Silent meadows: The uncertain decline and conservation of hay meadows in the british landscape

The environmental impacts of British agriculture have been a popular focus in recent years within Landscape Research. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the case of hay meadows, an important feature of the landscape in cultural, agricultural and ecological terms, and one which has been threatened with decline. The paper considers the factors which have marginalized hay meadows in the discussion of agri-environment relations, showing that the lack of definitive data on hay meadows, government funding for more intensive farming practices, and the ephemeral nature of hay meadows have contributed to their ‘silent’ decline. Drawing on a case study of the Peak District in the UK, the attempts of current agri-envrionment schemes to encourage ‘traditional’ management, and the problems associated with the use of this term and its connotations, are considered.     

Survival and leaching of fecal bacteria after slurry spreading on mountain hay meadows: consequences for the management of water contamination risk.

The aim of this work is to achieve a better understanding of the behavior of fecal coliform populations on the vegetation and in the soil after slurry spreading in environmental conditions, typical of vegetative growth period in mountain hay meadows. Changes in fecal coliform populations on the vegetation and in the soil were monitored in situ for 3 months after slurry spreading on 9 plots. The variations found in populations are related to the agricultural, soil. and climatic characteristics of plots and to the moisture regime of soils. These observations are compared with laboratory experiments on undisturbed soil microcosms. In absence of water flux, survival durations recorded in the laboratory and in the field are of the same order of magnitude. The data enable us to pinpoint the influence of various factors affecting the decline and transfer of fecal bacteria in the plant-soil system and consequently to discuss the risk management of water contamination by agriculture.     

Water Meadow Management in Wessex: Dynamics of Change from 1800 to the Present Day

Relatively little attention has been given to post-1800 changes in water meadow management. Before this, many ‘bedwork’ systems originally provided grazing within sheep-corn husbandry but this changed in the nineteenth century when water meadows provided grazing for dairy herds and grew hay crops. Using oral and published accounts, this paper explores changes in management from water meadows as heavily invested agricultural systems to ecological, hydrological and landscape service providers today.     

Niche construction,entanglement and landscape domestication in Scandinavian infield systems

Domesticated landscapes are formed by complex social and ecological interactions. We study present-day remnants of species-rich hay meadows and pastures in Scandinavia, with historical roots in former ‘infield systems’, initially developed during the first centuries AD and maintained until the modernisation of agriculture during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Infield systems include infields, enclosed areas near farms incorporating hay meadows and crop fields, and surrounding outlying land used mainly for grazing. We interpret the development of Scandinavian infield systems and their relationship to vegetation and human culture using concepts of niche construction and entanglement. A key issue revolves around spatio-temporal stabilisation of managed grasslands, in turn related to a complex of interactions between cultural development (e.g. perceptions of land ownership and management practices) and ecological patterns (e.g. species richness). We propose that niche construction and entanglement are useful concepts bridging studies in social history and ecology, and for developing conservation programmes in cultural landscapes.     

Species richness, structural diversity and species composition in meadows created by visitors of a botanical garden in Switzerland

Biodiversity is an increasingly important criterion in designing ecological compensation areas and urban green areas. However, little is known about how important biodiversity is to the general public. This paper presents the results of two complementary studies investigating the meadow preferences of visitors to a botanical garden in Switzerland. In the first study, 152 people were asked to create their own favourite meadow patch by selecting 25 out of 779 local wild plants (54 species) that were displayed in flowerpots. In the second study, 143 people were asked with the help of a written questionnaire to imagine a bare piece of land the size of 100 m × 100 m close to their place of living and mentally create the meadow of their dreams. In both cases, study participants assembled meadows that were species-rich and rich in structural diversity (expressed by plant height and leaf forms). Moreover, they explicitly stated diversity as their main assemblage criterion. Although study participants favoured plants with large or colourful flowers, only a third of all plants in the meadows created with real plants were flowering and in people's imagined meadows grasses were frequently included, indicating that people like diverse meadows consisting of a green matrix with some colourful flowers.     

A Late Aisled House in Suffolk

Abstract

Although work has been published on the importance of hay barns in the Midlands and the north of England during the eighteenth century and later, southern hay barns have been relatively neglected. This paper seeks to restore the balance by discussing three southern hay barns of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Then attention is drawn to a rich source of information on medieval hay barns in the south. Finally arguments are advanced for believing that an extraordinary early-sixteenth-century farm building in Hampshire was built as a hay barn.     

Quantitative assessment of the effects of agricultural practices designed to reduce 137Cs and 90Sr soil-plant transfer in meadows

Agricultural practices (ploughing and reseeding, addition of lime and fertiliser) were tested as a feasible remediation strategy to reduce 137Cs (RCs) and 90Sr (RSr) soil-plant transfer in natural meadows in areas affected by the Chernobyl fallout. Field experiments were carried out for 2 years at six sites, covering dry and wet meadows. Observed results at field scale showed that ploughing plus reseeding provoked the main reduction in RSr transfer, with no further reduction after liming, while ploughing + reseeding + K fertiliser led to the maximum decrease in RCs transfer at most sites. The direct effects of agricultural practices on the exchange complex and soil solution composition were quantified by subsequent soil analyses. At the doses applied, lime did not affect the Ca + Mg concentrations in the exchange complex and soil solution of the ploughed soils, thus suggesting that the decrease in RSr transfer on treated plots was mainly due to the changes in the plant species after reseeding. With respect to RCs, changes in the K+NH4+ concentrations in the exchange complex and soil solution were consistent with changes in soil-plant transfer. Finally, RSr and RCs soil-plant transfer in ploughed plots was well predicted from soil properties, such as the solid-liquid distribution coefficient, the ionic composition of the soil solution and the exchangeable cations, with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.98 and 0.86, respectively, between calculated and experimental log transfer factors.     

Transfer of heavy metals in the food chain earthworm Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa): comparison of a polluted and a reference site in The Netherlands

The Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) is a migratory wader that favours wet meadows for breeding. The species has a Red List status in The Netherlands, as it strongly declined in numbers since the 1960s. Intensification of agriculture and land use change resulting in habitat loss are considered major causes of this decline. In some areas the breeding habitat is contaminated with heavy metals. Adult godwits mainly feed on earthworms in the breeding season, which are known to accumulate heavy metals from the soil. In this paper we investigate the transfer of heavy metals from the soil to the Black-tailed godwit, which may have an additive negative effect on the viability of local populations. We measured heavy metal concentrations in soil, earthworms, and godwit eggs and feathers at a polluted and a reference site. The results suggest that Lead, Mercury and Cadmium are transferred from the soil to godwits even though the species spends only a few months in the breeding area during the year.     

Valley landscape management: the context of a 'river contract' in the Semois valley, Belgium

A trans-boundary and multi-disciplinary approach to the river contract project for the Semois valley in Wallonia (Belgium) is described that provided the opportunity for a landscape-scale focus during actions to restore the watercourses and the associated valley area. A trans-boundary landscape survey was carried out under the context of the Interreg III European programme. This resulted in the rediscovery of lost views and viewpoints within the landscape and in the implementation of actions leading to the opening up of the valley, which provided opportunities to re-establish lost landscape features, such as hay meadows. The gathering of many partners in the negotiation process of this project can be seen as an example of 'landscape democratization' or participative management of landscapes in a trans-boundary and trans-disciplinary context and as such this project is a concrete realization of the aims of the European Landscape Convention (ELC).     

Valley landscape management: the context of a ‘river contract’ in the Semois valley,Belgium

A trans‐boundary and multi‐disciplinary approach to the river contract project for the Semois valley in Wallonia (Belgium) is described that provided the opportunity for a landscape‐scale focus during actions to restore the watercourses and the associated valley area. A trans‐boundary landscape survey was carried out under the context of the Interreg III European programme. This resulted in the rediscovery of lost views and viewpoints within the landscape and in the implementation of actions leading to the opening up of the valley, which provided opportunities to re‐establish lost landscape features, such as hay meadows. The gathering of many partners in the negotiation process of this project can be seen as an example of ‘landscape democratization’ or participative management of landscapes in a trans‐boundary and trans‐disciplinary context and as such this project is a concrete realization of the aims of the European Landscape Convention (ELC).     

Lowland Stream Restoration in Denmark: Background and Examples

Since 1982, Danish legislation on streams and drainage has included clauses which make it possible to implement river restoration. In this paper, the Danish shift in policy from drainage to the return of wetlands is described. To illustrate the new beginning on catchment management, two major river-restoration schemes, i.e. the River Brede demonstration project and the River Skjern Nature project, are presented. Both projects have been implemented and consist of many parts, including (a) returning the straight, regulated rivers back to their former meanders, (b) introducing better hydraulic interaction between the river and its meadows, and (c) establishing former lakes, bogs, ponds and marshes. Also, an increase in security against flooding has resulted, as the regulated 'water-motorways'have become more natural, with buffer-zones and retention of water in the restored features.     

Efficiency of measures aimed at decreasing the contamination of agricultural products in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl NPP accident.

The sequence of agricultural countermeasures taken in the Polessye area of the Ukraine contaminated by radionuclides as a result of the Chernobyl NPP accident is discussed. The efficiency of these countermeasures has been analysed. The concentration of 137Cs in crops has been shown to vary 10-100-fold, depending on the biological features of the plant species and on soil properties. Liming and mineral fertilizing of meadows increase the yield of grass and reduce 137Cs transfer to cows' milk up to 3.5-fold.     

Dimethylquecksilber (I) untersuchungen über die verteilung und ausscheidung in ratten

Investigations on the distribution and the excretion of mercury in rats after oral intake of dimethyl mercury have been performed. The findings are compared with the results obtained with monomethyl mercury by other authors. Besides a very high concentration of mercury in the blood of the treated animals the greatest accumulation of mercury in hair as well in the kidney, the spleen and the liver has been found. Much less mercury has been detected in samples of CNS. However, observations during a period of 21 days indicate that in samples of CNS the decline of Hg is less rapid than in other tissues. The excretion of mercury by urine and faeces are of the same order of magnitude as in the case of monomethyl mercury.     

Creating opportunities in the face of an environmental jolt: exploring turnaround strategizing practices within large Irish construction contractors

Firms that face organizational decline choreographed from an environmental jolt must seek new ways of creating opportunities in order to successfully turnaround. As such, the identification of pertinent turnaround strategies becomes increasingly important for senior management. Within the strategy-as-practice scholarly, there have been recent calls to move beyond empirical “isolationism” and to connect with other larger social phenomena; while across the turnaround literature there have been calls to explore the process and micro-structure of turnaround strategies in cyclical environments. To address this research gap, the purpose of the study is to adopt a tall ontology by blending the strategy-as-practice lens with the organizational decline and turnaround lens. By drawing on five exploratory case studies of large Irish construction contractors, the central objective is thus to explore firms’ turnaround strategizing practices during an environmental jolt. In order to advance our tall ontology, we developed a turnaround strategizing process model (and propositions) that integrates our findings, and which offers the fundamental building blocks of a new blended theory. We find that successful turnaround attempts entail the simultaneous interaction of non-aggressive cost retrenchment actions and non-extensive internationalization. The case studies further suggest that during a prolonged environmental jolt, cost retrenchment is more often a long-term strategy. Lastly, the findings provide valuable support for practitioners in developing a successful turnaround response, and in aiding the selection and timing of operational and strategic actions.     

The Relationship between Housing Market Intervention for First-Time Buyers and House Price Volatility

Declining homeownership rates as observed in many western countries have direct and indirect implications for the broader economy; hence, governments have been seeking an effective solution to address this decline. One of the major challenges is the decline in overall homeownership rates with an increasing proportion of households deciding to rent rather than purchase. However, it is surprising that the impact on the housing market following the introduction of a first-time housing subsidy scheme has received relatively little attention. This study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the relationship between (1) housing market intervention based on first-time owner subsidies in a global city and (2) the level of house price volatility in the broader market. For example, the Australian government has implemented different policies designed to ease housing stress among first-time buyers; one high-profile policy was the First-time buyer Grant or First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) in which a cash payment or subsidy is given to new first-time buyers as a direct incentive. Based on a case study approach, an analysis is undertaken of the first-time buyer policy where an innovative approach using the E-GARCH model is employed to assess the effect of the scheme on the housing market. The findings indicated that the FHOG scheme offered a stabilisation effect on the housing market. In addition, there is evidence to support implementation of the FHOG scheme as an effective scheme to enhance housing affordability of first-time buyers. The findings offer a rare insight into the effectiveness of the FHOG scheme in enhancing housing affordability and also maintaining price stabilisation in the broader housing market.     

An estimation of fan performance for leaky ventilation ducts

The common approach in matching a fan to a duty is to determine the intersection between the fan curve and a single line system characteristic. The single line characteristic denotes a leak-free duct but it is common knowledge that all ducts leak to some extent. This presentation demonstrates that a leaky duct has dual characteristics. One which compensates for the increases in fan pressure and quantity caused by the leakage (which is detected by the fan), and a ‘shadow’ characteristic which shows the quantity delivered to the discharge end.Atkinson’s equation was used to demonstrate the sensitivity of a leak-free duct to changes in duct diameter, friction factor, length and flow quantity. The concept of ‘duct efficiency’ was introduced to quantify the effect of leakage on the performance of a ventilation duct and demonstrate the sensitivity of a leaky duct to same changes.A spreadsheet method, which has been verified using the National Coal Board (UK) leakage design charts, was used to quantify the leakage coefficients and to establish the dual characteristics for leaky ducts. These characteristics have then been applied to a case study to assess the performance of a fan connected to 500 m of a fabric duct in an operating decline.     

严寒地区的收缩城市研究——以俄罗斯克拉斯诺亚尔斯克地区的三个极地城市为例

城市收缩是发达国家和发展中国家普遍存在的一种国际化现象。以往研究表明,超过一半的俄罗斯城市经历了不同程度的收缩,这种情况在其气候条件恶劣的北方地区更为严重。本研究的目的是通过社会经济发展动态分析俄罗斯北部城市的收缩过程,首先对俄罗斯收缩城市研究现状进行了梳理和总结;在此基础上,选取过去30年中人口总数下降较为明显的三个北方城市--诺里尔斯克、杜丁卡和伊加尔卡作为案例城市,对其反映人均工业产出的经济指数(EI)和反映社会福利水平的社会指数(SI)进行计算,结果表明该地区北部城市社会经济发展呈现出不均衡增长的现象。本研究证实了城市的经济福祉与人口生活水平之间的直接关系,并揭示出俄罗斯当前政策对收缩城市支持性的不足。     

From industrialisation to de-industrialisation in the former South African homelands

The case of Mogwase in North West in experiencing processes of industrialisation and subsequent de-industrialisation is repeated in many former growth points of South Africa’s peripheral homelands. It is clear that the withdrawal of incentives has had a negative impact on industrial development in peripheral areas in South Africa, affecting woman workers in particular. Indeed, with recession and high levels of unemployment in the formal sector, retrenched woman factory workers are increasingly forced to enter the informal sector. Alternatively, they function as casual or seasonal labourers, outside the purview of labour legislation and beyond the reach of trade unions. It is ironic that de-industrialisation linked to globalisation in South Africa is exaggerating spatial disparities, with those regions having the greatest need for employment having the least capacity to play the entrepreneurial role as regards local economic development. Finally, with the industrial decline in Mogwase, there has been a reversal in the progress made in the socio-economic lives of the beneficiaries of apartheid industrial decentralisation policy. Indeed, the Mogwase case shows that many localities which experienced growth due to industrial decentralisation are currently experiencing a decline. For woman workers, who are used as shock absorbers for global restructuring, this means a dramatic decline in income and living standards as they shift out of formal work.     

Revitalizing the Bloemfontein CBD: Prospects,Obstacles and Lost Opportunities

Urban change has systematically been researched for more than a century. One of the key foci has been the Central Business Districts (CBDs) of cities. The past decades has seen an extensive literature develop on CBD decline focusing on why such decay sets in and which strategies, as well as policies, that might be deployed to stimulate the revitalisation of these areas. The debates are, however, in the main developed within the context of large cities, whilst the geographical focus tends to be on countries of the post-industrial north. In the South African context, a small, but nevertheless significant literature has developed chronicling both CBD decline and subsequent revitalisation strategies deployed to reverse such decline. Similar to the international experience, the focal point has been South Africa’s main metropolitan regions, whilst secondary cities have remained beyond the investigatory focus. The aim of this paper was to provide an outline of the prospects and obstacles that face CBD revitalisation in the secondary city of Bloemfontein. It is argued that whilst generic revitalisation programmes in cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg have seemingly stemmed further CBD decline, other strategies might be required in secondary cities such as Bloemfontein.

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The ecological peculiarities of the testate amoebae population in the Middle Ob flood plain

The biodiversity and distribution of testate amoebae in the Middle Ob flood plain soils have been studied. The biodiversity of Testacea in the soils consists of 83 species and varieties from 12 families. The population of Testacea in flood plain habitats is rich in water forms, especially in the flood plain part of the catena, because of annual floods. The study showed that the density of Testacea in the forest plots is approximately 10 times higher than in the meadow ones. The species diversity of Testacea in the meadows of the flood plain includes 40 species and varieties. It was found that there is an enrichment of the fauna of Testacea in the flood plain meadows with water forms and a decrease in the population of Testacea in the soil according to the depth. The decrease in the diversity and number down the soil profile is related to the decrease in the amount of the oxygen available and general induration of soil. On the whole, the population composition of Testacea in the soils of the pine forest consists of typical representatives of humus substrates with low values of pH, small stock of humus and mineral nutrition. The soils of mature pine forests are rich in Testacea; they have a similar complex of morphological types, mainly because of the moss cover and forest litter thickness.