8,898 research outputs found
Assessing the ecological soundness of organic and conventional agriculture by means of life cycle assessment (LCA) - a case study of leek production
Purpose – Sustainable agriculture implies the ability of agro-ecosystems to remain productive in the long-term. It is not easy to point out unambiguously whether or not current production systems meet this sustainability demand. A priori thinking would suggest that organic crops are environmentally favourable, but may ignore the effect of reduced productivity, which shifts the potential impact to other parts of the food provision system. The purpose of this paper is to assess the ecological sustainability of conventional and organic leek production by means of life cycle assessment (LCA).
Design/methodology/approach – A cradle-to-farm gate LCA is applied, based on real farm data from two research centres. For a consistent comparison, two functional units (FU) were defined: 1ha and 1?kg of leek production.
Findings – Assessed on an area basis, organic farming shows a more favourable environmental profile. These overall benefits are strongly reduced when the lower yields are taken into account. Related to organic farming it is therefore important that solutions are found to substantially increase the yields without increasing the environmental burden. Related to conventional farming, important potential for environmental improvements are in optimising the farm nutrient flows, reducing pesticide use and increasing its self-supporting capacity.
Research limitations/implications – The research is a cradle-to-farm gate LCA, future research can be expanded to comprise all phases from cradle-to-grave to get an idea of the total sustainability of our present food consumption patterns. The research is also limited to the case of leek production. Future research can apply the methodology to other crops.
Originality/value – To date, there is still lack of clear evidence of the added value of organic farming compared to conventional farming on environmental basis. Few studies have compared organic and conventional food production by means of LCA. This paper addresses these issues
Correlação entre os métodos Mehlich 1, Melich 3 e resina para análise de P e K em solos dos tabuleiros Csoterios.
A pesquisa apresenta os resultados da comparação entre o Mehlich-3 (M3) e a resina com o Mehlich-1 (M1) em solos dos tabuleiros costeiros.bitstream/CPATC/20018/1/bp_33.pd
Cnidaria, Scleractinia, Siderastreidae, Siderastrea siderea (Ellis and Solander, 1786): Hartt Expedition and the first record of a Caribbean siderastreid in tropical Southwestern Atlantic
Samples of Siderastrea collected by the geologist C. F. Hartt during expedition to Brazil (19th century), anddeposited at the National Museum of the Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, have been re-examined. Taxonomicalanalyses resulted in the identification of a colony of S. siderea from offshore northern Bahia state. Following recentstudies, the occurrence of Caribbean siderastreids to western South Atlantic provides new criteria to assess intra- andinterpopulational morphological variation of the endemic S. stellata, refuting historical trends of synonymizations possiblybiased by long-term taxonomical misunderstandings
Polymer flooding in a high salinity heavy-oil reservoir
This work aims to present a methodology to evaluate polymer flooding and compare the results with the conventional waterflooding for a target heavy oil reservoir. The dead oil and produced water (SPW) (104 800 ppm of total solids dissolved) were prepared to represent the reservoir fluids at test conditions (60°C). SPW was the water source to make and determine the polymer concentration (HPAM-ATBS) to get the target viscosity for the injection fluid (10 mPa s at 7.8 s-1). Botucatu sandstone samples represented the reservoir formation. We verified the thickness of the polymer solution after flow throughout the rock sample and confirmed higher value than that for injected SPW. Polymer flooding led to the breakthrough delay, shifted the fractional flow to the right, anticipated oil production, and incremented oil recovery. Under the tested conditions, the maximum contribution of polymer flooding occurred up to 70% of water cut121355
Uso de colunas de lixiviação para a determinação da dinâmica de liberação de nutrientes a partir de rochas moídas.
Avaliação, caracterização e manipulação de plantas medicinais do horto da Embrapa Amazônia Oriental.
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