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Preprint de l'article publié le 06/12/2022 dans la revue "Ñawpa Pacha - Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies (Berkeley)", URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/00776297.2022.2136305; International audience; The Quebrada de Morohuasi (Salta Province, Argentina), located in a semi-arid high-altitude environment, is known to host vast pre-Hispanic cultivation areas. Recent archaeological studies carried out in the agricultural area of Morohuasi allow for a better definition and understanding of the social and productive dynamics that took place there. Field records and AMS dating indicate two main productive phases that were discontinuous in time. These show an initial phase during the Formative Period, between the 1st and 4th centuries CE, during which the agricultural substratum was formed, and a final phase during the first decades of the 15th century CE that was related to the establishment of an agricultural colony under the control of the Inkas. Although the same cultivation plots were utilized during both phases, the mode and relations of production were substantially different, particularly in the second phase with the participation of contingents of mitmaqkunas brought from other regions.; Ubicada en un ambiente semiárido de altura, la Quebrada de Morohuasi (Salta, Argentina) es conocida por albergar vastas áreas de cultivo prehispánicas. Los recientes estudios arqueológicos realizados en el área agrícola de Morohuasi permiten una mejor definición y comprensión de las dinámicas sociales y productivas que allí se dieron. Los registros de campo y las dataciones AMS realizadas indican dos fases productivas principales discontinuas en el tiempo. Una fase inicial durante el Período Formativo, entre los siglos I y IV CE, en la cual se conforma el sustrato agrícola, y una fase final durante las primeras décadas del siglo XV CE, relacionada con el establecimiento de una colonia agrícola bajo control de los inkas. Si durante ambas fases se cultivaron las mismas parcelas, el modo y las relaciones de producción fueron sustancialmente distintas, destacándose particularmente en la segunda la participación de contingentes de mitmaqkunas llevados desde otras regiones.

This paper presents an original approach for identifying and mapping agricultural landscapes that are highly representative of different biogeographical and natural settings and likely to be tradit...

Following the nuclear disaster of 1986, forests have established throughout the abandoned agricultural landscapes within Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ). However, they are yet to be monitored prope...

Human-induced land degradation and impairment of ecosystem services (ES) are among the serious problems in Ethiopia due to excessive pressure on land and water resources. Thus, various land managem...

Quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics is critical for monitoring agricultural sustainability and mitigating global climate change. A study was done to investigate the SOC changes between 2...

In Australia, Toxoplasma gondii is an introduced parasite with a wide host range. House cats (Felis catus) are one of its definitive hosts. Little is known about T. gondii infection rates in Austra...

We provide information on the diversity of anurans from agroforestry systems in the Colombian Amazon. This area is inserted at the tropical rainforest ecosystem and consists mainly of secondary for...

Few countries are using space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to operationally produce national-scale maps of their agricultural landscapes. For the past ten years, Canada has integrated C-ban...

Efficiency in agricultural food production has long been in focus and this has affected the spatial structure of agricultural land use. One outcome has been extensive criticism based on a wide range of negative consequences, such as for biodiversity, accessibility, cultural heritage, and aesthetics. In line with the European Landscape Convention (ELC), management of people’s everyday landscapes is important. In Norway, agricultural landscapes are the ‘everyday landscape’ for a large proportion of the population. The aim of the article is to contribute to the understanding of landscape changes perceived as positive or negative by the inhabitants. The authors focused on grain-crop dominated landscapes and the impact of smaller non-crop elements on people’s landscape preferences. They administered a photo-based questionnaire using manipulated photos to assess preferences for different agricultural landscapes. Additionally, people’s perceived objectives for the agricultural sector and agriculture’s primary functions were assessed. The results documented positive perceptions of added landscape elements and that people were both aware of and agreed on the multifunctional role of agriculture. The authors conclude that if the public’s preferences are to be taken into consideration, such as during policymaking, it is important to maintain various landscape elements in the large-scale grain field landscapes of Norway.

The species–area relationship is well documented across species in multiple ecosystems, and as such is widely accepted as one of ecology’s key patterns. Although acoustic diversity has generally be...

This article sits in response to work on the rolling out of development-centred technical and scientific expertise at the decline of the British empire in Africa. Specifically, it focuses on the imagining of future agricultural landscapes in Sudan, exploring how such imagining was framed by the social and colonial worlds in which scientific knowledge about agricultural capacity in the north and south was produced. It draws on a private archive of letters, photographs and objects compiled by Roger Brain, an agricultural scientist engaged in research and census work for the University of Khartoum in Sudan between 1953 and 1959. His archive reveals the underlying assumptions, conventions and anxieties that framed the ways in which he viewed and understood the landscapes in which he worked. I argue that this framing shaped regionalised notions of inevitable technological transformation in the north, and notions of a fragile cultural distinctiveness coupled with a deep nostalgia for rural intransience in the south. Ultimately I suggest that this shaped the production of scientific knowledge by Roger Brain and others like him, woven through the production of policy and planning regarding Sudan’s economic future after independence.

Undermined by the increasing urban sprawl as well as intensification of agricultural production, the urban–rural fringe agricultural landscapes face challenges of ensuring viable food production, r...

The ecosystem-level consequences of agricultural land use in Neotropical forests have not been fully studied. In areas like the Choco-Darien, conflict exists between the conservation of highly dive...

Unmanaged, or feral, honey bees can be abundant in Australian agricultural landscapes and provide substantial, but unquantified, crop pollination services. This makes these production syste...

This multidisciplinary volume draws upon a conference in 2016 on agriculture and agricultural landscapes in Wales, to bring together a comprehensive and much needed analysis of the role of agricult...

The book was edited by H. Scott Butterfield, T. Rodd Kelsey and Abigail K. Hardt. It was published by Island Press, Washington, DC in April 2021. Library of Congress Control Number is 2020942999, I...

Agricultural landscapes are typically associated with a decreased biodiversity, particularly when they extend across large spatial scales. Despite the fact that some African bat species seem to provide essential ecosystem services across landscapes, we only have a limited understanding of how intensive agricultural practices influence bat communities. This study investigated the effects of sugarcane monoculture on the composition of both bat species and functional groups across a conservation-agricultural matrix. Specifically, we wanted to understand changes in the bat communities within savannas and sugarcane plantations. We categorised bats into broad foraging (functional) groups based on their echolocation call structure: open-air; clutter-edge; and, clutter. To measure bat activity, we established twelve 25 ha grids randomly located in savanna and sugarcane vegetation. Within each grid we placed nine acoustic detectors, in 3 × 3 formation, 250 m apart; totalling 54 plots in each land use. We sampled each plot over four nights (two in the wet season and two in the dry season) during a one-year period. We did not observe a significant difference in species richness between savanna and sugarcane. However, there was a difference in functional group composition. Sugarcane negatively affected clutter foragers; this group was practically absent here despite occurring within neighbouring savannas. We observed distinct patterns of seasonality in bat activity, with activity of all functional groups being reduced in the dry season.Keywords: biodiversity, Chiroptera, echolocation, savanna, seasonality, species richness, sugarcane

The agricultural systems of the Hawaiian archipelago were some of the most intensive in the Pacific and this scale of intensity is well illustrated by the large agricultural landscapes of leeward H...

Faced with the disappearance and ongoing abandonment of traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) in Europe, our primary aim is to provide scientific evidence of the importance of TAL in terms of b...

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second most commonly grown crop worldwide and number one staple food in Africa where it accounts for more than 50% of the energy requirements. However, despite its widesp...

Agri-environmental schemes are often targeted at heterogenic landscapes to support several ecosystem services besides food production. The question is whether heterogenic landscapes also support re...

Hylastes ater and Hylurgus ligniperda, two exotic pine bark beetles in New Zealand, have recently been collected at locations far from pine plantations or other dead pine host material. We investig...

The aim of this study is to find out what locals and tourists in a Central-Alpine, multilingual cross-border region expect from an Alpine landscape, with a special focus on agriculture. Using a standardised questionnaire, we carried out more than 3500 face-to-face interviews with locals and tourists in Tyrol (Austria) and South Tyrol (Italy). The questionnaire comprised (1) content-related questions and (2) questions to collect demographic data on the interviewees. We employed nonparametric methods to analyse the survey results and differences between demographic groups. More than 70% of the study participants liked traditional land-use and did not have major reservations about agricultural intensification or extensification. Of those interviewed, 73% were in favour of giving public financial support to farmers. The findings obtained in this study suggest broad acknowledgement and acceptance of environmental compensation schemes and the maintenance of extensive and traditional land-use systems.

This paper demonstrates how the landscape is an integral component in the development of tourism experiences in agricultural regions. It proposes that agricultural landscapes are composed of three components: naturescape, farmscape and culturescape. Building on the tourist gaze, this research demonstrates how tourists can move from viewing the landscape to engaging with it. A case study of the Atherton Tablelands, located in the Wet Tropics region of Australia, was conducted using content analysis and field observations. The results show that the development of activities within the culturescape enables tourists to engage with the agricultural landscape. This finding has important implications for the farmscape, where agricultural resources (produce) are often used in the creation of memorable tourism experiences in agricultural regions.

The recent interest in multi-functional agricultural landscapes has not been matched with formal assessment of the roles that trees play across the spectrum of ecosystem services (ESs) provided in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A structured literature review (1995–2014) assessed 350 journal articles about provision of one or more ESs by trees on farms and in agricultural landscapes in SSA. This revealed information on 15 ESs from studies in 23 countries covering arid (1% of studies), semi-arid (49%), sub-humid (26%) and humid (24%) agro-ecological zones. The majority of the studies reported provisioning (39%) and supporting (35%) followed by regulating (26%) ESs while studies on cultural services were scarce. Beneficial impacts of trees were dominating (58%), in particular in semi-arid zones where they were associated with enhancing water and nutrient cycling. A decline in some ESs was reported in 15% of the studies, while 28% found no effect of trees. Although the effects of trees were mainly positive...

Between 2010 and 2012, the AROURA project conducted magnetometric prospection in the ancient polder around the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–1190 b.c.) fortress of Glas, mainland Greece. As had been hypothesized, the anomalies detected were consistent with a system of agricultural fields. This system appears to have been irrigated and drained through previously identified hydraulic mechanisms in and around the polder. Comparison of soil profiles of anomalies with those of background areas, including their magnetic susceptibilities, corroborated magnetometric data. Anomalies were traced from sampled to unsampled areas through corresponding reclassified satellite bandwidths. Constituent sediments of features discovered were dated to the Late Bronze Age through AMS radiocarbon and OSL analyses. The results validated the use of extensive geophysics to detect and investigate ancient agricultural landscapes.

Coffee is a commodity of international trade significance, and its value chain can benefit from age-specific thematic maps. This study aimed to assess the potential of Landsat 8 OLI to develop these maps. Using field-collected samples with the random forest classifier, splitting coffee into three age classes (Scheme A) was compared with running the classification with one compound coffee class (Scheme B). Higher overall classification accuracy was obtained in Scheme B (90.3% for OLI and 86.8% for ETM+) than in Scheme A (86.2% for OLI and 81.0% for ETM+). The NIR band of OLI was the most important band in intra-class discrimination of coffee. Landsat 8 OLI mapped area closely matched farm records (R2 = 0.88) compared to that of Landsat 7 ETM+ (R2 = 0.78). It was concluded that Landsat 8 OLI data can be used to produce age-specific thematic maps in coffee production areas although disaggregating coffee classes reduces overall accuracy.

We develop a farm- and plot-specific land-use model, which allows to examine the influence of changing socio-economic conditions on agricultural landscapes. The outstanding feature of our model is that we directly consider the knowledge of local farmers and agrarian experts for the specification of the farm-specific adaptation process. Furthermore, we visualise changes in landscape appearance by photo manipulation. The study takes place in three typical (Pre-) Alpine regions in Southern Germany and in Austria. In all study regions, we apply three scenarios: Status quo (the persistence of the current economic and agri-political conditions), liberalisation (the abolishment of public payments and decreasing of producer prices) and alternative (treating a specific development of particular importance in the respective region). The abandonment of land in marginal regions and the intensification and homogenisation of land use in more productive regions are the most important developments. The initially ...

Current best practice in New Zealand landscape management at the interface of the global trade agenda with local landscape sustainability is identified through key informants and report literature, and classified into two categories. Systemic management practices such as product certification and nutrient budgets complement and contrast with territorial practices such as riparian planting, environment farm plans, area co-management and integrated catchment plans. Expert informants highlighted the importance for best practice of local leadership, enlightened self-interest and partnerships based on trust. Further research is needed into ways to better integrate the strengths of each approach, and on the role of the local political economy and local governance in shaping distinctive combinations of local practice.

AbstractThe transition from Roman Britain to medieval England and Wales clearly saw profound changes in society and landscape, with the large-scale abandonment of the settlements most closely associated with Romanitas – villas and towns – and the emergence of new architectural styles, burial rites, and other material culture of Germanic character. These changes in the archaeological record suggest profound social dislocation for the higher echelons of society, but have deflected attention away from what may have been a very different story for the majority of the rural population. This article offers a preliminary description of the results of the Fields of Britannia Project, which is examining the potential for continuity and discontinuity in agricultural landscapes across the different regions of Roman Britain. Three strands are explored: the palaeoenvironmental sequences that record how patterns of land use changed over time, the relationship between excavated Romano-British field systems and t...

Many agricultural landscapes are rapidly transitioning to more heterogeneous land uses with diverse types of landowners. While previous research has focused on conservation practice adoption among agricultural landowners, we use an efficacy theory framework to contrast riparian management behaviors across full-time farmers, part-time farmers, and residential landowners. We conducted semistructured interviews of landowners and conservation organization representatives within an urbanizing watershed in central Pennsylvania. Interviews focused on riparian buffers, perceived buffer outcomes, and urbanization throughout the region. Our findings indicate that structural changes to the landscape brought forth by urbanization diminish landowners’ self-efficacy via reduced capacity to implement buffers on small, residential parcels. Additionally, landowners’ outcome expectations are hampered through nearby, urban causes of perceived riparian and water quality degradation. Urbanization may reduce efficacy across th...

A study was conducted in 26 sites on agricultural landscapes in Central Uganda to collect baseline information about important drivers of butterfly richness and abundance. Data were collected for 1 year (2006) using line transects walk-and-counts, fruit-bait traps and handnets sampling methods. A total of 57,439 individuals belonging to 331 species were collected. Totals of 127, 131 and 299 species were recorded in transect counts, banana-bait and handnets, respectively. Of the 57,439 individuals registered, 75%, 19% and 6% were recorded in transect counts, handnet and banana-bait trap, respectively. Butterfly abundance and species richness were significantly (p

In this study, we test whether we can significantly p Gossypium hirsutum L. fields from maize Zea mays L. and sorghum Sorghum bicolor fields in smallholder agricultural landscapes of the Mid-Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe, using a temporal series of 16-day Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer – normalized difference vegetation index MODIS NDVI data. We test this hypothesis at different phenological stages over the growing season, that is, early green-up onset, late green-up onset, green-peak, early senescence and late senescence. We also statistically compare the rate of change in the greenness of the three crops at the three phenological stages. Results show that we can significantly p < 0.05 distinguish cotton fields from maize and sorghum fields using 16-day MODIS NDVI data during the late green-up onset as well as during the green-peak stage of the three crops. Our results indicate that cotton can successfully be distinguished from maize and sorghum in spatially heterogeneous smallholder agricultural landscapes using temporal MODIS NDVI.

Capsule Diet composition and feeding behaviour of breeding birds differed between areas of high and low agricultural intensification. Aims To analyze diet composition and feeding behaviour of Marsh Harriers Circus aeruginosus in agricultural landscapes with different degrees of agricultural intensification. Methods Diet composition and feeding behaviour was assessed by focal observations at nests during breeding seasons in 2001–03 in two agricultural areas within the eastern Ebro Basin (on the northern Iberian Peninsula) which differed in their degree of agricultural intensification: a traditional non-irrigated and non-intensively managed farmland area; and an irrigated and intensively managed farmland area. Results Marsh Harriers in the intensively managed area took higher percentages of small mammals than harriers in the traditional area managed at low-intensity, where they also had a more diverse diet. Male delivery rates increased throughout the breeding season in the intensively managed area. On the ...

Landscapes are made from different components and elements, some of which are characterized through their presence and patterns. The assessment of this character is performed via the identification of landscape characteristics. For agricultural landscapes, such characteristics can be natural elements or elements of farming systems. Their preservation can be of great importance in Europe today, and agri-environmental measures have been used towards this goal. One such characteristic in Greece is cultivation terraces, today widely neglected, as the cultivations they supported are abandoned or modernized. This paper discusses the effectiveness of an agri-environmental policy measure for the reconstruction of cultivation terraces in Greece, with regard to existing practices of farmers. A picture for the whole country is presented and farmers' practices are discussed with greater detail through research with farmers that have been supported on the island of Lesvos. Findings from Lesvos reveal that onl...

The subject of this paper is the views of farmers concerning their local landscape. In two contrasting Danish case study areas previously analysed in the 1990s, a small number of farmers have been interviewed regarding their views of the landscape and recent changes in their respective area including landscape changes. One of the areas (Hvorslev) is characterized by good conditions for agriculture, intensive husbandry production and a relatively stable landscape history. The other (Nees) has more marginal conditions and major changes in land use characterize the recent landscape history. We analyze the way in which the landscape is perceived by farmers and compare their views of the changing landscapes with the actual recorded changes on the one hand, and with other significant changes on the other. Farmers in both areas emphasized the same type of structural changes in agriculture and in the villages as significant, whereas only farmers in Nees indicated that the landscape had changed. When aske...

(2008). Room for everyone? Refugia and native biodiversity in New Zealand's agricultural landscapes. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research: Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 473-476.

The connection between the emission of atmospheric nitrogen (N) and the risk of groundwater pollution is significant for protection of the landscape with respect to the resources. The usually unknown amount of atmospheric nitrogen deposition has a high impact on N balances and on the leaching of nitrogen into the groundwater. Therefore, the present paper deals with the correlation between N emission and scenarios of potential risk assessment on N leaching into groundwater. The airborne N input into an agricultural landscape between the Saxon towns Taucha and Eilenburg (near Leipzig, Saxony) was measured by using the bulk N deposition method, the total atmospheric N deposition method with the ITNI system, and the bark sampling method, by focusing the results on the measurement of N input (punctual and regionalized) and on extrapolations to the risk of N leaching for planning purposes. On the forest measurement point the airborne N input is approximately twice as high as that on the ‘open land’ measurement ...

The continuum between nature and artefact is occupied by objects and environments that embody a relationship between natural processes and human activity. In this paper, I explore the relationship that emerges through human interaction with the land in the generation and aesthetic appreciation of industrial farming in contrast to more traditional agricultural practices. I consider the concept of a dialectical relationship and develop it in order to characterise the distinctive synthesising activity of humans and nature which underlies cultivated environments. I argue that a more harmonious relationship, and greater aesthetic value, may be located within traditional farming landscapes. This position is supported and illustrated through a discussion of two agricultural practices in the UK, hedge-laying and stonewalling.

Country roads are an important social, economic and ecological component of agricultural landscapes in many parts of New South Wales. Using the Lockhart Shire Council area as a case study, this paper describes how present-day rural road networks are a historical vestige of past land-use decisions; a collection of Travelling Stock Routes, pastoral boundaries of early squatters, rail reserves, county and parish boundaries, and an ad hoc collection of mostly 1 chain (20.12 m) roads surveyed during the late 1800s. Road reserves were allocated across the landscape at the discretion of early surveyors, so new land titles could access vital water resources. Nineteenth-century surveyors faced many difficulties in surveying the extent of NSW, sometimes resulting in misalignments which today give ‘character’ to many country roads. Road reserves were often surveyed 2 or 3 chains wide to allow for predicted usage and provide materials for road construction. In the 1870s, Travelling Stock Routes of varying widths from...

The loss of phosphorous (P) from the landscape is commonly viewed as deleterious for surface water quality. However, the quantities lost and the impact this can have on surface waters depends on numerous mechanisms that occur whilst en route. The aim of this review is to give an outline of these mechanisms and thus how sources of P in the agricultural landscape are connected to the impairment of surface water quality. Processes are dealt with by examining the potential for P loss from the landscape and its availability to aquatic plants during flow overland and subsurface flow and once in streamflow or a lake or reservoir. By examining the connectivity between P loss and the impact on surface water quality, potential mitigation and management of P losses are discussed for various aquatic systems.

This article sets out the changes in the appearance of the UK's farmed landscape that are likely to occur as a result of climate change, such as shifts in cultivation patterns, the growth of 'flood friendly' land use, and the increasing provision of wind farms. It argues, however that the increased risk of adverse weather involved in farming, along with new opportunities for growing different crops, may well accelerate the restructuring of the farming economy. Policy, however, will continue to outway all other factors – including climate change – in shaping the rural landscape.

Riparian forest is a priority for protection in New Zealand. Data are provided on the spatial extent and distribution of riparian forest and forest remnants within the West Coast region of New Zealand. Despite the West Coast having the bulk of New Zealand's riparian forest, such forests are under-represented in many of the region's Ecological Districts. Lack of other suitable soils meant that, where possible, floodplains were extensively developed for agriculture. Consequently riparian forest remnants within farmland are small and isolated. The implications of ecological processes and land-management practices for the conservation management of the riparian forest remnants are discussed, and three conservation priorities are identified.

Pacific Islanders have adapted over time to a wide range of social and environmental conditions. Subsistence regimes include broad-based fishing and gathering along with horticulture, particularly the cultivation of staple tubers. Agricultural ecosystems on many islands manifest elaborate expressions of greater inputs of labor or the necessity to overcome agronomic constraints to production. Landscapes of intensive agriculture once found throughout Oceania include yam mounds, raised fields, and irrigated terracing. Most of these systems are either abandoned or greatly diminished in scale. Findings from research in the Fiji Islands exemplify some of the forms and functions of these landscapes. Field study at an active system of irrigated terraces for growing taro (Colocasia esculenta) on the remote southern island of Kadavu elucidates the dynamic operations of a gardening strategy that was once much more prevalent throughout the archipelago. Changing political economies across the region may have radically...

Fencerows (strips of trees along field edges) are common in agricultural landscapes and may represent valuable habitat for forest birds in areas where woodland is scarce. We examined the relationsh...

Many farmland bird species are declining in North America and Europe, yet there are few data documenting bird use of agricultural landscapes, especially in Canada. This information is needed in ord...

In days gone by, imagined future scenes were largely preferred to those of former times. Ancient traditions of pastoral taste and picturesque nostalgia notwithstanding, landscape and nature in general were commonly devalued by comparison with the creations of culture and the scenes of history. The rural vistas on which many chose to cast their eye were utopian scenes ideally to come, rather than the depressingly backward lineaments of the old-fashioned past. Nowadays, the future is out of fashion, and scenes recalled from other ages are increasingly admired. Prospect yields to retrospect, technology to history. Environmentalist morality promotes appreciation not only of wild landscapes but of past rural scenes, valued as more diversified and less destructive of nature and locale than today's high-tech agricultural landscapes. 'History' is becoming an adjunct to, rather then an enemy of, 'ecology'. I discuss these trends in term of changing views of art, religion, nature and human nature.