Edges have become prevailing habitats, mainly as a result of habitat fragmentation and agricultural expansion. The interchange of functionally relevant organisms like insects occurs through these edges and can influence ecosystem functioning in both crop and non-crop habitats. However, very few studies have focused on the directionality of insect movement through edges, and the role of crop and...

other crops, non-tillage methods to alleviate compaction CROP COVER ROOT CHANNELS MAY problems have not been extensively researched. DeepALLEVIATE SOIL COMPACTION rooted cover crops are one possible solution to compaction problems, especially in no-till farming systems (UnEFFECTS ON SOYBEAN CROP ger and Kaspar, 1994). The deep growing tap roots of the perennial alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), can...

With current trends of converting grasslands to row crop agriculture in vulnerable areas, there is a critical need to evaluate the effects of land use on groundwater quality in large river floodplain systems. In this study, groundwater hydrology and nutrient dynamics associated with three land cover types (grassland, floodplain forest and cropland) were assessed at the Cedar River floodplain in...

Averaged across crop, year and season , residue cover reduction was significantly less for coulter-type applicators than for disk-type applica-tors (P<0.001), disk-type applicators reduced residue cover significantly less than chisel and sweep injectors (P<0.001), and chisel and sweep injec-tors reduced residue cover similar to a tandem disk (P=0.398). Ranges of values to estimate the percentag...

Land management practices affect the long term sustainability of agricultural soils. Growing Forward, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) agricultural policy framework, has identified promoting environmentally responsible agriculture as one of the department’s priorities. Land management information requirements have become increasingly important to a number of programs and policies suppo...

Article history: Received: 05 Feb, 2015 Revised: 23 Mar, 2015 Accepted: 22 Apr, 2015 ePublished: 30 May, 2015

Water deficit significantly limits dryland rainfed fruit production, so increasing water conservation is crucial for improving fruit productivity in arid and semiarid areas. In this study, we tested two treatments in an apple orchard: 1) PC treatment comprising black plastic mulch (BPM) (in-row) with weed control (inter-row); 2) and PGC treatment comprising BPM (in-row) combined with a summer c...

Cover crop mulch and weeds create habitat complexity in agricultural fields that may influence arthropods. Under strip-tillage systems, planting rows are tilled and preestablished cover crops can remain between rows. In field experiments conducted in Michigan in 2010 and 2011, a preestablished oat (Avena sativa L.) cover crop was allowed to grow between rows of strip-tilled cabbage and killed a...

Single and dual crop coefficient methods are used in conjunction with grass reference evapotranspiration (ETo) to estimate actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc). However, the impact of soil surface residue cover on the accuracy of ETc estimated with these methods is not well understood. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the accuracy of the FAO-56 single crop coefficient (sin...

Background: The EU-project Flourish intends to establish an autonomously operating precision farming system based on the interaction between unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). For effective mission planning and site-specific ground intervention by the UGV, the growth, mineral nutrition, weed, and health status of the crop field must be evaluated efficiently. In...