scholarly journals Maximizing Ecosystem Services Provided to the New Oil Crop Brassica carinata Through Landscape and Arthropod Diversity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Stiles ◽  
Jon Lundgren ◽  
Charles Fenster ◽  
Henning Nottebrock

ABSTRACTPrairies, once spanning the Upper Midwest, have now largely been replaced by agriculture. The lack of resources available to pollinators in agricultural fields and practices commonly employed has led to a decline in insect diversity. To enhance sustainable practices, we must better understand how ecosystem services such as pest control and pollination services provided by a diverse insect and pollinator community scale to current farming practices as related to crop yield and how landscape features may positively contribute to insect and pollinator diversity. We examined how landscape heterogeneity relates to insect and pollinator diversity, as well as how insect and pollinator diversity relates to crop yield across common farming practices. We planted 35 single acre sites of Brassica carinata, a generalist flower possibly capable of supporting a diverse insect community. We randomly assigned each site with a combination of three common farming practices: tilling (yes/no), added honey bee hives (yes/no), and treatment with systemic neonicotinoids (yes/no). Insect and pollinator diversity and the surrounding landscape at multiple spatial scales were calculated. We observed a significant positive relationship between insect (and pollinator) diversity with yield in the absence of any farming practice. All farming practices will increase yield. However, farming practices alter the relationship between yield and diversity. The addition of seed treatment or tillage negates the relationship between insect (and pollinator) diversity with yield. Seed treatment alone results in a flat relationship between diversity and yield for all insects and a negative relationship for pollinators. Increased landscape heterogeneity results in a positive relationship between insect diversity at the 1000 m scale and pollinator diversity at the 3000 m scale, suggesting large-scale heterogeneity contributes to overall insect diversity. Our results show that increasing large-scale landscape heterogeneity increases diversity serving as a substitute for common farming practices such as application of pesticides, tilling, or bee hives. Increased heterogeneity could save farmers from the input cost of treatment or tillage, by way of increased insect diversity, while still providing similar yields.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. eaay7323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Poege ◽  
Dietmar Harhoff ◽  
Fabian Gaessler ◽  
Stefano Baruffaldi

Despite decades of research, the relationship between the quality of science and the value of inventions has remained unclear. We present the result of a large-scale matching exercise between 4.8 million patent families and 43 million publication records. We find a strong positive relationship between the quality of the scientific contributions referenced in patents and the value of the respective inventions. We rank patents by the quality of the science to which they are linked. Strikingly, high-ranking patents are twice as valuable as low-ranking patents, which, in turn, are about as valuable as patents without a direct science link. We show this core result for various science quality and patent value measures. The effect of science quality on patent value remains relevant even when science is linked indirectly through other patents. Our findings imply that what is considered excellent within the science sector also leads to outstanding outcomes in the technological and commercial realms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Špela Železnikar ◽  
Klemen Eler ◽  
Marina Pintar

Green areas in cities and their ecosystem services (ES) offer residents various benefits. The range of services depends on biodiversity of a green space. The aim was to determine the relationship between biodiversity in different categories of green areas in the city and the ecosystem services, which appear in it. We made 108 relevés in the autumn and spring time, within nine categories of green areas in the Municipality of Ljubljana. In each category the range of ES was assessed based on field analysis and compared with literature assessed ecosystem services. Results showed that the category of forests differ from others. Other categories were similar to each other, in particular grassland categories. Also, a positive relationship linkage was found - more plant species mean more assessed ecosystem services in a specific green infrastructure category.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel V. J. Robinson ◽  
Lan H. Nguyen ◽  
Paul Galpern

Abstract Field boundaries can provide ecosystem services to crops by creating better abiotic conditions for crop growth, and can also act as habitat for beneficial arthropods. This suggests that crop boundaries may create an intermediate hump-shaped increase in crop yield, where negative edge effects are cancelled out by increased ecosystem services from the field boundary. However, there is little large-scale evidence showing this, largely because plot-scale crop yields are costly and time-consuming to measure. Precision yield data from combine yield monitors has huge potential in this respect, as the equipment is widespread and data is frequently recorded by growers. In this study, we used 252 field-years of yield monitor data from three common crops - wheat (Triticum aestivum), canola (Brassica napus), or peas (Pisum sativum) - recorded across Alberta, Canada, and examined how yield varied with distances from common crop boundary types. Average crop yield tended to increase with distance from crop boundaries before plateauing at about 50 m, and yield variation (SD) tended to decrease with distance. There was evidence of an intermediate increase in yield for wheat away from shelterbelts, and a weak increase in canola, but this was not seen for other crop types or boundary types. This study represents one of the first uses of precision yield data to measure ecosystem service provision at large spatial scales.


VASA ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Hanji Zhang ◽  
Dexin Yin ◽  
Yue Zhao ◽  
Yezhou Li ◽  
Dejiang Yao ◽  
...  

Summary: Our meta-analysis focused on the relationship between homocysteine (Hcy) level and the incidence of aneurysms and looked at the relationship between smoking, hypertension and aneurysms. A systematic literature search of Pubmed, Web of Science, and Embase databases (up to March 31, 2020) resulted in the identification of 19 studies, including 2,629 aneurysm patients and 6,497 healthy participants. Combined analysis of the included studies showed that number of smoking, hypertension and hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) in aneurysm patients was higher than that in the control groups, and the total plasma Hcy level in aneurysm patients was also higher. These findings suggest that smoking, hypertension and HHcy may be risk factors for the development and progression of aneurysms. Although the heterogeneity of meta-analysis was significant, it was found that the heterogeneity might come from the difference between race and disease species through subgroup analysis. Large-scale randomized controlled studies of single species and single disease species are needed in the future to supplement the accuracy of the results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 780-787
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Hassan Hayatu ◽  
Abdullahi Mohammed ◽  
Barroon Ahmad Isma’eel ◽  
Sahabi Yusuf Ali

Soil fertility determines a plant's development process that guarantees food sufficiency and the security of lives and properties through bumper harvests. The fertility of soil varies according to regions, thereby determining the type of crops to be planted. However, there is no repository or any source of information about the fertility of the soil in any region in Nigeria especially the Northwest of the country. The only available information is soil samples with their attributes which gives little or no information to the average farmer. This has affected crop yield in all the regions, more particularly the Northwest region, thus resulting in lower food production.  Therefore, this study is aimed at classifying soil data based on their fertility in the Northwest region of Nigeria using R programming. Data were obtained from the department of soil science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The data contain 400 soil samples containing 13 attributes. The relationship between soil attributes was observed based on the data. K-means clustering algorithm was employed in analyzing soil fertility clusters. Four clusters were identified with cluster 1 having the highest fertility, followed by 2 and the fertility decreases with an increasing number of clusters. The identification of the most fertile clusters will guide farmers on where best to concentrate on when planting their crops in order to improve productivity and crop yield.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Thiyam Kiran Singh ◽  
Aastha Dhingra

Love is more than a close friendship. It acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationship. Love is positive in nature and leaves a positive affect on every individual. An individual in love not only feels positive but spreads positivity around. They smile, be kind to other people, behave compassionately with everyone. If the person is happy then he is likely to be psychologically and emotionally healthy. The current study aimed at understanding the relationship between love, affect and wellbeing among young females aged between 20-25 years. The study reported a significant positive relationship between love and positive affect with the significant correlation of 0.29 at 0.05 levels (p<0.05). It was also found a significant positive relationship between love and wellbeing with the significant correlation of 0.58 at 0.01 level (p<0.01). This means that people in love experience positive emotions and healthy wellbeing. The correlation between love and negative affect came out to be insignificant. The correlation turned out to be -0.13. This means that people in love do not experience negative emotions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 227-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A.J. Teulon ◽  
M.A.W. Stufkens ◽  
J.D. Fletcher

The flight activity of aphid pests of wheat potato lettuce and squash is currently monitored in New Zealand using 75 m suction traps However there has been little research comparing aphid suction trap catches with crop infestation levels The relationship between the average number of aphids (Rhopalosiphum padi) sampled from wheat plants and the average number of aphids caught in weekly 75 m suction trap samples was examined A significant positive relationship indicated that numbers of aphids caught in suction traps reflected the numbers of aphids infesting wheat fields In another experiment potato aphid flights (mostly Myzus persicae) caught in a 75 m suction trap were compared with a nearby windvane trap Aphid numbers in both traps reflected similar trends However the suction trap caught approximately 10 times more aphids than the windvane trap Thus 75 m suction traps provide a useful tool for assessing aphid infestation levels in crops


Author(s):  
Imam Mujtaba ◽  
Yufiarti Yufiarti ◽  
Elindra Yetti

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between students’ personality and environment with their Indonesian Language ability. This research was conducted in South Tangerang City involving 392 2nd grade students. This research method used correlational method with quantitative approach by using descriptive statistics. Data was collected using an assessment scale instrument and analyzed by using correlation technique (regression). The results of this study showed that: (1) There was a positive relationship between personality and students’ Indonesian Language ability with a significant level of α = 0.05, obtained tcal 8.77 ˃ ttable 1.97. (2) There wasa positive relationship between the environment and the students’ Indonesian Language ability with a significant level of α = 0.05, which obtained 9.03 ˃ t table 1.97. (3) There was a positive relationship between personality and environment with the students’ Indonesian Language ability; with a significant level of α = 0.05, obtained tcal 7.92 ˃ t table 1.97. The Implications of the study identified that Indonesian Language ability of the students can be influenced by their personality and environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Moses Natadirja

Social media nowadays can be used not only for interacting with each other, exchanges ideas, and develop new friends, furthermore it can be used to promote and selling products or services. It is also used for musician for sales and promotion of their CD album to their fans through social media, especially for musicians , who choose to be independent with limited budget and distribution channel. One of the musician who choose to be independent is Dua Drum. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between musician’s social media (Interactivity & Sincerity), the tie that fans may develop via social media (Sense of Closeness & Reciprocity), and purchase legal CD album. This Research is using a quantitative approach with gathering 127 responses through online questionnaire and analyzed using Structural Model Equation (SEM). The result of this research is there are a positive relationship between Interactivity & Sincerity with Sense of Closeness & Reciprocity, and also a positive relationship between Sense of Closeness & Reciprocity with Legal Purchase Intention of CD album. Keywords: Music, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Purchase Intention


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