Social conditions of smallholder dairy farmers influence their environmental decisions.

The objective of this study is to characterize the social conditions for making agricultural decisions. Particular attention is paid to sustainable agricultural practices in dairy farming. The theoretical framework has been developed around two major explicatory perspectives: sustainable development and quality of life.

Costs and effects of measures to reduce ammonia emissions from dairy cattle and pig production: A comparison of country-specific estimations and model calculations.

Understanding the costs of emission abatement measures is essential for devising reduction efforts. It allows to identify cost-effective solutions to achieve target values set by international agreements or national policies. This work aims to summarize and discuss the current knowledge on costs and effects associated with selected ammonia (NH) mitigation measures in livestock production through comparison of country-specific and model-estimated values.

DATAMAN: A global database of methane, nitrous oxide, and ammonia emission factors for livestock housing and outdoor storage of manure.

Livestock manure management systems can be significant sources of nitrous oxide (N O), methane (CH ), and ammonia (NH ) emissions. Many studies have been conducted to improve our understanding of the emission processes and to identify influential variables in order to develop mitigation techniques adapted to each manure management step (animal housing, outdoor storage, and manure spreading to land). The international project DATAMAN (http://www.

Importance of saprotrophic freshwater fungi for pollen degradation.

Fungi and bacteria are the major organic matter (OM) decomposers in aquatic ecosystems. While bacteria are regarded as primary mineralizers in the pelagic zone of lakes and oceans, fungi dominate OM decomposition in streams and wetlands. Recent findings indicate that fungal communities are also active in lakes, but little is known about their diversity and interactions with bacteria.