Prospects of multifunctional agriculture as a facilitator of sustainable rural development: Swedish experience of Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Agriculture remains one of the dominant activities in rural areas across the European Union (EU), not least in respect of land use and its impact on landscapes. The Agenda 2000 reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced rural development as an integrated part of agricultural policy. The present study focuses on the second pillar of CAP. Multifunctional farming, more than any other rural activity, has a role to play in integrating the natural environment with the cultural landscape and socio-economic development. The question of how multifunctional agriculture can facilitate sustainable rural development is addressed in terms of mechanisms and inherent possibilities. Results from a case study in Östergötland in Sweden are discussed in relation to five other European case studies. Some main findings are that Pillar 2 has made it possible for rural inhabitants to continue living in rural areas and that the policies are effective in identifying and supporting new opportunities for farm diversification. The traditional agricultural landscape can be seen as a key component in various diversification activities in rural areas, contributing to economic as well as social and environmental sustainability.     

中国农业地理集聚格局演化及其机制

通过对1981～2008年12类农作物种植重心、基尼系数、空间自相关和专业化指数的计算,探讨了中国(不包括港、澳、台地区)种植业的空间集聚格局及演化路径,并从演化经济地理视角构建分析框架探讨其演化机制。结果显示:(1)中国种植业整体上空间集聚程度逐渐增大,区域专业化和多样化程度逐步加强。(2)与制造业地理集聚总体呈现"南下东进"不同,种植业地理集聚逐步"南下西进",从东部省份向中西部省份转移,东北地区的三江平原和松嫩平原也是重要的集聚地,而昔日鱼米之乡的优势已逐渐下降。(3)农业地理集聚格局的演变经历了由自然集聚向社会集聚进而形成完善的农业生产体系的过程,其中,自然集聚的作用日益减少,而社会集聚作用逐步增加。技术创新、制度创新等社会变异步伐的加快,也将进一步推进农业的地理集聚和空间重构。     

不同城市化水平地区农户农地收入分析——基于浙江省农户的问卷调查

用SPSS13.0单因素方差分析和均值比较方法,对浙江省不同城市化地区的农户农地收入比重进行比较分析。认为城市化不同,农户农地收入比重不同,城市化程度高的地区农户农地利用经济收入比值的平均值低于城市化程度低的地区,但城市化程度高的地区农户农地收入比值标准差大于城市化低的地区,其中主要原因是城市化不同导致农户兼业时间不同。提出要创造条件促进资源集中型农户兼业化,使农户农地利用经济效率得到提高,缩小城乡收入差距。     

气象服务在促进内蒙古政策性农业保险事业发展中的作用

文章在分析国内外农业保险发展现状的基础上,结合内蒙古农业气象观测站网建设和气象为农服务业务开展现状,阐述了气象服务在农业保险业务发展中的作用和优势,为我区各级气象部门开展政策性农业保险服务业务提供了思路。     

地理省情监测变化统计分析系统的设计与实现——以山东省为例

地理省情监测成果是国家重要的数据资源,对其变化内容进行统计分析,是掌握地表自然和人文地理要素变化的基础。伴随山东省地理省情监测工作的不断深入,目前山东省已积累了大量地理省情监测数据。为实现山东省地理省情监测数据的有效管理及科学利用,并综合考虑山东省省级地理信息时空大数据中心的相关要求。该文基于共享文件系统的分布式存储,利用空间统计、任务并行等技术模型,设计了地理省情监测变化统计分析系统,通过对比监测区域内多时态、多版本、多年份数据,发现不同版本数据之间的差异,实现对地理省情数据要素级、地类级变化情况的监测。该文从系统总体设计、关键技术等方面阐述了地理省情监测变化统计分析系统的设计与实现情况。     

Agricultural Land Use Effects on Climate over China as Simulated by a Regional Climate Model

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3) is used to investigate the climate effects of land use change related to agriculture over China. The model is driven by the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecast 40-yr Re-Analysis (ERA40)data. Two sets of experiments for 15 yr (1987-2001) are conducted, one with the potential vegetation cover and the other the agricultural land use (AG). The results show that the AG effects on temperature are weak over northern China while in southern China a significant cooling is found in both winter (December-January-February) and summer (June-July-August). The mean cooling in the sub-regions of South China (SC) in winter and the sub-regions of Southeast (SE) China in summer are found to be the greatest,up to 0.5℃ and 0.8℃, respectively. In general, the change of AG leads to a decrease of annual mean temperature by 0.5-1℃ in southern China. Slight change of precipitation in western China and a decrease of precipitation in eastern China are simulated in winter, with the maximum reduction reaching -7.5% over SE. A general decrease of precipitation over northern China and an increase over southern China are simulated in summer,in particular over SE where the increase of precipitation can be up to 7.3%. The AG effects on temperature and precipitation show strong interannual variability. Comparison of the climate effects between AG and the present-day land use (LU) is also performed. In southern China, the ratio of temperature (precipitation)changes caused by AG and LU is greater than (closer to) the ratio of the number of grid cells with changed vegetation cover due to AG and LU variations.     

1961－2008年新疆奎屯垦区农业气候资源变化分析

根据新疆奎屯气象站1961—2008年的气候资料,采用线性回归和Mann-Kendall突变检测等方法,对近48 a的年平均气温、无霜期、≥0℃活动积温、≥10℃活动积温、日照时数、降水量、潜在蒸散量和蒸降差等农业气候要素的变化趋势和变化特征进行了研究,结果表明:(1)近48 a奎屯垦区年平均气温呈上升趋势;≥0℃活动积温与≥10℃活动积温增加;年日照时数减少;年降水量略增;年潜在蒸散量和年蒸降差显著减少。(2)奎屯垦区年平均气温于1972年以来发生了极显著的突变性升高,无霜期于1969年发生了较显著的突变性延长;≥0℃活动积温和≥10℃活动积温于1975年分别发生了显著的突变性增多;年日照时数于1983年发生了极显著的突变性减少;年潜在蒸散量和蒸降差分别于1984年和1983年发生了极显著的突变性减小,但年降水量未发生突变。     

Investigating a Hierarchy of Eulerian Closure Models for Scalar Transfer Inside Forested Canopies

Modelling the transfer of heat, water vapour, and CO₂ between the biosphere and the atmosphere is made difficult by the complex two-way interaction between leaves and their immediate microclimate. When simulating scalar sources and sinks inside canopies on seasonal, inter-annual, or forest development time scales, the so-called well-mixed assumption (WMA) of mean concentration (i.e. vertically constant inside the canopy but dynamically evolving in time) is often employed. The WMA eliminates the need to model how vegetation alters its immediate microclimate, which necessitates formulations that utilize turbulent transport theories. Here, two inter-related questions pertinent to the WMA for modelling scalar sources, sinks, and fluxes at seasonal to inter-annual time scales are explored: (1) if the WMA is to be replaced so as to resolve this two-way interaction, how detailed must the turbulent transport model be? And (2) what are the added predictive skills gained by resolving the two-way interaction vis-à-vis other uncertainties such as seasonal variations in physiological parameters. These two questions are addressed by simulating multi-year mean scalar concentration and eddy-covariance scalar flux measurements collected in a Loblolly pine (P. taeda L.) plantation near Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A. using turbulent transport models ranging from K-theory (or first-order closure) to third-order closure schemes. The multi-layer model calculations with these closure schemes were contrasted with model calculations employing the WMA. These comparisons suggested that (i) among the three scalars, sensible heat flux predictions are most biased with respect to eddy-covariance measurements when using the WMA, (ii) first-order closure schemes are sufficient to reproduce the seasonal to inter-annual variations in scalar fluxes provided the canonical length scale of turbulence is properly specified, (iii) second-order closure models best agree with measured mean scalar concentration (and temperature) profiles inside the canopy as well as scalar fluxes above the canopy, (iv) there are no clear gains in predictive skills when using third-order closure schemes over their second-order closure counterparts. At inter-annual time scales, biases in modelled scalar fluxes incurred by using the WMA exceed those incurred when correcting for the seasonal amplitude in the maximum carboxylation capacity (V _{cmax, 25}) provided its mean value is unbiased. The role of local thermal stratification inside the canopy and possible computational simplifications in decoupling scalar transfer from the generation of the flow statistics are also discussed.

“The tree, tilting its leaves to capture bullets of light; inhaling, exhaling; its many thousand stomata breathing, creating the air”. Ruth Stone, 2002, In the Next Galaxy

     

Assessment of the management of organizations supplying ecosystem services from tropical forests

Global environmental change leads to degradation of tropical forests in many countries. In response to this pressure, programs for payments for ecosystem services (PES) are developing and organizations are emerging which manage forests in order to supply ecosystem services, rather than only harvest timber. Typically such services are carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, pollination, and watershed protection. Public or private actors interested to invest in or donate money for the provisioning of such services are faced with the problem of choosing the appropriate organization supplying ecosystem services. The goal of this paper was to develop an assessment framework based on the balanced scorecard concept including drivers, impact, performance and context variables. Results of a survey of international market actors were used to determine assessment criteria and their weights. Putting the focus of this paper on drivers and impacts, we assessed Latin American organizations that “sell” ecosystem services from tropical forests in terms of their general management, marketing, forest management, client and stakeholder satisfaction, and forest ecosystem status. We found that supplying organizations vary widely with respect to their achievements in these areas. However, the variance of assessment results is influenced even more by the variance in weights the international market actors allocate to the assessment criteria. The insights of this study can contribute to the continuous improvement of management processes in supplying organizations and can support investors and donors in their decision-making with respect to organization supplying ecosystem services.     

The ecological-geological system,its types and position in the structure of an ecosystem

An ecologic-geological system presents a certain volume of the lithosphere with biota, including humans and the social media functioning in it and on its surface. This system is considered as the study subject of ecological geology. In all, four types of ecological-geological systems have been distinguished and characterized: a natural real system, natural ideal system, natural-technical ideal system, and natural-technical real system. The position of an ecological-geological system in the structure of an ecosystem is shown.