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Agroecosystem diversification and sustainable management lead to increased biodiversity, crop production and socio-economic advantages: the case of Mediterranean olive orchards
No full textClimate change, in terms of increased temperature and extreme precipitation regimes, will have agricultural consequences because of the interrelations between climate, land and water use, soil degradation and landscape changes. Sustainable agriculture offers new chances to mitigate these deleterious effects. Sustainable management practices can increase soil carbon (C) inputs, reduce greenhouse gases emissions from the soil and, at the same time, increase agroecosystem biodiversity. This study shows the benefits of sustainable management on biodiversity, crop production and socio-economic aspects in a Mediterranean olive orchard. In 2000, the field was divided in two plots: a) sustainable (Smng) with no-tillage, prunings and spontaneous vegetation used as mulch, irrigation with treated wastewater, correct pruning; b) conventional (Cmng) with soil tillage, mineral fertilizers, burning of prunings, empirical irrigation and pruning. Results show that a 21-year period of Smng caused increases in soil organic carbon levels (6.74 vs 11.84 t ha-1 in the 0-30 cm soil layer), soil water retention (up to 40% more) and soil permeability (from 13 to 160 mm H2O day-1), so allowing farmers to save irrigation water and improve soil structure (Sofo and Palese, 2021). The adoption of a correct irrigation management had a key role in the potential role of orchards in C sequestration and on vegetational, and on soil faunal and microbiological diversity (Sofo et al., 2019). Compared to dry areas, wetted soils had a higher microbial respiration and SOC mineralization, and a faster bacterial C and N turnover. Finally, the Smng brought benefits on plant yield, that was improved (8.4 vs 6.3 t ha-1 yr-1) (Pascazio et al., 2018). The endogenous C additions had positive effects on the reserves of soil water and nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) and on CO2 soil emission (Palese et al., 2015). Promoting cost-effective sustainable land use strategies aimed and increasing agroecosystem biodiversity can avoid soil erosion, compaction and contamination, that are important ecosystem services. The Smng was more effective in terms of productivity and profitability. The economic analysis showed that the gross profits of the Smng were considerably higher (6,276 vs 1,517 € ha-1), likely because of the higher yield and its superior quality (Pergola et al., 2013). Given the importance of the olive growing and the area covered by this crop, the study could be adapted for scaling up for the whole Mediterranean area (9,800,000 ha covered by olive), and adapted for other crops
Mediterranean olive orchard subjected to sustainable management in Matera, Basilicata, Italy
No full textThe agro-ecosystemic benefits of sustainable management in an Italian olive grove
Full text linkBiotic and abiotic stresses are the main causes of decreased productivity and yield losses for crop species. Conventional agricultural management of fruit orchards (excessive soil tillage, empirical fertilization, burning of pruning material) generates a progressive reduction in organic matter and general soil impoverishment, contributing to agrosystem vulnerability and the appearance of plant disease. The well-being of the plant and the biotic complexity of the whole orchard system are the first “obstacles” to pathogen diffusion. In this study, we experimented with some agronomic methods aimed at increasing microbiological soil fertility and soil water storage capacity, applying sustainable agronomic management (soil cover by spontaneous vegetation, light and annual pruning and reuse of pruning residues within the orchard, irrigation with treated wastewater). We compared the results of conventional and sustainable fruit orchard managements. The experiment was carried out in a mature olive grove (‘Maiatica di Ferrandina’) and the two experimental plots (conventional and sustainable) were followed for more than 10 years. Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices increased the soil organic matter content by 1.1% in the 0-40 cm soil layer and the water infiltration rate 10-fold with respect to conventional management. Soil microbiota in the sustainable plot showed higher biomass and biodiversity. The findings demonstrated that the application of sustainable agricultural practices in fruit orchards has positive results in terms of soil fertility and biodiversity, with benefits to the whole agroecosystem stability
Agroecosystem diversification and sustainable management lead to increased biodiversity, crop production and socio-economic advantages: a case-study of an Italian olive orchard
Full text linkCarbon sequestration in a Mediterranean olive orchard managed sustainably over a 20-year period
Full text linkOlive is a widespread crop within Mediterranean area and Italy is one of the biggest producer of olives and oil in the world. From an environmental point of view, centered on carbon (C) sequestration, managing olive orchards sustainably is an urgent and actual issue.
This trial was done in a 2-ha olive orchard (Olea europaea L., cv. ‘Maiatica’; 70-year-old plants, with a distance of 8 × 8 m and NE orientation) located in Ferrandina (Southern Italy, Basilicata region; N 40°29’; E 16°28’). The soil is a sandy loam (Haplic Calcisol - WRB), with a mean bulk density of 1.30 g cm–3 and sediment as parental material. The major landform is plain, the slope form is classified as convex-straight and the gradient class as gently sloping (2-5%). Half of the orchard has been managed using sustainable agricultural practices (sustainable management, Sung) for 20 years (2000-2020). Trees were drip-irrigated from March to October with urban wastewater. A light pruning was carried out every year during winter. The soil was permanently covered by spontaneous self-seeding weeds, mowed twice a year. Cover crop residues and prunings were shredded and left along the row as mulch.
The other half of the orchard was kept as ‘control’ plot. It was rainfed and conducted with a locally conventional management (Cmng), according to the practices usually adopted by farmers. The Cmng was managed by tillage performed 2-3 times per year to control weeds. Intensive pruning was carried out every two years, but pruned residues were removed from the orchard. A mineral fertilization was carried out once per year, during the fruit set and pit hardening phase (early spring).
The average value (n = 5; 0-100 cm soil depth) of baseline soil organic carbon (SOC) stock (related to the Cmng) in the 20-year period was 4.79 t SOC ha–1, with an average additional SOC storage potential because of the adoption of the Smng of 0.15 t SOC ha–1 yr–1, and a SOC stock after 20 years of Smng of 7.75 t SOC ha–1 yr–1.
In the Smng system, soil acted as a significant sink for C, especially due to the supplies of the organic resources internal to the system. The Smng system, made up of mature olive trees, was also able to fix in its aboveground and belowground components, a > 2-times higher total amount of C than the Cmng. Spontaneous vegetation was the most important pool, sequestering about 35% of the total fixed C. Also pruning material had a substantial importance in C fixation. Emissions of CO2 eq per kg of olives, calculated according to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), were 0.08 kg in the Smng system and 0.11 kg in the Cmng system. Besides C sequestration, the application of the Smng markedly improved physical, chemical, and biological soil fertility, with benefits on plants and production.
The application of a sustainable soil and plant management makes olive growing a multifunctional rural activity, not only aimed at production, but including many other objectives, such as environmental, landscaping cultural, social and recreational
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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