Search Results (1,389)

The increasing consumption of fresh organic produce has given rise to concerns regarding the microbiological safety of minimally processed foods. Organic cultivation may be associated with increased exposure to environmental microorganisms due to soil-based inputs and reduced chemical interventions, including both beneficial taxa and potential foodborne pathogens. Fresh produce is known to harbour complex microbial ecosystems, which are shaped by farming practices, plant physiology, handling, packaging and storage, particularly in raw-consumed products such as leafy greens and strawberries. In this study, bacterial (16S rRNA) and eukaryotic (18S rRNA) communities were characterized by amplicon sequencing. In parallel, an amoeba-associated bacterial microbiome was analyzed and DVC-FISH was used to assess the viability and metabolic activity of pathogenic bacteria internalized within free-living amoebae (FLA). No significant differences in alpha or beta diversity were observed between organic and conventional products, suggesting microbiome convergence at the retail stage driven by post-harvest handling and processing. Potentially pathogenic genera, including Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, and Acinetobacter (bacterial), as well as Tilletiopsis, Candida, and Naegleria (eukaryotic), were identified in both organic and non-organic microbiomes. The viability of FLA-internalized Pseudomonas spp. was confirmed by DVC-FISH, demonstrating that FLA act as reservoirs, enhancing pathogen persistence in fresh produce. This integrated assessment of organic and conventional fruits and vegetables at the retail stage highlights the importance of post-harvest handling and retail conditions in shaping microbiological safety. The integration of microbiome profiling with targeted viability analyses demonstrates that downstream stages are critical control points for food safety and consumer exposure, beyond the influence of the production system alone. Full article

Background: While traditional pasture-based systems offer sheep natural living conditions and freedom, barn farming provides greater environmental control and protection. The choice of farming system is a crucial factor directly affecting the physical and mental health of the animals. Aim: This study evaluated welfare indicators and parasite prevalence in different sheep management systems, examining the impact of parasitic infections on ewe welfare. Methods: Conducted from November 2025 to April 2026 across 26 farms (13 confined and 13 pasture), the study individually assessed a sample of 1192 ewes aged 2–7 years. Animal-based welfare indicators were assessed using the AWIN protocol for sheep, while parasitic infections were determined from fecal sampling. Results: The results revealed significant differences (p < 0.001) between the systems. Pasture farms showed a higher prevalence of soiled fleece (60.14%), skin lesions, ocular and nasal discharge (6.35%; 31.22%), respiratory issues (16.75%), fecal soiling (16.23%), borderline anemia (16.23%), and excessive itching (16.23%). In contrast, confined systems exhibited higher prevalence of fleece loss (36.00%), hoof overgrowth (20.96%), udder asymmetry (1.44%), and wool pulling (8.32%). Identified parasites included Eimeria spp., gastrointestinal strongyles, Trichuris ovis, Dictyocaulus filarial, Muellerius capillaris, Protostrongylus rufescens, Moniezia spp., Dicrocoelium dendriticum, Fasciola hepatica, Paramphistomum spp., and Giardia intestinalis. Significant correlations (p < 0.001) were found between certain welfare indicators and parasite infections in confined systems, such as between thin body condition score and Eimeria spp., and between fleece quality and fecal soiling with gastrointestinal strongyles, while in pasture systems, thin BCS, nasal discharge, and respiration quality correlated with Muellerius capillaris, borderline anemia with Trichuris ovis and Dictyocaulus filaria, and fecal soiling with Eimeria spp. and Dicrocoelium dendriticum. Conclusions: This data underscores the critical need to improve ewe welfare and implement targeted parasite control strategies in both farming systems. Full article

Ants, plants, and hemipterans in tritrophic mutualisms represent closer approximations to real ecosystems compared to twofold mutualisms, playing a critical role in ecosystem functioning. Although habitat degradation is a useful framework for investigating the stability of mutualisms, few studies have focused on such mutualistic interactions in degraded grassland. In this study, we conducted both a field and a greenhouse experiment to assess the effect of grassland degradation on the organization of ant–plant networks and ant-hemipteran-plant tritrophic interactions in the light and severely degraded grassland of Songnen Plain, China. In general, we found that severe degradation of grassland changed the spatial distribution pattern of ant–plant networks from uniform to aggregation and increased the species diversity within these networks and facilitated the Lasius flavus-aphid/mealybugs-Artemisia scoparia tritrophic mutualisms. L. flavus improves individual plant performance by increasing plant height, reducing soil moisture content, and facilitating seed transportation of A. scoparia. These advantages enhance plant fitness and population spread of A. scoparia, consequently boosting its dominance within degraded grassland habitats. In turn, the well-developed root of A. scoparia attracted more L. flavus and aphid/mealybugs by providing living space and food. Our findings enhance the understanding of tritrophic mutualisms and their mechanisms in the context of grassland degradation, thus providing valuable information for the conservation, management, and restoration of degraded grassland. Full article

Long-term intensive farming has degraded the structural stability of black soil in Northeast China. This study evaluated the effects of fermentation-derived materials and fungal-derived chitin on water-stable aggregates and microbial functional potential in this soil. Four treatments were established: sterile water control (CK), uninoculated fermentation broth substrate (W), live Trichoderma asperellum fermentation broth (P), and cell-free fermentation filtrate (F). Aggregate stability was monitored during a 60-day incubation, and metagenomic sequencing was performed on the most responsive 0.5–0.25 mm dry-sieved fraction. An exogenous chitin addition experiment was also conducted to evaluate the potential contribution of fungal cell-wall-derived chitin to aggregate stabilisation. The W, P, and F treatments increased the proportion of water-stable aggregates >0.25 mm, mean weight diameter, and geometric mean diameter, while decreasing fractal dimension. Among the treatments, the uninoculated fermentation broth substrate showed the strongest effect, particularly in the 0.5–0.25 mm dry-sieved fraction. Metagenomic analysis showed that the uninoculated fermentation broth substrate altered microbial community composition, changed the relative abundances of taxa such as Sphingomonas sediminicola, Priestia megaterium, and Trichoderma asperellum, and increased the relative abundance of carbohydrate-active enzyme-related genes, including those encoding glycosyltransferases, carbohydrate esterases, and glycoside hydrolases. Chitin addition also improved aggregate stability and altered microbial community structure. These findings suggest that the uninoculated fermentation broth substrate and fungal-derived chitin improved black soil aggregate stability, potentially through shifts in microbial community composition and carbohydrate-related functional potential. This study provides a scientific basis for using fermentation-derived materials to improve the structure of degraded black soil. Full article

Arsenic represents a ubiquitous element in the environment, characterized by high mobility, complex chemical speciation and a strong sensitivity to redox conditions and biological activity, with microbial processes play a central role in its biogeochemical cycling. The present review provides a comprehensive and integrative synthesis of arsenic biogeochemical cycling across terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, in which chemical speciation is explicitly treated as the central unifying concept controlling arsenic mobility, transformation and bioavailability, linking geological, chemical and biological processes across environmental compartments. Natural processes regulating arsenic distribution are examined from mineralogical sources and soil–water interactions to biologically mediated transformations in aquatic and marine biotic compartments, largely driven by microbial activity, highlighting the contrast between inorganic arsenic dominance in abiotic reservoirs and the prevalence of organoarsenicals in tissues of living organisms. The review further explores arsenic behaviour under natural environmental alterations and in extreme or unconventional ecosystems, where redox constraints, sulphide chemistry or intense fluid–sediment exchanges lead to deviations from the baseline speciation patterns. Against this framework, anthropogenic perturbations are discussed through several documented case studies, illustrating how industrial releases, the long-term effects of mining activities, agricultural practices and the use of synthetic arsenical compounds may change arsenic pathways primarily by altering geochemical and biological controls rather than through a generalized increase in total arsenic content. Overall, the topics covered provide an integrated framework for interpreting arsenic dynamics across environmental systems, emphasizing the complex biogeochemical processes governing arsenic cycling. Full article

This paper proposes a prototype-level hierarchical visual–sensor framework for monitoring the Zamioculcas houseplant in complex indoor environments and supporting adaptive care-mode selection. The proposed framework combines a two-level visual pipeline, consisting of YOLO-based target plant detection and MobileViT-S-based leaf-condition classification, with a Plant Health Index (PHI) and a rule-based decision-support module for integrating visual and IoT-derived indicators. For the detection task, YOLOv8, YOLO12, and YOLO26 were compared, with YOLO26 showing the most balanced performance among the evaluated implementations. To improve robustness in real indoor scenes, negative training samples were added; this reduced the image-level false alarm rate on an independent negative-scene test set from 50.7% to 10.0% and increased specificity from 49.3% to 90.0%. For the second visual level, MobileViT-S achieved an accuracy of 0.9857 and an F1-score of 0.9857 on the independent cropped leaf test subset. To reduce the dependence of this result on a single data split, an additional 5-fold cross-validation experiment was conducted on the full cropped leaf dataset of 847 images, resulting in an accuracy of 0.9858 ± 0.0068 and an F1-score of 0.9853 ± 0.0070. To further address plant-level generalization, an additional unseen-plant validation subset of 60 newly collected cropped leaf images was evaluated, and MobileViT-S achieved an accuracy of 0.9500 and an F1-score of 0.9499. These results support the stability of the leaf-condition classifier within the available data, although larger external validation with strict plant-level and session-level separation remains necessary. In addition, an Arduino-based module-level validation was conducted using a capacitive soil-moisture sensor to verify the proposed sensor-based and Vision–IoT decision rules. The experiment demonstrated that the rule-based layer can distinguish dry, normal, and wet soil states and select conservative care actions depending on both soil moisture and visual-condition input. A brief real-time camera–sensor communication test further confirmed that live camera input, Arduino-based soil-moisture sensing, PHI computation, and care-mode selection can be connected within one decision-support pipeline. The proposed PHI and care-mode selection module are therefore presented as a formalized decision-support layer rather than as a fully validated autonomous irrigation system. Further calibration, actuator integration, and closed-loop validation remain necessary before practical autonomous deployment. Full article

Large civil infrastructures, including high-rise buildings, bridges, offshore platforms, transmission towers, tall chimneys, basements below the water table, etc., are often supported on pile foundations. Apart from the usual dead loads and live loads imposed by superstructures, these piles are often subjected to significant uplift forces due to overturning moments or hydrostatic pressure resulting from the effects of wind and wave loading, traffic movement, buoyancy, etc. Piles that withstand tensile loads are termed tension piles. Since the soil is unable to resist tensile stress, the pullout loads imposed on tension piles are prevented primarily by downward skin friction at the pile–soil interface, as well as by the self-weight of the piles. In this paper, a numerical model was developed using boundary element analysis, wherein piles were assumed to be made of an elastic–perfectly plastic material, and the soil was modeled using a parabolic model. The developed model was validated with available experimental results, and acceptable agreement was found. An in-depth study by detailed parametric analysis revealed that the parabolic soil model yielded satisfactory results. Extensive full-scale case studies were also performed to study the influence of various factors on tension pile performance. A set of important conclusions was drawn from the entire work. Full article

Soil surface moisture (SSM) is a critical indicator of agricultural drought, yet high-resolution projections under climate change remain scarce. This study develops a machine learning framework to predict and project SSM at 1 km resolution across five European Living Labs (LLs), encompassing vineyards, olive groves, and fruit tree systems. Historical Sentinel-1 SSM observations (2014–2024) were used to train ensemble models (Random Forest, XGBoost, ExtraTrees, LightGBM) incorporating climate variables, soil texture, topography, and land use. Tree-based models achieved R² values of 0.63–0.87. Vineyards showed the highest predictability (R² ≈ 0.87), reflecting their sensitivity to short-term atmospheric demand and surface water availability, whereas olive groves were the least predictable (R² ≈ 0.63–0.68), consistent with deeper rooting systems and greater drought buffering capacity. When forced with bias-corrected CMIP6 projections under SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5 for 2041–2070, models indicate minimal changes under SSP1-2.6 but pronounced SSM declines of 8–24% under SSP5-8.5, with historically wetter regions experiencing the largest absolute losses. SHAP analysis confirmed precipitation and potential evapotranspiration as dominant predictors across all crops. This framework provides spatially explicit, crop-relevant SSM projections to support climate adaptation in European agricultural landscapes. Full article

Bottom-up approaches to climate resilience are increasingly promoted, yet there remains a gap in understanding how science-society connections can be operationalized in everyday contexts to support adaptive land-use practices, particularly in small towns and peripheral regions. This paper addresses this gap by examining how Living Labs (LLs) can function as process-oriented interfaces between scientific knowledge, local experience, and participatory negotiation, rather than as instruments for producing novel biophysical and social-learning insights. Drawing on selected case studies from the Biodiversity Hub and the Department for Building and Environment at the University for Continuing Education Krems (Austria), the study applies a qualitative, transdisciplinary Living Lab approach combining regular shared site walks, emotional communication, and cross-sectoral ecosystem services assessment matrices (aligned with established classifications and quantitative data collection). Resilience is grounded in the literature as a social–ecological capacity for adaptation and transformation and is operationalized pragmatically as the strengthening of connectedness between people, place, and ecological processes. The key findings show that short, place-based, and experiential interactions—such as shared walks and co-creative ecosystem service assessments—can lower participation barriers, mitigate power asymmetries, and enable rapid integration of scientific perspectives into everyday land-use decision-making. Rather than producing directly replicable outcomes, Living Labs generate transferable process principles, including emotional correspondence, structured negotiation, and the use of simple boundary tools to support collective learning and action. The paper contributes to resilience and land-system research by demonstrating how Living Labs can enhance local adaptive capacity and climate resilience through process design, immediate feedback, and continuous experimentation. It thereby complements conventional, indicator-driven assessments by illustrating how resilience can be enacted through participatory, place-based governance practices, offering practical guidance for municipalities and regions facing climate-related risks such as heat stress, drought, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and increasing pressures on the secure provision of food, materials, and drinking water. Full article

This article interrogates the ontological paradox of Jordan’s abandoned vernacular villages (kirbeh), which persist as “villages of two times”—simultaneously abandoned yet present for nearby communities. Existing heritage frameworks, focused on material authenticity and physical integrity, cannot fully account for places that endure through absence rather than preservation. In response, we propose a biaxial ontological framework that explains how fragmentation generates new significance over time—a process conventional fragmentation theory overlooks because it treats breakage as loss rather than as what we term “productive fragmentation.” Specifically, the biaxial framework reveals that as material fragments decay and disperse (horizontal axis), they simultaneously acquire temporal depth and existential meaning (vertical axis). This dual process, which we term “productive fragmentation,” is the paper’s core contribution. Drawing on twenty-four semi-structured interviews across five villages, the study advances this biaxial framework by fusing fragmentation theory with concepts of deep urbanity, generative decay, time rupture, and existential displacement. The key finding is that disintegration generates new significance: fragments become more, not less, meaningful as they decay. The framework distinguishes a horizontal axis (spatial dispersal as collage and palimpsest) from a vertical axis (coexistence of multiple temporalities and anchoring of identity across generations). The implication is a paradigm shift: abandoned vernacular heritage embodies a distinct form of life—lived in the enduring presence of absence. By this phrase, we mean that community members experience the abandoned village not as a dead past but as an active presence—through memories, return visits, stories, and portable fragments like soil or keys—even as its material fabric decays. Absence here is not emptiness but a different mode of being present. Full article

Rice straw mulching is a soil management practice that influences soil microbial communities. However, its effects on nematode communities under upland rice systems in salt-affected soils remain unclear. This study examined nematode community responses to rice straw mulching at rates of 0, 3.5, 7.0, and 10.5 t ha⁻¹ in paddy fields at two sites, Lieu Tu and Long Phu, in Soc Trang Province, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A total of 37 and 35 nematode genera were identified in Lieu Tu and Long Phu, respectively. Bacterivores were the dominant group, followed by herbivores. Acrobeloides, Hirschmanniella, Chronogaster, Aporcelaimellus, and Prismatolaimus were prevalent in Long Phu, while Acrobeloides, Prismatolaimus, Hirschmanniella, and Alaimus dominated in Lieu Tu. The highest mulching rate (10.5 t ha⁻¹) increased total nematode abundance, particularly cp1 and cp2 groups in Long Phu, while the application of 7.0 t ha⁻¹ increased the proportion of omnivorous feeders in Lieu Tu. Mulching increased total nematode biomass and metabolic footprints, indicating improved soil fertility. At Long Phu, mulching also increased biodiversity, as reflected by the higher species richness and Shannon–Wiener indices. The highest mulching application rate (10.5 t ha⁻¹) increased the relative abundance of cp2 functional guilds at both sites. Mulching reduced the relative abundance of plant-parasitic nematodes at both sites, and increased cowpea yield from 5.1 to 13.9 t ha⁻¹ and 5.67 to 9.70 t ha⁻¹ at Lieu Tu and Long Phu, respectively. These findings suggest that the rice straw mulching at 10.5 t ha⁻¹ improves soil structure and nematode diversity, thereby supporting agricultural sustainability in salt-affected soils under climate change conditions. Full article

Understanding how P availability affects root turnover and P redistribution within plants is essential for optimizing fertilization strategies and sustaining forest growth under low-P soils. This study evaluated the effects of P fertilization on root system dynamics, plant growth, and P nutrition of Handroanthus heptaphyllus, a flowering landscape tree, cultivated in a subtropical climate. Plants were grown under two soil P levels (low and high). Plant height, stem diameter, leaf P concentration, soil P availability, total numbers of living and dead fine roots, total fine root surface area, and fine root production rate were measured at 18, 24, 30, and 36 months after planting. Phosphate fertilization increased soil P availability during the first 24 months and resulted in significant gains in plant height, stem diameter, fine root production, total surface area, and the ratio between living and dead fine roots, indicating a higher proportion of living roots relative to dead ones. Under high P availability, the greatest fine root production and surface area of living fine roots occurred in the 0–20 cm soil layer, reflecting localized P application near the plants. High P availability enhanced root system development, promoted greater soil exploration, and improved P uptake. These results indicate that under P supplementation, plants strategically invest in root growth, improving nutrient acquisition efficiency and reducing dependence on external inputs. Increased phosphorus availability enhances root growth and increases fine root production and turnover. Minirhizotron monitoring effectively captured shifts in root system dynamics driven by P availability, including enhanced root growth, increased fine root production and turnover, and improved nutrient uptake under high P, as well as limited root activity under low P conditions, indicating a more conservative strategy with reduced investment in root production. Full article

Plant genotypes can vary in multiple functional traits due to adaptation to heterogenous environments. However, whether such variation can extrapolate to effects on soils and further on performance of subsequent plants, thus generating a genotypic variation in soil legacy, remains unclear. In this study, we studied how plant genotypic variation impacts soil legacy when exposed to aboveground insect herbivores. We used 11 wild genotypes of woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) experimentally exposed to leaf beetles (Galerucella tenella) to condition live soil. We then replaced the conditioning plants with naïve plants to examine soil legacy effects on growth and resistance on the subsequent plant genotype (referred to as the focal genotype) against the generalist herbivore Spodoptera littoralis. This allowed us to test the extent to which plant genotypic variation in soil legacy is altered by aboveground herbivory. We found an overall positive soil legacy effect of woodland strawberry, indicated by 69.9% higher belowground biomass of the subsequent focal genotype grown in conditioned soil compared to in unconditioned soil. We also observed a genotype-dependent soil legacy effect on performance of S. littoralis indicated as relative growth rates reduced by 37.9% on the subsequent focal genotype in soil conditioned by the focal genotype itself compared to by other genotypes, though the legacy effect was cancelled out when conditioning genotypes were exposed to G. tenella herbivory. A genotypic variation was further detected in soil legacy on the efficiency of conversion of ingested food by S. littoralis caterpillars feeding on the focal genotype. However, the genotypic variation was only present when the focal genotype was excluded from the conditioning genotypes at the exposure of G. tenella herbivory. Collectively, our study shows a conditional plant genotype-dependent soil legacy effect on herbivore resistance (measured as herbivore performance) rather than on plant growth, and the magnitude of the legacy effects depends on both the identity of the conditioning genotypes and the measures of the herbivore resistance. The findings of this study provide new insights into how plant genotypes or herbivory affects soil feedback on plant growth and herbivore resistance. Full article

The espinal agroforestry system is a valuable grazing resource for sheep and cattle in the Mediterranean region of central Chile. It is characterized by a woody stratum dominated by Vachellia caven and an herbaceous grassland stratum that together provide important ecological services. Despite its relevance for extensive livestock production, ongoing land-use change threatens the integrity of the espinal agroforestry system, underscoring the need for sustainable management strategies to enhance productivity. This study assessed the long-term impacts of improved management practices in a representative espinal agroforestry system, including annual fertilization, supplementary cereal crop integration, and progressive increases in stocking rate, on plant diversity and soil carbon storage in Cauquenes, Maule Region, Chile (35°58′ S, 72°17′ W), during 2014–2019. A production system was established on 10 ha of espinal grassland, complemented by 1 ha of supplementary crop rotation (oat–purple vetch intercropping and triticale). Due to the scale of the system, a single experimental unit was used; however, multiple sampling areas were evaluated over time to assess the botanical composition, forage yield, and soil carbon. Grasslands were annually fertilized with phosphorus, potassium, and boron. The forage yield in spring ranged from 2 to 4 t dry matter ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ over six years, with strong interannual variability driven by rainfall. The stocking rate increased progressively from 2 to 8 sheep ha⁻¹ and lamb live weight from 80 to 370 kg ha⁻¹ over six-years. The grassland botanical composition shifted markedly, with increased abundance of annual legumes (Trifolium subterraneum, Medicago polymorpha) and Leontodon leysseri. Supplementary crops yielded between 6.0 and 10.5 t DM ha⁻¹, while soil organic carbon increased from 1.6% to 2.2%. These results demonstrate that sustainable intensification of the espinal system can enhance productivity while maintaining environmental sustainability. Full article

The Sanjiangyuan Region is among China’s most critical ecological function zones and serves as an important habitat for rare wildlife species such as brown bears and snow leopards. Driven by factors including climate change and intensified human activities, human–wildlife conflicts have become increasingly frequent on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, threatening the living space of both herders and wildlife. This study centers on the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, integrating multi-source remote sensing data with field survey data, and employs the Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt) MaxEnt model and the BIOMOD2 framework to simulate high-risk areas for brown bear incidents. Results indicate that the BIOMOD2 ensemble model (EMca) achieved the highest predictive accuracy, with the Random Forest (RF) model demonstrating strong robustness among individual models. Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Soil Surface Moisture (SSM), Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC), and Human Footprint (HFP) were identified as the primary factors influencing the spatial distribution of brown bear incidents. High-risk areas exhibited significant clustering, mainly concentrated in the southern and southeastern regions of Qumalai, Nangchen, and Chindu; the eastern part of Zadoi County; and the central and southern parts of Yushu City, particularly within the elevation range of 4304–4544 m, where human activity intensity is relatively low. The core high-risk zone is located along the Tongtian River in southern Qumalai County, demonstrating strong spatial connectivity. By investigating the spatial distribution patterns and driving mechanisms of brown bear incidents in Yushu Prefecture, this study offers some references for government agencies to formulate strategies that promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Full article