Tag: Agriculture

Research summaries

Biodiversity restoration in the rice terraces of Japan

In this post Kei Uchida and Atushi Ushimaru discuss their recent paper “Land abandonment and intensification diminish spatial and temporal β-diversity of grassland plants and herbivorous insects within paddy terraces” For our recent article published in the Journal of Applied Ecology we studied the traditional paddy terraces of the agricultural lands in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan (Photo 1, Uchida & Ushimaru 2015) and compared them with … Continue reading Biodiversity restoration in the rice terraces of Japan

Unknown's avatarJournal of Applied Ecology1 Comment
Research summaries

Using citizen science to protect Montagu’s harrier nests

In this post Andrea Santangeli discusses his recent paper ‘Identifying effective actions to guide volunteer-based and nationwide conservation efforts for a ground-nesting farmland bird’ Countless conservation actions are implemented by local practitioners worldwide with the intention to help target species to persist in landscapes under increasing pressure from human activities. Unfortunately, still very few implemented interventions are evaluated for their effectiveness (Ferraro & Pattanayak 2006). … Continue reading Using citizen science to protect Montagu’s harrier nests

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Research summaries

Bringing multifunctionality down to earth: Maximising soil functional capacity in African Smallholder Farms

In this post, Peter Manning discusses a paper he recently handled by Stephen Wood and colleagues “Agricultural intensification and the functional capacity of soil microbes on smallholder African farms” Around 900 million of the world’s poorest people are smallholder farmers in the tropics, and their lives are a tough reality of uncertain crop yields and worries about sustainability. Soils are often mismanaged and become rapidly … Continue reading Bringing multifunctionality down to earth: Maximising soil functional capacity in African Smallholder Farms

Unknown's avatarJournal of Applied Ecology1 Comment