Scutopalus tomentosus sp. nov. is described and illustrated from Plantago tomentosa Lam. (Plantaginaceae) in a vineyard agroecosystem at Dois Lajeados county, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This is the first species of this genus described from the Americas. A key to world species is included.

The impact of agricultural practices and soil management on the communities of arthropods living in the agricultural landscape is acknowledged as a critical issue by the literature, and it needs to be better investigated to improve the ecological sustainability of agriculture. In the present study, we aimed to study how soil management affect carabid species distribution in one of the most typi...

In an earlier paper, the development of 2 simulation models designed to describe the interaction between key elements of the rice agroecosystem and the population dynamics of Psorophora columbiae were presented (Focks et al. 1988a). The objective of the work reported herein was to validate these models with field data. The first model (WaterMod) predicts soil hydrology conditions as a function ...

Taking departure in the theory of resilience in social-ecological systems, we present an analysis and discussion of how resilience theory can be applied to agroecosystems. Building on the premise that agroecosystems are too complex for resilience to be measured in any precise manner, we delineate behavior-based indicators of resilience within agroecosystems. Based on a review of relevant litera...

The past few decades have witnessed an overwhelming increase in the incidence of fungal infections, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. Consequently, zoonotic diseases, especially through rodents constitute a prominent group among the emerging diseases. Rodents are commensal to man and related health risks are common. Water rats (Rattus norvegicus) are typical to Vembanadu-Kol wetlan...

* Paper for the Workshop and Policy Round Table on: California Agroecosystem Services: Assessment, Valuation and Policy Perspectives, University of California at Davis,September, 2007, sponsored by University of California Agricultural Issues Center and California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops ,California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. ** Antle is a Professor in the...

Central gas station of the natural gas borehole system Podravina is located near the village Molve. It delivers more than a quarter of total energy used in Croatia to its consumers. Over the years, adapting technology to increasingly demanding and rigorous standards in environmental protection has become paramount. Yet, despite all the industry has undertaken to address the risk of harmful subs...

Multiple-objective decision making (MODEM) provides an effective framework for integrated resource assessment of agroecosystems. Two elements of integrated assessment are discussed and illustrated: (1) adding noneconomic objectives as constraints in an optimization problem; and (2) evaluating tradeoffs among competing objectives using the efficiency frontier for objectives. These elements are i...