Dietary Intakes and Health Risk of Toxic and Essential Heavy Metals through the Food Chain in Agricultural,Industrial, and Coal Mining Areas of Northern India

Minerals can enter the food chain through industrial and mining activities. Soil-to-vegetable transfer is higher than soil-to-cereal, but human consumption of metals is attributable to balanced diets containing both vegetables and cereals and drinking water. However, the impact of location on intakes of metals from predominantly cereal-based Indian diets is not clear. Hence, the present study was undertaken in selected Agricultural, Industrial, and Coal Mining Areas (AA, IA, CMA) around the Allahabad District in Northern India to compare transfer of toxic metals, Pb, Cd, Cr and essential metals, Fe, Zn, Cu, Co in soil and water to common crops: cereals (rice, wheat, maize) and vegetables (spinach, potato), and to assess Daily Intake of Metal (DIM) and consequent Health Risk Index (HRI). The overall content of all metals, except Cu, in water, soils, and crops followed the pattern CMA > IA > AA. Transfer factors (TFs) followed the sequence spinach > potato > cereals. Quantitatively, however, cereals contribute maximally to a balanced diet, so DIM and HRI were higher from cereals than vegetables. Even though spinach had the highest TFs, cereals contributed maximally to HRI. CMA had the highest metal content so locally grown cereals contributed significantly to intake of both toxic and essential metals.     

Changes in the distribution of multispecies pest assemblages affect levels of crop damage in warming tropical Andes

Climate induced species range shifts might create novel interactions among species that may outweigh direct climatic effects. In an agricultural context, climate change might alter the intensity of competition or facilitation interactions among pests with, potentially, negative consequences on the levels of damage to crop. This could threaten the productivity of agricultural systems and have negative impacts on food security, but has yet been poorly considered in studies. In this contribution, we constructed and evaluated process‐based species distribution models for three invasive potato pests in the Tropical Andean Region. These three species have been found to co‐occur and interact within the same potato tuber, causing different levels of damage to crop. Our models allowed us to predict the current and future distribution of the species and therefore, to assess how damage to crop might change in the future due to novel interactions. In general, our study revealed the main challenges related to distribution modeling of invasive pests in highly heterogeneous regions. It yielded different results for the three species, both in terms of accuracy and distribution, with one species surviving best at lower altitudes and the other two performing better at higher altitudes. As to future distributions our results suggested that the three species will show different responses to climate change, with one of them expanding to higher altitudes, another contracting its range and the other shifting its distribution to higher altitudes. These changes will result in novel areas of co‐occurrence and hence, interactions of the pests, which will cause different levels of damage to crop. Combining population dynamics and species distribution models that incorporate interspecific trade‐off relationships in different environments revealed a powerful approach to provide predictions about the response of an assemblage of interacting species to future environmental changes and their impact on process rates.     

A review of global potentially available cropland estimates and their consequences for model‐based assessments

The world's population is growing and demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel is increasing, placing greater demand on land and its resources for crop production. We review previously published estimates of global scale cropland availability, discuss the underlying assumptions that lead to differences between estimates, and illustrate the consequences of applying different estimates in model‐based assessments of land‐use change. The review estimates a range from 1552 to 5131 Mha, which includes 1550 Mha that is already cropland. Hence, the lowest estimates indicate that there is almost no room for cropland expansion, while the highest estimates indicate that cropland could potentially expand to over three times its current area. Differences can largely be attributed to institutional assumptions, i.e. which land covers/uses (e.g. forests or grasslands) are societally or governmentally allowed to convert to cropland, while there was little variation in biophysical assumptions. Estimates based on comparable assumptions showed a variation of up to 84%, which originated mainly from different underlying data sources. On the basis of this synthesis of the assumptions underlying these estimates, we constructed a high, a medium, and a low estimate of cropland availability that are representative of the range of estimates in the reviewed studies. We apply these estimates in a land‐change model to illustrate the consequences on cropland expansion and intensification as well as deforestation. While uncertainty in cropland availability is hardly addressed in global land‐use change assessments, the results indicate a large range of estimates with important consequences for model‐based assessments.     

Forest transitions in Eastern Europe and their effects on carbon budgets

Forests often rebound from deforestation following industrialization and urbanization, but for many regions our understanding of where and when forest transitions happened, and how they affected carbon budgets remains poor. One such region is Eastern Europe, where political and socio‐economic conditions changed drastically over the last three centuries, but forest trends have not yet been analyzed in detail. We present a new assessment of historical forest change in the European part of the former Soviet Union and the legacies of these changes on contemporary carbon stocks. To reconstruct forest area, we homogenized statistics at the provincial level for ad 1700–2010 to identify forest transition years and forest trends. We contrast our reconstruction with the KK11 and HYDE 3.1 land change scenarios, and use all three datasets to drive the LPJ dynamic global vegetation model to calculate carbon stock dynamics. Our results revealed that forest transitions in Eastern Europe occurred predominantly in the early 20th century, substantially later than in Western Europe. We also found marked geographic variation in forest transitions, with some areas characterized by relatively stable or continuously declining forest area. Our data suggest extensive deforestation in European Russia already prior to ad 1700, and even greater deforestation in the 18th and 19th centuries than in the KK11 and HYDE scenarios. Based on our reconstruction, cumulative carbon emissions from deforestation were greater before 1700 (60 Pg C) than thereafter (29 Pg C). Summed over our entire study area, forest transitions led to a modest uptake in carbon over recent decades, with our dataset showing the smallest effect (<5.5 Pg C) and a more heterogeneous pattern of source and sink regions. This suggests substantial sequestration potential in regrowing forests of the region, a trend that may be amplified through ongoing land abandonment, climate change, and CO₂ fertilization.     

Reflections on agricultural landscape revegetation in south‐eastern Australia: Interview with Martin Driver

One of Australia's leading on‐ground extension officers describes the successes and lessons learned in The Riverina's native revegetation movement over the 20–25 years – but warns of potential failure of current and future Australian revegetation programs if greater funding security is not delivered.     

农田灌溉对印度区域气候的影响模拟

为满足人类对粮食的需求,全球灌溉农田面积迅速扩张,农田灌溉对区域气候的影响引起广泛地关注。利用区域环境系统集成模式(RIEMS2.0)和最新的土地利用变化资料,选取农田灌溉面积最大的印度区域作为研究区域,进行雨养农田和灌溉农田的对比试验,探讨农田灌溉对区域气候的影响。结果表明:(1)农田灌溉使得印度区域年平均气温降低1.4℃,年平均降水率增加0.35mm/d。农田灌溉对印度区域气候的影响存在明显的季节波动,季风前期及6月份该区域气候对下垫面变化的响应最为敏感;7-9月各气候要素变化较小。(2) 农田灌溉使得印度区域地表净辐射增加,且地表净辐射在潜热通量和感热通量之间的分配发生了较大的改变,潜热通量增加,感热通量减少;对地表起冷却作用;同时由于土壤湿度增加,蒸散作用增强,大气中水汽含量增加,潜热不稳定能量增加,导致对流性降水增加。     

河套灌区九排域农田排水沟植物物种多样性

2010年8-9月对河套灌区九排域农田排水沟植物进行了综合调查.分别在干沟、支沟、斗沟/农沟的上、中、下游布设断面,断面上设置0.5m×0.5m和5m×5m样方对草本和灌木的植物种类和数量进行调查.结果表明:河套灌区九排域农田排水沟植物由17个科、38个属、39个种组成,禾本科(n=10)、菊科(n=7)和藜科(n=4)植物种类最多,芦苇、羊草和盐地碱蓬是分布面积最广的物种.干沟、支沟和斗/农沟的多样性指数、丰富度指数、均匀度指数和优势度指数值分别为0.57、1.93、0.37和0.81,0.77、3.46、0.65和0.50,0.90、3.88、0.64和0.53.物种多样性表现为边坡的高于沟底,但排沟等级间的变化趋势不明显.水的存留时间及农业管理(清沟)是影响植物物种多样性最主要的因素.     

气候变化背景下中国农业气候资源变化V.宁夏农业气候资源变化特征

基于1961-2009年宁夏21个气象站点的气象资料,分析了宁夏各区农业气候资源的时空变化趋势.结果表明:研究期间,宁夏各地气温逐渐升高,呈北高南低的空间分布特征,年均气温的气候倾向率为0.4℃·(10 a)-1;大部分地区年降水量呈逐渐减少趋势,年降水量的气候倾向率为4.26 mm·(10 a)-1;无霜期和作物生长季天数随着气候变暖逐渐延长;≥10℃积温在3200℃·d以上的区域向南扩展,宁夏适宜种植中晚熟水稻的区域有所扩大;2001-2009年,宁夏大部分地区适宜种植冬小麦,全区各地几乎都适宜种植春小麦;宁夏南部山区各地7月平均气温≤20℃的区域面积逐渐缩小,适宜种植马铃薯的地域也随之缩小.     

农业非点源污染关键源区识别方法研究进展

在农业非点源污染研究中,识别污染发生的关键源区非常重要.在介绍输出系数法、污染指数法和非点源污染模型法等主要农业非点源污染关键源区识别方法的基础上,分析了输出系数取值、污染指数因子权重分级以及非点源模型法参数获取等方面存在问题,并从野外观测、现有不同识别方法的结合、多角度识别方法的研究以及新技术的应用与集成等方面对未来关键源区识别研究进行了展望,以期为农业非点源污染评价与控制提供借鉴.     

微生物菌剂在农业废弃物堆肥腐熟过程中的应用及其田间试验效果

以农村生活垃圾中的可堆肥腐熟成分和蘑菇渣为堆肥原料,通过添加微生物菌剂进行堆肥试验,研究其在农业废弃物堆肥腐熟过程中的作用,并通过田间试验研究堆肥腐熟后肥料样品对黄瓜和青椒的增产效果,以验证其肥效。结果表明添加微生物菌剂有助于堆肥腐熟后样品的氮、磷、钾的保全和有机质的增加,促进养分均衡。添加微生物菌剂的堆肥腐熟肥料样品在田间试验中对黄瓜和青椒的增产效果最为显著,分别为22.21%和19.87%。