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This document provides an overview of a special issue on landscape ecology, which explores the relationships between ecological and environmental processes in various types of landscapes. The issue includes articles from researchers worldwide, covering topics such as landscape design, climate change interactions, sustainability, and the impact of human activities. The research utilizes tools like remote sensing and GIS to analyze landscape patterns and changes. The articles emphasize the importance of optimizing landscape patterns to reduce environmental degradation and maintain ecosystem services, particularly in the context of urbanization and climate change. The special issue also highlights the interdisciplinary nature of landscape ecology and the significance of cultural perspectives in landscape management. [Extracted from the article]

Climate-change-induced unpredictable weather patterns are adversely affecting global agricultural productivity, posing a significant threat to sustainability and food security, particularly in developing regions. Wealthier nations can invest substantially in measures to mitigate climate change's impact on food production, but economically disadvantaged countries face challenges due to limited resources and heightened susceptibility to climate change. To enhance climate resilience in agriculture, technological solutions such as the Internet of Things (IoT) are being explored. This paper introduces a digital twin as a technological solution for monitoring and controlling temperatures in a greenhouse tunnel situated in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The study incorporates an aeroponics trial within the tunnel, analysing temperature variations caused by the fan and wet wall temperature regulatory systems. The research develops an analytical model and employs a support vector regression algorithm as an empirical model, successfully achieving accurate predictions. The analytical model demonstrated a root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.93 °C and an R 2 value of 0.8, while the empirical model outperformed it with an RMSE of 1.76 °C and an R 2 value of 0.9 for a one-hour-ahead simulation. Potential applications and future work using these modelling techniques are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil is an important reservoir of innumerable natural and biological resources fundamental to the sustainability of life and the earth's functionality. The soil is complex due to changing biodiversity, physicochemical characteristics, disturbances, and pedogenesis, which are constituent indices required for the measurement of its healthiness. Hence, there is a need to concertedly protect the soil by consciously promoting practices and behaviors that optimize its priority functions in delivering ecosystem services. It is further significant for crop yield, hence the need to pay more attention to its health. Soil healthiness is also a reflection of its capacity to support biogeochemical processes, abiotic communities, and plant and animal productions. However, agronomic studies, until recently, focused more on the use of chemical indicators in determining soil health, despite the versatile ecophysiological role of microorganisms in soil formation, resource cycling, and management. These biological phenomena expressed by soil microbial communities form the basis for the conversion of diverse organic matters into bioutilizable resources for plants' healthy development. This review, therefore, explored the underlining mechanisms, particularly climate change-related, that caused divergent soil properties and how this impacted the microbial composition of healthy soil. Likewise, several pieces of agronomic literature on the physical characteristics, ecological services, and functions of a healthy soil were compared toward innovative best management practices for improving soil health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review research paper delves into the pivotal domain of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM), exploring the strategies employed by businesses to adopt and implement eco-friendly practices. As the global community grapples with the pressing challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, organizations are increasingly recognizing the imperative to integrate sustainability into their supply chain operations. The paper begins by providing a comprehensive overview of the conceptual framework underpinning GSCM, emphasizing its role in fostering environmental stewardship and corporate responsibility. Subsequently, it delves into a meticulous analysis of diverse strategies that enterprises employ to imbue their supply chains with environmentally conscious practices. These strategies encompass procurement of sustainable materials, eco-design, waste reduction, energy efficiency, and the adoption of green technologies. Furthermore, the review elucidates the multifaceted benefits accruing from the adoption of GSCM, ranging from cost savings and enhanced brand reputation to regulatory compliance and risk mitigation. The paper also navigates through the challenges faced by businesses in implementing green strategies, including initial investment costs, stakeholder alignment, and supply chain complexities. The synthesis of findings from various empirical studies and industry reports facilitates the identification of emerging trends and best practices in GSCM. Additionally, the paper offers insights into the role of technology, government policies, and collaboration among supply chain partners in advancing eco-friendly initiatives. This review paper contributes to the burgeoning discourse on sustainable business practices by providing a nuanced understanding of GSCM strategies. It serves as a valuable resource for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to foster eco-friendly supply chain practices in the pursuit of a more sustainable and resilient global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly changing climatic conditions are adversely impacting the Indian agricultural sector. Farmers are frequently seen adopting several adaptation measures, which are neither equally efficient nor mutually exclusive. Based on the primary data collected from 300 farming households of the Indian Eastern Himalayan foothills, the present study attempts to examine the efficiency of local farmers' adaptation by developing indices combining the feasibility, effectiveness, and sustainability of the adaptation measures with the scale of actual adoption. Further, by employing multiple linear regression, the study analyzes the internal (psychological) and external (physical and socio-economic) factors influencing higher scores of these indices. Results show that local farmers are well aware of climate change and are responding through implementing at least one and up to seven adaptation measures. Farmers preferred agroforestry, a shift from cereals to low water-intensive commercials, irrigation, and intensification of winter crops as the most efficient. There was, however, a misalignment between the perceived efficiency of adaptation measures and their scale of adoption. Farmers' perceptions of pest infestation, satisfaction with farming, soil characteristics, farm size, remittances, and access to credit were found to be positively and significantly influencing the adaptation indices, while open-mindedness toward changing farming practices and crop-raiding by elephants were found to be negatively and significantly associated with adaptation indices. Lastly, the study made relevant recommendations for improving farmers' efficiency in adopting appropriate adaptation measures and strengthening the "State Action Plan on Climate Change"., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

As the backbone of Vietnam's economy, the country has recently established a number of policies for promoting and investing in smart agriculture in the Mekong Delta, the country's largest agricultural hub, to foster overall socio-economic development. However, water remains a critical constraint for crop production, with progress being hindered by water scarcity and quality issues, and compounded by socio-economic transformation and climate change. Considering these challenges, this study used the CROPWAT model and a wide spectrum of climate change scenarios to investigate future total water demands in the 2030s and 2050s as well as drought levels in two underdeveloped semi-mountainous reservoir catchments, i.e., O Ta Soc and O Tuk Sa in An Giang province. The results suggest that the usable storage capacity of the O Ta Soc reservoir will increase to 650,000 m 3 to meet water supply demands under all climate change scenarios and the medium-term, moderate drought conditions. The useable storage capacity of the O Tuk Sa reservoir will also be increased to 880,000 m 3 and the irrigation area would see a marked 70% reduction compared to its design irrigation. Under these circumstances, the O Tuk Sa reservoir will continue to supply water under all climate change scenarios and medium-term droughts. As a core element for strategic planning and to ensure efficient management of water resources, the results highlight the importance of estimating potential runoff and rainfall in semi-mountainous reservoir catchments under various drought conditions in order to propose the suitable expansion of the useable water storage capacities., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

The need for a cleaner environment and wealthier economies has been highly recognized by European Union (EU) policymakers of the last years, as evidenced by the creation of a plethora of laws and regulations for reducing carbon dioxide emissions while promoting the economic prosperity of EU countries. Indeed, many works have been done in this field, remarking on climate change's impacts on economies and the need for determinant environmental policies inside the EU. This paper investigates the effect of climate change on economic growth using nonlinear dynamic panel methods for 15 countries of the EU in the period 1981-2019. Specifically, it is examined the impact of temperature, precipitation, and CO 2 emissions on economic growth. So, autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) methods were employed, overcoming cross-dependency and also considering linearity and nonlinearity. The results showed that economic growth has positive nonlinear relationship with long-run temperature, but in short-run they have a symmetric negative association. Moreover, precipitation has long-run negative and a short-run positive relationship with economic growth. However, when CO 2 emissions are added, then model's performance is decreased, and precipitation has a positive effect on economic growth, but all others, except from temperature increase, become insignificant. Finally, actions should be taken for more stable climate conditions and consistent environmental policies by EU countries., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Conventional nature conservation has attempted to protect biodiversity, ecological integrity (i.e., composition and biomass/abundance of native species), and ecosystem services in parallel, assuming generally positive relationships among them. However, many native species are potentially weakened by and maladapted to a new, warmer climate. Such native species may not be able to offer ecosystem services at previous levels. If the relationship between ecosystem services and native species is no longer positive due to climate change, pursuing ecological integrity could be ineffective for maximizing ecosystem services. Hence, there is room to investigate future relationships among biodiversity, ecological integrity, and ecosystem services. This investigation can be done by describing the changes in ecosystem services as a function of biodiversity and ecological integrity. Herein, biodiversity and ecological integrity can be expressed by phylogenetic diversity and species intactness indices based on abundance, respectively. According to my hypothetical figure, the metrics of biodiversity and ecological integrity are potentially not positively but rather negatively related to ecosystem services. The hypothetical figure can be examined and improved using three different approaches: computer simulations (e.g., the LANDIS‐II forest simulation model), collection of actual data (e.g., measuring ecosystem services of some sites with psychrophilic and thermophilic species), and questionnaire surveys about cultural services (e.g., using digitally manipulated photographs and generative adversarial networks). Thus, we can successfully enable practitioners to understand new relationships, which will be relevant to ecosystem management under changing climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Watershed-scale hydrology and soil erosion are the main environmental components that are greatly affected by environmental perturbations such as climate and land use and land cover (LULC) changes. The purpose of this study is to assess the impacts of scenario-based LULC change and climate change on hydrology and sediment at the watershed scale in Rib watershed, Ethiopia, using the empirical land-use change model, dynamic conversion of land use and its effects (Dyna-CLUE), and soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). Regional climate model (RCM) with Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) outputs were bias-corrected and future climate from 2025 to 2099 was analyzed to assess climate changes. Analysis of the LULC change indicated that there has been a high increase in cultivated land at the expense of mixed forest and shrublands and a low and gradual increase in plantation and urban lands in the historical periods (1984-2016) and in the predictions (2016-2049). In general, the predicted climate change indicated that there will be a decrease in precipitation in all of the SRES and RCP scenarios except in the Bega (dry) season and an increase in temperature in all of the scenarios. The impact analysis indicated that there might be an increase in runoff, evapotranspiration (ET), sediment yield, and a decrease in lateral flow, groundwater flow, and water yield. The changing climate and LULC result in an increase in soil erosion and changes in surface and groundwater flow, which might have an impact on reducing crop yield, the main source of livelihood in the area. Therefore, short- and long-term watershed-scale resource management activities have to be designed and implemented to minimize erosion and increase groundwater recharge., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Poor agricultural communities are particularly more disruptive to changes in climate. In southeast Asian countries, Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to weather-related events including droughts and floods. This research study aims to determine the farmers' perception towards climatic risks, farmers' choice of adaptation strategies and factors influencing farmers' decision of adaptation measures. A face-to-face household survey was conducted to collect primary data of 378 farm households from three tehsils of district Charsadda-Khyber Pakhuntkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was utilized as an instrument to collect data from the targeted farmers in study areas (three tehsils of district Charsadda). A binary probit model approach was used to assess the major factors affecting farmers' decision towards adaptation measures. Results revealed that changing crop varieties, diversification of crops, changing crop calendar, and insurance of crops were the major adaptive measures exercised by farm households in their farms. Findings of the binary probit approach showed that age of the respondents, farm size, educational level, credit access, household size, extension services access and perception of increased floods, and reduction in precipitation had substantial effect on the farmers' adaptation strategies choice. Advanced agricultural practices in response to the climatic risks can thus have substantial effects and reduction in farmers' exposure to natural calamities. Study findings of our research can guide policy makers and concerned authorities and provide policy implications for future research studies., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This research intends to identify influential factors in adopting and diffusing solar energy technology (SET) by micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in two tehsils of Multan district in Pakistan's Punjab province. To this end, the influential factors are identified through studying literature surveys and conducting questionnaires. Following that, partial least squares-based path modeling is employed. The results showed that (1) enterprises' size, perceived SET's ease of use, and perceived SET's reliability are the top three driving factors. (2) The perceived SET's price, perceived level of competition's pressure, and MSME's energy cost intensity are the barriers to the adoption and diffusion of SET, while the lack of technical knowledge about SET is a neutral factor. (3) Perceived SET's price, MSMEs' energy cost intensity, and enterprises' size are among the most important factors based on the effect size and path coefficients, while the lack of technical knowledge about SET, preferences of MSMEs' customers, and eco-labels and green stickers have lower importance. Since the adoption of SET is a rational decision that is concretely dependent on economic incentives, it is recommended to lower the price of SET to scale up the adoption and diffusion of SET by Pakistani MSMEs., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The paper by K. L. Blaxter and J. L. Clapperton (1965) 'Prediction of the amount of methane produced by ruminants. Br J Nutr 19, 511–522' has been cited 656 times according to Web of Science and continues to be cited with increasing frequency to the present day. The analysis described in the paper, or meta-analysis as it would be known now, is of methane production from cattle and sheep based on forty-eight trials using closed-circuit respiration chambers, all carried out at the Hannah Research Institute, Ayr, UK, between 1955 and 1965. Methane emissions per unit of diet fed were shown to vary depending on diet, level of feeding and individual animal. As such, previous notions that methane emissions were essentially proportional to energy intake were set aside. The main reasons for the paper's continuing citation are the set of equations that can be used to predict methane emissions from ruminants when the technically demanding respiration chambers are unavailable, and that it was the first definitive study to describe the complexities of methane emissions with respect to animals and diets. The paper thus provided abundant insights of the relations between ruminant methane emissions and nutritional biology, and rumen microbiology, in particular, that have informed countless research projects in the intervening half-century. Given the importance of methane as a greenhouse gas in the climate change scenario, these insights are at least as relevant today as they were in 1965. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising population and the ongoing climate crisis call for improved means to monitor and optimise agriculture. A promising approach to tackle current challenges in food production is the early diagnosis of plant diseases through non-invasive methods, such as the detection of volatiles. However, current devices for detection of multiple volatiles are based on electronic noses, which are expensive, require complex circuit assembly, may involve metal oxides with heating elements, and cannot easily be adapted for some applications that require miniaturisation or limit front-end use of electronic components. To address these challenges, a low-cost optoelectronic nose using chemo-responsive colorimetric dyes drop-casted onto filter paper has been developed in the current work. The final sensors could be used for the quantitative detection of up to six plant volatiles through changes in colour intensities with a sub-ppm level limit of detection, one of the lowest limits of detection reported so far using colorimetric gas sensors. Sensor colouration could be analysed using a low-cost spectrometer and the results could be processed using a microcontroller. The measured volatiles could be used for the early detection of plant abiotic stress as early as two days after exposure to two different stresses: high salinity and starvation. This approach allowed a lowering of costs to GBP 1 per diagnostic sensing paper. Furthermore, the small size of the paper sensors allows for their use in confined settings, such as Petri dishes. This detection of abiotic stress could be easily achieved by exposing the devices to living plants for 1 h. This technology has the potential to be used for monitoring of plant development in field applications, early recognition of stress, implementation of preventative measures, and mitigation of harvest losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]