Articles:
This article uses a case study of soil erosion in a village in Niger to discuss the concept of “natural capital” in it’s relationship to sustainability as a way of brining together the social and the environmental dimensions sustainable development. The authors discuss the theoretical and policy issues involved in the concept of sustainability as it relates to adoption of conservation practices in the Sahelian community. “Sahel has been cast as a 'global hot spot' for soil erosion a place where the population - resource relationship is unbalanced”. They pose the question of whether the traditional farming systems could survive if the community was forced to set aside a potion of their natural capital (soil).
Article discusses the remediation and redevelopment of sites with contaminated soils, particularly sites in urban areas, commonly called brownfields. Brownfields are estimated to be 25% of Canada’s urban lands. The article examines the policy-making in Canada to overcome bureaucrati structural-political obstacles to this redevelopment and compares Canada’s situation to the US and European countries. It proves a look at the levels of policy, data sources, clean-up criteria, and regulatory, jurisdictional and funding issues.
The physical, chemical, and biological components of soil as a function of soil quality are explored. It is suggested that these components can be used as indicators of soil quality. Microbes are a potential early warning indicator of soil degradation. The benefits of healthy soil are discussed in terms of human and animal health, environmental quality, and food safety. Practices that conserve soil are juxtaposed with those that degrade it. Data used to determine soil quality, the beneficial activities of microorganisms, and microbial indicators are listed. Management activities that incorporated climates, temporal, and biological components are presented in terms of agricultural tillage, compaction, and residue management.
An explanation of the soil food web is discussed in terms of the trophic levels of soil organisms. The impact of tillage, cultivation, and agrochemicals on this food web are presented, with an emphasis on the effects on nutrient cycling and retention. Soil structure, disease suppression, decomposition of toxic materials, and production of plant growth regulator compounds are discussed. Major actors in soil ecology, from plant roots to nematodes to beneficial fungi and their interrelationships in healthy soil are related in terms of plant productivity.
Farmers in some areas of Africa have recognized the potential value of indigenous knowledge, and begun to understand the degradation caused by soil inversion and other 'modern'technologies. The potential contributions of conservation tillage to sustainable agriculture, and the rule of the African Conservation Tillage (ACT) network in assisting/facilitating the process, and identifying research needs, are discussed.
Through a multi-disciplinary approach that examines biophysical processes including soil nutrient status and yield, the authors discuss whether sustainable development based on agriculture is possible in an area plagued with soil erosion, declining soil fertility, and land degradation.
The paper compares land degradation assessment techniques using indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) of the Booran pastoralists and techniques used by ecologists. The authors conclude that policy-makers should incorporate (IEK) into decisions on landscape level range rehabilitation.
This short article provides a concise overview of the environmental problems resulting from modern-day agriculture. Altieri and Nicholls categorize these impacts as “first-“ (primarily fertilizer and pesticide related) and “second-wave” (complications derived from the advent of agricultural biotechnology, e.g. transgenic crops). An easy and informative article in a brand new collection on the consequences of globalization for the rural environment in Latin America and the US.
His article attempts to make a comprehensive list of the direct and indirect effects of herbivorous grazing on dryland ecosystems. Various (non)-equilibrium state paradigms are examined, the conclusion serves to highlight the shortcomings of simple models of herbivore-climate-vegetation interactions.
This article is an attempt to unravel (or ravel!) the implications of "new" rangeland ecology thinking called 'non-equilibrium' for social sciences, and practical applications of ecology. The author is concerned that social science theories and practices are not taking account of recent developments in our understanding of environmental change.