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AbstractSince the turn of the century, rubber plantations have been expanding their footprint across Southeast Asia in response to an increasing global demand for rubber products. Between 2000 and 2014, the area cultivated with rubber more than doubled. It is not clear how this major change in the agricultural landscape of Southeast Asia, the main area of rubber production in the world, is affecting land‐use patterns and water resources in the region. Here we use maps of rubber plantations and other croplands in conjunction with a hydrological model and remote sensing analyses to assess land‐use patterns and water resources affected by natural rubber plantations. Results show water requirements of rubber trees are comparable to those of forests but by far exceed those of the other predominant crops and shrubland vegetation with the effect of potentially increasing water scarcity when rubber plantations replace these crops. The expansion of rubber plantations accounts for a 38 km3/yr increase in green water consumption, thereby exacerbating the monthly water scarcity, with an additional 2.4 million people and more than 0.6 Mha facing water scarcity in the driest months as a result of the increase in rubber production. Monthly runoff substantially decreases (by up to 25%) in 14% of the basins where rubber was planted. These results highlight the existence of major land use and hydrological impacts of agricultural development in Southeast Asia that affect the local environment and rural communities, calling for a more sustainable management of the limited land and water resources.

This study attempts to measure the capacity of the EU geographical certification scheme to positively influence the price of certified products and the incomes of their producers. A comparison of the economic results of two cheese-producing dairy farm enterprises with different business strategies and locations within the Sicilian hinterlands is performed in order to determine the transformation value of each dairy’s sheep milk into pecorino cheese (with and without the Protected Designation of Origin, or PDO, certification) and the related joint products (ricotta). The economic convenience of the total transformation of sheep milk into Pecorino Siciliano PDO and ricotta is also appraised. The results suggest that producing and commercializing Pecorino Siciliano PDO is a promising strategy for differentiating and promoting dairy farm products and improving the financial performance of producers, with foreseeable positive repercussions in the socioeconomically less favored rural areas where they are located.

espanolMonteagudo del Castillo (Teruel) esta cerca del polo de maxima tormentosidad violenta de la Peninsula Iberica. El aporte pluviometrico de estas tormentas es capaz de invertir el regimen estacional habitual del clima mediterraneo, con el verano como estacion mas lluviosa. Aqui se estudia la gestion tradicional de la arroyada en dos cuencas del termino municipal, desde la doble perspectiva riesgo/recurso: control de la erosion y aprovechamiento de la arroyada para regar prados. Para gestionar la arroyada concentrada de las tormentas se ha modificado la red de drenaje mediante acequias recolectoras y/o evacuadoras y la rectificacion de la red hidrografica natural. Las acequias de derivacion permiten la existencia de prados para ganado bovino con precipitaciones alrededor de 430 mm/ano. Se reconstruye la red de drenaje mediante trabajo de campo, fotointerpretacion y datos LIDAR, para conceptualizar los tipos de cauce, interpretar la red antropica y poder determinar las estrategias de gestion. EnglishMonteagudo del Castillo (Teruel) is near the pole of maximum violent storms of the Iberian Peninsula. The pluviometric contribution of these storms is capable of reversing the usual seasonal regime of the Mediterranean climate, with summer as the rainiest season. Here the traditional management of the stream in two basins of the municipal area is studied, from the double perspective risk/resource: control of erosion and use of the stream to irrigate meadows. To manage the concentrated stream of the storms, the drainage network has been modified through collecting and/or evacuating channels and the rectification of the natural hydrographic network. The derivation channels allow the existence of meadows for cattle with rainfall of around 430 mm/year. The drainage network is reconstructed through field work, photointerpretation and LIDAR data, to conceptualize the channel types, interpret the anthropic network and determine management strategies.

Optimization of thermal energy and electricity production processes using renewable energy source (RES) is extremely important for agricultural horticultural, and production farms. The article is devoted to the search for the best available techniques to the optimize the process of obtaining heat energy from RES to meet the energy needs in Polish agriculture. The food industry is particularly energy-intensive and as a result, when introducing various innovative technological processes, strong emphasis is placed on rational energy consumption and minimizing its losses, as well as on the secondary use of waste heat. The direct result of using RES devices is also a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions into the air.

Field investigation carried out by the Sicilian botanists in the last 20 years enabled them to identify eight habitat types of high biogeographic and conservation interest, neglected by the Directive 92/43, which deservead hocconservation measures. For each of these habitats, a syntaxonomic interpretation of the corresponding plant communities, their main ecological, physiognomic and syndynamic traits and a list of diagnostic species are provided. Their classification into the macrotypes listed in the Annex I of the Directive 92/43 and the respective correspondence in EUNIS habitat classification are proposed. The habitats here described integrate those already proposed by the Italian Botanical Society, with the hope of an adequate recognition at national at supranational level.

Due to emerging high spectral resolution, remote sensing techniques and ongoing developments to retrieve the spectrally resolved vegetation fluorescence spectrum from several scales, the light reactions of photosynthesis are receiving a boost of attention for the monitoring of the Earth's carbon balance. Sensor-retrieved vegetation fluorescence (from leaf, tower, airborne or satellite scale) originating from the excited antenna chlorophyll a molecule has become a new quantitative biophysical vegetation parameter retrievable from space using global imaging techniques. However, to retrieve the actual quantum efficiencies, and hence a true photosynthetic status of the observed vegetation, all signal distortions must be accounted for, and a high-precision true vegetation reflectance must be resolved. ESA's upcoming Fluorescence Explorer aims to deliver such novel products thanks to technological and instrumental advances, and by sophisticated approaches that will enable a deeper understanding of the mechanics of energy transfer underlying the photosynthetic process in plant canopies and ecosystems.

Abstract Firm agility today is not a factor of competitiveness or success but a survival instrument on the market. Disruptive innovations and technological advancement, together with digitalization, change the role of firm agility. We show that the link between the national/industry level of digitalization and firm agility is statistically robust and essential. We study the link on data from 2009 to 2018 in fifteen EU advanced economies using dynamic panel data modeling. The digitalization impact level differs across firms by ownership type (family to non-family firms). Agility in family firms is strongly influenced by the national/industry level of digitization and investments in intangible assets (particularly the creation of own-organizational capital). Non-family firms' agility depends on investment in human capital, design, and creation of new products and minorly on national/industry digitalization level. Digitalization and gross investments in intangible assets can increase family firm agility exponentially (elasticity coefficient of 85 for-profit margins). Policymakers using policy supporting national/industry digitalization can boost economic growth significantly. Managers and practitioners targeting specific investments in intangible assets can improve and increase firm agility to large extents.

International audience; Soil erosion is the primary process driving land degradation. Using multiple scales of management to minimize soil erosion is crucial to achieve land degradation neutrality targets within the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Land management (LM) influences both on-site and off-site erosion on the event-scale and over the long-term. However, each LM differs in effectiveness depending on the temporal scale considered. In order to understand how LM effects internal and external catchment dynamics, we apply LandSoil, a physically based landscape evolution model, to evaluate 7 LM scenarios over long- (30 years) and short-terms (event scale). LM scenarios included changes in land use and/or landscape structure. Under current LM, mean surface soil erosion was similar to 0.69 +/- 39.10(-3) m over 30 years. In contrast, a single extreme event (435 mm/24 h) in January resulted in similar to 0.62 +/- 3.10(-3) In loss and similar to 0.04 +/- 2.10(-3) m if it occurred in October. Heterogeneous patterns of erosion and deposition developed after 30 years, whereas extreme events dominantly showed soil loss and high catchment connectivity. Effectiveness of LM in erosion mitigation and sediment trapping differed according to temporal and spatial scales for each scenario. We concluded that multiple temporal and spatial scales must be incorporated in order to adaptively manage land degradation and meet neutrality targets.