Browsing by Subject "agriculture"

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.

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.