Browsing by Subject "agriculture"

Finnish agriculture has faced radical changes since the mid-20th century due to intensification of agricultural production. These changes have resulted into considerable wildlife habitat loss and degradation of biodiversity. Open ditches and their boundaries are one such habitat. They were widely replaces by subsurface drainage. This thesis aims to understand the role open ditches for agricultural biodiversity; what kinds of plants live the ditch habitat and can ditches enhance agrobiodiversity? To answer these questions we surveyed the vegetation of ditch slopes and ditch banks. Both vegetation composition and species richness were studied. The survey concerns only vegetation, but it is assumed that plant species diversity supports diversity of other groups of organisms. The data was collected in summers 2008 and 2009 in Lepsämä river catchment in Southern Finland in co-operation with MYTVAS (Significance of the Finnish agri-environment support scheme for biodiversity and landscape) -project. Ditch habitat characterization was done by studying the most common species and their indicative values in the data. Also NMS-ordination graph was created. Environmental variables were analyzed too. According to the literature review ditches can have significant role in maintaining agrobiodiversity, and their existence has probably reduced biodiversity loss. However, the vegetation analysis shows that the study area was species-poor and homogenous. Probable explanations are the habitat’s humidity and high levels of nutrients alongside the dominance of few strong weed species. In order to improve ditches as wildlife habitats their quality should be enhanced. For example fertilizer and herbicide drifts should be reduced and ditch banks could be widened. Also tending the ditch habitat by cutting or grazing are highly recommendable methods to enhance biodiversity.

Climate change affects the human habitat and the mechanics that cause this scientific phenomenon are somewhat well known. This study examines how forest policy, agricultural policy and environmental policy can control the mechanisms that cause climate change. The material of the study consists of interviews of 12-13 Finnish experts, each representing one of the previously mentioned sectors. Each of the experts have been asked 13-14 questions about the importance of climate change mitigation, as well as the mechanisms by which agriculture and forests affect the climate and how climate change should be considered in environmental policy. The data was collected between October 8th and November 8th of 2019. This was in five weeks after the IPCC 1,5-degree climate report was published. A series of topics was constructed from the answers, and they are meant to be used as topics to be discussed in the Finnish 2019 parliamentary election. In addition, on how important scientific academics see the control of climate change, they were also asked how critical climate change is. The interview material is stored in the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (www.fsd.uta.fi) The experts’ answers to the importance of controlling climate change were almost unanimous and considered to be highly important. Carbon sink and storage were considered the most effective methods to control climate change. According to the results, the study proposes topics that should be discussed in politics and when a person wants to advance the control of climate change in forest, agriculture and environment politics. Political decisions are often based on value judgement, which again are based on the information of different methods efficacy. The results that are discussed in this study are not the only options, but they give guidelines and reasons for discussions related to effective choices. Forest policies should recognize the effects of forest industry to the development of carbon sink and storage. Forest industries prerequisite for operation and decision making in addition to considering employment and export industry, must also consider the effect for Finland’s net carbon emissions. Activities which lengthen the forest rotation time would have multiple positive benefits and increase forest carbon storage. Agricultural politics should broaden the discussion to reach food politics. Consumption habits have big effect on agricultural production structure and it can be directed by many ways. The structure of agricultural production should also be considered from the emission point of view, because the land use is substantially large and changes in production can affect Finland’s emission in a scale, that would have large effect on our nations net carbon emissions. To strengthen carbon sinks, landowners should have compensation mechanism methods, that increase carbon sinks, and which are combined to the size of the carbon storage. In environmental policy climate change must be paid more attention and governmental boundaries must not intervene significant decision making. The strengthening of the role of Ministry of the Environment and adding co-operation between different ministries supports the decision making regarding environmentally positive issues.

The study was performed to clarify if women consumers´ objective and subjective knowledge and general attitudes to their attitude have effect, and if the attitude to the information desire about the genemodified crops (=GM-crops) has effect. The results could be utilised in the informing about the GM-crops. The about 13 000 members of Marttaliitto ry was chosen as a sample which represents Finnish women consumers. The material was collected as email survey and the female interviewees' answers that were used for analysis came altogether 2 241 pieces. In a multinomial logistic regression analysis the attitude towards the GM-crops (=the GM-attitude) as explanatory variables was obtained, subjective and objective information, general attitudes towards nature, plant breeding and organic food, and confidence to information about the GM-crops given by the journalists, researchers, the European Union and environment organisations. From demographic variables the age and the place of residence explained the GM-attitude. The information desire was explained by the GMattitude. The woman consumer's subjective and objective knowledge and the general attitudes towards nature, plant breeding and organic food affect an attitude towards the GM-crops and the attitude affects an information desire about the GM-crops. In the K-means cluster analysis it was formed based on the GM-attitude, four different women consumer segments: green opponents, green fighters, non-green supporters and acceptors. The green opponents and acceptors wanted to have information about the matter areas concerning GM-crops more than the non-green supporters and the green fighters from the segments. The results can be used as help for the communication when the women consumers informing of the matters which are related to the GM-crops. More information is wanted so there should be it easily available. To maximise the effectiveness of the communication, communication should be focused according to different consumer segments. In the future it would be interesting to know how women consumers will be reacted to the information about the GM-crops if there is information from the desired sources available. Would the women consumers use information and would they be interested in the information for real?

Agricultural systems hold great potential in contributing greenhouse gas mitigation measures globally. Crop diversification, perennial vegetative cover and soil conservational measures are highlighted in order to develop agricultural production in a sustainable way. Increasing climate related public concern has created a demand for sustainable materials for manufacturing industries. Nettle (Urtica dioica) has been proven to hold economic and ecological advantages and great commercial potential. Nettle is a perennial low input crop with multiple end uses within harvest offering an attractive crop for farmers. The crop has been historically used in industrial scale however, current nettle production in agricultural scale is marginal despite its positive characteristics. Research on nettle’s commercial potential has been conducted in various industries. Lack of farmers has left results idle and commercial potential unachieved. This study uses basic management accounting practices in order to find the break-even points and profitability of the production in Finnish conventional farming framework. The production information is gathered from various international projects and is used in order to assess the profitability of nettle production and expand the assessment to evaluate production’s environmental benefits. For a comparison, similar assessment is performed for a conventional crop rotation consisting an oilseed crop, wheat and grass. In the chosen 4-year setting, the nettle production proves more expensive majorly due to first year’s economically non-viable production. Nettle’s low input use during the yield years and predictable long term yield output is likely to reduce unit costs over time. Nettle’s production cost of dry biomass is 0,29 euros per kilogram and break-even price after subsidies is 0,16 euros for a kilogram, similar to wheat. Nettle’s low input use and relatively large, annual 8000kg fresh yields indicate the production could turn profitable with comparably low prices. Environmentally, after the first year nettle creates an annual 1,3 ton carbon sink despite conventional fertilizer use and machinery work done of field.

Exchanges between DOM and POM play an important role in the carbon cycling of freshwater ecosystems. Flocculation is a process where aggregates of DOM are formed and moved from a liquid phase to a solid phase. For colloids to form flocs, the negative surface charge of the present organic colloids needs to be destabilized. This process is generally dependent on salinity, but other compounds affecting the ionic strength of the solution can influence these processes. Gypsum is applied to Finnish fields to reduce the amount of nutrient leaching from agricultural soils. Gypsum treatment effectively reduces the runoff of both particulate and dissolved phosphorus from agricultural fields. Gypsum treatments are performed in areas where the soil contains over 30% clay minerals, making gypsum usage highly relevant in the Archipelago Sea area. This thesis aimed to find out how gypsum additions influence flocculation processes and DOM characteristics of terrestrial organic matter in boreal rivers. The study focused on the implications of gypsum use in waterways from areas with agricultural activities. Three core experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of several variables on flocculation dynamics. This study provides some preliminary insights into the influence of gypsum on biogeochemical processes in rivers. Gypsum additions were found to influence the flocculation processes of terrestrial organic matter in boreal aquatic environments. The most notable effect of gypsum additions was the enhanced floc formation, creating an increased flux of organic material onto the sediment surface. This has potential implications for microbial and benthic food webs, meaning that gypsum use is something that may need to be considered when assessing the impact of agriculture on the biogeochemical processes of waterways. Gypsum additions were also found the influence the characteristics of the remaining DOM pool. With the current knowledge, the positive aspects of gypsum use heavily outweigh the negative ones.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an emerging global health threat with the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) having the alarming potential to return humanity to the pre-antibiotic era. Intensive animal production is globally one of the biggest sectors using antibiotics. It has been studied that fertilizing fields with animal manure spreads antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in natural environments. The aim of this study was to determine the host range of three ARGs tetM, strB and qacE∆1 in soil and manure samples collected from a Finnish swine farm. In addition, the microbial communities in the same soil and manure samples were studied and compared. Six different sample types were taken, four from soil and two from manure. Soil samples included unfertilized soil, fertilized soil, soil two weeks after fertilization and soil six weeks after fertilization. Manure samples were taken from fresh and stored manure. Host range analysis was done by using Emulsion, Paired Isolation and Concatenation PCR (epicPCR). EpicPCR enables to link a gene of interest to the 16S rRNA gene of the bacterium that carries the gene in its genome. Microbial communities in soil and manure were analyzed and compared with the traditional 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Host range analysis with epicPCR revealed various bacterial genera as carriers for studied ARGs. Fertilized soil had the highest number of genera carrying the ARGs. This indicates that land application with animal manure increases the ARG load in soil. Microbial communities were found significantly different in soil and manure according to the 16S rRNA gene sequences. The results of epicPCR indicate that epicPCR has also potential for solid samples such as soil and manure as according to publications it has been mainly used for different water samples e.g., wastewaters. As a method epicPCR still requires optimization if applied for these sample materials in the future. A clear reduction in the number of genera carrying the ARGs was observed in six weeks after fertilization. Therefore, fertilizing fields only before cropping season, instead of fertilizing the fields year-round, might be one solution for reducing the ARG dissemination in soil in countries with high antibiotic consumption.

Agricultural and forest land use is critically affecting and effected by sustainability challenges both globally and in Finland. One way to aid the situation is through increasing the amount and comprehensiveness of rural land valuations. This can be done for instance by expanding the assessments of underrepresented ecosystem services with the help of participatory valuation methods. Albeit utilising existing methods for this purpose would already provide significant help, participatory valuations could be developed even further by applying virtual reality (VR) value elicitation. Although the utilisation of VR as a versatile study tool has been suggested by several authors, the studies and applications are thus far scarce, though slowly increasing. Hence, this thesis sets out to provide new insights into the implementation of VR and its unique benefits over other methods in the specific case of rural land valuations. The method employed in this paper is integrative literature review, as it gives opportunities to combine literature about other valuation methods and VR’s proven effects and reflect these on rural land valuation studies’ findings and stated future needs of this sector. Central findings demonstrate VR’s potential as a value elicitation tool in rural land valuations by virtue of its ability to offer immersive experiences and render almost any kind of environment accessible. Immersion can help in learning and subsequent value formation, consequently changing intent to behave as well as alter actual behaviour. Therefore, the use of VR can affect both stated and observable values and can affect value study results significantly. On the other hand, accessibility allows participation for all kinds of people regardless of limitations relating to knowledge level, or mental or physical capabilities. Hence, VR can grant access to significantly more people to nature areas otherwise rural, unfamiliar, hard to explore, hard or impossible to get to, or that exist in the past and in the future. In sum, by providing opportunities for increased amount and ease of participation, as well as holistic well-informed valuations, VR offers possibilities to support and drive the sustainability transition and transformation of Finnish rural land use sector. Although findings are promising, more research and practical application of VR are needed. Based on the potential of virtual reality in combination of the needs in rural land use sector, this thesis introduces some example scenarios where VR value elicitation could be used and be useful. The premises of all scenarios are rooted in existing studies, as this can help in gaining information on the applicability, as well as comparability of VR to other established value eliciting methods. This aims to enhance the robustness of VR as a study tool, as robustness can be seen as one of the weak points of VR value elicitation currently.