The world population is increasing in a disquieting rate while the quantity of food to gratify this snowballing human population is an annoyance to agrarian scientists and policymakers around the globe. Today's population is snatching natural resources from the future which can endanger the future generation's right to have nutritious food and clean air. The causes for this challenge can be enumerated and listed out, but singled out as lack of and/or poor implementation of novel approaches and practices for sustainable agriculture. Some of the novel approaches are but not limited to climate smart agriculture (CSA), organic farming, biodynamic agriculture, sustainable intensification and regenerative agriculture; and novel practices as integrated farming system (IFS), precision agriculture, integrated nutrient management (INM) and integrated pest management (IPM). The adoption of these approaches and practices has been proven to safeguard agricultural sustainability. • Novel agricultural approaches are solutions for the sustainable production. • Novel agricultural practices imply sustainable production. • Sustainable agriculture has a direct positive impact on food and nutrition security. • Adopt novel approaches and practices in all scales of agricultural production. 

Novel approaches and practices to sustainable agriculture

Modern agriculture has drastically changed global landscapes and introduced pressures on wildlife populations. Policy and management of agricultural systems has changed over the last 30 years, a period characterized not only by intensive agricultural practices but also by an increasing push towards sustainability. It is crucial that we understand the long-term consequences of agriculture on beneficial invertebrates and assess if policy and management approaches recently introduced are supporting their recovery. In this study, we use large citizen science datasets to derive trends in invertebrate occupancy in Great Britain between 1990 and 2019. We compare these trends between regions of no- (0%), low- (greater than 0–50%) and high-cropland (greater than 50%) cover, which includes arable and horticultural crops. Although we detect general declines, invertebrate groups are declining most strongly in high-cropland cover regions. This suggests that even in the light of improved policy and management over the last 30 years, the way we are managing cropland is failing to conserve and restore invertebrate communities. New policy-based drivers and incentives are required to support the resilience and sustainability of agricultural ecosystems. Post-Brexit changes in UK agricultural policy and reforms under the Environment Act offer opportunities to improve agricultural landscapes for the benefit of biodiversity and society.

Invertebrate biodiversity continues to decline in cropland

The life sciences include the branches of science that are concerned with scientific studies of living organisms’ such as human beings, animals, plants and microorganisms. In fact, all life sciences are biology based sciences and from the beginning of the scientific and technological researches up to date, the obtained scientific data, especially in agriculture, medicine, engineering, as well as molecular biology and biotechnology, led to an escalating specializations in interdisciplinary fields. Some life sciences focus on a specific type of life. For instance, botany is the study of plants and has different branches such as anatomy, genetics, biochemistry, biophysics, taxonomy, physiology, molecular biology and paleobotany etc. of plants. On the other hand zoology is the study of animals that branches out anatomy, cytology, ecology, embryology, genetics, geology, histology, morphology, neonatology, paleontology, physiology, taxonomy and many others. Also, microbiology is the study of microorganisms that may exist in its single-celled form or in a colony of cells, and branches out to bacteriology, mycology, protozoology, phycology, parasitology, immunology, virology and nematology and related sciences. The branches of these life sciences have their own specific sub-branches related to the studied and mastered subjects. Recently, multidisciplinary new branches like bioengineering have been formed, especially in conjunction with life sciences and engineering sciences, and these branches contribute to the development of science. Life sciences are very useful in improving people’s life quality and standards. They have applications in agriculture, health, medicine, food and drug science industries as well as environmental sciences. In this study, information is given about the branches of “life sciences and related technologies” for better understanding of life sciences.

/pdf/about-life-sciences-and-related-technologies-4fycc9seqe.pdf

About Life Sciences and Related Technologies

Paddy fields are classified as wetland environments, and they comprise a freshwater ecosystem. They are ecologically important habitats and breeding grounds for many aquatic insects, amphibians, and reptiles. However, the paddy field ecosystem is constantly threatened by climate change and indiscriminate use of pesticides. The meta-barcode analysis of eDNA (environmental DNA) method is highly effective in accumulating information on many organisms that inhabit the paddy field ecosystem because it can explore organisms that are difficult to identify with traditional sampling methods. The eDNA method is very effective for accumulating information on many organisms in the rice field ecosystem. It can indirectly identify the existence of taxa no longer found in the target ecosystem due to behavioral characteristics like amphibia. In the metabarcoding results of this study, genes of more than five species of frogs were found, but it was impossible to confirm all frog taxa, frog&amp;#039;s morphological pictures, and croak sounds. On the other hand, some frog taxa had been found only in the metabarcoding analysis. The eDNA of frogs found only in metabarcoding is estimated to have been introduced from nearby areas inhabited by frogs rather than the target region. Due to the powerful analytical resolution of eDNA metabarcoding, this eDNA-based paddy field search is expected to help investigate the biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems. 

Anura (Class Amphibia) Diversity Based on Environmental DNA (eDNA) in the Paddy Field Water Environment

Towns, Ecology, and the Land. Forman, R.T.T. 2019. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. xviii+ 585 pp. £39.99 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-316-64860-5. In its beginnings, ecology as a discipline focused mainly on the study of natural, pristine environments to understand their structure and functioning. Later on, as human impacts on the planet became more evident, the interest in anthropogenic habitats, such as agricultural landscapes or urbanized areas increased. Nevertheless, there seems to be a meeting point where natural habitats interact with productive areas and human settlements: the land of towns and villages. Despite that the land belonging to towns and villages covers an impressive half of Earth’s surface (Hoekstra et al. 2010), they have been poorly investigated, as Richard Forman describes in Towns, Ecology, and the Land. The author, a Harvard University emeritus professor, is well recognized for his contributions to landscape, road, and urban ecology. He admits that only recently did he start to consider towns as more than places to eat or get fuel during fieldwork. Villages and towns can go from a few dozen to 30,000 people, but altogether their inhabitants make up almost half the world’s population. Moreover, towns provide resources for large cities, so we all depend on towns in the end. When considering these facts, it is surprising that very little attention has been paid to their ecology. In this book, the author aims to describe and summarize what is known about towns and their interactions with their surroundings from several perspectives. Furthermore, he proposes that town ecology can help to improve towns and perhaps even to stop their globally observable shrinkage. The book is divided into 4 parts and starts with a description of the anatomy of towns and villages. Villages and towns differ in their population size, villages (200– 2,000 residents) are much smaller and have a simpler structure than towns (2,000–30,000 residents). Towns have common elements, such as a central plaza, a town center, and older and newer residential areas. But they are also quite variable by their shape, location, and main economic activity or key resources. Other critical definitions that are used throughout the text are included in the first part, such as town edge, adjacent zone, and surrounding land. The adjacent zone is located immediately beyond the edge and is highly relevant because the flows that come in and out from towns are most intense there. The surrounding land is the outer area of influence of a town, and it can be dominated by farmland or natural areas. The first part of the book also covers the temporal changes experienced by townspeople and the social dimensions of living and working in towns. After all, many people, including myself, have chosen to live in towns. The second part deals with the ecological dimensions of towns, from the soil, air, and water to plants and animals. Both soil and air in towns differ from natural, cultivated, and highly urbanized conditions. Moreover, soil and water are key resources that determine the location of a town, and specific chapters are dedicated to describing their relevance. Despite being smaller than cities, towns have to deal with pollution, particularly when industries are present, and this topic is also addressed in this section. Town flora and fauna are usually diverse and are particularly influenced by a “species rain” from the surroundings. A community of resident plants and animals is typically present in towns, and their ecology is described in detail. Not only wildlife, but also town residents, value green spaces in towns and in surrounding areas due to the different ecosystem services they provide. The interaction between towns and land is discussed by differentiating the urbanized, agricultural, and natural components. The description of 3 major parts of towns—commercial, industrial, and residential—is quite long and makes several connections with previous parts of the book. The links between towns and farmland take place in the adjacent zone and the surrounding land and are described using concepts and examples from landscape ecology and movement ecology. The directional effects of natural land on towns and vice versa are demonstrated when these are forests or deserts. A chapter attempts to link all these components more explicitly based on corridor-ecology concepts that explain flows of energy and organisms. The last chapter focuses on the principles of town ecology and how to think about designing better towns. Part of this is done by summarizing the concepts described throughout the book, which leads to a list of 26 principles subdivided into different categories. Then, suggestions on how ecology can and should be incorporated into the planning of towns and their surrounding land are made. As the author says, a town does not want to be a city, and even less a village. Therefore, goals

https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cobi.13586

Rethinking the Ecology of Towns and Villages


 The Biology of Agroecosystems provides an introduction to the biological and ecological attributes of ecosystems and the biological impacts of agriculture on the wider environment. Global human populations are rising and diets are becoming ever more complicated, leading to requirements for increased levels of food production. Natural biotopes are becoming increasingly fragmented as agricultural activities expand around them. Agroecosystems occur from the tropics to subarctic environments and comprise systems as varied as annual crops, perennial grasslands, orchards, and agroforestry systems. They presently cover almost 40 per cent of the terrestrial land surface and significantly shape landscapes at a global scale. The book outlines the origin and development of agriculture and summarizes the characteristics of different types of agroecosystems. The conflicts between management of land for productivity and conservation of natural resources are discussed, and some of the key biological issues (loss of biodiversity, instability, susceptibility to pests, for example) are explored. Individual chapters introduce the role of functional groups such as pollinators, nutrient cycling organisms, and pest regulators; the importance of soils and soil organisms for agriculture; and the biological impacts of water use in agroecosystems. Globalization of agriculture is explored, and includes drivers of change, such as shifting diets, and biological challenges, such as the spread of pest species. The final chapters outline different management methods for sustainable management of agroecosystems, and consider the future challenges and opportunities for agriculture and the biology of agroecosystems.

The Biology of Agroecosystems

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The Biology of Agroecosystems