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The gramineous species Andropogon lateralis and Paspalum notatum dominate lowland habitats in Paraguay. These habitats include wetlands and aquifers that provide essential ecosystem services, such as soil C storage, biodiversity, water flow regulation and water quality. Large areas of these valuable natural ecosystems have been transformed into intensive agricultural systems, including sugarcane and eucalyptus plantations. The transformation potentially affects water flow and lake and stream recharge and threatens the native biodiversity of the ecoregion. The soils in these zones are characterised by high C stocks, high acidity, nutrient limitation (low cation exchange capacity and base saturation) and a sandy texture, and they may be sensitive to perturbations. This study aimed to assess the impact of eucalyptus plantations on soil properties and nutrient and C stocks in afforested lowland regions in a subtropical area and to generate information relevant to sustainable management. For this purpose, 62 eucalyptus plantations of ages between 2 and 10 years and 8 native grassland plots were selected for study. The experimental design enabled us to estimate the amounts of nutrients extracted throughout the plantation rotation and to evaluate the impacts on soil properties (at 0–40 cm depth) and on soil carbon and nutrient stocks. The eucalyptus biomass production amounted to 215 Mg ha−1 after 10 years. The significant loss of soil C, which had decreased to 40 % after a decade, was attributed to the initial soil preparation, intensive drainage and the lower input of organic remains than in the natural grasslands. The significant decreases in soil nutrient stocks (N, P, Ca, Mg, and K), reaching between 50 % and 60 % throughout the rotation, were attributed to uptake of these elements by the trees. The bulk density increased by up to 1.3 g cm−3. The data suggest that establishing eucalyptus plantations in these lowland habitats leads to soil degradation and may reduce the environmental services supplied by the ecosystems. Local authorities must develop and implement territorial land plans and silvicultural practices in order to prevent degradation of these critical ecosystems. • Biomass production is typically high in the study plantations (21.5 Mg ha−1 year−1). • Nutrient and C stocks decrease after afforestation with eucalyptus trees. • Harvesting leaves and bark leads to export of large amounts of N, Ca, Mg and P. • The eucalyptus plantations increase the soil acidity in the study system. • Sustainable forest management and soil conservation practices must be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process-based crop models have faced rapid development over the last years, and many modelling platforms are now available and can be used in a wide range of conditions. Whilst the selection of a model should be suited to the purpose of its application, very few studies focused on the impact of choosing different model structures and data details on the simulation outputs. One important aspect is the soil water dynamics, which can be simulated at different levels of details in terms of data and approaches. In this study, we investigated the impact of model structure and data detail on simulations of sugarcane growth and irrigation scheduling. Three different soil water routines (Standalone, Tipping-Bucket, SWAP) were coupled with the SAMUCA model and calibrated with a comprehensive field experiment dataset. We also tested the influence of using simplified homogeneous (SL) and detailed (DL) soil profile information in model performance. The model framework was evaluated against independent field experiments across Brazil and used to simulate long-term sugarcane growth and irrigation scheduling. After calibration, the SWAP-DL showed the highest accuracy in soil moisture predictions, with a 6 % error (RRMSE), but the difference from TippingBucket-DL was small (8 %). While the performance of stalk dry mass, LAI and water-use efficiency simulations were within the range found in literature, comprehensive field experiments showing significant impacts of drought on sugarcane growth are still lacking for a more rigorous evaluation. Both SWAP and tipping-bucket approaches showed higher robustness to soil data detail as compared to the Standalone method, which should be avoided when soil water is critical for sugarcane growth. The use of tipping-bucket method may still be preferred when the research goal is focused on crop growth and soil parameters are limited. SWAP-SAMUCA may provide an extended ability to represent agrohydrological processes in sugarcane plantations and process understanding. • Performance of a sugarcane growth module was assessed using three soil water balance schemes and two soil data types • Results of performance of both SWAP and tipping-bucket were superior to the standalone version • DL soil is required for soil water balance, but SL soil could be enough to simulate crop growth for SWAP and tipping-bucket • SWAP-SAMUCA may provide an extended ability to represent agrohydrological processes in sugarcane plantations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the instability of facts surrounding former sugarcane workers in Nicaragua with Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-Traditional Causes (CKDnt). CKDnt is a progressive disease that has been linked, albeit inconclusively, to working conditions in sugarcane plantations and other extreme environments. It emerged in the early twenty-first century, at a time when the social and political value of agricultural labor in Nicaragua and across the Americas was shifting due to the rise of new regimes of corporate responsibility and neoliberalized systems of state care. Partly as a result of a lack of conclusive knowledge about what causes the disease, former workers receive uneven medical and social benefits from both sugarcane corporations and the Nicaraguan social security system, the Instituto Nacional de Seguridad Social (INSS). This article traces the parallel emergence of Nicaragua’s agro-economy and the INSS during the twentieth century, and it draws on ethnographic research with ex-workers to understand how the making of facts about work and the making of facts about health shape each other. The article argues that the disposability of labor is not an inherent feature of monocrop capitalism; rather, disposability emerges as corporations and state authorities work strategically to manage the inherent porosity of the boundaries between plantations and their socio-political surroundings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To narrow the gap of agricultural water insufficiency in the Lam Takong River Basin, Thailand, we conducted an assessment of water availability and agricultural water demand under climate and land use changes. The water availability was estimated by SWAT, which was calibrated and validated during 2008–2012 and 2013–2018 against the observed daily discharge at the M.164 station. Measured and simulated discharges showed good agreement during calibration and validation, as indicated by values of 0.75 and 0.69 for R2 and 0.74 and 0.63 for Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency, respectively. The results of GCMs (IPSL-CM5-MR, NorESM1-M, and CanESM2) under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5 were calculated to investigate changes in rainfall and temperature during 2020–2099. The warming tendencies of future maximum and minimum temperatures were projected as 0.018 and 0.022 °C/year and 0.038 and 0.045 °C/year under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5, respectively. The future rainfall was found to increase by 0.34 and 1.06 mm/year under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5, respectively. As compared to the 2017 baseline, the future planted areas of rice, maize, and cassava were projected to decrease during 2020–2099, while the sugarcane plantation area was expected to increase until 2079 and then decline. The top three greatest increases in future land use area were identified as residential and built-up land (in 2099), water bodies (in 2099), and other agricultural land (in 2059), while the three largest decrease rates were paddy fields (in 2099), forest land (in 2099), and orchards (during 2059–2079). Under the increased reservoir storage and future climate and land use changes, the maximum and minimum increases in annual discharge were 1.4 (RCP 8.5) and 0.1 million m3 (RCP 4.5) during 2060–2079. The sugarcane water demand calculated by CROPWAT was solely projected to increase from baseline to 2099 under RCP 4.5, while the increase for sugarcane and cassava was found for RCP 8.5. The future unmet water demand was found to increase under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5, and the highest deficits would take place in June and March during 2020–2039 and 2040–2099, respectively. In this context, it is remarkable that the obtained results are able to capture the continued and growing imbalance between water supply and agricultural demand exacerbated by future climatic and anthropogenic land use changes. This research contributes new insight for compiling a comprehensive set of actions to effectively build resilience and ensure future water sufficiency in the Lam Takong River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pontal do Paranapanema is a conflictive territory composed of public lands but appropriated through falsified documentation that are the source of disputes between landowners, sugar-cane agribusiness groups and movements fighting for agrarian reform. The process of sugarcane expansion in the region led to the "enclosure" of the reform agrarian settlements by sugarcane plantations. Because of various difficulties, or even to obtain resources to improve their lands, settled workers have sought jobs in the sugar-cane mills. Currently, the sugarcane harvest is at an advanced stage of mechanisation, a fact that has repercussions on the different functions performed by the workers and on the risks in the work environment. To better understand these processes, we conducted interviews with people involved in mechanized work in the sugarcane sector and used interviews from the DataCETAS database. The results of the research show that the mechanization of cane cutting may have provided an improvement in working conditions, but the intense work and frenetic pace imposed on workers in order to increase labour productivity produce various risk agents in the work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the most significant work-related health conditions that are experienced by agricultural workers. This cross-sectional study has investigated MSDs among agriculturalists in upper northeastern Thailand. We assessed the types of MSDs, their severity, and their frequency. There were 889 cultivating agriculturalists from four provinces who participated in this study. The majority of the participants reported experiencing mild levels of MSDs (60.48%). Predominantly, the farmers who were working on cassava, vegetable, and sugarcane plantations reported experiencing the most severe MSDs in the knees/calves (22.40%). The rice plantation workers reported the largest number of MSDs complaints. The workers on rubber plantations and in sugarcane fields were more likely to feel knee/calf pain (OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.05–2.39) and lower limb pain (OR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.35–2.89) than those who were working on rice and tobacco plantations. The individuals who were working on cassava, fruit, vegetable, and corn plantations were also more likely to report knee/calf pain (OR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.01–2.17) and lower limb pain (OR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.37–2.84) than those who were working on rice and tobacco plantations. The MSDs that were found among those working on agricultural activities affected many parts of their bodies. The ergonomic risk needs to be assessed in order to inform plantation workers of the implications in order to improve their health and well-being and to reduce the risks of MSDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how social and economic structures of historic plantation development manage to persist over time and to rearticulate over space. In the early 1900s, the historic plantation sugar economy in St Bernard Parish, Louisiana, suddenly collapsed. Despite efforts by local elites to seize this moment to finally launch a diversified industrial development path, the parish nevertheless sank again into a new cycle of plantation domination and dependency. The dominating sugar sector was broken up only to be rapidly replaced by a vast new monopoly—in, of all things, systematized fur production—whose land tenure and labor regime nearly replicated that of the earlier plantation estates. I examine this folding-over-anew of the plantation, from sugar to fur, in two ways that contribute to recent growing literature on persistent plantation geographies. First, I draw upon theories of Caribbean underdevelopment to identify three persistent conditions of plantation economy. Upon the collapse of sugar in St Bernard, the conditions of estate-based land monopoly, racialized extra-economic labor coercion, and external market/primary commodity dependency constrained the possibility of structural transformation and rearticulated in a new commodity regime based in fur. Second, I turn to consider the experience of workers bound up in the new fur economy who were not, in the main, the debt-bound black workers from the old sugar plantations but a racially and spatially marginal group known as isleños. I draw on a unique set wry folk ballads that isleños maintained as part of local oral tradition to examine the voices of trappers themselves as they negotiated the rearticulating structures of the neo-plantation regime. Thinking with McKittrick's concept of plantation "spaces of encounter," I find these neo-estate workers forged fraught spaces of discursive and material autonomy that at times resisted, and at times reproduced, the ongoing plantation regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem in this research is optimizing logging distribution from three sugarcane plantation locations to three sugar mill locations. In the existing method, each sugar factory location is only supplied by one plantation location, which is located closest to the factory location. This article proposes the Iterative Fuzzy Inference System (IFIS) method to optimize the cost. IFIS used two FIS. The first FIS was carried out iteratively to find the best factory priority as a destination for delivery of logged sugarcane. The second FIS was conducted to find the best log quantity from each plantation to be sent to each mill. This research contributes to optimization. On the plantation side, the harvested products from one plantation are sent to all the mills that need them, and on the mill side, the mill only accepts sugar cane shipments as needed, so no sugar cane has to wait long in the mill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of pre‐harvest fire in sugarcane fields surprisingly results in an increase in the abundance of Neotropical Sigmodontinae rodents, which might carry hantavirus. By contrast, fire suspension induces a decline in rodents in the first 5 years. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of sugarcane harvest regimes on hantavirus prevalence in wild rodents. Field collections were carried out on a sugarcane production area in Northeast São Paulo, which is responsible for 30% of the ethanol production in Brazil. A few years after pre‐harvest fire suspension, a high prevalence of hantavirus was found in small rodents at lower population density, but apparently higher population growth rate. Differences in life cycle between the rodents and their predators may explain such density patterns, as small rodents can breed twice or even three times each year, whereas their predators usually breed only once a year. Similarly, the temporal dynamics of the predator–prey relationship suggests that hantavirus prevalence is related to small rodent's population growth and not density. Only Akodon montensis, Calomys tener, and Necromys lasiurus contained immunoglobulin G antibodies against the recombinant nucleoprotein of Araraquara orthohantavirus, a genotype of Andes orthohantavirus, with no interspecific variation in seroprevalence among these species. However, males presented higher prevalence rate than females, possibly due to a male‐biased dispersal pattern and a higher frequency of antagonistic interactions. Governance measures to mitigate the role of small wild rodents on the emergence of hantavirus in agricultural landscapes dominated by sugarcane plantations should include the use of wildlife‐friendly management techniques (e.g., to mitigate the mortality of the predators of small rodents), human capacity building concerning wildlife‐related conflicts, and multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes. Future studies should prioritize the possible relationship between microhabitat structure and hantavirus prevalence in small rodents in agricultural landscapes dominated by sugarcane fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the impact of a large, state-sponsored sugar plantation scheme on agro-pastoralists' livelihoods and local land use change in southern Ethiopia, specifically in the lower Omo Valley. The study compares the local perceptions on the ongoing Omo-Kuraz sugar project — sugar cane plantations and a cane-crushing factory — and describes how it has affected local communities' environmental and livelihood strategies vis-à-vis the alleged 'new development opportunities'. Focus group discussion, key informant interviews, and field observations were applied to get in-depth information about the socio-economic and environmental impacts of large scale land acquisitions. The results show that the implementation of large scale land acquisitions in the lower Omo Valley has put enormous pressure on local land use and land management systems. The Omo-Kuraz I and II projects, started in 2011, neither met the stated economic purposes of the then Ethiopian federal government nor satisfied the pastoral communities' needs. The LSAI project is still highly contentious among the local community, the project office, and the local government. Our study recommends that shifting the perspective towards the local agro-pastoralists' activities, understanding their views and ways of 'using' the environment, and creating a broader consultation platform with them may create opportunities for cooperation and synergy to optimize benefits and sustainably adapt the development project to the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forests worldwide have succumbed to rapid conversion into agricultural landscapes, but the local- and landscape-scale drivers of functional diversity and consequently ecosystem functioning remain poorly known, which limits management and conservation strategies. Here, we quantitatively assess how biofuel croplands affect taxonomic and functional diversity as well as trait-composition of dung beetle assemblages in a hyper-fragmented landscape of the Brazilian Atlantic forest dominated by sugarcane plantations. We also examine to what extent changes in patch attributes (patch scale forest loss), landscape composition (landscape scale forest loss) and landscape configuration (degree of fragmentation and forest edge density), induced by the establishment of sugarcane plantations, affect the functional reorganization of dung beetle assemblages. We estimated taxonomic and functional diversity (functional richness, evenness and redundancy) of dung beetle assemblages at 50 sampling sites across a sugarcane dominated hyper-fragmented landscape. In general, sugarcane plantations showed lower functional diversity than forest sites. Large-bodied coprophagous tunnelers were dominant across all forest sites, while small-bodied generalist-rollers were more abundant in sugarcane plantations. Functional evenness and dispersion were negatively affected by landscape composition, while landscape configuration and forest loss played a minor role. Our findings indicate that changes at both the patch and landscape scales induced by the establishment of sugarcane plantations exert strong impacts on the taxonomic and functional diversity of dung beetles. Implications for insect conservation: These shifts in functional diversity can disrupt ecological functions served by these insects which, in turn, can accelerate the collapse of ecosystem functioning across tropical landscapes immersed in sugarcane plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work was carried out with the objective of determining the spatial and temporal distribution of Albizia procera (Roxb.) Benth species in sugarcane areas in Cuba. For this purpose, the information contained in the database generated by the weed identification surveys carried out in the period 2016-2020 by the Integral Weed Control Service (SERCIM) of the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Caña de Azúcar (INICA) was used. The surveys were conducted by the visual method, walking the field along its diagonals, with the use of manuals or catalogs in digital or printed format. The magnitude of the infestation was evaluated through the frequency and area infested. The results showed that in the period 2016-2020 the species presented frequency values in the Accidental category, with an increasing trend. The highest frequency was found in the western region and the largest plagued area in the central region. The surveys evidenced the presence of this species in all stages of development and harvest cycles of sugarcane. It is recommended that a management strategy be developed to help reduce infested areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of proposals have tried to account for the genesis and development of a set of Afro-Hispanic language varieties, the vernaculars that formed in Latin America from the contact between African languages and Spanish in colonial times (Sessarego 2021). This article presents a sociohistorical and linguistic analysis of Loíza Spanish (LS), an Afro-Puerto Rican vernacular spoken in Loíza, Puerto Rico by the descendants of the Africans brought to this Caribbean island in colonial times to work as slaves on sugarcane plantations. This article assesses the evolution of this variety and its implications for creole studies. In so doing, it contributes to the long-lasting debate on the reasons behind the paucity of Spanish-based creoles in the Americas (Granda 1968 et seq.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Progress in Plant Protection is the property of Institute of Plant Protection and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura is the property of Revista Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

"A Return to Roots: 'CuBajans' in Barbados" by Sharon Milagro Marshall is a book that documents the oral testimonies of the descendants of Barbadians who migrated to Cuba in the early twentieth century. The book explores the historical context of this migration and follows the migrants and their descendants as they returned to Barbados after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. It discusses the political and economic reasons for the migration, as well as the changing political status of both Cuba and Barbados and its impact on the lives of the migrants and their descendants. The book also highlights the experiences of the CuBajans, their initial isolation, and their efforts to integrate into the English-speaking island. The conclusion speaks to the lasting identity politics of belonging in both Caribbean states. While the book provides insight into the little-known connection between Barbados and Cuba, it lacks critical engagement with certain issues and tensions in the region. Overall, it presents an engaging story of Caribbean migration and return in challenging circumstances. [Extracted from the article]

The sugarcane plantations in China occupy large areas of undulated terrain. During the operation of a sugarcane harvester, the operator's vision is severely obstructed, and the height of the cutter needs to be adjusted frequently, resulting in low sugarcane harvesting efficiency and difficulty in ensuring harvesting quality. However, the current diversified non-contact methods are unable to distinguish or penetrate the interference well to provide feedback regarding the change in terrain height. Based on the proposed contact sensing method, a contact terrain sensing device is designed for application to the sugarcane harvester, and the orthogonal test is carried out with the standard orthogonal table L9(34) to study the influence of the working parameters of the device on the terrain height sensing performance. Through the analysis of the working principle of the device, three factors (moving speed, rotational torque, and preload) are tested in three levels, and index systems of the Fréchet distance and residual standard deviation are proposed. The range and variance analysis methods are used to statistically analyze the test results to determine the primary and secondary orders of operation parameters. Then, the regression model was obtained by regression analysis on the influencing factors. After analysis, the influences of moving speed and rotating torque were found to be the most significant, and the influence of preload was the smallest. The results show that the average relative errors between the experimental values and predicted model values of the Fréchet distance and residual standard deviation were 3.46% and 2.48%. According to the practical applications of the sugarcane harvester and the data of the two indexes, the optimal value ranges of moving speed (km/h) and rotating torque (Nm) are determined as (1.57, 1.75) and (0.73, 0.86), respectively, which provide a certain reference for the subsequent application of the terrain sensing device to sugarcane harvesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern‐day Guyana (formerly British Guiana) residents of the coastal region of the country are susceptible to other‐than‐human powers: the spirits of Dutch colonizers, who claim ownership over the land, especially in areas where sugar plantations once operated. Regarded as the "masters of the land," or "boundary masters," Dutch spirits demand offerings and the recognition of land rights from their human co‐habitants. Through a description of rituals towards the land performed by members of a heterodox Hindu sect, the worship of the goddess Kali, this article addresses territorial sovereignty through the lens of lived and embodied practices of co‐habitation between East Indians and Dutch spirits, giving special attention to the processes of establishing proprietary rights over the land through such acts as planting trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores white denial through the telling of one visceral story, known as the Sugar Land 95. Its history spans approximately 150 years, from the post-Civil War period through the present. The Sugar Land 95 are people whose brutalized remains were exhumed on the grounds of the former Imperial Sugar plantation in Sugar Land, Texas, while excavating the land for a new vocational public school. They are 94 men and one woman between the ages of 14 and 70, incarcerated African-Americans who died gruesomely between 1878 and 1911, laboring as convicts leased from the Texas state prison system. Convict leasing was an early pillar of the prison industrial complex. The Sugar Land 95 is a story of white supremacist brutality, erasure, and ongoing denial, a set of truths that would have been whitewashed in the here and now were it not for the persistent efforts at the grassroots to force a reckoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance do "tempo em espiral", a brincadeira do Lambe-sujo acompanha e ajuda a moldar os sentidos da experiência em Laranjeiras há mais de um século. Há uma estrutura contínua do Lambe-sujo, ao mesmo tempo em que há a dinâmica de suas modificações no figurino e as reflexões constantemente atualizadas e significados para as pessoas que vivem em Laranjeiras. As a performance of "spiral time", the Lambe-sujo I brincadeira i has accompanied and helped shape the meanings of experience in Laranjeiras for over a century. Embora eu tivesse passado um tempo substancial de trabalho de campo em Sergipe desde o final dos anos 1990, eu não havia participado do festival Lambe-sujo até recentemente. [Extracted from the article]

Despite green sugarcane harvesting being promoted in Thailand, with some limitations on the use of harvesting machines, green sugarcane harvesting is practiced manually in many sugarcane fields. Although the environmental benefit seems clear, this harvesting practice's social implications are yet unknown. This study assessed social performances of green and burnt manual sugarcane harvesting in North-Eastern Thailand, the region hosting the largest sugarcane plantation area, using the Social Life Cycle Assessment technique. Data collection was undertaken by surveys. The performance reference points method was applied to assess the different stakeholder's social performances. Key stakeholder groups examined were workers, local community, and farm owners. The main social issues included in this study are fair wages, working conditions, health and safety, local employment, economic development, social responsibility, and satisfaction of occupation. The results showed that the social performances of green and burnt sugarcane harvesting were generally similar except for the local community group. This is mainly due to the health impact of sugarcane burning on the local community. Different issues cause the farmers to harvest the burnt sugarcane; for example, labor shortage in the harvesting season and the difficult working conditions for green harvesting, causing the farm owners to bear higher costs. For these reasons, mechanized harvesting is suggested to help promote green harvesting to reduce local air pollution. However, technology development is in urgent need to make the harvesting machines more affordable and applicable to all geographical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate variability, land use and land cover changes (LULCC) have a considerable impact on runoff–erosion processes. This study analyzed the relationships between climate variability and spatiotemporal LULCC on runoff–erosion processes in different scenarios of land use and land cover (LULC) for the Almas River basin, located in the Cerrado biome in Brazil. Landsat images from 1991, 2006, and 2017 were used to analyze changes and the LULC scenarios. Two simulations based on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) were compared: (1) default application using the standard model database (SWATd), and (2) application using remote sensing multiple gridded datasets (albedo and leaf area index) downloaded using the Google Earth Engine (SWATrs). In addition, the SWAT model was applied to analyze the impacts of streamflow and erosion in two hypothetical scenarios of LULC. The first scenario was the optimistic scenario (OS), which represents the sustainable use and preservation of natural vegetation, emphasizing the recovery of permanent preservation areas close to watercourses, hilltops, and mountains, based on the Brazilian forest code. The second scenario was the pessimistic scenario (PS), which presents increased deforestation and expansion of farming activities. The results of the LULC changes show that between 1991 and 2017, the area occupied by agriculture and livestock increased by 75.38%. These results confirmed an increase in the sugarcane plantation and the number of cattle in the basin. The SWAT results showed that the difference between the simulated streamflow for the PS was 26.42%, compared with the OS. The sediment yield average estimation in the PS was 0.035 ton/ha/year, whereas in the OS, it was 0.025 ton/ha/year (i.e., a decrease of 21.88%). The results demonstrated that the basin has a greater predisposition for increased streamflow and sediment yield due to the LULC changes. In addition, measures to contain the increase in agriculture should be analyzed by regional managers to reduce soil erosion in this biome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new configuration of the sugar-energy sector emerges in the current century, marked by a significant expansion inherent to the actions of the Government. Driven by this process, the Geographic Microregion (MRG) of Ituiutaba has, in the recent period, experienced a significant expansion of sugarcane production, confirmed by the insertion of four processing plants (three currently active). In this sense, the objective of this work is to evaluate the logic of the three sugar-energy plants located in the MRG of Ituiutaba, presenting their radius of action to understand the spaces activated by each of the units in the access to the raw material. This expansion of sugarcane cultivation occurred morely in areas destined for pastures (traditional for extensive cattle raising), resulting in the reconversion of these areas into sugarcane plantations in the recent period. We identified in the MRG the plants’ expansion of their theoretical radius of action to access the raw material due to the competition among the sugar-energy plants and other agribusiness agents. In this way, the sugar- energy plants activate very distant spaces to supply their crushing demand, reaching 94 km towards the Santa Vitória plant and 62 km towards the BP plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Freud's account of binary sexual difference, articulated in the Oedipus complex, is conditioned by a history of racial capitalism. Turning to the foundational work of Hortense Spillers on gender and Atlantic race slavery, this article proposes that dominant models of binary gender are ineluctably racialized, created by the property regimes and systemic sexual violence of colonial modernity that emerged in the Atlantic World of the eighteenth century--a space defined by the structures of labor, race, sexuality, and capital accumulation that developed in and around the first factories of the modern world, namely, the sugar plantations of the colonial Caribbean. The article links Freud's own economic and intellectual history to the production of capital and the theft of land and labor in the Caribbean byway of the central European trade in textiles and global cotton production. Examining a series of family portraits, the article locates the eclipsed yet central force of Black women's productive and socially reproductive work extracted for the creation of white, heteropatriarchal reproduction and property accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ecoscience (Ecoscience) is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Management practices reputed to be the best are being introduced widely in the agricultural sector. The identification of what these best management practices are for a given cultivation area requires thorough assessment, using indicators that reduce the risk of unintended impacts and that help manage environmental and economic trade-offs. We propose an integrated assessment that includes two indicators in water footprint sustainability assessment: water apparent productivity and ecosystem services value, thereby considering the trade-offs in the two ecosystem services of water provisioning and erosion potential. The approach was tested in Mogí-Guaçú Pardo (Brazil), a basin that has been subjected to intensive land-use changes through the expansion of sugarcane plantations. Here, regulatory changes have also promoted the introduction of the new management practice of mechanised harvesting, thereby phasing out the practice of burning the fields before manual harvest. A probabilistic approach was applied to account for uncertainty in model parameters. The results reveal that sugarcane has a comparably high economic value but is a less efficient land-use type from a water-use perspective. The total green and blue water footprint in the basin increased by 12% from 2000 to 2012, mainly due to the increase in sugarcane area (+36%). The intensification in sugarcane harvesting practices led to improved economic water-use efficiency and also lowered erosion costs. Adding the new indicators and considering trade-offs linked to new management practices and/or land-use changes allow for more robust decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philip D. Morgan, J.R. McNeill, Matthew Mulcahy & Stuart B. Schwartz, I Sea and Land: An Environmental History of the Caribbean i . Sea and Land: An Environmental History of the Caribbean, by Philip D. Morgan, J.R. McNeill, Matthew Mulcahy & Stuart B. Schwartz Natural and manmade disasters, Matthew Mulcahy and Stuart Schwartz explain, were also extremely important. [Extracted from the article]

Gelatin-free capsules are possibly produced through an innovation which involves utilizing environmentally friendly materials derived from plants such as bagasse which are produced into nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). This research was conducted to report the extraction and characterization of NCC from the abundant industrial plantation waste of sugarcane and its application as the base material for gelatin-free capsule shell material. The process involved using different concentrations of NCC at 1%, 2%, 4%, and 7% (in wt. %) with the addition of 1% hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) (in wt. %) and 1% carbopol (in wt. %). Moreover, the NCC capsules obtained from sugarcane bagasse were tested for moisture content, tensile strength, elongation, solubility, and pH. The results showed that sugarcane bagasse contains 40–50% cellulose, 6.15%–9.5% moisture content which indicates they are potentially better in terms of storage, 7.25–7.85 pH, and 0.05–0.136 MPa gel strength, and the elongation value ranges from 7.19 to 87.51%. These values were discovered to have satisfied the standard requirements as indicated by the optimal concentration of 4% NCC +1% HPMC, which is in line with the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS), thereby leading to the consideration of the material safe to be used as raw material in making capsule shells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background. With strong environmental and geographic filtration, vertebrates incapable of flying and swimming are often extirpated from island ecosystems. Minami- Daito Island is an oceanic island in Okinawa, Japan that harbors the Daito flying fox (Pteropus dasymallus daitoensis), a subspecies of the fruit bat and the only extant mammal endemic to the island. However, the skeleton of a cave-dwelling bat Rhinolophus sp. and fossil guano were briefly reported in a previous study. Methods. Here, we present evidence for the anthropogenic extirpation of two species of cave-dwelling bats (Miniopterus sp. & Rhinolophus sp.) from Minami-Daito Island. Our goal is to reliably constrain the ages of the extirpated bat species by a multiproxy approach. Because skeletal materials did not preserve sufficient bone collagen for direct radiocarbon dating, we alternatively examined guano-like deposits based on SEM observation and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) along with stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses for possible indirect dating. We also examined stable carbon isotopes in bone apatite, assuming that an isotopic signal of C4 plants on the bat bones links to sugarcane plantation on the island based on the historical knowledge that early human settlers quickly replaced the island's native C3 forests with sugarcane (C4 perennial grass) plantation from 1900 onward. Results. Our cave survey documents the remains of Miniopterus sp. from the island for the first time. Based on the unique taphonomic conditions (unpermineralized bones, disarticulated skeletons closely scattered without sediment cover, various degrees of calcite crystal growth around bones) and a radiocarbon age of a humic sample, we suggest that the maximum age constraint of Miniopterus sp. and Rhinolophus sp. is 4,640 calBP. Based on a series of analyses, we conclude that the guano-like deposits are composed not of bat guano but mainly of humic substances; however, a hydroxyapatite crust associated with bat-lying stalagmites may be derived from bat feces. Stable carbon isotope analysis of bone apatite revealed C4 signals in various degrees, confirming that small populations of cave-dwelling bats persisted on Minami-Daito Island after 1900. Conclusions. The results of this study indicate that these populations remained rather small and did not leave many generations and that the estimated ages can be bracketed from 4,640 calBP to the post-1900 (perhaps, until the 1950s). They likely faced a continuously high mortality risk due to severe anthropogenic stresses on the island, where most of the forests were turned into sugarcane plantations within a few decades in the early 20th century. A result of hearing surveys to local residents suggests the latest remnants most likely disappeared on the island concurrently with the introduction of chemical pesticides after World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Maple sugar was a multivalent product in the New France. Before the "discovery" of maples by early American boosters like Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Rush, French settlers in Canada had already developed a deep connection to maple sap and its sugary products. Although it failed to enter the world market in the eighteenth century like its cane cousin, maple sugar held intriguing—but ultimately unrealized—possibilities for New France within a mercantilist framework. This natural sweetener also fueled a utopian vision of New France and troubled eighteenth-century French beliefs about their own mastery of knowledge, the environment, technology, and the Indigenous Peoples of North America. This article assesses descriptions of maple sugar in both French texts, such as those by Sieur de Dièreville, Baron de Lahontan, Joseph-François de Lafitau, and Pierre-Xavier de Charlevoix, as well as texts associated with several Indigenous nations of the Great Lakes in order to explore the history of sweetness beyond the sugar plantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poems from Pacific authors in this special issue embody this literary genealogy. Native Pacific Islander poets trace our genealogies to the first peoples who navigated the vast ocean and archipelagoes aboard sea-faring vessels millennia ago. The environment and our relationship to the natural world has always been a central theme in Pacific Islander literature. [Extracted from the article]