The 2022 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: towards a climate resilient future.
In the past few decades, major public health advances have happened in Europe, with drastic decreases in premature mortality and a life expectancy increase of almost 9 years since 1980. European countries have some of the best health-care systems in the world. However, Europe is challenged with unprecedented and overlapping crises that are detrimental to […]
COP27 establishes loss and damage fund to respond to human cost of climate change.
Deal on compensation for climate impacts represents major milestone for climate justice. The 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) has ended with an historic deal to create a new fund, in which countries responsible for high carbon emissions will compensate vulnerable countries suffering from climate impacts. “Creating the loss and damage fund is a first, […]
The State of Food and Agriculture 2022. Leveraging automation in agriculture for transforming agrifood systems
Automation has been shaping world agriculture since the early twentieth century. Motorized mechanization has brought significant benefits in terms of improved productivity, reduced drudgery and more efficient allocation of labour, but also some negative environmental impacts. More recently, a new generation of digital agricultural automation technologies has appeared, with the potential to further enhance productivity, […]
Forest-based adaptation: transformational adaptation through forests and trees.
Forest-based adaptation is an ensemble of climate actions that employ forests and trees in support of climate change adaptation and resilience, including sustainable forest management, forest conservation and restoration, reforestation and afforestation. Forest-based adaptation can help address the gaps between current adaptation actions and the adaptation needed for reducing climate-related risks and impacts, while contributing […]
Water provisioning increases caged worker bee lifespan and caged worker bees are living half as long as observed 50 years ago.
The high loss rates of honey bee colonies drive research for solutions aimed to mitigate these losses. While honey bee colonies are superorganisms, experiments that measure the response to stressors often use caged individuals to allow for inference in a controlled setting. In an initial experiment, we showed that caged honey bees provisioned with various […]
Use of Hazelnut Perisperm as an Antioxidant for Production of Sustainable Biodegradable Active Films.
Utilization of food-waste-derived bioactive compounds with biodegradable polymers is an attractive strategy leading innovation in the food packaging sector and contributing to reduce the environmental concerns of plastic packaging disposal. In this field, this work is aimed to use hazelnut perisperm as an antioxidant agent in the production of biodegradable polymeric films for active packaging […]
Developing sustainable land-use patterns at watershed scale using nexus of soil, water, energy, and food.
Aside from the many services that soil provides, it also stores water and makes it available to crops, which is critical for food security. However, the necessity of further studies for overcoming the existing gap in relation to the role of soil in the water, energy, and food nexus system has been preoccupying the experts […]
The effect of nut growth limitation on triose phosphate utilization and down-regulation of photosynthesis in almond.
There is a controversy regarding when it is appropriate to apply the irrigation restriction in almond trees (Prunus dulcis Mill.) to save water without penalizing yield. We hypothesized that knowing when plants demand fewer photoassimilates would be a good indicator of less sensitivity of the crop to water deficit. One parameter that defines the photosynthetic […]
Grazing with trees – A silvopastoral approach to managing and restoring drylands
Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide key ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits and, regulation of soil and water cycles. Equally, the presence of livestock in dryland woody areas can also play an important role in the local ecosystem; not only are they a source of income for local communities, but […]
Halting deforestation from agricultural value chains: the role of governments.
This paper summarizes the current state of concepts and approaches for addressing deforestation in the trade, marketing, and production of agricultural commodities that have a disproportionate impact on forests at international, national, and landscape level. To date, predominant attention has been directed towards the role of the private sector and “consumer countries” that shape market […]