A hidden driver of food insecurity and environmental crisis that we cannot ignore
2021-06-24
(Press-News.org) The cultivated planet is withstanding record-breaking pressure to ensure food security. To meet the rising demand of food, energy, and fiber, a 70%-100% increase in crop commodities will be needed globally by 2050. However, rapid urbanization and industrialization have caused dramatic loss of high-quality cropland and hence threatened food security. To stabilize cropland area, cropland expansion to marginal lands has become a widespread phenomenon worldwide. This study developed a systems framework to represent the trade-off among crop yield, production, and environmental cost, according to the competitive relationship of production, settlement, and ecological space and the link of "land - food - environment - policy". Using China as a case study, the authors validated the systems framework by assessing the associated food benefits and environmental costs from large-scale cropland redistribution driven by economic development and policy implementation.
The environmental impacts of cropland redistribution in China were invesgated. Due to urbanization-induced loss of high-quality croplands in south China (~8.5 t ha-1), croplands were expanded to marginal lands in northeast (~4.5 t ha-1) and northwest China (~2.9 t ha-1) during 1990-2015 to pursue food security. However, the reclamation in these low-yield and ecologically vulnerable zones considerably undermined local environmental sustainability, e.g., increasing wind erosion (+3.47%), irrigation water consumption (+34.42%), fertilizer use (+20.02%), and decreasing natural habitats (-3.11%). Forecasts show that further reclamation in marginal lands per current policies would exacerbate environmental costs by 2050. The future cropland security risk will be remarkably intensified due to the conflict between food production and environmental sustainability. Kuang et al.'s results suggest that globally emerging reclamation of marginal lands should be restricted and crop yield boost should be encouraged for both food security and environmental benefits.
The findings in this paper reveal that, under the influence of national macro policies, the competition of urban, agriculture and ecology systems driven by "the supplement of marginal lands and loss of high-quality croplands in the future" lead to the trade-off relationship between food production and environmental sustainability. The paper also confirms that the global or specific regional marginal lands beyond a certain threshold will not increase grain production, but will cause environmental unsustainability.
INFORMATION:
See the article:
Cropland redistribution to marginal lands undermines environmental sustainability. Wenhui Kuang et al. National Science Review, https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwab091
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwab091
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-06-24
The rarity of these syndromes, caused by damage to a gene named HUWE1, means very few children are affected. Of course, the low absolute numbers are little consolation for children who are born with a severe intellectual disability as a result of gene mutation.
Many affected children have distinctive facial features, some struggle to learn to walk, and many never learn to speak. Some have an abnormally small head and have stunted growth.
There is no cure. Parents mainly focus on learning enough about how to cope to make everyday life workable.
A lot ...
2021-06-24
A study from the Centre for Nutraceuticals at the University of Westminster found that plant-based protein shakes may be potential viable alternatives to milk-based whey protein shakes, particularly in people with need of careful monitoring of glucose levels.
The study, published in the journal Nutrients, is the first to show potato and rice proteins can be just as effective at managing your appetite and can help better manage blood glucose levels and reduce spikes in insulin compared to whey protein.
During the study the blood metabolic response of participants was measured after ...
2021-06-24
New research has uncovered a novel trick employed by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus to thwart the immune response, raising hopes that a vaccine that prevents deadly MRSA infections is a little closer on the horizon.
Immunologists from Trinity College Dublin, working with scientists at GSK - one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturers - discovered the new trick of the troublesome Staphylococcus aureus, which is the causative agent of the infamous "superbug" MRSA.
They found that the bacterium interferes with the host immune response by causing toxic effects on white blood cells, which prevents them from engaging in their infection-fighting jobs.
Importantly, the study also showed in a pre-clinical ...
2021-06-24
Scientists using computer modelling to study SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, have discovered the virus is most ideally adapted to infect human cells - rather than bat or pangolin cells, again raising questions of its origin.
In a paper published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, Australian scientists describe how they used high-performance computer modelling of the form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the beginning of the pandemic to predict its ability to infect humans and a range of 12 domestic and exotic animals.
Their work aimed to help identify any intermediate animal vector that ...
2021-06-24
Although IAT is commonly performed, there is variation in how, why, and where it is done. EULAR aimed to help standardise the way IAT is delivered, and explain to people what they can expect from the treatment. A EULAR taskforce was set up to develop a set of new recommendations to give guidance and advice on best practice for IAT.
The taskforce included doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other health professionals, as well as patients. The taskforce looked at the evidence on IAT. Because there is little published evidence, the taskforce also conducted two surveys ...
2021-06-24
Russia is the world's largest forest country. Being home to more than a fifth of forests globally, the country's forests and forestry have enormous potential to contribute to making a global impact in terms of climate mitigation. A new study by IIASA researchers, Russian experts, and other international colleagues have produced new estimates of biomass contained in Russian forests, confirming a substantial increase over the last few decades.
Since the dissolution of the USSR, Russia has been reporting almost no changes in its forests, while data obtained ...
2021-06-24
In the animal kingdom, specific growth factors control body axis development. These signalling molecules are produced by a small group of cells at one end of the embryo to be distributed in a graded fashion toward the opposite pole. Through this process, discrete spatial patterns arise that determine the correct formation of the head-foot axis. A research team at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) at Heidelberg University recently discovered an enzyme in the freshwater polyp Hydra that critically shapes this process by limiting the activity of certain growth factors.
In particular, the proteins of the so-called Wnt signalling pathway play an important role in the pattern formation of the primary ...
2021-06-24
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (06/24/2021) -- A study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School sheds new light on boys' weapon-carrying behaviors at U.S. high schools. The results indicate that weapon-carrying is not tied to students' race or ethnicity but rather their schools' social climates.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics and led by Patricia Jewett, PhD, a researcher in the Department of Medicine at the U of M Medical School.
"Narratives of violence in the U.S. have been distorted by racist stereotyping, portraying male individuals of color as more dangerous than white males," Jewett said. "Instead, our study suggests that school climates may be linked to an increase in weapon-carrying at schools."
The ...
2021-06-24
Researchers at UCSF have found that extreme caloric restriction diets alter the microbiome in ways that could help with weight loss but might also result in an increased population of Clostridiodes difficile, a pathogenic bacterium that can lead to severe diarrhea and colitis.
Such diets, which allow people only 800 calories per day in liquid form, are an effective approach to weight loss in people with obesity. The unexpected results of this study raise the question of how much the microbiome influences weight loss and which bacteria are significant in that process. The study appears in the June 23, 2021, issue of Nature.
"Our results underscore that the role of calories in weight ...
2021-06-24
Using only a pen and paper, a theoretical physicist has proved a decades-old claim that a strong force called Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) leads to light-weight pions, reports a new study published on June 23 in Physical Review Letters.
The strong force is responsible for many things in our Universe, from making the Sun shine, to keeping quarks inside protons. This is important because it makes sure that the protons and neutrons bind to form nuclei of every atom that exists. But there is still a lot of mystery surrounding the strong force. Einstein's relation E=mc2 means a strong force leads to more energy, and more energy means a heavier mass. But subatomic particles called pions ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] A hidden driver of food insecurity and environmental crisis that we cannot ignore
