Soil erosion by water is a major cause of land degradation in the highlands of Ethiopia and anywhere else in the world, but its magnitude and variability are rarely documented across land uses and climatological conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine runoff and soil loss responses under cropland (CL) and grazing land (GL) management p...
Subsoil compaction has become a widespread problem for modern agriculture. Subsoiling is the most common measure to try and deal with this problem. However, despite the widespread use of this type of deep tillage, its effectiveness and sustainability are not without dispute. Previous studies show a great variety of outcomes depending on soil textur...
Ecological intensification has been embraced with great interest by the academic sector but is still rarely taken up by farmers because monitoring the state of different ecological functions is not straightforward. Modelling tools can represent a more accessible alternative of measuring ecological functions, which could help promote their use among...
Published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) is a globally important fruit crop that depends on insect-mediated pollination to produce quality fruit and commercially viable yields. Pollination success in blueberry is complex and impacted by multiple interacting factors including flower density, bee diversity and abundance, and weather conditions. Other fact...
Climate, landscape composition, management practice, and wild bee pollination are all variables thought to play significant roles in commercial apple production. However, how these variables affect production efficiency under field-realistic conditions has not been investigated at large geographical scales. We combined intensive standardized field ...
Published in Frontiers in Plant Science
Today's agriculture faces many concerns in maintaining crop yield while adapting to climate change and transitioning to more sustainable cultivation practices. The application of plant biostimulants (PBs) is one of the methods that step forward to address these challenges. The advantages of PBs have been reported numerous times. Yet, there is a gen...
Land degradation due to soil erosion presents a major challenge for sustainable development. We investigated run-off and sediment yield (SY) dynamics in the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. The study area included 14 zero-order catchments with a surface area ranging from 324 to 1715 m2. V-notch weirs produced from plastic jars were introduced as...
status: published
The coupled land degradation-drought impacts have been central challenges to ecosystem functioning and livelihood of farmers in Ethiopia. As a response, catchment restoration initiatives have been implemented since the 1970s. The objective of this article is to analyze the effects of such catchment restoration initiatives on water resources and dro...
The stocks of phosphorus (P) in soil resulting from decades of over-fertilisation can be used as a long-term source of P provided that crop P bioavailability is ensured. This study was set up to identify to what extent soil organic matter (SOM) affects the long-term availability of these stocks, the premise being that OM may limit irreversible P fi...
