Modern agriculture has increased food production, improved food security and reduced poverty, but farming has also caused a considerable decrease in biodiversity, primarily through land-use intensification and overexploitation, along with excessive pesticide and water use, nutrient loading and pollution. The major purpose of agriculture is to ensure sustainable food production, adequate nutrition and stable livelihoods for all.
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2011Europe
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Library ResourceConference Papers & ReportsDecember, 2011Slovenia
Still, more agricultural land is getting abandoned in Slovenia, specially in less favored areas. Such process of degradation of fertile land is most intensively present in the Obalno-kraska region and Goriska. Similar happens with grassland in mountain region as less and less animals which are suitable for that region are bred there. To prevent brush encroachment and to start recultivation of aban
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2011Europe
We analysed the morphology and phenology of Scabiosa columbaria in relation to grassland management by mowing and grazing. We selected 12 populations from mown and grazed calcareous grassland in six regions of central Europe. At each population site, we collected seed material to produce plants for a morphological and phenological analysis of the species in a simulation experiment, which comprised three treatments (control, simulated mowing and simulated grazing). The simulation experiment revealed a clear morphological and phenological differentiation of S. columbaria.
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2011Sweden
Carl Malmström's historical forest maps of the province of Halland, in south-western Sweden, were published over 70 years ago, but are still important to science and conservation. They show the transformation of a seventeenth century landscape of temperate broadleaves to a landscape dominated by open land and heather (Calluna vulgaris) in the nineteenth century, and to a landscape of coniferous forest plantations in the twentieth century. This article summarizes and reviews the original research, first published in Swedish in 1939.
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2011Europe, Northern Africa
Mediterranean areas of both southern Europe and North Africa are subject to dramatic changes that will affect the sustainability, quantity, quality, and management of water resources. Most climate models forecast an increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation at the end of the 21st century. This will enhance stress on natural forests and shrubs, and will result in more water consumption, evapotranspiration, and probably interception, which will affect the surface water balance and the partitioning of precipitation between evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater flow.
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2011Germany
Over the last 20 years, a change in traditional land use practices has taken place in central Germany. Formerly species-rich dry grassland communities have been converted into communities with greatly reduced diversity in many places. Whereas grass species have expanded, several forbs have declined in abundance. For the present study, plant–plant interactions were assessed between the expanding grass Festuca rupicola and the forb Dianthus carthusianorum – two typical, companion grassland species – to ascertain any associated effects of land use change.
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