• Rural Digital Europe
• 2019-2023close
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• 13. Climate action close

Abstract Milk and beef derived from pasture-based systems have been characterized by higher nutritional values and a lower environmental footprint than their equivalents obtained via indoor systems. However, intensification of pasture-based production can have adverse impacts on biodiversity and the environment. To date, studies on pro-environmental diversification options leading to improvement of environmental performance of pasture-based dairy and beef production have rarely been synthesized. The present study sought to review current on-farm pro-environmental measures with the potential for enhancing biodiversity status and/or reducing the environmental impacts of pasture-based agriculture. Literature on farmer attitudes toward these measures was also reviewed to identify potential obstacles and opportunities for transitioning to pro-environmental agriculture. A systematic search of published research from high-income island countries characterized by oceanic temperate climate with a high dependence on pasture-based agriculture—the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, was conducted. Thirty studies that assessed the impact of pro-environmental measures, eight ‘attitudinal’ studies of dairy and beef farmers and one study covering both aspects were identified. Inductive thematical analysis was subsequently undertaken. Environmentally sensitive management practices such as hedgerows and field margins management, mixed grazing (where two or more herbivorous animals graze the same land), rare livestock breeds, multispecies swards, organic farming and agroforestry were identified as primary themes studied under the auspices of pro-environmental diversification, while forestry, bioenergy crops and organic farming were the main themes identified within attitudinal research studies. Findings suggest that environmentally sensitive practices have varied effects on biodiversity. Mixed grazing was found to improve livestock production, while studies of organic farming reported multiple positive impacts on biodiversity and animal welfare. Effect of multispecies swards on methane emissions and urinary nitrogen extraction were found to be inconsistent. Attitudinal research suggests that the main barrier to implementing afforestation is its lack of attractiveness compared to ‘traditional’ farming and that organic farmer decisions regarding agricultural management practices might be less profit-oriented and influenced by ecological beliefs to a greater extent than decisions of conventional farmers. The results of this study confirm that pro-environmental diversification inherently encompasses multiple scientific disciplines; however, previous study designs and outcomes were found to be fragmented and narrowly focused. Considering the urgency and importance of climate and biodiversity crises, pro-environmental diversification of pasture-based dairy and beef production has rarely been holistically approached and remains understudied. The development of practical, sustainable solutions for farming based on circular economy and respect to nature and additional strategies to increase farmer and consumer environmental awareness should be prioritized by policymakers, advisory and scientific bodies.

International audience; As we move towards shipboard-underway and automated systems for monitoring water quality and assessing ecological status, there is a need to evaluate how effective the existing monitoring systems are, and how we could improve them. Considering the existing limitations for processing numerous and complex data series generated from automated systems, and because of processes involved in phytoplankton blooms, this paper proposes a data-driven evaluation of an unsupervised classifier to optimize the way we track phytoplankton, including harmful algal blooms (HABs), and to identify the main associated hydrological conditions. We used in situ data from a portable flow-through automatic measuring system coupled with a multi-fixed-wavelength fluorometer implemented in the eastern English Channel during a bloom of Phaeocystis globosa (high biomass, non-toxic HAB species). This combination of technologies allowed high resolution online hydrographical and biological measurements, including spectral fluorescence as a means of quantifying phytoplankton biomass and simplifying the phytoplankton community structure inference. An unsupervised spectral clustering method was applied to this multi-parameter high-resolution time series, which allowed discrimination under near real-time of 6 to 33 contrasting water masses based on their abiotic and biotic characteristics. In addition, areas subject to extreme events such as HABs could be precisely identified, so controlling factors or their direct and indirect effects could be hierarchized. Considering the benefits and limitations of such a strategy, future applications of such methods will be important in the context of implementing the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

From its origins, the concept of desertification has been controversial. The prevailing confusion between two desertification visions, one that considers it as the expansion of deserts and another that emphasizes its anthropogenic component, has been transferred to society. Here we illustrate misunderstandings about desertification using a very illustrative case from the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin (Almeria, Spain), where striking badlands that are often used as an image of desertification coexist with an intensive olive agriculture that is irreversibly deteriorating the only oasis in continental Europe (Los Molinos spring). The olive tree is a traditional Mediterranean dryland crop and until the 1950s only about 200 ha were irrigated in this area. However, the profitability of the crop has caused irrigation to expand to 4400 ha in the last two decades. The process of intensification has been reinforced giving way to super-intensive irrigation, which involves going from 210 to 1550 trees/ha, which in a few years already occupies more than 1500 ha. The effects on the water balance of the aquifer feeding these crops have been severe, and the flow of the Los Molinos spring has gone from more than 40 L/s for the period 1970–2000 to the current 7.28 L/s. Unraveling the mechanisms of land degradation and its main drivers are the first step to propose management actions to achieve a more sustainable use of resources and to combat desertification. This research was funded by the European Research Council grant agreement nº 647038 (BIODESERT). FTM acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041).

AbstractThe ocean coastal‐shelf‐slope ecosystem west of the Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a biologically productive region that could potentially act as a large sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The duration of the sea‐ice season in the WAP shows large interannual variability. However, quantifying the mechanisms by which sea ice impacts biological productivity and surface dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) remains a challenge due to the lack of data early in the phytoplankton growth season. In this study, we implemented a circulation, sea‐ice, and biogeochemistry model (MITgcm‐REcoM2) to study the effect of sea ice on phytoplankton blooms and surface DIC. Results were compared with satellite sea‐ice and ocean color, and research ship surveys from the Palmer Long‐Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. The simulations suggest that the annual sea‐ice cycle has an important role in the seasonal DIC drawdown. In years of early sea‐ice retreat, there is a longer growth season leading to larger seasonally integrated net primary production (NPP). Part of the biological uptake of DIC by phytoplankton, however, is counteracted by increased oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2. Despite lower seasonal NPP, years of late sea‐ice retreat show larger DIC drawdown, attributed to lower air‐sea CO2 fluxes and increased dilution by sea‐ice melt. The role of dissolved iron and iron limitation on WAP phytoplankton also remains a challenge due to the lack of data. The model results suggest sediments and glacial meltwater are the main sources in the coastal and shelf regions, with sediments being more influential in the northern coast.

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. International audience

AbstractGroundwater is an essential resource providing water for societies and sustaining surface waters. Although groundwater at intermediate depth could be highly influential at regulating lake and river surface water chemistry, studies quantifying organic and inorganic carbon (C) species in intermediate depth groundwater are still rare. Here, we quantified dissolved and gaseous C species in the groundwater of a boreal catchment at 3‐ to 20‐m depth. We found that the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2), the stable carbon isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ13C‐DIC), and pH showed a dependency with depth. Along the depth profile, a negative relationship was observed between pCO2 and δ13C‐DIC and between pCO2 and pH. We attribute the negative pCO2‐pH relationship along the depth gradient to increased silicate weathering and decreased soil respiration. Silicate weathering consumes carbon dioxide (CO2) and release base cations, leading to increased pH and decreased pCO2. We observed a positive relationship between δ13C‐DIC and depth, potentially due to diffusion‐related fractionation in addition to isotopic discrimination during soil respiration. Soil CO2 may diffuse downward, resulting in a fractionation of the δ13C‐DIC. Additionally, the dissolved organic carbon at greater depth may be recalcitrant consisting of old degraded material with a greater fraction of the heavier C isotope. Our study provides increased knowledge about the C biogeochemistry of groundwater at intermediate depth, which is important since these waters likely contribute to the widespread CO2 oversaturation in boreal surface waters.

Since 2010, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite mission monitors the earth emission at L-Band. It provides the longest time series of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) from space over the global ocean. However, the SSS retrieval at high latitudes is a challenge because of the low sensitivity L-Band radiometric measurements to SSS in cold waters and to the contamination of SMOS measurements by the vicinity of continents, of sea ice and of Radio Frequency Interferences. In this paper, we assess the quality of weekly SSS fields derived from swath-ordered instantaneous SMOS SSS (so called Level 2) distributed by the European Space Agency. These products are filtered according to new criteria. We use the pseudo-dielectric constant retrieved from SMOS brightness temperatures to filter SSS pixels polluted by sea ice. We identify that the dielectric constant model and the sea surface temperature auxiliary parameter used as prior information in the SMOS SSS retrieval induce significant systematic errors at low temperatures. We propose a novel empirical correction to mitigate those sources of errors at high latitudes.Comparisons with in-situ measurements ranging from 1 to 11 m depths spotlight huge vertical stratification in fresh regions. This emphasizes the need to consider in-situ salinity as close as possible to the sea surface when validating L-band radiometric SSS which are representative of the first top centimeter.SSS Standard deviation of differences (STDD) between weekly SMOS SSS and in-situ near surface salinity significantly decrease after applying the SSS correction, from 1.46 pss to 1.28 pss. The correlation between new SMOS SSS and in-situ near surface salinity reaches 0.94. SMOS estimates better capture SSS variability in the Arctic Ocean in comparison to TOPAZ reanalysis (STDD between TOPAZ and in-situ SSS = 1.86 pss), particularly in river plumes with very large SSS spatial gradients. International audience