in unsold products are not wastes, nor are they stored in the soil, but are stored in the stocks. To handle this problem the concepts of external nutrient balance and internal nutrient balance are introduced, and are tested in case studies of two Hungarian mixed farms

Altered element homeostasis and transmethylation ability in short-term polyphenol rich supplementation in hyperlipidemic animal model

Abstract Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the most common chronic liver diseases with unclarified pathomechanism and without evidence-proven therapy. Dietary polyphenols, targeting oxidative stress, are at the center of investigations. Our aim was to examine the effects of a polyphenol rich extract on metal element homeostasis and transmethylation ability in non-alcoholic fatty liver model. A ten-day rat model was used (control group, hyperlipidemic group with fat-rich diet, hyperlipidemic group with fat-rich diet and polyphenol supplementation, N = 8 in each group). The hyperlipidemic diet increased the concentration of the majority of the elements with significantly higher contents of B, Co, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Se, Si, and Zn in the liver. Further elevation of Al, Pb, and Sn concentrations could be observed in polyphenol supplemented animals. The polyphenol supplement unexpectedly decreased the transmethylation ability of the liver (132.00 vs. 114.15 vs. 92.25 HCHO μg g−1) further. The results emphasize the possible role of altered metal and non-metal element concentrations and decreased transmethylation ability in the pathomechanism of fatty liver disease. Dietary supplementation with natural compounds may have undesirable effect as well, there is the necessity to improve the efficacy of polyphenol formulations because of their low oral bioavailability

Why do not polyphenols of red wine protect against the harmful effects of alcohol in alcoholism?

The effect of polyphenolic bioactive substances, especially resveratrol (12.03 mg l−1), of an often consumed Hungarian red wine was investigated in a short term rat experiment. Male young Wistar albino rats were treated with high volumes of red wine (matching one bottle of wine/day for a 85 kg man) (N=5) and another alcoholic drink of the same alcohol concentration (N=5), corresponding to the circumstances of alcoholism, and 5 rats were in the control group. A total of 7 routine laboratory parameters were measured from the sera by kits. The changes of redox homeostasis (H-donor activity, induced chemiluminescence, diene-conjugates, GSHPx) were studied in blood plasma and/or in liver homogenates by spectrophotometric and luminometric methods. Transmethylation property of the liver was measured by overpressured layer chromatography (OPLC) technique. It was proven with in vitro OPLC analytical study that resveratrol reacted with methyl groups, and resveratrol was demonstrated to influence transmethylation processes as well as redox homeostasis. Red wine compounds do not protect from the harmful effects of alcohol, and even by high doses of resveratrol, the liver further deteriorates and the negative effect of alcohol increases. It has been confirmed that high doses of resveratrol do not provide protection against liver damage in those suffering from alcoholism

Phosphorus turnover characteristics of soils: Comparison of pot experiment results and modelling by stepwise regression analyses

The phosphorus retention ability of soils depends on several factors and influences the effectiveness of fertilization as well as the release of P from soil to water. In the present study the phosphorus supplying and/or retention ability of soils were estimated by two approaches: biological approach (pot experiments) and modelling (by regression analyses). In the course of the biological approach pot experiments were carried out with soils showing significant differences in total and available P contents. Soil samples were collected from selected plots of 9 sites of the National Long-Term Fertilization Trials (NLFT) after 20 years of fertilization, which represents different agro-ecological regions of Hungary. Site characteristics covered a wide range in pH, carbonate and P content, representing typical soil types of the country. With the statistical approach (modelling), the most important soil properties were included and the role of these factors was evaluated by stepwise regression analyses. From the equations, the contribution of important soil parameters to phosphorus supplying and retention ability could be quantified. The objective of the present study was to find a simple way to compare and evaluate the two approaches in P nutrient turnover of soils. Results of the two approaches were correlated. From these results, a rank correlation was also made from the experimental and calculated results. A very close relationship was observed for the P supply and retention of soils (r value was 0.918 for the N0P0K0 unfertilized control and 0.927 for the N200P200K100 fertilization level). Values obtained with rank correlation were 0.87 and 0.866, respectively, verifying that both methodologies are reliable for estimating the nutrient dynamics in soils and to predict P dynamics in a diverse range of soils

Frost induced changes in enzyme activities and carbohydrate content in the spurs of some pear cultivars during the dormancy

Frost tolerance of pear cultivars was checked after artificial cold treatment in 2003-2005. Limbs collected during the endodormancy were exposed in a climatic chamber for 24 hours to —25; —28 °C, while those collected in the ecodormancy were kept at —15 and —18 °C. Frost damages of buds were registered according to a visually defined scale, then peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme activities and carbohydrate contents were checked in buds and spur-part below the buds. POD activity of untreated control in tissue below buds was higher than in the buds, which were increasing continuously during the endodormancy and decreased at the end of the ecodormancy. During endodormancy, cold treatment of —25 and —28 °C effected different changes of enzyme activity in buds of the cultivars. In the ecodormancy, enzyme activities increased after a cold treatment of —15 °C, whereas the activities decreased significantly after —18 °C. `Kaiser' — susceptible to frost — with its higher values of both enzyme activities marked out from other cultivars, which is correlated with its stress response. Changes in carbohydrate components — especially in glucose — of buds monitored well the different stress responses of tolerant and resistant pear cultivars induced by frost stress