As more and more people are buying more and more items online, limiting the ecological footprint of e-commerce deliveries is pressing. Research suggests several initiatives for retailers and logistics service providers to take, but consumer-involvement is key. This research investigates how to encourage consumers’ sustainable decision-making in the web-shop's check-out page by using non-financial incentives only.
A possibility of developing an environmental-friendly photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar panel, which can shut high temperature radiation within a panel box, was experimentally confirmed. The panel has a decompression-boiling heat collector, which can absorb heat from the PV module and can keep the air and the cover glass inside the panel box at lower temperature by using lower boiling temperature of working fluid under vacuum condition. The panel also has an emboss-processed cover glass, which can totally reflect the high temperature heat radiation from the PV module within the panel box.
A grand challenge facing humanity is how to produce food for a growing population in the face of a changing climate and environmental degradation. Although empirical evidence remains sparse, management strategies that increase environmental sustainability, such as increasing agroecosystem diversity through crop rotations, may also increase resilience to weather extremes without sacrificing yields.
Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in natural environments requires careful management choices. However, common methods of evaluating the impact of conservation interventions can have contextual shortcomings. Here, we make a call for counterfactual thinking—asking the question “what would have happened in the absence of an intervention?”—with the support of rigorous evaluation approaches and more thoughtful consideration of human dimensions and behavior.
The no-tillage system combining winter cover crops and crop rotation may increase the efficiency use of soil P and phosphate fertilizer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of three decades of different soil management systems and winter cover crops on the fractions of P in a clayey Oxisol of Paraná State, Brazil. The bi-factorial experiment with three replicates was established in 1986. The main plots consisted of seven winter cover crops. In the subplots, two tillage systems were used: no-tillage and conventional tillage.
Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in natural environments requires careful management choices. However, common methods of evaluating the impact of conservation interventions can have contextual shortcomings. Here, we make a call for counterfactual thinking—asking the question “what would have happened in the absence of an intervention?”—with the support of rigorous evaluation approaches and more thoughtful consideration of human dimensions and behavior.
Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in natural environments requires careful management choices. However, common methods of evaluating the impact of conservation interventions can have contextual shortcomings. Here, we make a call for counterfactual thinking—asking the question “what would have happened in the absence of an intervention?”—with the support of rigorous evaluation approaches and more thoughtful consideration of human dimensions and behavior.
Rising demand for renewable resources has increased silage maize (Zea mays L.)production characterized by intensive soil management, high fertilizer and pesticide inputs as well as simplified crop rotations. Advantages of renewable biomass production may thus be cancelled out by adverse environmental effects. Perennial crops, like cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.), are said to benefit arthropods. Substituting silage maize could hence increase biodiversity and foster ecosystem services.
Although the effects of nitrogen (N) fertilization on soil microflora have been well studied, the effects should be verified across soil types and N-added levels. To understand the impacts of N fertilization on shifts in soil biological traits and bacterial communities and to further explore the coupling mediation of these parameters with respect to crop yields, we sampled soils from three experimental sites (each site received three levels of N fertilization (0, 168 and 312 kg N ha−1)) that share the same climatic conditions but have different soil types (clay, alluvial and sandy soils).
When biochar (BC) ages in soil, its properties change substantially: cation exchange capacity (CEC), surface area and porosity increase and water repellency decreases, consequently affecting the interactions with soil microorganisms. Activation of BC by organic acids may be regarded as artificial aging. Here, we study the effect of acid-activated BCs on soil microbial enzyme activities (EA) in comparison to several different control treatments without activated BC. A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted using a vineyard soil treated with multiple soil additives (four replications).
