Determinants of carbon and nitrogen sequestration in multistrata agroforestry.

Agroforestry has the potential to sequester carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), thereby counteracting climate change and soil degradation. However, the lack of empirical quantitative evidence on determinants of C and N stocks hampers the management of these stocks. The aim of this study was to identify the key determinants of the C and N stocks in multistrata agroforestry.

Global nutrient equity for people and the planet.

The industrial world has converted inert soil and atmospheric nutrients into reactive fertilizer flows that endanger water quality, biodiversity and climate. Simultaneously, poor nations starve because of the shortage of these nutrients in agricultural soils. Here we propose a redistribution of accumulated nutrients to enhance food security while counteracting the current degradation of critical Earth system processes.

Contribution of honeybees towards the net environmental benefits of food.

Beekeeping provides honey, protein-containing drone broods and pollen, and yield-increasing pollination services. This study tested the hypothesis that beekeeping can result in net-positive impacts, if pollination services and protein-containing by-products are utilised. As a case example, Finnish beekeeping practices were used.

Native forests but not agroforestry systems preserve arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species richness in southern Ethiopia.

The rapid conversion of native forests to farmland in Ethiopia, the cradle of biodiversity, threatens the diversity of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) pivotal to plant nutrition and carbon sequestration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of this land-use change on the AMF species composition and diversity in southern Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from nine plots in each of three land-use types: native forest, agroforestry, and khat monocropping.

Food systems for resilient futures.

In this time of the pandemic, nothing is as it used to be. This change creates space for new narratives towards resilience. The resilience perspective implies preparing for shocks as well as various futures that might evolve.

Decline in climate resilience of European wheat.

Food security relies on the resilience of staple food crops to climatic variability and extremes, but the climate resilience of European wheat is unknown. A diversity of responses to disturbance is considered a key determinant of resilience. The capacity of a sole crop genotype to perform well under climatic variability is limited; therefore, a set of cultivars with diverse responses to weather conditions critical to crop yield is required.

Gaps in the capacity of modern forage crops to adapt to the changing climate in northern Europe.

The within-species diversity in response to weather and the gaps in the response diversity in the modern set of forage crop cultivars were determined using an approach that assessed the adaptive capacity under global climate change. The annual dry matter (DM) yields were recorded in multi-location MTT (Maa- ja elintarviketalouden tutkimuskeskus) Agrifood Research Official Variety Trials in Finland for modern forage crop cultivars from 2000 to 2012, as a response to agroclimatic variables critical to yield based on the year-round weather data. The effect and interaction of cultivars and agroclimatic variables were analysed using mixed model.

Low black carbon concentration in agricultural soils of central and northern Ethiopia.

Soil carbon (C) represents the largest terrestrial carbon stock and is key for soil productivity. Major fractions of soil C consist of organic C, carbonates and black C. The turnover rate of black C is lower than that of organic C, and black C abundance decreases the vulnerablility of soil C stock to decomposition under climate change.

Ethiopian agriculture has greater potential for carbon sequestration than previously estimated.

More than half of the cultivation-induced carbon loss from agricultural soils could be restored through improved management. To incentivise carbon sequestration, the potential of improved practices needs to be verified. To date, there is sparse empirical evidence of carbon sequestration through improved practices in East-Africa.

No Evidence of Trade-Off between Farm Efficiency and Resilience: Dependence of Resource-Use Efficiency on Land-Use Diversity.

Efficiency in the use of resources stream-lined for expected conditions could lead to reduced system diversity and consequently endanger resilience. We tested the hypothesis of a trade-off between farm resource-use efficiency and land-use diversity. We applied stochastic frontier production models to assess the dependence of resource-use-efficiency on land-use diversity as illustrated by the Shannon-Weaver index.

Modelling shifts in agroclimate and crop cultivar response under climate change.

(i) to identify at national scale areas where crop yield formation is currently most prone to climate-induced stresses, (ii) to evaluate how the severity of these stresses is likely to develop in time and space, and (iii) to appraise and quantify the performance of two strategies for adapting crop cultivation to a wide range of (uncertain) climate change projections. To this end we made use of extensive climate, crop, and soil data, and of two modelling tools: N-AgriCLIM and the WOFOST crop simulation model. N-AgriCLIM was developed for the automatic generation of indicators describing basic agroclimatic conditions and was applied over the whole of Finland.

Adapting to climate variability and change: experiences from cereal-based farming in the central rift and Kobo Valleys, Ethiopia.

Small-holder farmers in Ethiopia are facing several climate related hazards, in particular highly variable rainfall with severe droughts which can have devastating effects on their livelihoods. Projected changes in climate are expected to aggravate the existing challenges. This study examines farmer perceptions on current climate variability and long-term changes, current adaptive strategies, and potential barriers for successful further adaptation in two case study regions-the Central Rift Valley (CRV) and Kobo Valley.

Understanding biorefining efficiency--the case of agrifood waste.

The aim of this study was to determine biorefining efficiency according to the choices made in the entire value chain. The importance of the share of biomass volume biorefined or products substituted was investigated. Agrifood-waste-based biorefining represented the case.

Potential of energy and nutrient recovery from biodegradable waste by co-treatment in Lithuania.

Biodegradable waste quantities in Lithuania and their potential for the co-treatment in renewable energy and organic fertilizer production were investigated. Two scenarios were formulated to study the differences of the amounts of obtainable energy and fertilizers between different ways of utilization. In the first scenario, only digestion was used, and in the second scenario, materials other than straw were digested, and straw and the solid fraction of sewage sludge digestate were combusted.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity and species dominance in a temperate soil with long-term conventional and low-input cropping systems.

The aim of this work was to study the effect of long-term contrasting cropping systems on the indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) spore populations in the soil of a field experiment located in western Finland. Conventional and low-input cropping systems were compared, each with two nutrient management regimes. The conventional cropping system with a non-leguminous 6-year crop rotation (barley-barley-rye-oat-potato-oat) was fertilized at either full (rotation A) or half (rotation B) the recommended rate.