15 research outputs found
Measuring water use in a green economy, A report of the Working Group on water Efficiency to the International Resource Panel
Estudo da sustentabilidade agrÃcola em municÃpio amazônico com análise envoltória de dados
Mikrobieller Abbau der Herbizide Isoproturon und Glyphosat und ihrer in organischen Bestandesabfällen festgelegten Rückstände in Bodenproben aus unterschiedlichen landwirtschaftlichen Bewirtschaftungssystemen.
Factors Affecting the Implementation of Measures for Improving Sustainability on Farms Following the RISE Sustainability Evaluation
How to measure the agroecological performance of farming in order to assist with the transition process
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Normative, systemic and procedural aspects: a review of indicator-based sustainability assessments in agriculture
Methods for assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems do often not fully (i) take into account the multifunctionality of agriculture, (ii) include multidimensionality, (iii) utilize and implement the assessment knowledge and (iv) identify conflicting goals and trade-offs. This chapter reviews seven recently developed multidisciplinary indicator-based assessment methods with respect to their contribution to these shortcomings. All approaches include (1) normative aspects such as goal setting, (2) systemic aspects such as a specification of scale of analysis and (3) a reproducible structure of the approach. The approaches can be categorized into three typologies: first, top-down farm assessments, which focus on field or farm assessment; second, top-down regional assessments, which assess the on-farm and the regional effects; and third, bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches, which focus on a regional scale. Our analysis shows that the bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches seem to better overcome the four shortcomings mentioned above
Optimization of a Fungally Bioaugmented Biomixture for Carbofuran Removal in On-Farm Biopurification Systems
Biomixtures comprise the active part of biopurification systems (BPS) for the removal of pesticide-containing wastewater from agricultural origin. Considering that biomixtures contain an important amount of lignocellulosic substrates, their bioaugmentation with degrading ligninolytic fungi represents a promising way to improve BPS. The fungus Trametes versicolor was employed for the bioaugmentation of rice husk-compost-soil (GCS) biomixtures in order to optimize the removal of the highly toxic insecticide/nematicide carbofuran (CFN). Composition of biomixtures has not been optimized before, and usually, a volumetric composition of 50:25:25 (lignocellulosic substrate:humic component:soil) is employed. Optimization of the biomixture composition was performed with a central composite design, using the volumetric content of rice husk (pre-colonized by the fungus) and the volumetric ratio compost/soil as design variables. Performance of biomixtures was comprehensively assayed considering CFN removal, the production of toxic transformation products (3-hydroxycarbofuran/3-ketocarbofuran), the ability to mineralize [14C]carbofuran, and the residual toxicity in the matrix. According to the models, the optimal volumetric composition of the GCS biomixture is 30:43:27, which maximizes removal and mineralization rate, and minimizes the accumulation of transformation products. Results support the value of assessing new biomixture formulations according to the target pesticide in order to obtain their optimal performance, before their use in BPS.Universidad de Costa Rica/[802-B2-046]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[802-B4-503]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[802-B4-609]/UCR/Costa RicaMinisterio de Ciencia, TecnologÃa y Telecomunicaciones/[FI-093-13]/MICITT/Costa RicaMinisterio de Ciencia, TecnologÃa y Telecomunicaciones/[802-B4-503]/MICITT/Costa RicaUCR::VicerrectorÃa de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro en Investigación en Contaminación Ambiental (CICA