Soil carbon cycling and storage of bioenergy cropping systems across a heterogeneous agroecosystem

Emerging markets for cellulosic bioenergy feedstocks provide opportunities for implementing soil conservation practices that restore soil carbon (C) stocks within agricultural landscapes. Conservation strategies--including conversion to no-till, using cover crops, and establishing perennial vegetation--alter belowground C cycling processes and increase soil C storage through protection of soil organic matter (SOM). In particular, marginal sites less suited for conventionally tilled annual row crops are being targeted as appropriate locations for conversion to perennial bioenergy crops. However, the effects of topography and variations in soil properties on belowground C cycling processes remain largely unknown. The goal of this research is to quantify impacts of variation in topography and edaphic conditions on mechanisms driving short-term (three years) soil C pools under bioenergy crops. I address this goal through studies conducted as part of the Landscape Biomass Project, located in Boone County, IA, using three bioenergy cropping systems (switchgrass, continuous corn, and triticale /sorghum double crop) replicated across five landscape positions along a topographic gradient. Measurement of annual root productivity of cropping systems showed the highest productivity in switchgrass, while continuous corn was the lowest. Annual cropping systems showed no response to topography or soil properties. Switchgrass productivity was lowest on the floodplain and increased with higher soil sand content, suggesting model predictions of root production may be improved by incorporating information on soil texture. Over three years, soil aggregation changes were positive, and were highest under switchgrass. However cropping system effects on aggregation differed between landscape positions. Although total soil C stocks did not change, C physically protected within soil aggregates increased along with unprotected C pools, suggesting that adoption of no-till and conversion to perennial switchgrass increases stored C pools; increases in both pools were greatest under switchgrass. Structural equation modeling of C cycling processes revealed variation in soil properties influenced changes in aggregation and root C inputs, which affected shifts in soil C pools over time. Contrary to previous studies indicating the primary importance of roots and root-associated microbes, these results indicate that soil properties are the main drivers for change in soil C pools over landscapes

Chimpanzees in the Island Of Gold: Impacts of artisanal small-scale gold mining on chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Fongoli, Senegal

Despite its historical and global pervasiveness, little quantitative research has been conducted on artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and terrestrial wildlife. Using an ethnoprimatological approach, this body of work evaluates the impacts of anthropogenic activity associated with ASGM on a community of savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) living in a complex and coupled human and natural system. Research was conducted in Senegal where the recent intensification of ASGM has increased the local human population, polluted, and degraded the environment, and threatens the habitat of critically endangered West African savanna chimpanzees. To quantify the impacts of ASGM, we analyzed 10 years of chimpanzee observational data from the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project (FSCP) database related to human-chimpanzee encounters, chimpanzee behavior, and habitat use. During the study period, ASGM increased from a few seasonal miners to seven intensively mined sites and shifted local livelihoods from non-timber resource collection to gold mining. As ASGM increased, we found corresponding increases in human-chimpanzee encounters and human-initiated interactions. Chimpanzee behavior related to ASGM was complex and varied with spatial and temporal scales. At the level of home range, we observed a shift in ranging patterns toward the largest mine during initial and low-level activity. As mining expanded and increased in intensity, the home range shifted away, resulting in the avoidance of preferred land cover types and the use of poorer quality habitat types. The expansion of the largest mine also blocked previously used travel routes to feeding patches. At the finer scale of mining areas, mining activity increased the apes’ use of anthropogenic areas, particularly on days when miners were absent. The presence of miners did not change chimpanzee use of forested and woodland areas adjacent to mining sites, however. When at the ASGM sites, the apes inspected materials left by the miners and drank water from mining pits, perhaps assessing the novel disturbance and potential risks. However, risks associated ASGM activities (i.e. mercury toxicity, exposure to human fecal pathogens, degradation of forest resources, and risks associated with uncovered and abandoned pits) are likely to go unperceived by chimpanzees and may pose a more insidious threat to chimpanzee conservation in the form of an ecological trap

Pojam kulturalne intimnosti u djelu Viktora Pelevina

It is the purpose of this essay to examine how the notion of cultural intimacy has been used by modern Russian writers in an attempt to understand the intricate dynamics of irony in its handling of nationalistic ideas. Current and past forms of social organization in Russia are taken as parameters by which writers like Pelevin orient their writing, and their sensitivity to the tension between „collective self-presentation“ and the embarrassing aspects of „collective self-knowledge“ is key to understanding the role similar types of fiction have had in modern Russian literature, and also understanding their role in recording as well as creating certain forms of social behavior

Analysis of Operating Parameters of Railway Traffic in the Area of Sisak Moslavina County

U radu je provedena analiza eksploatacijskih pokazatelja željezničkog prometa na području Sisačko-moslavačke županije. Na početku rada navedeni su svi pokazatelji eksploatacije u putničkom i teretnom prometu. U radu su obrađena tri eksploatacijska pokazatelja. Detaljnije je objašnjena komercijalna brzina jer je ona ključni pokazatelj u ovom radu. Ostali obrađeni pokazatelji eksploatacije su broj vlakova i prosječno vrijeme putovanja. Cilj ove analize je usporediti navedene pokazatelje kroz tri ključne godine, a to su 1990, 2006 i 2015. godina.The Analysis of operating parameters in railway traffic in the area of Sisak-moslavina county has been conducted in this paper. Operating parameters in passenger and freight transport has been stated in the beginning of the paper. As stated in the beginning, the paper will take into account three operating parameters of railway transport. The main parameter is commercial speed, therefore it is explained in detail. The other two are number of trains and average travel time. The goal of the analysis is to compare operating parameters through three key years which are 1990, 2006 and 2015

Analysis of Operating Parameters of Railway Traffic in the Area of Sisak Moslavina County

U radu je provedena analiza eksploatacijskih pokazatelja željezničkog prometa na području Sisačko-moslavačke županije. Na početku rada navedeni su svi pokazatelji eksploatacije u putničkom i teretnom prometu. U radu su obrađena tri eksploatacijska pokazatelja. Detaljnije je objašnjena komercijalna brzina jer je ona ključni pokazatelj u ovom radu. Ostali obrađeni pokazatelji eksploatacije su broj vlakova i prosječno vrijeme putovanja. Cilj ove analize je usporediti navedene pokazatelje kroz tri ključne godine, a to su 1990, 2006 i 2015. godina.The Analysis of operating parameters in railway traffic in the area of Sisak-moslavina county has been conducted in this paper. Operating parameters in passenger and freight transport has been stated in the beginning of the paper. As stated in the beginning, the paper will take into account three operating parameters of railway transport. The main parameter is commercial speed, therefore it is explained in detail. The other two are number of trains and average travel time. The goal of the analysis is to compare operating parameters through three key years which are 1990, 2006 and 2015

Forms of social commentary in The Cairo and USA trilogies

Ova disertacija pripada području kroskulturalne znanosti o književnosti. Cilj joj je postaviti okvir za tumačenje književnih postupaka u djelima koja pripadaju različitim kulturnim sustavima, koja pokazuju određene formalne i tematske odrednice i koja se bave nekom vrstom društvenoga ili političkoga komentara. Teorijski okvir unutar kojega će se ti postupci razmatrati teorija je otvorenih i zatvorenih sustava. Pokazat ćemo kako je kulturno-politički sustav u kojemu su autori pisali utjecao na odabir retoričkih i književnih metoda i postupaka te na koji se način prikazuje ideja nacionalnog identiteta u tim djelima. Glavna je teza rada da otvoreni sustav uvjetuje korištenje eksperimentalnih metoda kod Dos Passosa, poglavito isprekidane naracije, montažnih postupaka, intertekstualnosti te jezične eksperimentalnosti. S druge strane, zatvoreni sustav u kojemu je pisao Naguib Mahfouz uvjetovao je odabir tradicionalnih postupaka i metoda naracije, izraženoga simbolizma i narativne uniformnosti. Analizom političkoga komentara tih djela pokazat će se kako su književni postupci povezani sa širim kulturnim prostorom i osobnom političkom filozofijom autora ili položajem u pojedinoj književnoj tradiciji. Radi se o djelima koja se mogu svrstati pod naziv velikog američkog romana i velikog arapskog romana. Djela su to koja se bave kompleksnim uređenjem odnosa u dva različita civilizacijska sustava. Moj doprinos znanosti i disciplini komparatistike temelji se na činjenici da nikad nije napravljena poredbena studija ta dva djela u više od pola stoljeća od kada su objavljena, a ta je činjenica posebno značajna ako se uzmu u obzir kompleksni politički i drugi odnosi ova dva kulturna prostora u novijoj povijesti. Moj se doprinos također temelji i na činjenici da je teško pronaći djela iz žanra socijalnoga realizma koja detaljnije progovaraju o svim kompleksnostima uređenja tih društava.This thesis belongs in the field of crosscultural literary studies. Its aim is to set a framework for the interpretation of literary procedures in literary works which belong to different cultural systems, which display certain formal and thematic guidelines and which deal with some kind of social or political commentary. The theoretical framework within which these procedures will be considered is the theory of open and closed systems. We will show how the cultural and political system in which the authors wrote influenced the choice of rhetorical and literary methods and procedures. The main thesis is that an open system conditions the use of experimental methods in Dos Passos, especially intermittent narration, procedures using montage, intertextuality and linguistic experimentation. On the other hand, the closed system in which Naguib Mahfouz wrote determined the selection of traditional practices and narrative procedures, strong symbolism and narrative uniformity. Through the analysis of the political comments of these works we will show how literary procedures are associated with the broader cultural space and the position of authors in a particular literary tradition and political system. Since these two authors belong to different literary traditions, it is important to situate them in the proper literary context and show what influences, if any, they worked under. In the case of Dos Passos, we will situate his social chronicles in the context of a tradition of critical realism that started with writers such as Theodore Dreiser, Jack London and Frank Norris in the 1890s. In the case of Naguib Mahfouz, the literary context is somewhat different, because the novel as a genre is unknown in Egypt until early twentieth century. Mahfouz occupies a unique place in the history of Egyptian literature, being at once an originator and culminating practitioner of the genre of social realism in novel form. In the case of both writers, it will be shown that their unique place in their national literatures is reaffirmed by the fact that no writers continued the genres or practices which they employed. Dos Passos’s experimental narration still stands unique in the history of American literature, while a new generation of Egyptian writers have a problematic relationship with Mahfouz, whom they consider a pioneer, but against whom they also rebel and write in new genres, from a more modern perspective. By all accounts, these two literary works may carry the title of the Great American Novel and the Great Arabic Novel. They deal with the complex social relations in two different societies. My original contribution to knowledge and to the discipline of comparative literature lies in the fact that no comparative study of these two works has been done in more than half a century since their publication. This is a fact which is especially noteworthy considering the complex political and other relations of these two cultural spaces in recent history, as well as the fact that it is hard to find two literary works that speak in more detail about the complexities of these societies

Analysis of Operating Parameters of Railway Traffic in the Area of Sisak Moslavina County

U radu je provedena analiza eksploatacijskih pokazatelja željezničkog prometa na području Sisačko-moslavačke županije. Na početku rada navedeni su svi pokazatelji eksploatacije u putničkom i teretnom prometu. U radu su obrađena tri eksploatacijska pokazatelja. Detaljnije je objašnjena komercijalna brzina jer je ona ključni pokazatelj u ovom radu. Ostali obrađeni pokazatelji eksploatacije su broj vlakova i prosječno vrijeme putovanja. Cilj ove analize je usporediti navedene pokazatelje kroz tri ključne godine, a to su 1990, 2006 i 2015. godina.The Analysis of operating parameters in railway traffic in the area of Sisak-moslavina county has been conducted in this paper. Operating parameters in passenger and freight transport has been stated in the beginning of the paper. As stated in the beginning, the paper will take into account three operating parameters of railway transport. The main parameter is commercial speed, therefore it is explained in detail. The other two are number of trains and average travel time. The goal of the analysis is to compare operating parameters through three key years which are 1990, 2006 and 2015

Understanding soil organic matter change: Modeling root and soil interactions across agricultural landscapes

What are some options for enhancing organic content and carbon storage in soils that have been used in intensive row-crop production? The project looked at bioenergy feedstocks and how they might be employed to improve soil properties

Climate Change Impacts on Michigan Agriculture

[Contents:] Observed Changes to Michigan’s Climate (Temperature – Precipitation – Observed Impacts on Agriculture) --- Michigan’s Future Climate (Temperature) --- What Does This Mean for Agriculture and Forestry? (Heat Stress – Soil Impacts – Growing Conditions) --- Adaptation Options --- Precipitation (What Does This Mean for Agriculture? – Adaptation Options) --- Growing Season Length (What Does this Mean for Agriculture? – Adaptation Options) --- Relative Humidity (What Does this Mean for Agriculture? – Adaptation Options) --- Fruit Crop Considerations (What Does This Mean for Fruit Production? – Adaptation Options) --- Michigan Climate Change Resources and Extension Programs --- Citations