Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Resilience Theory And Coerced Resilience In Agriculture, S. M. Sundstrom, D. G. Angeler, C. R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Movements And Resource Selection Of Wild Pigs Associated With Growth Stages Of Corn, Bethany A. Friesenhahn, Randall W. Deyoung, Michael J. Cherry, Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Nathan P. Snow

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are one of the most successful invasive species globally and are often implicated in agricultural damage. This damage is expected to increase as ranges of wild pigs expand, impacting the human food supply and increasing costs of food production. Our objective was to evaluate movement behaviors of wild pigs relative to resource availability and landscape features in an agriculture-dominated landscape, with a goal of informing management practices for reducing damage to corn. We monitored hourly movements of adult wild pigs relative to corn crops using GPS collars during the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons (Feb–Sept) in …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Options For Western Australian Agriculture, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Climate Science Published Reports

The Western Australian (WA) Government is committed to building the climate resilience of the agriculture industry. The WA Climate Change Policy underscores this commitment to adapting to climate change and working with all sectors of the economy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Achieving climate resilience requires both adaptation and the mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which accelerate climate change.

The Sectoral Emissions Reduction Strategies (SERS) are a core commitment of the Western Australian Climate Policy. These will provide robust and credible emissions reduction pathways across sectors for the whole of WA. Development of the SERS, announced in …

Pro-Environmental Diversification Of Pasture-Based Dairy And Beef Production In Ireland, The United Kingdom And New Zealand: A Scoping Review Of Impacts And Challenges, Maria Markiewicz-Keszycka, Aileen Carter, Donal O'Brien, Maeve Henchion, Simon Mooney, Paul Hynds

Articles

Grass-fed dairy and beef products are valued by consumers for their unique nutrient profile, enhanced animal welfare and lower environmental footprint compared to conventional produce derived from animals reared indoors on higher volumes of concentrate feeds (O'Callaghan et al., Reference O'Callaghan, Vázquez-Fresno, Serra-Cayuela, Dong, Mandal, Hennessy, McAuliffe, Dillon, Wishart, Stanton and Ross2018; Moscovici Joubran et al., Reference Moscovici Joubran, Pierce, Garvey, Shalloo and O'Callaghan2021). For the current study, pasture-based production of dairy and beef is defined as a system within which cattle graze freely outdoors on green pasture for ≥6 months per year, using grazed grass as the primary feed …

Climate Changes In El Salvador: Impacts Of ‘La Canícula’ (Midsummer Drought) On Agricultural Practices And Decision-Making In Rural Communities, Paola M. Rivera González

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Central American Dry Corridor (CADC), a tropical, dry-forest region, is characterized by distinct rainy and dry seasons, which influence the local agricultural calendar and planting decisions in rural communities. La canícula is a period of decreased precipitation during the rainy season, which occurs during the corn-planting season in El Salvador. La canícula is expected to change in intensity and duration in the next decades, which would impact small-scale farmers and their livelihoods. Climate variability and uncertainty has led to crop loss, water scarcity, and food insecurity in rural communities dependent on subsistence farming. Farmers’ experiences with a changing climate …

Predicting The Effects Of Climate Change On Irish Agriculture, Rodrigo Matsumoto, Sarah Kuprian Carrinho

ICT

The impact of climate change on agriculture is a growing concern worldwide, and Ireland is no exception. The purpose of this project is to use machine learning techniques to predict the effects of climate change on Irish agriculture and identify strategies for adaptation and mitigation. The project uses the Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM) methodology to guide the data analysis process, MoSCoW prioritization to identify the most critical needs, and SWOT analysis to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats our project may encounter. Historical temperature data for Ireland and Dublin will be used as our data sources. …

Climatological, Hydrological, And Economic Analysis Of Agriculture In Montana And The Western U.S.A., Zachary H. Lauffenburger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Many studies have addressed the impact of climate on agriculture; however, fewer studies addressed how farmers adapt to climate change, to what extent implementation of adaptation strategies mitigates economic losses or alters the hydrologic system. Analyses of how historical climate affected not only farmer decision making, but also the economic and hydrological consequences of farmers’ adaptations to climate variations, and projections of the spatiotemporal climatic regimes at finer regional scales are critical for aiding in actionable climate change adaptations. This dissertation helps fill knowledge gaps on the impacts of climate change in rural regions of the agricultural western U.S.A. and …

An Investigation Of Change In Drone Practices In Broadacre Farming Environments, Hrishikesh S. Neetye

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The application of drones in broadacre farming is influenced by novel and emergent factors. Drone technology is subject to legal, financial, social, and technical constraints that affect the Agri-tech sector. This research showed that emerging improvements to drone technology influence the analysis of precision data resulting in disparate and asymmetrically flawed Ag-tech outputs. The novelty of this thesis is that it examines the changes in drone technology through the lens of entropic decay. It considers the planning and controlling of an organisation’s resources to minimise harmful effects through systems change. The rapid advances in drone technology have outpaced the systematic …

Implications Of Cyberbiosecurity In Advanced Agriculture, Simone Stephen, Keitavius Alexander, Lucas Potter, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The world is currently undergoing a rapid digital transformation sometimes referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. During this transformation, it is increasingly clear that many scientific fields are not prepared for this change. One specific area is agriculture. As the sector which creates global food supply, this critical infrastructure requires detailed assessment and research via newly developed technologies (Millett et al, 2019; Peccoud et al, 2018) . Despite its fundamental significance to modern civilization, many aspects of industrial agriculture have not yet adapted to the digital world. This is evident in the many vulnerabilities currently present within agricultural systems, …

Analyzing The Effects Of Climate Impacts In El Salvador And How They Influence Pollution, Ecosystems And Communities, Veronica Norio-Tomasino

Master's Projects and Capstones

Due to projections of rising temperatures and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the rate at which climate change is impacting nations is devastating. However, developing countries and vulnerable communities are not the primary contributors to climate change, but they are at a greater risk for climate impacts by industrialized nations. As a result of increased human activity, developing nations such as El Salvador are particularly susceptible to climate-related events. Deforestation, water pollution, and human health risks are some activities that have contributed to El Salvador's vulnerability to climate change, drastically affecting rural communities suffering from multidimensional poverty. …

Agricultural Aerosols: The Impact Of Farming Activity On Ice Nucleating Particles, Joseph Robinson

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Farming activities cause particles such as soil dust and plant material to be emitted into the air. Some of these aerosols can become ice nucleating particles (INPs), serving as seeds for ice and mixed-phase clouds. While there have been ground-based studies of these particles in the western Great Plains and a single air-based study in Indiana, there is a distinct lack of ground-based studies in the Midwest. In Indiana, over two-thirds of the state is farmland, with over 75% of land in Tippecanoe County used for agriculture. Despite farming being such an essential part of life in Indiana, the connection …

Agriculture And Sustainable Farming In Vietnam, Minh Hoan Le

Asian Management Insights

Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, talks about the future of sustainable agriculture in ASEAN.

Why New Zealand’S Indigenous Reconciliation Process Has Failed To Empower Māori Fishers: Distributional, Procedural, And Recognition-Based Injustices, Hekia Bodwitch, Andrew M. Song, Owen Temby, John Reid, Megan Bailey, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

How is it that the New Zealand government’s process for re-establishing Indigenous fishing rights has failed to deliver thriving Māori fisheries? This paper examines why, at Te Waihora, a coastal lake, and site of one of the nation’s longest running and best-funded state-Māori co-governance agreements, Māori fishers have been unable to use their rights to support their fishery. As of 2018, the lake’s culturally and ecologically significant eel population was no longer commercially viable, a decline fishers have attributed to rampant dairy industry expansion upstream. Drawing on environmental justice literatures, we deploy a multi-dimensional framework to identify factors shaping possibilities …

Acreage Of Foreign Owned Farmland In The Mountain West, 2020, Geneva Martin, Saha Salahi, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines foreign-owned farmland in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, as originally reported by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency.

Assessment Of Historical Climate Variability In Maine With Implications For Future Agricultural Productivity And Adaptation, Carly Frank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a wicked problem with global impacts, one of which being the sustainability of the existing global food system. As temperatures and variability in precipitation are projected to increase, the challenges to agriculture are expected to intensify. This thesis examines the Maine historical climate record over the growing season, in combination with future projections, to assess how conditions have changed and will change with agricultural implications. In this analysis, relevant climatic variables are analyzed, and agriculture-significant measures are derived for Maine’s three climate divisions using four decades of daily and monthly gridded datasets. In addition, this thesis explores …

Manganese Geochemistry And Plant Availability In Response To Agricultural Practices, Ashleigh R. Montgomery

Masters Theses

Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for all organisms. In soils, Mn forms determine availability to plants. Most Mn research has been conducted in forest ecosystems and Mn cycling in agricultural systems is understudied. Therefore, the objective of the experiment is to understand the effect of different agricultural management strategies on Mn cycling and plant availability. First, a greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different application rates of two Mn fertilizers (MnSO₄ and MnEDTA) on soil geochemical properties and growth of corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max). The fertilizers were applied to …

Prediction Of Cultivation Areas For The Commercial And An Early Flowering Wild Accession Of Salvia Hispanica L. In The United States, Mohammad Hassani, Thomas Piechota, Hagop S. Atamian

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Salvia hispanica L., commonly known as chia, is a plant-based alternative to seafood and is rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acid, protein, fiber, and antioxidants. In the Northern Hemisphere, chia flowering is triggered by the fall equinox (12-h light and dark, early October) and the seeds mature after approximately three months. Chia is sensitive to frost and end of season moisture which limits its cultivation to small areas in regions with temperate climate. The U.S. chia import has increased considerably over the years; however, chia is not widely cultivated in the United States. This study used the historical U.S. temperature …

A Deep Learning Based System For Real-Time Detection And Sorting Of Earthworm Cocoons, Ali̇ Çeli̇k, Si̇nan Uğuz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Vermicompost, created by earthworms after eating and digesting organic waste, plays an important role as an organic fertiliser in sustainable agriculture. In this study, a deep learning-based smart system was developed to separate earthworm cocoons used in the production of vermicompost from the compost and return it to production. In the first stage of the study, a dataset containing 1000 images of cocoons was created. The cocoons in each image were labeled and training was performed using a deep learning architecture, one-stage and two-stage models. The models were trained over 2000 epochs with a learning rate of 0.01. From the …

Identifying Key Stream Restoration Variables In An Agriculturally Impaired Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Julia Portmann

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Chesapeake Bay watershed spans several states, supports diverse ecosystems, and is crucial to local economies. However, agricultural practices in this region impair water quality. The Smith Creek watershed, within the Shenandoah Valley, was designated a showcase watershed in 2010 by the United States Department of Agriculture to demonstrate the efficacy of implementing restoration projects. We sampled fifteen farms ranging from unrestored to thirty-six years since restoration. At each site, we conducted a kick-net survey for macroinvertebrates, measured canopy cover, algal density, substrate size, and bank height and angle. We identified macroinvertebrates to family and calculated the Chesapeake Basin-wide Index …

Multi-Criteria Evaluation Model For Classifying Marginal Cropland In Nebraska Using Historical Crop Yield And Biophysical Characteristics, Andrew Laws

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Marginal cropland is suboptimal due to historically low and variable productivity and limiting biophysical characteristics. To support future agricultural management and policy decisions in Nebraska, U.S.A, it is important to understand where cropland is marginal for its two most economically important crops: corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max). As corn and soybean are frequently planted in a crop rotation, it is important to consider if there is a relationship with cropland marginality. Based on the current literature, there exists a need for a flexible yet robust methodology for identifying marginal land at different scales, which …

Debe Ser Dirigida: Theories Of Community Organizing For Research Management In The Context Of Rural Ecuador, Meghan Edwards

Student Symposium

This research analysis and literature review discusses the factors that mobilize individuals to take an active role in community-led resource management. After reviewing major contemporary theories of resource management such as Elinor Ostrom's polycentric theory, CPR theories, and Arnstein's ladder, the essay then applies these theories to the context of the Quijos Valley in Ecuador, where the author conducted informal interviews with community members both involved and not-involved in managing fragile soil ecosystems. The literature review considers the idea that individuals are more likely to take an active role in research management when there are strong community bonds, and highlights …

Land Use Effects On Fish Assemblages In Mississippi River Tributaries In Scott County, Ia And Rock Island County, Il, Benjamin Ford, Kevin Geedey

Urban Watershed Project

Fish assemblages are viable indicators of stream quality because they respond predictably to changes in abiotic and biotic factors, such as habitat and water quality, and human exploitation and species additions. In this a study we examined the relationship between fish abundance, diversity, and IBI (Index of Biotic Integrity), and urban and agricultural land use in Scott County, IA and Rock Island County, IL. Fish were sampled during the summer of 2021 within 12 local watersheds, which contain a variety of land use types. We followed a standardized sampling method of a single pass with a backpack electrofishing unit through …

When High-Water-Use Neighbors Move In: Farming Pecans In Valencia County, New Mexico, Tylee M. Griego

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Valencia County, comprised of a collection of farming communities in the Middle Rio Grande of central New Mexico, is undergoing a fundamental change in its irrigated agriculture. Historically, over recent decades, it has had many smaller-sized farms, or “hobby farms”, with fewer larger commercial enterprises, and with alfalfa as its dominant crop. But in recent years, it has seen a significant expansion of acreage devoted to pecan orchards – a higher value commercial crop that also is substantially higher in water use. Some of these orchards have been planted on land not previously irrigated. The Rio Grande flows through the …

Los Impactos Del Cambio Climático En Las Comunidades Aymaras En Putre, El Valle De Azapa Y Arica, Lindsey Kaufman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: How is climate change affecting Aymara communities in Putre, the valley of Azapa, and Putre?

Objectives: To understand the effects of climate on communities by 1) describing which environmental problems exist and their impact on agriculture and ranching, 2) understanding the patterns of migration away from the ancestral land, 3) exploring the connections to the social determinants of health that exist with these change, and 4) analyzing the significance of these changes in the agriculture for the communities’ traditions and connection to the land.

Background: Aymara communities have historically inhabited agricultural and ranching lands in …

Watershed Management For Nutrient Control In Taylor Creek And Nubbins Slough, Florida, Rachael Z. Cooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite efforts to improve water quality within the watershed since the 1970s, harmful algal blooms (HABs) still occur within Lake Okeechobee (LO). HABs are harmful to the people, the ecosystem, and the economy dependent on the lake. Taylor Creek Nubbins Slough (TCNS) is a subwatershed of the lake, contributing to a large percentage of the nutrient loading. Due to the size and complexity of LO’s watershed, two smaller basins within the TCNS subwatershed were selected to evaluate the following research questions: (1) How do water quality trends contrast between two basins? (2) How do nutrient load and treatment within the …

Irrigation’S Impact On A Precipitation Event During Grainex In Nebraska, Usa, Daniel Whitesel

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Numerous precipitation events were observed during the Great Plains Irrigation Experiment (GRAINEX). However, the precipitation event that was observed the morning of 23 July 2018 is the focus of this thesis. Six experiments were conducted which involved increasing or decreasing soil moisture by 5% increments over the irrigated cropland. An additional experiment, which changed the irrigated land use to grassland, showed precipitation increases. It was found that regardless of strength of irrigation, average precipitation decreased. Average precipitation decreased by up to 72% when irrigation increased compared to the control simulation and decreased by up to 85% when irrigation decreased compared …

Conversion Of Forest To Agro-Silvo-Pastoral System – Montado – In Mediterranean Environments, J. Potes, F. Jorge, T. Montes, D. Palha

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The Mediterranean environment regions are characterized by climate and soil specificities that justify low productive capacity for primary production when compared to other environments on earth. The Mediterranean forests are essentially formed by trees and shrubs. The shrubs are the perfect fuel to feed the forest fires that occur in a natural and cyclical manner in these environmental conditions. Therefore, the Mediterranean Systems of Agriculture have evolved to control the shrubs and the extensification of the systems because of low productivity. Sustainability is achieved by increase of productivity through improvement of the soil and irrigation. The application of these principles …

Understanding The Decline In Successful Cattle Pregnancies, Andre Tu Nguyen

Research on Capitol Hill

USU junior Andre, a local Loganer, studies computer science and biology.He has been working in an animal science lab. Over time, we have seen a decline in successful dairy cattle pregnancies. This is a huge cause for concern for Utah, with milk sales at an estimated value of $405 million in 2020. Andre’s work has been in studying a certain protein in pregnant cattle; now that he has determined there is a decrease in this protein over the course of the pregnancy, he hopes to see whether that might impact its viability. Andre got involved in research in a high …

Directions For The Development Of Personal Subsidiary Farms And Increasing Sources Of Income In The Future, Yakupov Kabil

Karakalpak Scientific Journal

This article discusses the features of the development of personal subsidiary farms in modern conditions, defines their functions in the agrarian economy and in the life of society as a whole. Modern agrarian policy provides for the development of various forms of management, including personal subsidiary farms. Personal subsidiary farms are an organic part of the agricultural sectors and make a significant contribution to solving the food problem of the country. The provision of the population with food products is carried out by personal subsidiary farms through their own consumption, as well as the sale of surplus products.

Policy Sustainability Issues: Case Study Of Cassava Farmers In Ikorodu. Lagos, Nigeria, Medinat Oluwatoyin Adetunji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The inconsistency and lack of continuity of Nigeria's agricultural policies impact the cassava sector. Despite being the world's biggest producer, the country is yet to benefit from the advantage due to a lack of sustainable growth. The situation manifests in terms of low productivity, low production level, and poor income to the farmers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of the cassava farmers on cassava policies and the effect on their income and livelihoods in the Ikorodu local government of Lagos State. This qualitative study adopted a case study research design using participatory …