Developing a management-oriented simulation model of pesticide emissions for use in the life cycle assessment of paddy rice cultivation.

Management of the negative environmental impact of pesticides used in paddy fields requires the quantification of the emissions reaching relevant environmental compartments and the determination of the factors that influence such emissions. The present study is the first to develop a simulation model for estimating the fractions emitted to the air (f), surface water (f), and the fractions that leach vertically (f) of pesticides applied in paddy fields for life cycle assessments (LCA). The emission quantification methods are based on the properties of the active ingredients of the pesticides and management aspects such as formulations (granular or liquid) and the water-holding period following application.

Multiple factors drive regional agricultural abandonment.

An understanding of land-use change and its drivers in agroecosystems is important when developing adaptations to future environmental and socioeconomic pressures. Agricultural abandonment occurs worldwide with multiple potentially positive and negative consequences; however, the main factors causing agricultural abandonment in a country i.e.

Areas of increasing agricultural abandonment overlap the distribution of previously common, currently threatened plant species.

Human-driven land-use changes increasingly threaten biodiversity. In agricultural ecosystems, abandonment of former farmlands constitutes a major land-use shift. We examined the relationships between areas in which agriculture has been abandoned and the distribution records of threatened plant species across Japan.