Sanz-Cobena, A., García-Marco, S., Quemada, M., Gabriel, J. L., Almendros, P., & Vallejo, A. (2014). Do cover crops enhance N2O, CO2 or CH4 emissions from soil in Mediterranean arable systems? Science of the Total Environment, 466-467, 164–174.
Abstract: This study evaluates the effect of planting three cover crops (CCs) (barley, Hordeum vulgare L.; vetch, Vicia villosa L.; rape, Brassica napus L.) on the direct emission of N(2)O, CO(2) and CH(4) in the intercrop period and the impact of incorporating these CCs on the emission of greenhouse gas (GHG) from the forthcoming irrigated maize (Zea mays L.) crop. Vetch and barley were the CCs with the highest N(2)O and CO(2) losses (75 and 47% increase compared with the control, respectively) in the fallow period. In all cases, fluxes of N(2)O were increased through N fertilization and the incorporation of barley and rape residues (40 and 17% increase, respectively). The combination of a high C:N ratio with the addition of an external source of mineral N increased the fluxes of N(2)O compared with -Ba and -Rp. The direct emissions of N(2)O were lower than expected for a fertilized crop (0.10% emission factor, EF) compared with other studies and the IPCC EF. These results are believed to be associated with a decreased NO(3)(-) pool due to highly denitrifying conditions and increased drainage. The fluxes of CO(2) were in the range of other fertilized crops (i.e., 1118.71-1736.52 kg CO(2)-Cha(-1)). The incorporation of CC residues enhanced soil respiration in the range of 21-28% for barley and rape although no significant differences between treatments were detected. Negative CH(4) fluxes were measured and displayed an overall sink effect for all incorporated CC (mean values of -0.12 and -0.10 kg CH(4)-Cha(-1) for plots with and without incorporated CCs, respectively).
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Bartley, D. (2014). Do modellers dream of electric sheep? – Practical to mathematical and back again. FACCE MACSUR Mid-term Scientific Conference, 3(S) Sassari, Italy.
Abstract: Disease agents, whether viral, bacterial or parasitic, infecting grazing domestic animals represent a significant threat to livestock health and welfare and to food security, globally. In addition, inefficiency in production due to sub-clinical disease adds significantly to a farm’s environmental footprint. Projected climatic changes over the short-medium term have implications for livestock pests and pathogens, both directly and indirectly, and will result in changing disease patterns e.g. incidence, seasonality and geographic spread. An area where interdisciplinary collaboration is mutually beneficial, and essential in order to gain a better understanding of the interactions between climatic change, pathogen dissemination and livestock productivity is between ‘fundamental’ or ‘practical’ livestock researchers and modellers. To facilitate this collaboration, there needs to be a dialogue between both parties on the data depth, quality and format required to populate different models to ensure relevant and appropriate outputs. An example of where this type of collaboration has been used is work using an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-compliant model (CPLANv2) to calculate greenhouse gases (GHG) associated with fattening lambs over five consecutive grazing seasons. The results demonstrated that effective control of sub-clinical/clinical parasitic gastroenteritis resulted in a ~10% reduction in GHG emissions/kg live weight gain (Kenyon et al., 2013).
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Kersebaum, C., Nendel, C., & Rötter, R. P. (2013). Documentation of temperature algorithms in the models HERMES, MONICA and WOFOST..
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Hutchings, N., Weindl, I., Topp, C. F. E., Snow, V. O., Rotz, A., Raynal, H., et al. (2017). Does collaborative farm-scale modelling address current challenges and future opportunities (Vol. 10).
Abstract: Resources required increasing, resources available decreasing Farm-scale modellers will need to make strategic decisions Single-owner models May continue with additional resources Risk of ‘succession’ problem Community modelling is an alternative Need to continue building a community of farm modellers
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Milford, A. B., Le Mouel, C., Bodirsky, B. L., & Rolinski, S. (2019). Drivers of meat consumption. Appetite, 141, Unsp 104313.
Abstract: Increasing global levels of meat consumption are a threat to the environment and to human health. To identify measures that may change consumption patterns towards more plant-based foods, it is necessary to improve our understanding of the causes behind the demand for meat. In this paper we use data from 137 different countries to identify and assess factors that influence meat consumption at the national level using a cross-country multivariate regression analysis. We specify either total meat or ruminant meat as the dependent variable and we consider a broad range of potential drivers of meat consumption. The combination of explanatory variables we use is new for this type of analysis. In addition, we estimate the relative importance of the different drivers. We find that income per capita followed by rate of urbanisation are the two most important drivers of total meat consumption per capita. Income per capita and natural endowment factors are major drivers of ruminant meat consumption per capita. Other drivers are Western culture, Muslim religion, female labour participation, economic and social globalisation and meat prices. The main identified drivers of meat demand are difficult to influence through direct policy intervention. Thus, acting indirectly on consumers’ preferences and consumption habits (for instance through information, education policy and increased availability of ready-made plant based products) could be of key importance for mitigating the rise of meat consumption per capita all over the world.
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