Browsing by Browse by FOR 2020 "3002 Agriculture, land and farm management"

Many insect pollinator-dependent crops heavily rely on managed honey bees for pollination, yet flies and other wild taxa can be highly abundant and efficient, thus having potential as complementary pollinators. However, unlike bees, fly pollinator life history requirements and foraging behaviour are often unsupported in agroecosystems, or completely unknown. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of different non-floral resources in attracting fly pollinators and supporting their life history requirements, and whether higher fly abundance would result in improved seed yield in hybrid carrot crops. We introduced three decomposing organic resources (carrion, manure, and carrot plant material) to four commercial carrot farms in Northern Tasmania, Australia and sampled fly activity on carrot umbels around each treatment. In total, we recorded 46 adult insect species visiting carrot umbels across all treatments, consisting of 32 Diptera (flies), eight Coleoptera (beetles), four Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants), and two Hemiptera (true bugs). We collected 10 fly species and one beetle species as larvae from the resources. Both the carrion and carrot treatments supported five different larval species, while the manure supported two. Only Lucilia sericata, Australophyra rostrata, and Oxysarcodexia varia were more abundant on carrot umbels around treatments compared to the control, and seed yield around the treatments did not differ to the control. Our results suggest that the inclusion of non-floral resources can fulfill the life history requirements of flies in agroecosystems. However, determining whether the addition of non-floral resources also results in increased yield, requires further investigation.

Alcohol use and abuse remain two of the most recent global problems increasingly being regulated because of their negative social, economic and health implications. In Kenya, many attempts have been made to regulate alcohol use and abuse. Some of the Acts of Parliament that have been introduced in the country include the Chang’aa Prohibition Act 1970, the Alcohol Drinks Control Act 2010 and the Chang’aa Acts of 2013 and 2021. Generally, these statutes have sought to regulate trading and drinking hours, altering how, where and when traditional alcohol can be brewed and sold, among other controls. For example, the Alcohol Drinks Control Act 2010 was enacted to regulate how, where and when alcohol may be consumed....

Standing and lying are the fundamental behaviours of quadrupedal animals, and the ratio of their durations is a significant indicator of calf health. In this study, we proposed a computer vision method for non-invasively monitoring of calves' behaviours. Cameras were deployed at four viewpoints to monitor six calves on six consecutive days. YOLOv8n was trained to detect standing and lying calves. Daily behavioural budget was then summarised and analysed based on automatic inference on untrained data. The results show a mean average precision of 0.995 and an average inference speed of 333 frames per second. The maximum error in the estimated daily standing and lying time for a total of 8 calf-days is less than 14 min. Calves with diarrhoea had about 2 h more daily lying time (p < 0.002), 2.65 more daily lying bouts (p < 0.049), and 4.3 min less daily lying bout duration (p = 0.5) compared to healthy calves. The proposed method can help in understanding calves' health status based on automatically measured standing and lying time, thereby improving their welfare and management on the farm.

Despite the known benefits of integrated pest management, adoption in Australian broadacre crops has been slow, in part due to the lack of understanding about how pests and natural enemies interact. We use a previously developed process-based model to predict seasonal patterns in the population dynamics of a canola pest, the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), and an associated common primary parasitic wasp (Diaeretiella rapae), found in this cropping landscape. The model predicted aphid population outbreaks in autumn and spring. Diaeretiella rapae was able to suppress these outbreaks, but only in scenarios with a sufficiently high number of female wasps in the field (a simulated aphid: wasp density ratio of at least 5:1 was required). Model simulations of aphid-specific foliar pesticide applications facilitated biological control. However, a broad-spectrum pesticide negated the control provided by D. rapae, in one case leading to a predicted 15% increase in aphid densities compared to simulations in which no pesticide was applied. Biological and chemical control could therefore be used in combination for the successful management of the aphid while conserving the wasp. This modelling framework provides a versatile tool for further exploring how chemical applications can impact pests and candidate species for biological control.

UAS-based multi-spectral imagery is becoming ubiquitous for monitoring and managing various horticultural crops. To accurately measure and monitor their structure and condition and estimate yields, appropriately corrected data must be used to drive the necessary algorithms. There are several popular radiometric correction methods commonly used for UAS-based data correction. However, their relative and absolute accuracies are not known. This study used three flight datasets, including along- and across-tree-row flight patterns in an avocado orchard. Four correction methods were applied to produce at-surface reflectance image mosaics for each flight pattern as well as the grid pattern and the results were compared to assess the reflectance consistency. Results show that no method provided consistently correct at-surface reflectance for the same features. A BRDF correction workflow was being developed to address these limitations. Preliminary application of the BRDF correction shows that it significantly improves the brightness consistency of features across different images.

The accurate and reliable counting of animals in quadcopter acquired imagery is one of the most promising but challenging tasks in intelligent livestock management in the future. In this paper we demonstrate the application of the cutting-edge instance segmentation framework, Mask R-CNN, in the context of cattle counting in different situations such as extensive production pastures and also in intensive housing such as feedlots. The optimal IoU threshold (0.5) and the full-appearance detection for the algorithm in this study are verified through performance evaluation. Experimental results in this research show the framework's potential to perform reliably in offline quadcopter vision systems with an accuracy of 94% in counting cattle on pastures and 92% in feedlots. Compared with the existing typical competing algorithms, Mask R-CNN outperforms both in the counting accuracy and average precision especially on the datasets with occlusion and overlapping. Our research shows promising steps towards the incorporation of artificial intelligence using quadcopters for enhanced management of animals.

The Russian wheat aphid,Diuraphis noxia(Mordvilko ex Kurdjumov), is one of the world's most economically important pests of grain crops and has been recorded from at least 140 grass species within Poaceae. It has rapidly dispersed from its native origin of Central Asia into most major grain-producing regions of the world including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America.Diuraphis noxia was first found in Australia in a wheat crop in the mid-north of South Australia in May 2016. Since then,D. noxia has been recorded throughout grain-growing regions of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. The distribution will continue to expand, with climatic suitability modelling suggesting D. noxia can persist in all key grain regions, including large parts of Western Australia and Queensland. Australian populations of D. noxia appear to be anholocyclic, with no sexual stages being observed. The aphids can reproduce year round as long as host plants are available. Australian farmers have generally adopted prophylactic insecticide seed treatments and/or foliar sprays to manage D. noxia. Research is required to fully understand yield impacts, host preferences and host plant resistance associated with D. noxia. Cultural control through managing alternate host plants over summer, agro-nomic crop management, biological control and developments in host plant resistance should provide considerable future benefits.

Climate change and deforestation are causing rainforests to become increasingly fragmented, placing them at heightened risk of biodiversity loss. Invertebrates constitute the greatest proportion of this biodiversity, yet we lack basic knowledge of their population structure and ecology. There is a compelling need to develop our understanding of the population dynamics of a wide range of rainforest invertebrates so that we can begin to understand how rainforest fragments are connected, and how they will cope with future habitat fragmentation and climate change. Blowfies are an ideal candidate for such research because they are widespread, abundant, and can be easily collected within rainforests. We genotyped 188 blowfies (Chrysomya latifrons) from 15 isolated rainforests and found high levels of gene fow, a lack of genetic structure between rainforests, and low genetic diversity – suggesting the presence of a single large genetically depauperate population. This highlights that: (1) the blowfy Ch. latifrons inhabits a~1000 km stretch of Australian rainforests, where it plays an important role as a nutrient recycler" (2) strongly dispersing fies can migrate between and connect isolated rainforests, likely carrying pollen, parasites, phoronts, and pathogens along with them" and (3) widely dispersing and abundant insects can nevertheless be genetically depauperate. There is an urgent need to better understand the relationships between habitat fragmentation, genetic diversity, and adaptive potential–especially for poorly dispersing rainforest-restricted insects, as many of these may be particularly fragmented and at highest risk of local extinction.

Knowledge of the decomposition of vertebrate animals has advanced considerably in recent years and revealed complex interactions among biological and environmental factors that afect rates of decay. Yet this complexity remains to be fully incorporated into research or models of the postmortem interval (PMI). We suggest there is both opportunity and a need to use recent advances in decomposition theory to guide forensic research and its applications to understanding the PMI. Here we synthesise knowledge of the biological and environmental factors driving variation in decomposition and the acknowledged limitations among current models of the PMI. To guide improvement in this area, we introduce a conceptual framework that highlights the multiple interdependencies afecting decay rates throughout the decomposition process. Our framework reinforces the need for a multidisciplinary approach to PMI research, and calls for an adaptive research cycle that aims to reduce uncertainty in PMI estimates via experimentation, modelling, and validation.

Cropland abandonment in Nepal is an emerging land use change that has significant impacts on ecosystem functions, particularly soil organic carbon (SOC) pools and stocks. Information relating to SOC is limited for the mountainous terrain of Nepal that is subject to either SOC loss from erosion or SOC accumulation from secondary succession after cropland is abandoned. The rate of cropland abandonment is accelerating in Nepal but the impact of the abandoned duration on SOC, fractions, and SOC stock has not yet been investigated. We used a space-for-time substitution approach to assess the impacts of abandonment on SOC concentrations, stocks and associated pools of carbon across abandoned cropland (<5, 5–10, and > 10 years) compared with forest, pasture, and currently cropped land. Soil samples were collected at four depth increments (0–10, 10–20, 20–40, 40–60 cm). The change in SOC and stock was found to be significantly higher in the surface (0–20 cm) compared with sub-surface soil (20–60 cm) and consistently decreased with increasing soil depth under all land uses. Change in soil nitrogen concentration followed a similar pattern to that of SOC at all land uses and depths. Among the SOC fractions, particulate organic carbon increased significantly by a greater proportion compared to mineralassociated organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon after 10 years of cropland abandonment. Abandoned cropland >10 years had a higher SOC stock (64.19 Mg ha^{− 1} ) in the soil profile (0–60 cm) compared with cropped land (58.76 Mg ha^{− 1} ) although it remained lower than forest (66.56 Mg ha^{− 1} ) and pasture (66.60 Mg ha^{− 1} ) soils. Although there was a decrease in the first five years, there was a significant accumulation of SOC, associated fractions, and SOC stock after ten years of abandonment and colonisation by vegetation indicating the inception of ecosystem regeneration in abandoned croplands in the mountainous region of Nepal.

This research investigates the capability of field-based spectroscopy (350–2500 nm) for discriminating banana plants (Cavendish subgroup Williams) infested with spider mites from those unaffected. Spider mites are considered a major threat to agricultural production, as they occur on over 1000 plant species, including banana plant varieties. Plants were grown under a controlled glasshouse environment to remove any influence other than the imposed treatment (presence or absence of spider mites). The spectroradiometer measurements were undertaken with a leaf clip over three infestation events. From the resultant spectral data, various classification models were evaluated including partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA), K-nearest neighbour, support vector machines and back propagation neural network. Wavelengths found to have a significant response to the presence of spider mites were extracted using competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), sub-window permutation analysis (SPA) and random frog (RF) and benchmarked using the classification models. CARS and SPA provided high detection success (86% prediction accuracy), with the wavelengths found to be significant corresponding with the red edge and near-infrared portions of the spectrum. As there is limited access to operational commercial hyperspectral imaging and additional complexity, a multispectral camera (Sequoia) was assessed for detecting spider mite impacts on banana plants. Simulated multispectral bands were able to provide a high level of detection accuracy (prediction accuracy of 82%) based on a PLSDA model, with the near-infrared band being most important, followed by the red edge, green and red bands. Multispectral vegetation indices were trialled using a simple threshold-based classification method using the green normalised difference vegetation index (GNDVI), which achieved 82% accuracy. This investigation determined that remote sensing approaches can provide an accurate method of detecting mite infestations, with multispectral sensors having the potential to provide a more commercially accessible means of detecting outbreaks.

Non-human vertebrate animals, primarily domestic pigs, have been widely used in forensic science research as analogues for humans due to ethical and logistical constraints. Yet the suitability of pigs to mimic human decomposition and entomological patterns remains largely untested, and explicit comparative research in this area is lacking. We compared the decomposition rates and insect communities found at pig and human remains during summer and winter at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER). Pigs decomposed faster than humans, with pigs entering active decay earlier in both summer and winter, and humans undergoing desiccation rather than skeletonisation. There was also a delay in the colonisation of humans by both flies and beetles. Species richness of these necrophagous taxa was between two and five times higher during the first two weeks of decomposition on pigs compared to humans during both summer and winter. Insect species composition was also significantly different between pigs and humans in each season. We interpret our findings to mean that the difference between humans and pigs, such as their mass, diet, medical history, or their microbiomes, might be causing different decomposition processes and altered timing or production of chemical cues for insect colonisation. Although preliminary, our results suggest that pigs might not be accurate substitutes for humans in particular fields of taphonomy and forensic entomology. Our findings also have broader implications for the reliability of forensic studies using pigs as models for humans, and highlight the need to recognise intrinsic differences between animal models and humans.

Understanding the variability in crop yield in relation to the spatial variationsin soil properties can help to more efficiently apply agricultural inputs on a site-specific basis. This study was designed to characterize and quantify the spatialvariation in soil properties and wheat yield and to delineate prescription maps forsite- specific fertilization. A wheat field was selected at the research farm of theUniversity of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, and a grid pattern (30 m * 30 m)was established at the experimental sites to collect soil and crop yield samples attwo sampling depths (0– 15 & 15– 30 cm). The soil samples were analysed for soilnitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), pH, electrical conductivity (EC),soil organic matter (SOM) and saturation (S) at both sampling depths. The loca-tions of the sampling points and field boundary were marked with a GPS receiver.Results of classical, geo-statistical and interpolated maps revealed significant spa-tial variability in soil properties and crop yield, demanding for site-specific nutri-ent management. The cluster analysis was performed to group the soil and yielddata into five productivity zones termed as 'very low', 'low', 'medium', 'high' and'very high' without prior knowledge of productivity potential with the internalhomogeneity and external heterogeneity at a similarity level of greater than 70%.Results of correlation matrix suggested significant relationships among the cropyield and the soil properties. Results of means comparison in different produc-tivity zones indicated that the crop yield and soil properties were significantlydifferent in developed management zones except 'low' and 'very low' zones. Significant variation of soil nutrients in very low-to-very high productivity zones at both sampling depths suggested that the soil nutrients in combination with soil pH and organic matter can be used to develop prescription maps for site-specific fertilization. Furthermore, the results of this study emphasize the need to predict soil and crop variables using sensors, in future studies, to delineate pre-scription maps, as soil sampling and analysis is expansive and time consuming. Site-specific fertilization based on soil and crop needs can improve economic and environmental efficiency.

The FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable) principles and practice recommendations provide high level guidance and recommendations that are not research-domain specific in nature. There remains a gap in practice at the data provider and domain scientist level demonstrating how the FAIR principles can be applied beyond a set of generalist guidelines to meet the needs of a specific domain community.

We present our insights developing FAIR thresholds in a domain specific context for self-governance by a community (agricultural research). 'Minimum thresholds' for FAIR data are required to align expectations for data delivered from providers' distributed data stores through a community-governed federation (the Agricultural Research Federation, AgReFed).

Data providers were supported to make data holdings more FAIR. There was a range of different FAIR starting points, organisational goals, and end user needs, solutions, and capabilities. This informed the distilling of a set of FAIR criteria ranging from 'Minimum thresholds' to 'Stretch targets'. These were operationalised through consensus into a framework for governance and implementation by the agricultural research domain community.

Improving the FAIR maturity of data took resourcing and incentive to do so, highlighting the challenge for data federations to generate value whilst reducing costs of participation. Our experience showed a role for supporting collective advocacy, relationship brokering, tailored support, and low-bar tooling access particularly across the areas of data structure, access and semantics that were challenging to domain researchers. Active democratic participation supported by a governance framework like AgReFed's will ensure participants have a say in how federations can deliver individual and collective benefits for members.

To facilitate smallholder farmers’ inclusion within agricultural change processes, agricultural innovation platforms are increasingly being used. Such platforms, which seek to facilitate farmer interactions with diverse actors, are associated with the concept of inclusive innovation. Despite the rhetoric of IPs as inclusive structures, questions persist regarding farmers’ inclusion in decision-making within IPs. This research, based on a livestock innovation case study in the Ethiopian Highlands, examines the role of multilevel IPs in supporting inclusive innovation.Qualitative data collection, timeline analysis of the innovation process and thematic analysis were employed. Results reveal varying levels of farmer inclusion across different phases of the innovation process and IP operational levels. While successful farmer inclusion was apparent in the diagnosis and decentralized learning innovation processes, maintaining inclusivity during the latter phases of the innovation process was difficult, and negatively impacted on farmer-centric outcomes. Decentralized resources, decision-making and reflexive monitoring emerge as crucial in improving smallholder farmers’ inclusion and addressing institutional biases inherent in the technology-push approaches to innovation, especially during farmers’ selection processes that continued to favour better-off or well-connected‘model’ farmers.

This study analyzes the effects of farmers' risk on productivity where the production function is generalized to be specific to risk variables. This resulted in a semiparametric smooth-coefficient (SPSC) production function. The novelty of the SPSC approach is that it can explain the direct and indirect channels through which risk can affect productivity. The study uses several measures of risk, including attitudes toward risk, perceptions of risk, and risk management skills of farmers. It then shows how these risk-related variables affect productivity both directly and indirectly via the inputs. Using 2015 farm-level data from organic basmati rice (OBR) smallholders in India, the study finds that OBR farmers with high degrees of risk aversion had lower productivity than less risk-averse or risk-neutral OBR farmers. Additionally, OBR farmers who were most concerned about production risks (i.e., weather and pest risks) had higher productivity than their counterparts. Finally, the study reveals that OBR farmers can reduce production costs by increasing farm size.

The overabundance of large herbivores can have detrimental effects on the local environment due to overgrazing. Culling is a common management practice implemented globally that can effectively control herbivore populations and allow vegetation communities to recover. However, the broader indirect effects of culling large herbivores remain relatively unknown, particularly on insect species such as ground-dwelling beetles that perform key ecosystem processes such as decomposition. Here we undertook a preliminary investigation to determine how culling sika deer on an island in North Japan impacted ground-beetle community dynamics. We conducted pitfall trapping in July and September in 2012 (before culling) and again in 2019 (after culling). We compared beetle abundance and community composition within 4 beetle families (Carabidae, Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae, and Silphidae), across seasons and culling treatments. We found each family responded differently to deer culling. Scarabaeidae displayed the greatest decline in abundance after culling. Silphidae also had reduced abundance but to a lesser extent compared to Scarabaeidae. Carabidae had both higher and lower abundance after culling, depending on the season. We found beetle community composition differed between culling and season, but seasonal variability was reduced after culling. Overall, the culling of large herbivores resulted in a reduction of ground-dwelling beetle populations, particularly necrophagous species dependent on dung and carrion for survival. Our preliminary research highlights the need for longterm and large-scale experiments to understand the indirect ecological implications of culling programs on ecosystem processes.

The Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia [Kurdjumov, Hemiptera: Aphididae], RWA) was first detected in Australia in 2016 and is threatening an annual cereal industry valued at nearly 10 billion AUD per annum. Considerable uncertainty surrounds the economic risk of D. noxia to Australian cereals, which limits cost-effective farm management decisions. Through a series of inoculated and non-inoculated field trials in 2018 and 2019 in south-eastern Australia, we generated a range of D. noxia pressure metrics under different growing conditions for barley, wheat, and durum wheat. Relative yield loss was best explained by the 'percentage of tillers with D. noxia' (%TwRWA) with 0.28% yield loss per percent of tillers with D. noxia, which is significantly lower than 0.46–0.48% for susceptible winter wheat varieties in dryland conditions in the United States. Highest infestation levels were typically reached around GS40–50. To develop an action threshold, we calculated the rate of increase in the %TwRWA through time at 0.021% per day per %TwRWA (with little variation across sites). This allowed prediction of the expected maximum %TwRWA based on observations post tillering (GS30) and the expected duration before GS50 is reached. For earlier growth stages (

Recent conceptual and empirical developments in decomposition research have highlighted the intricate dynamics within necrobiome communities and the roles of various decay drivers. Yet the interactions between these factors and their regulatory mechanisms remain relatively unexplored. A comprehensive understanding of this facet of decomposition science is important, given its broad applicability across ecological and forensic disciplines, and current lack of research which investigates the inter-dependencies between two critical components of the necrobiome (the microbiome and insect activity), and the consequences of this interdependency on mass loss and total body score. Here we investigated the relationships among these key aspects of the decay process. We experimentally manipulated these variables by physically excluding insects and chemically perturbing the external microbiome of piglet (Sus scrofa) carcasses and quantified the effects on mass loss and total body score, as well as insect pre-appearance interval and colonisation. We found that piglets in the insect excluded and microbially perturbed treatment groups exhibited a significant delay in reaching 50 + % of mass loss compared with control piglets with insect access and intact microbiome. However, only remains with insects excluded displayed a significantly slower rate of total mass loss throughout the majority of the experiment and remained a significantly higher mass at the endpoint of 11,000 accumulative degree hours. Additionally, all insect excluded and microbially perturbed treatment groups displayed significantly lower total body scores compared to control piglets at corresponding time points. We also observed a significant delay in insect preappearance interval and colonisation for piglets with perturbed microbiomes compared to control piglets. Our findings demonstrate the significance of interacting components of the necrobiome, and the power of manipulative experiments in revealing causal relationships between biota and decomposition rates. These considerations are paramount for developing accurate post-mortem interval estimations and a comprehensive understanding of ecological processes during decomposition.

Variation in nutrition is a key determinant of growth, body composition, and the ability of animals to perform to their genetic potential. Depending on the quality of feed available, animals may be able to overcome negative effects of prior nutritional restriction, increasing intake and rates of tissue gain, but full compensation may not occur. A 2 × 3 × 4 factorial serial slaughter study was conducted to examine the effects of prior nutritional restriction, dietary energy density, and supplemental rumen undegradable protein (RUP) on intake, growth, and body composition of lambs. After an initial slaughter (n = 8), 124 4-mo-old Merino cross wethers (28.4 ± 1.8 kg) were assigned to either restricted (LO, 500 g/d) or unrestricted (HI, 1500 g/d) intake of lucerne and oat pellets. After 8 wk, eight lambs/group were slaughtered and tissue weights and chemical composition were measured. Remaining lambs were randomly assigned to a factorial combination of dietary energy density (7.8, 9.2, and 10.7 MJ/kg DM) and supplemental RUP (0, 30, 60, and 90 g/d) and fed ad libitum for a 12- to 13-wk experimental period before slaughter and analysis. By week 3 of the experimental period, lambs fed the same level of energy had similar DMI (g/d) and MEI (MJ/d) (P > 0.05), regardless of prior level of nutrition. Restricted-refed (LO) lambs had higher rates of fat and protein gain than HI lambs (P < 0.05) but had similar visceral masses (P > 0.05). However, LO lambs were lighter and leaner at slaughter, with proportionally larger rumens and livers (P < 0.05). Tissue masses increased with increasing dietary energy density, as did DMI, energy and nitrogen (N) retention (% intake), and rates of protein and fat gain (P < 0.05). The liver increased proportionally with increasing dietary energy density and RUP (P < 0.05), but rumen size decreased relative to the empty body as dietary energy density increased (P < 0.05) and did not respond to RUP (P > 0.05). Fat deposition was greatest in lambs fed 60 g/d supplemental RUP (P < 0.05). However, lambs fed 90 g/d were as lean as lambs that did not receive supplement (P0, P > 0.05), with poorer nitrogen retention and proportionally heavier livers than P0 lambs (P < 0.05). In general, visceral protein was the first tissue to respond to increased intake during refeeding, followed by non-visceral protein and fat, highlighting the influence of differences in tissue response over time on animal performance and body composition.

This study evaluates energy efficiency of pastoral (PDFs) and barn (BDFs) dairy farming systems in New Zealand through application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. Two models constant return to scale (CCR) and variable return to scale (BCC) of DEA were employed for determining the technical (TE), pure technical (PTE) and scale (SE) efficiencies of New Zealand pastoral and barn dairy systems. Further, benchmarking was also performed to separate efficient and inefficient dairy farms and energy saving potential was identified for both dairy systems based upon their optimal energy consumption. For this study, the energy inputs data were taken from 50 dairy farms (including PDFs and BDFs) across Canterbury, New Zealand. The results indicated that the average technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies of pastoral (PDFs) dairy systems were 0.84, 0.90, 0.93 and for barn (BDFs) systems were 0.78, 0.84, 0.92, respectively, showing that energy efficiency is slightly better in PDFs system than the BDFs. From the total number of dairy farms 40% and 48% were efficient based on the constant return to scale and variable return to scale models, respectively. Further, the energy saving potential for PDFs and BDFs dairy systems through optimal energy consumption were identified as 23% and 35%, respectively. Thus, energy auditing, use of renewable energy and precision agricultural technology were recommended for energy efficiency improvement in both dairy systems.

Vegetation metrics, such as leaf area (LA), leaf area density (LAD), and vertical leaf area profile, are essential measures of tree-scale biophysical processes associated with photosynthetic capacity, and canopy geometry. However, there are limited published investigations of their use for horticultural tree crops. This study evaluated the ability of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for measuring LA, LAD, and vertical leaf area profile across two mango, macadamia and avocado trees using discrete return data from a RIEGL VZ-400 Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) system. These data were collected multiple times for individual trees to align with key growth stages, essential management practices, and following a severe storm. The first return of each laser pulse was extracted for each individual tree and classified as foliage or wood based on TLS point cloud geometry. LAD at a side length of 25 cm voxels, LA at the canopy level and vertical leaf area profile were calculated to analyse tree crown changes. These changes included: (1) pre-pruning vs. post-pruning for mango trees" (2) pre-pruning vs. post-pruning for macadamia trees" (3) pre-storm vs. post-storm for macadamia trees" and (4) tree leaf growth over a year for two young avocado trees. Decreases of 34.13 m² and 8.34 m² in LA of mango tree crowns occurred due to pruning. Pruning for the high vigour mango tree was mostly identified between 1.25 m and 3 m. Decreases of 38.03 m² and 16.91 m² in LA of a healthy and unhealthy macadamia tree occurred due to pruning. After flowering and spring flush of the same macadamia trees, storm effects caused a 9.65 m² decrease in LA for the unhealthy tree, while an increase of 34.19 m² occurred for the healthy tree. The tree height increased from 11.13 m to 11.66 m, and leaf loss was mainly observed between 1.5 m and 4.5 m for the unhealthy macadamia tree. Annual increases in LA of 82.59 m² and 59.97 m² were observed for two three-year-old avocado trees. Our results show that TLS is a useful tool to quantify changes in the LA, LAD, and vertical leaf area profiles of horticultural trees over time, which can be used as a general indicator of tree health, as well as assist growers with improved pruning, irrigation, and fertilisation application decisions.

Fly development rates, and to a lesser extent succession data, can be used to provide an estimate of a minimum postmortem interval (mPMI). Yet, these data are most use-ful when a full account of species' ecology, seasonality, and distribution is known. We conducted succession experiments on human cadavers over different seasons near Sydney, Australia, to document forensically useful information, including the pre- appearance interval for carrion flies. We also compiled a detailed record of flies identified in casework collected in 156 cases distributed across New South Wales, Australia. We then compared the occurrence of fly species from both field and case-work datasets to identify any consistencies or gaps to determine how useful species might be for forensic investigations. In the field experiments, we found differences in species diversity and abundance between seasons, as well as yearly variation between two winter seasons. Most fly species we recorded ovipositing showed a 2- or 3- day delay between adult arrival and oviposition in summer, with a longer delay in win-ter. Species that were previously encountered in casework, such as Calliphora augur(Fabricius, 1775) and Calliphora ochracea Schiner, 1868, were confirmed as forensically useful, with their colonization behavior and seasonal preferences documented here. Although not encountered in casework, we confirmed Hemipyrellia fergusoni Patton, 1925 as a primary colonizer of human cadavers. Our study emphasizes the need to link field and casework data for a complete understanding of all aspects of a carrion fly's ecology to assist forensic investigators in mPMI estimations.

Smallholder farmers in Nepal are facing increasing problems caused by climate change. Within the action research and development project Strengthening Adaptive Farming in Bangladesh, India and Nepal (SAF-BIN), Caritas collaborated with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, associated partners from civil society and research as well as smallholder farmers collectives to build resilience towards climate change. Based on the Theory of Transformative Learning, this study analyses learning activities, outcomes and potential impacts of SAF-BIN in Bardiya and Kaski, Nepal. Learning activities lead to instrumental (technical knowledge about farming practices and site-specific technologies) and communicative (communication skills) learning outcomes, which can result in learning impacts. In order to examine if and in which ways women and men benefit from the project, a focus on gender was applied. Through participant observation and 32 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with project participants (16 women, 16 men), qualitative data was collected in 2014. A fieldwork diary and photographs completed the dataset. A comprehensive structure analysis and descriptive statistics were performed using Atlas.ti and Excel. Results show that - due to male job migration - more women, with diverse social backgrounds, than men participated in SAF-BIN activities. Especially learning activities like regular group meetings and on-farm adaptive field trials lead to learning outcomes. Instrumental learning outcomes included: increasing knowledge about climate chance and its’ links to farming, new inputs, new cultivation practices, new management approaches as well as diversification and professionalisation of farming. Communicative learning outcomes included: enhanced analytical capacities, improved presentation skills and self-confidence and increased understanding of abstract concepts. Realized impacts were increased crop production, increasing reflection of gender roles and formation of (saving-)networks. Men were more likely to achieve technical learning outcomes, while women were more likely to benefit from communicative learning outcomes. Potential impacts are increased food security, commercialisation of farming and a changing role of traditional knowledge about farming. Thus, the project setting provides a fruitful learning environment. Ways how male and female farmers can achieve equal learning outcomes need to be explored.

Climate change affects Nepal leaving smallholders with diverse challenges concerning their small, mixed farming system. Goats are an integral part of Nepalese smallholder farms providing income and nutritional security. Crossbreeding of local and exotic breeds is one solution to minimize negative climatic effects as crossbreds might be better adapted to new climatic conditions. The aim of this study was to assess current breeding strategies and the impact of crossbreeding at farm level within the context of climate change. In 31 semi-structured interviews with farmers from Pokhara, Nepal, quantitative and qualitative data was collected in 2014. Performance parameters of local and crossbred animals were estimated. Interviews with livestock experts completed the database. An analysis was conducted to assess if technical training had an impact on breeding and husbandry practices. Participating farmers own diverse farms with various agricultural activities. Goats are mainly used for meat production and manure is used for fertilizing crops. Technical training has a positive influence on selection of breeding bucks, inbreeding prevention, castration practice, feeding and husbandry practices. Farmers consider similar traits in local and crossbred goats, but consider physical characteristics of exotic breeds in the crossbreds. Some farmers value crossbred goats as possibility for adaption to climate change. Benefits of crossbreeding include higher income. Few farmers report challenges resulting from crossbreeding such as higher workload and higher need for veterinary treatment. Respondents stated that they want to continue crossbreeding in the future, introduce improved, exotic breeds, milk production and increase herd sizes.

In smallholder farming systems in developing countries like Nepal, goats play an important role by ensuring household food security and often being the only asset for poor families. A current challenge for smallholders in Nepal is climate change, resulting in varying monsoon patterns and increasing periods of droughts. Goats are very tolerant to drought or irregular access to water and survive by browsing woody plants. Therefore they are a possible element of climate change mitigation strategies. The aim of this study was to document and evaluate the goat feeding system on Nepalese smallholder farms in this context. 31 smallholder farmers participating in SAF- BIN project activities in Nepal were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Individual feeding calendars were generated and fodder samples collected. Quantitative and qualitative data was analysed using SAS software. Results show that goats are important in the present mixed farming systems. A wide range of fodder plants is available and farmers possess a comprehensive traditional knowledge on these plants. This makes it possible for most farmers to bridge the dry season well. An adequate amount of fodder in a good quality is very important to all farmers interviewed. Most farmers recognized a change of the available fodder plants during the last years which may be an effect of climate change. Seasonal aridity is increasing and growing periods are changing. Some farmers introduced new fodder plants supported by training and supplies from NGOs. This leads to the conclusion that goat feeding systems are changing and that goats may play an important role in the adaption process to climate change in rural areas of Nepal.

Background Masson pine (Pinus massoniana) plantations are one of the most common forestry plantations in southern China. A high proportion of these plantations is managed as monoculture forests. Productivity in these plantations often declines as they age due to stand retrogression. In these plantations, fertilization is a key practice to prevent stand retrogression. Understanding how plants respond to nutrient fertilization at the tree and stand-level is crucial for evaluating the efects of fertilization and devising nutrient management strategies to prevent stand retrogression and to maintain plantation productivity. Methods To determine the efects of nutrient fertilization on plant growth and nutrient stoichiometry, we conducted a nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization experiment in an 8-year old Masson pine plantation in subtropical Hubei Province, China. Plant growth and nutrient stoichiometry responses to fertilization were determined over 12 months.Results Tree growth in height and trunk diameter and resorption efciency of both N and P responded positively to N and/or P fertilization. Soil total P concentration was low (0.32 mg/g). Leaf N:P ratio was high and increased (>20) in N fertilization but decreased (<9) in P fertilization.Conclusions Our results show that Masson pine plantations of the study area are severely P limited, with low soil P concentration, high leaf N:P ratio, and positive growth responses to P fertilization. As the most common forestry plantations in subtropical and tropical China, P limitation is likely to be a widespread problem facing the Masson pine plantation industry. Thus nutrient fertilization of Masson pine plantations in comparable contexts should focus on P management.

Satellite imagery, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Google Earth were demonstrated as effective tools for tree auditing and for defining the spatial variability of tree condition across two commercial 'Hass' Avocado blocks in Childers, Australia. Using a classified normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) map derived from a WorldView2 image captured on April 19^th 2013, and then repeated May 29^th 2014, three replicate trees within high, mid and low growth regions were selected from each block. The annual harvest of these trees was conducted on May 21^st 2013 and May 7^th 2014, along with measures of leaf fluorescence and SPAD. Fruit quality measures were also conducted post-harvest. Spectral information corresponding to each of the sampled tree canopies was extracted and used to derive a number of pigment and structural based vegetation indices. These indices were correlated against the measured fruit and tree parameters, resulting in strong correlations with average fruit weight (g) (R=0.86**, P=0.0001, RMSE=14.7 g)" % commercial yield (R=0.71**, P= <0.0001, RMSE=13.2%)" Fm/Fv (R= -0.67**, P= <0.0001) and SPAD (R=0.67**, P= <0.0001). Using algorithms produced from the linear relationships between the measured parameters and the derived vegetation indices, maps representing the spatial and temporal distribution of each of the parameters were developed. This information supports improved tree management and harvest segregation based on fruit size. For the auditing of tree numbers, a more exact method for calculating orchard area and tree density was examined that increased the prediction accuracy of one orchard from 90.4 to 97.3%. The development of a spatial database that incorporated individual trees within an orchard was also investigated. At the regional level an accurate inventory of trees supports improved handling, marketing and forward selling decisions" whilst at the orchard level, would offer more efficient data recording and enhanced 'paddock to plate' traceability.

Promoting sustainable land management is key to addressing land degradation but its progress is impeded by the availability and accessibility of the ‘right’ soil data and information. We focus on government-funded data collection or publicly collected soil data as it is central to effective soil governance. Taking a governance perspective, we discuss what soil information is created and used for, who are the actors involved and how soil information is contributing (or not) to the creation of actionable knowledge. We investigated two countries in depth through a desk-based review and consultation with 40 key informants, collating which soil data and information is collected, analysed, stored, retrieved and used in the UK and Australia. We present a comprehensive overview of public soil databases, including location, year established, stated purpose, current governing institution, accessibility, digital product/s available, cycle of assessment, scale of sampling, soil data presented and depth of soil assessment. The analysis highlights that current shortcomings in soil governance are a result of not adequately valuing legacy soil data and information, and with the loss of human capital, diminished accessibility to soil information leads to disrupted information flows. A critical assessment suggests that available soil information plays a limited role in knowing the soil types of a locality, the condition of soil under various land uses and associated management, which limits its potential for informing sustainable land management. In both countries, there is a mismatch in scale and intention of use for the soil information between the provider and the user: information is currently held at the scale for regional- or nation-level reporting on targets to meet national and international obligations rather than improving soil health or SLM at the farm scale. In addition, available soil data repositories only partially meet accessibility criteria (discoverability, language applicable to audience, open source and interpretative layer for land management implications). We outline steps to improve soil information and knowledge exchange embedded in effective governance arrangements to ensure that soil data and information can become actionable knowledge for SLM. Applying principles and strategies for facilitating knowledge exchange is of particular relevance to this process.

Providing accurate and reliable measures of decomposition is paramount for forensic research where decomposition progress is used to estimate time of death. Mass loss is routinely used as a direct measure of biomass decomposition in ecological studies, yet few studies have analysed mass loss in a forensic context on human cadavers to determine its usefulness for modelling the decomposition process. Mass loss was examined in decomposing human and pig cadavers, and compared with other common decomposition metrics, such as total body score (TBS). One summer and one winter feld decomposition experiment was conducted using human and pig cadavers, as pigs are often used as proxies for human cadavers in forensic research. The two measures of decomposition revealed two contrasting patterns of decomposition on pigs and humans, particularly in winter where TBS stabilised at similar values, but mass loss difered greatly. Mass loss was found to be faster in pigs than humans during early decomposition. Pigs lost 75% of their mass in winter, while humans lost less than 50%" however, in summer, both lost around 80% of their mass. TBS displayed similar patterns in both experiments, with TBS increasing more rapidly in pigs compared with humans but both eventually reaching similar TBS values in late decomposition. Measuring mass loss can provide additional information about decomposition progress that is missed if using TBS only. Key diferences in decomposition progress between cadaver types were also observed, suggesting caution when extrapolating data from pigs to humans for forensic research and decomposition modelling.

Both indigenous and introduced Australian dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) play an important role in agricultural systems. Temperate grasslands in Australia are expected to have some of the greatest increases in temperature and reduction in precipitation due to climate change which may directly threaten dung beetles. Several biotic and abiotic factors affect the development of larvae and fitness of young dung beetles. To understand if dung beetles can continue to provide ecosystem services across temperate Australia under changing management and climate, we review what is known about their life history traits that will facilitate their adaption.

We believe dung beetles will continue to provide valuable ecosystem services and have potential to aid in adapting and alleviating the impacts on crops and pastures from reduced and sporadic rainfall. However, the level of function, may be impeded due to climatic stress and a loss of diversity with thermal specialists and some indigenous species, expected to be displaced into narrower ranges. An increase in feeding competition from thermal generalists and introduced species will likely implement this movement. The evidence from naturalised introduced species indicate behavioural adaptations and/or phenotypic plasticity suggest some species will continuing to provide services that improve pasture production despite changes to climate. Ongoing monitoring of phenological shifts will inform adaptive management of this vital group.

Primiparous Santa Gertrudis heifers were used to evaluate the effects of gestational dietary protein content on meat quality traits of 20 month old bull progeny (n = 40). At −60 d before AI, heifers were randomly allocated to HIGH or LOW protein diet (HPERI and LPERI). From 24 dpc, half of each treatment group changed to an alternative post-conception HIGH or LOW protein diet (HPOST and LPOST). LPERI and LPOST diets resulted in higher shear force of the semitendinosus muscle than HPERI (P = 0.053) and HPOST (P = 0.003), respectively. Heat-soluble collagen in the semitendinosus muscle was lower (P = 0.019) for LPERI than HPERI. Collagen and tenderness of the longissimus muscle were not affected by dam nutrition (P > 0.05). Color, pH, sarcomere length, cooking loss, compression values, desmin and troponin-T degradation, fiber type, intramuscular fat and polyunsaturated fatty acid content were not affected by dam nutrition during the peri-conception and first trimester gestational period (P > 0.05).

Resource quality is a key driver of species abundance and community structure. Carrion is unique among resources due to its high nutritional quality, rapidly changing nature, and the diverse community of organisms it supports. Yet the role resource quality plays in driving variation in abundance patterns of carrion-associated species remains poorly studied. Here we investigate how species abundances change with a measure of resource change, and interpret these findings to determine how species differ in their association with carrion that changes in quality over time. We conducted field succession experiments using pigs and humans over two winters and one summer. We quantified the effect of total body score, an objective measure of resource change, on adult insect abundance using generalised additive models. For each species, phases of increasing abundance likely indicated attraction to a high-quality resource, and length of abundance maxima indicated optimal oviposition and feeding time. Some species such as the beetle Necrobia rufpes had a rapid spike in abundance, suggesting a narrow window of opportunity for carrion resource exploitation, while species like the wasp Nasonia vitripennis had a gradual change in abundance, indicating a wide window of resource exploitation. Different abundance patterns were also observed between species occurring on pigs and humans, suggesting cadaver type is an important aspect of resource quality. Our findings show that species abundances, unlike species occurrences, can reveal additional detail about species exploitation of carrion and provide information about how resource quality may drive competition and variation in insect community succession.

To support the adoption of precision agricultural practices in horticultural tree crops, prior research has investigated the relationship between crop vigour (height, canopy density, health) as measured by remote sensing technologies, to fruit quality, yield and pruning requirements. However, few studies have compared the accuracy of different remote sensing technologies for the estimation of tree height. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy, flexibility, aerial coverage and limitations of five techniques to measure the height of two types of horticultural tree crops, mango and avocado trees. Canopy height estimates from Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) were used as a reference dataset against height estimates from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data, WorldView-3 (WV-3) stereo imagery, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based RGB and multi-spectral imagery, and field measurements. Overall, imagery obtained from the UAV platform were found to provide tree height measurement comparable to that from the TLS (R² = 0.89, RMSE = 0.19 m and rRMSE = 5.37 % for mango trees" R² = 0.81, RMSE = 0.42 m and rRMSE = 4.75 % for avocado trees), although coverage area is limited to 1–10 km² due to battery life and line-of-sight flight regulations. The ALS data also achieved reasonable accuracy for both mango and avocado trees (R² = 0.67, RMSE = 0.24 m and rRMSE = 7.39 % for mango trees" R² = 0.63, RMSE = 0.43 m and rRMSE = 5.04 % for avocado trees), providing both optimal point density and flight altitude, and therefore offers an effective platform for large areas (10 km² –100 km² ). However, cost and availability of ALS data is a consideration. WV-3 stereo imagery produced the lowest accuracies for both tree crops (R² = 0.50, RMSE = 0.84 m and rRMSE = 32.64 % for mango trees" R² = 0.45, RMSE = 0.74 m and rRMSE = 8.51 % for avocado trees) when compared to other remote sensing platforms, but may still present a viable option due to cost and commercial availability when large area coverage is required. This research provides industries and growers with valuable information on how to select the most appropriate approach and the optimal parameters for each remote sensing platform to assess canopy height for mango and avocado trees.

Selective grazing by livestock may be indicative of a site's grass species diversity and depending on the grazing intensity" this may or may not promote further diversity. However, the detection of sites with spatial heterogeneity in pasture cover as a manifestation of selective grazing has not yet been investigated using satellite remote sensing. Thus, this study was conducted to address the question" can Sentinel-1 detect spatial heterogeneity induced by livestock grazing in grassy fields? Since Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging is noted to be sensitive to vegetation architectural arrangement, this study used Sentinel-1 C-band SAR to detect spatial heterogeneity created by selective livestock grazing. The study examined a range of semivariogram, grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), and eigenvector-eigenvalue polarimetric decomposition features. The coefficient of variation estimates of the GLCM contrast feature consistently produced the strongest correlation (R² = 0.71) with Lloyd's Patchiness Index and semivariogram sill while the polarimetric scattering entropy (range estimates) produced a significant linear correlation with semivariogram sill (R² = 0.55, p < 0.05). Inferably, the GLCM contrast and polarimetric scattering entropy can predict spatial heterogeneity in a grazing environment. This is the first time polarimetric scattering entropy estimated from Sentinel-1 has been used for the detection of spatial heterogeneity in a grazing landscape, which makes this study different from past similar studies. Nonetheless, we recommend the testing of this parameter (polarimetric scattering entropy) with a multitemporal SAR data and encourage future studies to investigate the potential of Sentinel-1 for the detection of spatial distances between grass clumps.

Carrion is a dynamic and nutrient-rich resource that attracts numerous insect species that undergo succession due to the rapid change in the carrion resource. Despite this process being well-understood, few studies have examined resource change as a driver of carrion insect succession, and instead have focused on the effects of time per se, or on coarse, qualitative measures such as decay stage. Here we report on three field succession experiments using pig carcasses and human cadavers encompassing two winters and one summer. We quantified the effects of resource change (measured as total body score, TBS), carrion type, initial carrion mass, ambient temperature, and season on insect species richness and community composition. We found that all variables had an effect on different taxonomic or trophic components of the insect community composition, with the exception of initial carrion mass which had no effect. We found significant positive effects of TBS on beetle species richness and composition, while fly species richness was not significantly affected by TBS, but was by ambient temperature. TBS had a significant positive effect on all trophic groups, while ambient temperature also had a significant positive effect on the necrophages and predator/parasitoids. Our study indicates that resource change, as indicated by TBS, is an important driver of carrion insect species turnover and succession on carrion, and that TBS can provide information about insect ecological patterns on carrion that other temporal measures of change cannot.

Background: Estimating parasitoid abundance in the field can be difficult, even more so when attempting to quantify parasitism rates and the ecosystem service of biological control that parasitoids can provide.To understand how 'field observed' parasitism rates (in-field mummy counts) of the green peach aphid,Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) translate to'laboratory observed'parasitism rates (laboratory-reared parasitoid counts), field work was undertaken in Australian canola fields, over the winter growing season.

Results: Overall, laboratory observed parasitism was on average 2.4 times higher than field observed parasitism, with rates an average of four-fold higher in fields from South Australia. Total field observed and laboratory observed parasitism rates (OPRs) of M. persicae varied considerably across regions, but less so among fields within regions. As crop growth stage progressed, the incidence of field observed mummies increased. The incidence of total parasitoids reared also increased with crop growth stage, averaging 3.4% during flowering and reaching 14.4% during podding/senescing. Although there was a greater diversity of reared parasitoid species at later crop growth stages, the laboratory OPR was unaffected by parasitoid species. Diaeretiella rapae was the most commonly reared parasitoid, increasing in absolute abundance with crop growth stage.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that field mummy counts alone do not provide a clear representation of parasitism within canola fields.