Transforum system innovation towards sustainable food. A review

Innovations in the agri-food sector are needed to create a sustainable food supply. Sustainable food supply requires unexpectedly that densely populated regions remain food producers. A Dutch innovation program has aimed at showing the way forward through creating a number of practice and scientific projects. Generic lessons from the scientific projects in this program are likely to be of interest to agricultural innovation in other densely populated regions in the world. Based on the executed scientific projects, generic lessons across the whole innovation program are derived. We found that the agricultural sector requires evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes to reshaping institutions. Measuring sustainability is possible against benchmarks and requires stakeholder agreement on sustainability values. Results show the importance of multiple social views and multiple stakeholder involvement in agricultural innovation. Findings call for flexible goal rather than process-oriented management of innovation. Findings also emphasise the essential role of profit in anchoring sustainable development in business. The results agree with concepts of evolutionary innovation. We conclude that there is no single best solution to making the agri-food sector more sustainable densely populated areas, but that the combination of a range of solutions and approaches is likely to provide the best way forward

Nitrous oxide fluxes and nitrogen cycling along a pasture chronosequence in Central Amazonia, Brazil

International audienceWe studied nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes and soil nitrogen (N) cycling following forest conversion to pasture in the central Amazon near Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Two undisturbed forest sites and 27 pasture sites of 0.5 to 60 years were sampled once each during wet and dry seasons. In addition to soil-atmosphere fluxes of N2O we measured 27 soil chemical, soil microbiological and soil physical variables. Soil N2O fluxes were higher in the wet season than in the dry season. Fluxes of N2O from forest soils always exceeded fluxes from pasture soils and showed no consistent trend with pasture age. At our forest sites, nitrate was the dominant form of inorganic N both during wet and dry season. At our pasture sites nitrate generally dominated the inorganic N pools during the wet season and ammonium dominated during the dry season. Net mineralization and nitrification rates displayed large variations. During the dry season net immobilization of N was observed in some pastures. Compared to forest sites, young pasture sites (?2 years) had low microbial biomass N and protease activities. Protease activity and microbial biomass N peaked in pastures of intermediate age (4 to 8 years) followed by consistently lower values in older pasture (10 to 60 years). The C/N ratio of litter was low at the forest sites (~25) and rapidly increased with pasture age reaching values of 60-70 at pastures of 15 years and older. Nitrous oxide emissions at our sites were controlled by C and N availability and soil aeration. Fluxes of N2O were negatively correlated to leaf litter C/N ratio, NH4+-N and the ratio of NO3--N to the sum of NO3--N + NH4+-N (indicators of N availability), and methane fluxes and bulk density (indicators of soil aeration status) during the wet season. During the dry season fluxes of N2O were positively correlated to microbial biomass N, ?-glucosidase activity, total inorganic N stocks and NH4+-N. In our study region, pastures of all age emitted less N2O than old-growth forests, because of a progressive decline in N availability with pasture age combined with strongly anaerobic conditions in some pastures during the wet season

Soil Biochemical Properties and Nutrient Leaching From Smallholder Oil Palm Plantations, Sumatra-Indonesia

The study aimed to assess soil biochemical properties and nutrient leaching in palm oil plantation. The research was conducted in smallholder oil palm plantations which were located in Jambi Province - Indonesia. Nutrient leaching was determined by measuring nutrient concentration in soil solution bi-weekly and monthly in the frond stacked and fertilized areas; soil water samples were collected by using suction cup lysimeter. The result showed that the application of mineral fertilizer (e.g. NPK) and dolomite resulted higher base saturation, exchangeable Ca, and available P in the fertilized than frond stacked and inter row areas (p ≤ 0.05). Stacking palm oil frond increased the soil macro-porosity, hence decreased leaching of K, Mg, Na, P, and total Al in the frond stacked than in the fertilized areas. The lower leaching losses and the higher soil macroporosity in the frond stacked than in the fertilized areas indicated that either the water did not dilute nutrient in the soil due to bypass flow, or the nutrient release from mineralization did not surpass nutrient demand which is quickly uptaken by palm root. Proper soil management through synchronizing rate of fertilizer application with nutrient output or frequency of fertilizer application may potentially minimize leaching losses

An Algorithm for constructing Hjelmslev planes

Projective Hjelmslev planes and Affine Hjelmselv planes are generalisations of projective planes and affine planes. We present an algorithm for constructing a projective Hjelmslev planes and affine Hjelsmelv planes using projective planes, affine planes and orthogonal arrays. We show that all 2-uniform projective Hjelmslev planes, and all 2-uniform affine Hjelsmelv planes can be constructed in this way. As a corollary it is shown that all 2-uniform Affine Hjelmselv planes are sub-geometries of 2-uniform projective Hjelmselv planes.Comment: 15 pages. Algebraic Design Theory and Hadamard matrices, 2014, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics 13

KKF-Model Platform Coupling : summary report KKF01b

Nederland bereidt zich voor op een sneller stijgende zeespiegel en een veranderend klimaat. Hiervoor is het Deltaprogramma gestart. Dit deltaprogramma voorziet een serie beslissingen die grote gevolgen zullen hebben voor het beheer van het water in Nederland. Om deze beslissingen zorgvuldig te nemen is informatie nodig over hoe het klimaat en de stijgende zeespiegel dit waterbeheer zullen beïnvloeden. De modellen die de gevolgen van klimaatverandering berekenen zullen daarom met dezelfde klimaat forcering en gekoppeld aan elkaar moeten worden gebruikt. In dit onderzoek is gekeken naar het linken van hydrologische en hydrodynamische modellen – en daaraan gekoppelde modellen die de ontwikkelingen in natuur en landgebruik modelleren -- die het gebied van de Alpen tot en met de Noordzee inclusief Nederland beschrijven

Two decades of numerical modelling to understand long term fluvial archives: Advances and future perspectives

The development and application of numerical models to investigate fluvial sedimentary archives has increased during the last decades resulting in a sustained growth in the number of scientific publications with keywords, 'fluvial models', 'fluvial process models' and 'fluvial numerical models'. In this context we compile and review the current contributions of numerical modelling to the understanding of fluvial archives. In particular, recent advances, current limitations, previous unexpected results and future perspectives are all discussed. Numerical modelling efforts have demonstrated that fluvial systems can display non-linear behaviour with often unexpected dynamics causing significant delay, amplification, attenuation or blurring of externally controlled signals in their simulated record. Numerical simulations have also demonstrated that fluvial records can be generated by intrinsic dynamics without any change in external controls. Many other model applications demonstrate that fluvial archives, specifically of large fluvial systems, can be convincingly simulated as a function of the interplay of (palaeo) landscape properties and extrinsic climate, base level and crustal controls. All discussed models can, after some calibration, produce believable matches with real world systems suggesting that equifinality - where a given end state can be reached through many different pathways starting from different initial conditions and physical assumptions - plays an important role in fluvial records and their modelling. The overall future challenge lies in the development of new methodologies for a more independent validation of system dynamics and research strategies that allow the separation of intrinsic and extrinsic record signals using combined fieldwork and modelling

Human impact parameterizations in global hydrological models improves estimates of monthly discharges and hydrological extremes: a multi-model validation study

Human activities have a profound influence on river discharge, hydrological extremes, and water-related hazards. In this study, we compare the results of five state-of-the-art global hydrological models (GHMs) with observations to examine the role of human impact parameterizations (HIP) in the simulation of the mean, high, and low flows. The analysis is performed for 471 gauging stations across the globe and for the period 1971-2010. We find that the inclusion of HIP improves the performance of GHMs, both in managed and near-natural catchments. For near-natural catchments, the improvement in performance results from improvements in incoming discharges from upstream managed catchments. This finding is robust across GHMs, although the level of improvement and reasons for improvement vary greatly by GHM. The inclusion of HIP leads to a significant decrease in the bias of long-term mean monthly discharge in 36-73% of the studied catchments, and an improvement in modelled hydrological variability in 31-74% of the studied catchments. Including HIP in the GHMs also leads to an improvement in the simulation of hydrological extremes, compared to when HIP is excluded. Whilst the inclusion of HIP leads to decreases in simulated high-flows, it can lead to either increases or decreases in low-flows. This is due to the relative importance of the timing of return flows and reservoir operations and their associated uncertainties. Even with the inclusion of HIP, we find that model performance still not optimal. This highlights the need for further research linking the human management and hydrological domains, especially in those areas with a dominant human impact. The large variation in performance between GHMs, regions, and performance indicators, calls for a careful selection of GHMs, model components, and evaluation metrics in future model applications

Soil organic carbon dynamics in pastures established after deforestation in the humid tropics of Costa Rica

Currently, rates of deforestation in the tropics are probably higher than ever before in the past. As a consequence, changes in the earth's physical and chemical environments are proceeding at unprecedented rates. Increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 , N 2 O and other trace gases, caused by enhanced emissions from soils after forest clearing, show that deforestation in tropical areas is of global importance. Recent estimates suggest a net release of carbon from the world's tropics, due to deforestation, of between 0.42 and 1.60 Pg C yr -1(1 Pg = 10 15g) of which 0.1 to 0.3 Pg C yr -1are attributed to decreases in soil organic matter content. This carbon release from tropical areas is second only to the global release from the burning of fossil fuels (which is about 5.3 Pg C yr -1).The main objective of this thesis was to quantify the changes in soil organic carbon storage and the resulting release of CO 2 after the conversion of tropical rain forest to pasture on two contrasting soil types in the humid tropics of Costa Rica. To study changes in soil organic carbon storage, sites of an Andisol and an Inceptisol, cleared at different times in the past (deforestation sequences) were compared. A deforestation map, based on aerial photographs from the period 1952 - 1984, was made for a part of the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica, providing a well documented history of forest clearing. Using GIS techniques, this deforestation map was combined with an available soil map to select the study sites. Analysis of deforestation patterns on the map demonstrated a close relation of deforestation rate with accessibility and soil quality.Soil organic matter levels are the result of complex production and decomposition processes. The input of carbon from grass plant roots into the soil was quantified, using pulse labelling with 14C. The pulse labelling experiment revealed that root dry matter production of an improved pasture like Brachiaria (12 Mg ha -1yr -1) was about twice the root production of a low-productive species like Axonopus (6 Mg ha-1 yr-1). Root biomass of Brachiaria was about three times the root biomass of Axonopus due to higher residence time of carbon in the root biomass of Brachiaria as compared to Axonopus . Root exudates of grass plants were found to have a minor direct contribution to the longer term carbon dynamics, either because exudation rate was small or because decomposition was fast and complete.Decomposition of soil organic matter was measured using the δ 13C method, which uses differences in natural 13C isotope levels in vegetation (C3 and C4 vegetation) and soil organic matter to calculate changes in soil organic carbon. The method is applicable in soil organic matter studies where a change from C3 to C4 vegetation has occurred (or vice versa). It was demonstrated that for a correct application of the method, detailed information of changes in bulk densities accompanying changes in land use was vital. An uncertainty analysis of the δ 13C method demonstrated that the output of the δ 13C method in soil organic matter studies was highly variable due to variations in the input data. Spatial variability was the main source of the uncertainty in input data. However, variations due to sampling error and short scale variability were considerable and should not be ignored.Information on carbon input and decomposition was integrated, using a simple structured soil organic carbon (SOC) model which included carbon isotope fractionation during decomposition and depth dependent decomposition and humification rates. With this model, the observed changes in soil organic carbon and corresponding δ 13C levels during the conversion from a humid tropical forest to a cattle pasture were simulated successfully for the two soil types. With the calibrated model the cumulative net C02 release was calculated. The cumulative net release of CO 2 for pastures with low productive grass species (Axonopus compressus), varied from 31.5 (Humitropept) to 60.5 Mg C ha -1(Hapludand) in the first 20 years after forest clearing. These cumulative emissions could be reduced to 12.0 and 24.7 Mg C ha -1respectively, if higher productive grass species (e.g. Brachiaria dictyoneura ) would be introduced into the area.Decomposition rates were strongly influenced by depth. Inclusion of deeper layers in soil organic carbon simulation studies and considering carbon isotopes will probably improve the performance of SOC models in long-term studies

Spatial and temporal effects of drought on soil CO2 efflux in a cacao agroforestry system in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Climate change induced droughts pose a serious threat to ecosystems across the tropics and sub-tropics, particularly to those areas not adapted to natural dry periods. In order to study the vulnerability of cacao (Theobroma cacao) – liricidia sepium agroforestry plantations to droughts a large scale throughfall displacement roof was built in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia..