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17 pages, 1502 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Care Ethics, Bruno Latour, and the Anthropocene

by Michael Flower and Maurice Hamington

Philosophies 2022, 7(2), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7020031 - 14 Mar 2022

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 10265

Bruno Latour is one of the founding figures in social network theory and a broadly influential systems thinker. Although his work has always been relational, little scholarship has engaged the relational morality, ontology, and epistemology of feminist care ethics with Latour’s actor–network theory. This article is intended as a translation and a prompt to spur further interactions. Latour’s recent publications, in particular, have focused on the new climate regime of the Anthropocene. Care theorists are just beginning to address posthuman approaches to care. The argument here is that Latourian analysis is helpful for such explorations, given that caring for the earth and its inhabitants is the dire moral challenge of our time. The aim here is not to characterize Latour as a care theorist but rather as a provocative scholar who has much to say that is significant to care thinking. We begin with a brief introduction to Latour’s scholarship and lexicon, followed by a discussion of care theorist Puig de la Bellacasa’s work on Latour. We then explore recent work on care and the environment consistent with a Latourian approach. The conclusion reinforces the notion that valuing relationality across humans and non-human matter is essential to confronting the Anthropocene. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feminist Care Ethics Confronts Mainstream Philosophy)

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18 pages, 3405 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Capability and Potential of LiDAR for Weed Detection

by Nooshin Shahbazi, Michael B. Ashworth, J. Nikolaus Callow, Ajmal Mian, Hugh J. Beckie, Stuart Speidel, Elliot Nicholls and Ken C. Flower

Sensors 2021, 21(7), 2328; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21072328 - 26 Mar 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4420

Abstract

Conventional methods of uniformly spraying fields to combat weeds, requires large herbicide inputs at significant cost with impacts on the environment. More focused weed control methods such as site-specific weed management (SSWM) have become popular but require methods to identify weed locations. Advances in technology allows the potential for automated methods such as drone, but also ground-based sensors for detecting and mapping weeds. In this study, the capability of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors were assessed to detect and locate weeds. For this purpose, two trials were performed using artificial targets (representing weeds) at different heights and diameter to understand the detection limits of a LiDAR. The results showed the detectability of the target at different scanning distances from the LiDAR was directly influenced by the size of the target and its orientation toward the LiDAR. A third trial was performed in a wheat plot where the LiDAR was used to scan different weed species at various heights above the crop canopy, to verify the capacity of the stationary LiDAR to detect weeds in a field situation. The results showed that 100% of weeds in the wheat plot were detected by the LiDAR, based on their height differences with the crop canopy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)

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15 pages, 457 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Farming without Glyphosate?

by Hugh J. Beckie, Ken C. Flower and Michael B. Ashworth

Plants 2020, 9(1), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9010096 - 11 Jan 2020

Cited by 95 | Viewed by 15659

Abstract

Recent statements from scientific organisations and court decisions have resulted in widespread public interest and concern over the safety of glyphosate, the most popular and effective herbicide used worldwide. Consequently, glyphosate-based products are under intense scrutiny from governments at all levels. Some jurisdictions have already banned or restricted its use, which will adversely impact international trade in bulk grain commmodities if glyphosate residues are detected. The possibility of farming without glyphosate is becoming an important issue facing the agri-food research and development sector. Contingency plans need to be formulated if that scenario becomes a reality. In this review, we briefly summarize international events that have led to this possible situation, describe current glyphosate usage in major agronomic field crops worldwide, outline possible alternatives to glyphosate in two agroregions and perform bioeconomic model scenarios of southern Australian broadacre cropping systems without the herbicide. Model predictions suggest that we can farm profitably without glyphosate by consistently utilizing key non-herbicidal weed management practices combined with robust pre-emergence soil residual herbicide treatments. However, maintaining low weed seed banks will be challenging. If the social license to use glyphosate is revoked, what other pesticides will soon follow? Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2019 Feature Papers by Plants’ Editorial Board Members)

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13 pages, 1641 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Herbicide Resistance Management: Recent Developments and Trends

by Hugh J. Beckie, Michael B. Ashworth and Ken C. Flower

Plants 2019, 8(6), 161; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8060161 - 8 Jun 2019

Cited by 114 | Viewed by 13141

Abstract

This review covers recent developments and trends in herbicide-resistant (HR) weed management in agronomic field crops. In countries where input-intensive agriculture is practiced, these developments and trends over the past decade include renewed efforts by the agrichemical industry in herbicide discovery, cultivation of crops with combined (stacked) HR traits, increasing reliance on preemergence vs. postemergence herbicides, breeding for weed-competitive crop cultivars, expansion of harvest weed seed control practices, and advances in site-specific or precision weed management. The unifying framework or strategy underlying these developments and trends is mitigation of viable weed seeds into the soil seed bank and maintaining low weed seed banks to minimize population proliferation, evolution of resistance to additional herbicidal sites of action, and spread. A key question going forward is: how much weed control is enough to consistently achieve the goal of low weed seed banks? The vision for future HR weed management programs must be sustained crop production and profitability with reduced herbicide (particularly glyphosate) dependency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Herbicide Resistance in Plants)

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16 pages, 19835 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evidence of Ash Tree (Fraxinus spp.) Specific Associations with Soil Bacterial Community Structure and Functional Capacity

by Michael P. Ricketts, Charles E. Flower, Kathleen S. Knight and Miquel A. Gonzalez-Meler

Forests 2018, 9(4), 187; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9040187 - 5 Apr 2018

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6140

Abstract

The spread of the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB) across North America has had enormous impacts on temperate forest ecosystems. The selective removal of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) has resulted in abnormally large inputs of coarse woody debris and altered forest tree community composition, ultimately affecting a variety of ecosystem processes. The goal of this study was to determine if the presence of ash trees influences soil bacterial communities and/or functions to better understand the impacts of EAB on forest successional dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of soil DNA collected from ash and non-ash plots in central Ohio during the early stages of EAB infestation, we found that bacterial communities in plots with ash differed from those without ash. These differences were largely driven by Acidobacteria, which had a greater relative abundance in non-ash plots. Functional genes required for sulfur cycling, phosphorus cycling, and carbohydrate metabolism (specifically those which breakdown complex sugars to glucose) were estimated to be more abundant in non-ash plots, while nitrogen cycling gene abundance did not differ. This ash-soil microbiome association implies that EAB-induced ash decline may promote belowground successional shifts, altering carbon and nutrient cycling and changing soil properties beyond the effects of litter additions caused by ash mortality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding and Managing Emerald Ash Borer Impacts on Ash Forests)

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