Understanding Changing in Traditional Agricultural Landscapes： Towards a Framework

Since the second half of the 20th century in Italy, following farming conversion or abandonment, many traditional agricultural systems and the connected landscapes along with them have disappeared. We discuss a conceptual framework to understand and describe changing in agricultural landscapes. According to us, the traditionality of the agricultural landscape is an expression of the local coevolution between the social project of the farmer and the constraints made by the natural system. The paper focuses on defining a spatial-temporal analytical model based on both the morphological recognition of different typologies of elements which contribute to the environmental landscape mosaic and the dynamic observation of the transformations of the mosaic itself. We identify the natural, social and economic driving forces involved in defining the agricultural space using a transdisciplinary approach so that ecological, agronomics and socio-economical information must be integrated as a basis for land use planning and management. The research approach and the methodology are applied to a couple of case studies.

Assessment of compost and three biochars associated with Ailanthus altissima(Miller)Swingle for lead and arsenic stabilization in a post-mining Technosol

The elevated presence of metal(loid)s in the environment significantly impacts ecosystems and human health and is generally largely due to industrial and mining activities.Thus,in the current study,we investigated and proposed an environmentally friendly method(phytomanagement)aimed at reducing the negative impacts associated with metal(loid)pollution through the use of soil amendments(biochar and compost)to permit Ailanthus altissima growth on a highly contaminated mining Technosol,with arsenic(As)and lead(Pb)contents of 539.06 and 11453 mg kg^(-1),respectively.The objective was to examine the impacts of three biochars and compost on i)the physicochemical characteristics of soil,ii)metal(loid)immobilization in soil,and iii)A.altissima growth.We revealed that the application of biochar as a soil amendment improved soil conditions by increasing soil electrical conductivity,pH,and water-holding capacity.Moreover,concomitantly,we observed a large reduction(99%)in Pb mobility and availability following application of the hardwood biochar in combination with compost(HBCP).Thus,this combined soil amendment was most effective in promoting A.altissima growth.In addition,the HBCP treatment prevented As translocation in the upper parts of plants,although soil pore water As concentration was not diminished by amendment application.

Blockchain-as-a-Service and Blockchain-as-a-Partner: Implementation options for supply chain optimization

Smart contracts show a high potential to make supply chain management strategies epochally leap towards higher levels of productivity,not only in the functioning of production processes but also in terms of product innovation and overall economic returns.This article illustrates the principle of Income Sharing as a highly performing economic strategy for supply chains with a natural implementation in blockchain smart contracts.It proposes a blockchain-based architecture that uses smart contracts to implement various algorithmic versions of the Income Sharing principle among companies participating in a supply chain.The formation of the total income and its consequent redistribution are calculated taking into account the role of the technological platform automating these procedures,which therefore becomes a party to the inter-company business project of a supply chain in the alternative roles,as feasible in business practice,of Blockchain-as-a-Service and Blockchain-as-a-Partner.The approach is implemented on Hyperledger Fabric,the most widespread platform for private and consortium blockchains.We compare and justify this design choice with the alternative given by public blockchains,with specific attention to Ethereum.

Forestry under Climate Change. Is Time a Tool for Sustainable Forest Management?

Changing climate conditions are known to influence forest tree growth response and the CO2 cycle. Dendroclimatological research has shown that the climate signal, species composition, and growth trends have changed in different types of forest ecosystems during the last century. Under current and demonstrated changes in climate variability at the geographic, regional, and local levels tree growth shows also variability and trends that can be non-stationary during time even at relatively short distance between sites. In forest planning and management, yield tables, site quality indices, age class, rate of growth, and spatial distribution are some of the most used tools and parameters. However, these methods do not involve climate variability during time although climate is the main driver in trends of forest and tree growth. Previous research warns about the risk that forest management under changing climatic conditions could amplify their negative effects. For example, changing climate conditions may impact on temperature and/or precipitation thresholds critical to forest tree growth. Forest biomass, resilience, and CO2 storage may be damaged unless forest planning and management implement the relationships between climate variability and trends of tree growth. A positive aspect is that, periods of favorable climate conditions may allow harvesting higher amount of wood mass and storing more CO2 than traditional planning methods. And, the average length of both favorable and adverse periods appears to occur within the validity period of a forest management plan. Here, we show a conceptual development to implement climate variability in forest management in the view of continuing the research.