Evaluation of the spatial uncertainty of agro-ecological assessments at the regional scale: The phosphorus indicator in northern Italy

Castoldi, Nicola; Bechini, Luca; Stein, Alfred

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.10.009

Cited by 23 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The crops yield index stability, despite the changes (reduction of NiA and PhA), can be explained both by the increase of less demanding crop cultivation and by the improvement of fertilization practices, which previously exceeded the actual crops requirements, as also found in other Italian protected areas (Bechini and Castoldi, 2006;Castoldi et al, 2009).…”

Section: Codementioning

confidence: 88%

“…Two distinct enquiries among farmers were carried out in 1992-93 (Bonari and Silvestri, 1993) and 2009-10 (Baneschi et al, 2010. In order to detect the main farms' managerial and structural features, the farm manager, whether he was the owner or a charged technician, was interviewed by a member of the research team following a semi-structured form.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diachronic Analysis of Farmers’ Strategies within a Protected Area of Central Italy

Silvestri¹,

Pistocchi²,

Sabbatini³

et al. 2012

Italian Journal of Agronomy

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The farm can be considered as the decision unit in the agricultural land management, therefore it is the most suitable scale to analyse the farmers' strategies of production. In this paper we describe the results of a comparison between two enquiries carried out in 1992-93 and 2009-10 on more than 30 farms, corresponding to about 1500 ha of utilised agricultural area (UAA), within the boundaries of the San Rossore, Migliarino, Massaciuccoli Regional Park (central-western Italy). We calculate a set of agri-environmental indicators both at territory and farm scale in order to point out the changes occurred over almost twenty years in the farms' structure, management and production features. The results showed that the major differences were related to fertilisers management (clearly decreasing), to the reduction of some crop types (industrial crops) and to the strong decrease of the gross marketable production. Furthermore, apparently stable indicators, such as the utilised agricultural area and the farm tractors' power, were actually the result of the compensation of contrasting trends. Farmers' behaviours were substantially homogeneous within the same typology of farm, highlighting common evolution strategies. The desirability of the occurred changes was also evaluated, underlining the improvement of environmental sustainability of the current cropping systems and a greater social acceptability of agricultural activities, while the evaluation from the farmers' point of view was less satisfactory.

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Section: Codementioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diachronic Analysis of Farmers’ Strategies within a Protected Area of Central Italy

Silvestri¹,

Pistocchi²,

Sabbatini³

et al. 2012

Italian Journal of Agronomy

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“…A recent survey of approaches for constructing indices (Bierman et al, 2011) cite the techniques of cluster analysis (Hargiss et al, 2008;Khalil et al, 2010;Styers et al, 2010), principal components analysis, factor analysis (Blocksom and Johnson, 2009;Leunda et al, 2009;Liou et al, 2004;Ou et al, 2010;Tran et al, 2010), discriminant analysis (Feio et al, 2009;Kane et al, 2009), and fuzzy logic (Ghosh and Mujumdar, 2010). This work has been extended to include errors in measurement of the constituent variables used to construct the water quality index (Beamonte Córdoba et al, 2010;Castoldi et al, 2009;Ghosh and Mujumdar, 2010;Sin et al, 2009;Taheriyoun et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Application of index number theory to the construction of a water quality index: Aggregated nutrient loadings related to the areal extent of hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Whittaker

Barnhart

Färe

et al. 2015

Ecological Indicators

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“…, 2007). The current shift towards sustainable farming practices and the increased cost of P fertilizers have prompted studies which have shown that the resultant P often exceeds plant demand (Carefoot & Whalen, 2003; Castoldi et al. , 2009; Valkama et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, use of excessive P fertilizers is a major factor in eutrophication of adjacent waterways (Delgado & Torrent, 2001;Gentry et al, 2007). The current shift towards sustainable farming practices and the increased cost of P fertilizers have prompted studies which have shown that the resultant P often exceeds plant demand (Carefoot & Whalen, 2003;Castoldi et al, 2009;Valkama et al, 2009). The increase in use of P fertilizers and the resultant eutrophication of waterways raises the issue of the necessity for P fertilizers (Blake et al, 2000;Dodd & Mallarino, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of phosphorus fertilizer practices in altered wetland soils using uncertainty analysis

Litaor

Chashmonai

Barnea

et al. 2013

Soil Use and Management

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Intensive P fertilizer application is widely practised in East Mediterranean altered wetland soils, even when results from the Olsen‐P extract indicate sufficiency (>10 mg P/kg). To reduce or even eliminate this practice we conducted a large field study to test the feasibility of a major reduction in the use of P fertilizers. A total of 90 sample sites were evenly spaced with respect to their parent material (deep peat, shallow peat, marl). Soils were analysed for Olsen‐P, bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity, and nitrate, chloride and sulphate in saturated paste extracts. We determined variograms and estimated the spatial structure of Olsen‐P data by ordinary kriging. We then used a sequential Gaussian model to produce 100 alternative simulations to measure the joint spatial uncertainty of P concentrations in the study area (ca. 1500 ha). Finally, we post‐processed the simulation results to compute the probability of exceeding the threshold Olsen‐P value of 10 mg/kg. The simulation results indicate a high probability of exceeding the 10 mg/kg threshold in most peat soils supporting an earlier recommendation to reduce or even eliminate P fertilizer application in these fields. On the other hand, a very low probability of exceeding this threshold was observed in most marl soils justifying continued fertilizer application. However, the added P is likely to affect adjacent waterways and increase potential downstream eutrophication due to high conductance and flow continuity between the marl soils and adjacent waterways.

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Evaluation of the spatial uncertainty of agro-ecological assessments at the regional scale: The phosphorus indicator in northern Italy

Cited by 23 publications

References 15 publications

Diachronic Analysis of Farmers’ Strategies within a Protected Area of Central Italy

Diachronic Analysis of Farmers’ Strategies within a Protected Area of Central Italy

Application of index number theory to the construction of a water quality index: Aggregated nutrient loadings related to the areal extent of hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Assessment of phosphorus fertilizer practices in altered wetland soils using uncertainty analysis

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