Rice is the staple food in Tamil Nadu and is grown in an area of 2.6 Mha with a production of 8.19 Mt and productivity of 3.2 t/ha. In the context of high water demand by rice farmers, any strategy that would produce higher rice yield with less water is the need of the day. One such system is “System of Rice Intensification” (SRI), which was developed by Fr. Henri de Laulanie in Madagascar in 1...

Analysis of a natural fertility agrarian society with a multi-variate model of population ecology isolates three distinct phases of population growth following settlement of a new habitat: (1) a sometimes lengthy copial phase of surplus food production and constant vital rates; (2) a brief transition phase in which food shortages rapidly cause increased mortality and lessened fertility; and (3)...

BACKGROUND Reliable predictions of regional-scale population connectivity are needed to prioritize conservation actions. However, there have been few examples of regional connectivity models that are empirically derived and validated. The central goals of this paper were to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of factorial least cost path corridor mapping on an empirical resistance surface in reflect...

This study, conducted over four years (2003–2006), compared herbage production, nutritive value of herbage, the length of the grazing season and milk production per cow and per hectare from grassland systems based on (i) white clover (average 219 g/kg of herbage DM) (WC) receiving on average N application of 90 kg/ha (s.d. 6.4) in spring and successive 0.2 of the area over-seeded annually with ...

Background This article looks at the long-term, structural determinants of environmental and public health performance in the world system.   Methods In multiple standard ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models, we tested the effects of 26 standard predictor variables, including the ‘four freedoms’ of goods, capital, labour and services, on the following indicators of sustainable develop...

Pollution of agriculture in ecosystem is due to excessive use mineral fertilizers and discharge livestock manure. Therefore, there a need for disposing manure safely instance by transforming into compost. The traditional composting is, however time consuming with considerable nutrient loss. Vermicomposting new good method, but do far, are few quantitative evaluations vermicomposting. There we c...

Using complementary metrics to evaluate phylogenetic diversity can facilitate the delimitation of floristic units and conservation priority areas. In this study, we describe the spatial patterns of phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity, phylogenetic endemism, and evolutionary distinctiveness of the hyperdiverse Ecuador Amazon forests and define priority areas for conservation. We established a ...

Remote sensing offers a cost efficient means for identifying and monitoring wetlands over a large area and at different moments in time. In this study, we aim at providing ecologically relevant information on characteristics of temporary and permanent isolated open water wetlands, obtained by standard techniques and relatively cheap imagery. The number, surface area, nearest distance, and dynam...

We studied habitat use and ranging patterns of five red howler monkey troops for six months in a lower montane forest in the Colombian Andes. The study area is a mosaic of mature and secondary forest and non-commercial ash, pine and oak plantations that were established as part of a reforestation program. Home ranges (10 ± 3 ha) and daily distances traveled (554 ± 248 m) were similar to those r...

Site index is an important forest inventory attribute that relates productivity and growth expectation of forests over time. In forest inventory programs, site index is used in conjunction with other forest inventory attributes (i.e., height, age) for the estimation of stand volume. In turn, stand volumes are used to estimate biomass (and biomass components) and enable conversion to carbon. In ...