ecological assessment Articles
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Determination of trade-off-functions to analyse the provision of agricultural non-commodities
Multi-functionality of agriculture has become a crucial issue in WTO negotiations on agriculture trade. The theoretical classification of agricultural products into Commodity (CO) and Non-Commodity Outputs (NCO) by the OECD provided a framework for further analysis. The operationalisation of the concept of multi-functionality of agriculture requires detailed analyses of the nature of jointness ...
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Ecological impact of joint forest management in Tripura, India
This study, conducted in seventeen villages undertaking joint forest management (JFM) in Tripura, is an attempt to assess the impact of protection and management on vegetation attributes viz., species richness, diversity, stem density, status of vegetation regeneration and biomass. The majority of the JFM areas showed lower tree species richness as well as diversity values but higher stem density ...
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An ecological assessment of greening of Aravali mountain range through joint forest management in Rajasthan, India
Rajasthan is one of the largest Indian states with about 9% of its total geographical area covered with forest. Large area of the state is covered with desert, has one of the highest livestock populations and therefore has severe shortage of biomass for local use. The community forestry initiative in this state has resulted in significant regeneration, enhanced biomass and enhanced tree cover in ...
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Augmenting aquatic species sensitivity distributions with interspecies toxicity estimation models
Species sensitivity distributions (SSD) are cumulative distribution functions of species toxicity values. The SSD approach is increasingly being used in ecological risk assessment, but is often limited by available toxicity data necessary for diverse species representation. In this study we evaluate augmenting aquatic species databases limited to standard test species with toxicity values ...
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Estimation of herbicide species sensitivity distribution using single‐species algal toxicity data and information on the mode of action
Although species sensitivity distribution (SSD) is a key concept for quantitative ecological risk assessment, its application is limited owing to a lack of sufficient data for the analysis, especially on the toxicity of herbicides for primary producers. The authors developed a method of herbicide SSD estimation using single‐species toxicity data and information on the herbicide mode of action ...
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Secondary production of freshwater zooplankton communities exposed to a fungicide and to a petroleum distillate in outdoor pond mesocosms
Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) of chemicals in mesocosms requires measurement of a large number of parameters at community scale. Studies on invertebrate communities usually focus on taxonomic approaches which only provide insights into taxonomic structure changes induced by chemicals. In the present study, abundance, biomass (B), theoretical production (P) and instantaneous P/B ratio were ...
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Emergy analysis of one century of agricultural production in the Rolling Pampas of Argentina
Historically, agricultural production in the Rolling Pampas of Argentina was characterised by low use of synthetic inputs. This changed during the 1990s, with the widespread adoption of technology privileged by neoclassical macroeconomic policies implemented in the same decade. In this paper, Emergy Accounting is used to quantitatively assess the ecological sustainability of agricultural systems ...
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No impact of DvSnf7 RNA on honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) adults and larvae in dietary feeding tests
The honey bee, Apis mellifera L. is the most important managed pollinator species worldwide and plays a critical role in pollination of a diverse range of economically important crops. Due to this species' importance to agriculture and its historical use as a surrogate species for pollinators to evaluate the potential adverse effects for conventional, biological and microbial pesticides, as ...
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The direct and indirect effects of a glyphosate‐based herbicide and nutrients on Chironomidae (Diptera) emerging from small wetlands
Laboratory and mesocosm experiments have demonstrated that some glyphosate‐based herbicides can have negative effects on benthic invertebrate species. Although these herbicides are among the most widely used in agriculture, there have been few multiple‐stressor, natural system based investigations of the impacts of glyphosate‐based herbicides in combination with fertilizers on the emergence ...
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Investigating Alternatives to the fish early‐life stage test: A strategy for discovering and annotating adverse outcome pathways for early fish development
The fish early‐life stage (FELS) test (Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development [OECD] test guideline 210) is the primary test used internationally to estimate chronic fish toxicity in support of ecological risk assessments and chemical management programs. As part of an ongoing effort to develop efficient and cost‐effective alternatives to the FELS test, there is a need to ...
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The Ecological Fishprint of Nations: Measuring Humanity’s Impact on Marine Ecosystems
In November, 2006, a prominent team of ecologists and economists issued this dire warning: if current fishing patterns continue, all major commercial fish species will suffer population collapses by 2048. In March 2005, the United Nations State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture report stated that 7 of the top 10 marine fish species, accounting for about 30 percent of all capture fisheries ...
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EPA Releases Preliminary Risk Assessment for Neonicotinoid Insecticide Imidacloprid
On January 6, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced the release of a preliminary pollinator risk assessment for the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid (Preliminary Risk Assessment or Assessment). In its assessment, EPA states that imidacloprid potentially poses a risk to hives when the ...
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Native trees for environmental quality assessment in an ecological corridor of Atlantic Forest
Brazil has a mega biodiversity concentrated primarily in forest areas such as the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. The Serra do Mar State Park (SMSP) in Sao Paulo state is the largest conservation unit of the Atlantic Forest, with both well-preserved and impacted areas such as Picinguaba and Itutinga-Piloes nuclei, respectively. Bioaccumulation patterns of ...
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Evaluating aquatic invertebrate vulnerability to insecticides based on intrinsic sensitivity, biological traits and toxic mode‐of‐action
In this study we evaluated the vulnerability of aquatic invertebrates to insecticides based on their intrinsic sensitivity and their population‐level recovery potential. The relative sensitivity of invertebrates to five different classes of insecticides was calculated at the genus, family and order levels using the acute toxicity data available in the USEPA AQUIRE database. Biological trait ...
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Community forest management in Sikkim Himalaya towards sustainable development
Sikkim state is rich in biodiversity with a vibrant traditionally strong conservation ethics in place. This work aimed to understand the diverse systems of community forest management and their status with special reference to the nature of institutions governing them. As such, prolific and luxuriant state of the forests is perceptible through remote sensing data based on derivations of ...
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Waste composting as a component of ecological waste management in the Philippines
Ecological waste management (EWM) is a system of analyzing solid waste concerns and coming up with solutions that would not pose any harm to the environment. This would imply the use of technologies that are environmentally sound such as waste segregation, waste reduction at source, composting and recycling. Furthermore, this system ought to comply with the vision of sustainable development - ...
By ORBIT e.V.
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