Different fertilization systems, methods and techniques result in differences in plant nutrition, with variations in the mineral element contents in the leaves and values of physiological, yield, and production quality indices. This results in large datasets that are often relatively difficult to interpret. Starting from these aspects, the present study analyzed data on the state of plant nutrition (N, P, K, Ca, and Mg content in leaves, in % of dry matter; Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn content in leaves, in mg/kg of dry matter), physiological indices (chlorophyll leaf content—Chl; leaf area—LA), yield (kg/vine, t/ha), and grape berry quality (sugar and acidity content in berries) of the ‘Burgund mare’ grape cultivar in relation to organic, mineral and foliar fertilization. According to a PCA multivariate analysis, four groups of components were obtained: PC1 including five factors, with positive action in the case of K (r = 0.963), P (r = 0.770) and Cu (r = 0.752), and negative action in the case of Mg (r = −0.940) and Mn (r = −0.759); PC2 including three factors, with positive action for Chl (r = 0.938), LA (r = 0.938) and Ca (r = 0.722); PC3 including one factor (N), with negative action (r = −0.916); and PC4 including two factors, with positive action for Fe (r = 0.869) and Zn (r = 0.761). Based on the one-sample t test (parametric) and the Wilcoxon test (non-parametric) and a threshold value of α = 0.05, the differences between the index values for fertilization variants T2–T13 compared with those for the control variant (T1) were verified. Significant differences were recorded in PC1 for P, Mg and Cu; in PC2 for Chl, LA and Ca; and in PC3 for N. Insignificant differences were recorded in PC1 for K and Mn and in PC4 for Fe and Zn. In the case of the productivity elements and quality indices, significant differences were recorded.

Land degradation is a major impediment to achieving sustainable development. However, there is currently no harmonized global map of land degradation status and hotspots. This paper aims to obtain the status and hotspots map of global land degradation by multiple methods and indicators to give essential references for land degradation neutrality. The results show that there are significant differences in the distribution and degree of land degradation between the different methods and indicators. Validation through observation points reveals that most of the methods and indicators can reflect land degradation in arid and semi-arid areas, while there are suitable methods or indicators in tropical and high-latitude areas. The degree of degradation has a large difference after overlay analysis, which shows that there are shortcomings of different methods and indicators for monitoring the degree of land degradation. However, the overlay of land degradation extent displays a high consistency, reflecting the current state of global land degradation to a certain extent. These areas with high overlay value can be recognized as hotspots of land degradation. It is also found there are consistent water-energy change characteristics in the hotspot area, such as increased land surface temperature and air temperature and decreased soil moisture and precipitation. These results conclude that studies on the degree of land degradation need to be considered in an integrated manner about the regional background. The combination of multiple methods and indicators is recommended for land degradation extent studies in large areas. Comparison of different methods and indicators is important guidance for global land degradation research. Accelerating ecological monitoring and restoration of land degradation hotspots is the first step towards land degradation neutrality.

The article discusses the possibility of using artificial intelligence and machine learning methods to predict soil fertility based on remote sensing data. The research object was 70 soil samples taken in the village of Vshchizh, Bryansk region. Multispectral imaging of the earth's surface from the Sentinel-2 satellite was also used to assess the soil condition. The study in this article is based on the indicators of humus (%), P2O5 (mg/kg), and K2O (mg/kg). The prediction is done using a neural network model based on the Rosenblatt perceptron. Data analysis is conducted using the statistical software environment RStudio. The results of the model show the values of the total mean square error (MSE): MSE=0.178 for humus prediction, MSE=0.138 for P2O5 prediction, MSE=0.171 for K2O prediction. Additionally, the program calculated the correlation values between the predicted and calculated soil fertility. K(humus)=0.548, K(P2O5)=0.287, K(K2O)=0.244. Thus, the neural network most accurately predicted soil fertility based on the humus content.

Based on current definitions, animal welfare has to be linked to a life worth living, as perceived by animals, thanks to positive experiences rather than to the mere absence of negative ones. The measure of on-farm welfare of livestock is crucial to improve farming systems, identify critical points and compare different farming systems in view of welfare labelling protocols. To this end, species-specific protocols are necessary, which should use different types of indicators, i.e. resources-based indicators, management-based indicators and, especially, animal-based indicators. These indicators should work under different farming systems and for different animal categories and can be used to assess welfare in the short term or during the productive life of the animal. Last but not least, indicators should be able to measure the affective state of animals in terms of positive emotions. In this scenario, rabbits are quite unique, as little information is available about i) their behavioural needs under farming conditions; ii) the degree of suffering associated with the behavioural restrictions that can occur under farming conditions; iii) the indicators to be used in the very different housing and management conditions in which rabbits can be farmed; and iv) the relationships between emotions and affective states of animals as well as the effect on resiliency of rabbits under different conditions. In this context, the present review is aimed at summarising the state of the art and designing a road map for assessing on-farm rabbit welfare based on the most recent knowledge and approaches with special emphasis on candidate animalbased indicators for measuring both negative and positive affective states of rabbits. The identification of positive welfare indicators is a big challenge, given the biological and behavioural characteristics of rabbits. Accordingly, a comprehensive and robust assessment of rabbit welfare on farms cannot do without structure- and management-based indicators, which should be included in validated and standardised protocols using a multi-indicator approach.

In recent years, numerous papers have been published that consider indicators of cattle and pig farms biosecurity with the aim of improving it, and therefore their health and productivity. These indicators were presented in international projects published in indexed journals, as well as proceedings from international symposia. On-farm assessments usability of farm production biosecurity is generally well recognized. In the assessments of the farm biosecurity in different systems of rearing and accommodation, the need to determine new indicators in cattle and pig production was observed and discussed, based on a meta-analysis of previously published studies which include the most important papers in indexed journals and proceedings from international symposia that discussed the existing indicators. The analysis of the results of those studies will be used to determine the main characteristics of the existing new farm biosecurity indicators on cattle and pig farms with a focus on their applicability. The results, discussions and conclusions of those papers will be used to generate ideas to define biosecurity indicators on cattle and pig farms.

ABSTRACT. The welfare of animals in livestock production is of importance for the animals, the general public and the sustainability of animal agriculture. Ways of assessing welfare for sheep have been developed, but those available are complex, time-consuming and may not be appropriate for the different ways of keeping sheep, different sheep breeds and different climatic conditions. This doctoral thesis examines some welfare problems of sheep farming, including issues related to weather conditions, and devises and tests a simplified welfare evaluation system for sheep that is reliable, easy-to use and is focussed on actual problems. Findings include: Sheep prefer to be outside even in the winter, and even in the cool winters of Estonia, so we should allow sheep to have access to the outdoors, even in winter. In the summer, even in the relatively cool summers of northern Europe, sheep can suffer from heat stress. If sheep are at pasture during warm days they will use shade if it is available, and if they do not have access to shade they are more likely to suffer from the heat. So we should ensure that sheep have access to shade while at pasture. Sheep panting score was used to assess heat stress. This is a simple measure to observe and could be included in sheep welfare assessment protocols. The importance of different welfare indicators for sheep of different interest groups was investigated. In brief, farmers thought that body condition (too thin sheep) was the most important welfare indicator, whereas the general public thought that lameness was the most important. Female respondents thought that welfare issues were more significant than male respondents. A simplified protocol to assess the welfare of sheep was developed, using inputs from welfare scientists and from farmers themselves. This was demonstrated to be practical and easy to use. This could be used by welfare assessors but also by farmers to easily check the welfare of their own sheep themselves. | LÜHIKOKKUVÕTE. Loomade heaolu loomakasvatuses on oluline nii loomadele, laiemale üldsusele kui ka loomakasvatuse jätkusuutlikkusele. Lammaste heaolu hindamise viise on arvukalt välja töötatud, kuid sageli on need keerulised, aeganõudvad ega pruugi sobida erinevate lammaste pidamisviiside, erinevate lambatõugude ja erinevate kliimatingimuste jaoks. Käesolevas doktoritöös vaadeldakse mõningaid lambakasvatuse heaoluprobleeme, sh ilmastikuoludega seotud küsimusi ning töötatakse välja ja testitakse lammaste heaolu hindamise lihtsustatud süsteemi, mis oleks usaldusväärne, hõlpsasti kasutatav ja konkreetsele probleemile keskenduv. Uurimistulemused: Lambad eelistavad viibida õues ka talvel ja ka Eesti jahedatel talvedel. Seega peaksime võimaldama lammastel ka talvel õues viibida. Suvel, isegi Põhja-Euroopa suhteliselt jahedatel suvedel, võivad lambad kannatada kuumastressi all. Kui lambad on soojadel päevadel karjamaal, otsivad nad päikesepaiste eest varju, kui see on saadaval. Kui neil pole varjumisvõimalust, kannatavad lambad suurema tõenäosusega kuumuse käes. Seega peaksime tagama, et lammastel oleks karjamaal juurdepääs varjule. Kuumastressi hindamiseks määrati lammastel hingeldusskoor. Seda on lihtne määrata ja selle võiks lisada lammaste heaolu hindamise protokollidesse. Uuriti erinevate lammaste heaolunäitajate olulisust erinevate huvirühmade suhtumisele heaolu mõjutavatesse teguritesse. Lühidalt öeldes pidasid farmerid kõige olulisemaks heaolunäitajaks lammaste toitumust (lahjunud lambad), laiem avalikkus aga longete esinemist lammastel. Naissoost vastajad võrreldes meesvastajatega pidasid heaoluküsimusi olulisemaks. Töötati välja teadlaste ja farmerite poolt välja pakutud näitajate alusel lihtsustatud lammaste heaolu hindamise protokoll, mida on praktiline ja lihtne kasutada. Seda võiksid kasutada lammaste heaolu hindajad, aga ka loomaomanikud, et ise hõlpsasti oma lammaste heaolu kontrollida.

The demand for food continues to increase as population growth concerns the Indonesian government, as stated in the second goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely zero hunger. The National Food Agency (BPN) uses the Food Security Index (IKP) to monitor food security conditions in Indonesia's district/city and provincial levels. Based on the BPN data, most districts/cities in The Land of Papua (so called Irian Province before the year 2000) are food insecure. However, the IKP has a weakness in the subjectivity of determining weights so that it can disguise the failure of a program or exaggerate a success. The model-based clustering (MBC) method can measure the food security of districts/cities in this area based on food security indicators. However, the data conditions are generally not multivariate distributed, and there are many outliers, so this study used MBC with multivariate t distribution because it is more robust. The best model was obtained with two clusters based on the largest Bayesian Information Criterion value. Cluster 1, located in the mountains and islands such as Nduga, Intan Jaya, Mamberamo Tengah, Puncak, and Lanny Jaya, had low food security, low indicator achievements with high poverty characteristics, many households with a portion of household expenditure on the food of more than 65%, low access to electricity and clean water, low life expectancy and average years of schooling for women, and the percentage of stunted toddlers. Meanwhile, Cluster 2, areas with high food security, had the opposite condition. Keywords: food security, model-based clustering, multivariate t distribution, Land of Papua

Abstract Background Grasslands provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ESs). However, there is currently no method for easily diagnosing the level of ESs produced. Our aim was to develop ES indicators based on botanical surveys, which are readily available data and integrative of grassland spatiotemporal variability. Methods Based on academic knowledge and expertise, we identified several simple vegetation criteria that we aggregated using a multicriteria analysis tool to construct indicators of the level of ESs provided by grasslands. In this study, the indicators were calculated from over 2000 botanical surveys spread over a wide biogeographical gradient. Results Analyses of correlation between the various indicators show that “forage supply” and “diversity conservation” were not correlated. “Forage availability” and “nitrogen availability for the vegetation” were positively linked together and negatively linked to the robustness of the plant community to extreme events. A temporal approach highlights that the “biodiversity conservation” score decreased from 1970 to 2010 and that “nitrogen availability for the vegetation” was lower in 1970 and 1980 than in 2000 and 2010. Conclusions These results show that our aggregation method based on a large data set of botanical surveys could be appropriate for studying temporal dynamics of ESs.

Background This study aimed to validate slaughterhouse indicators collected during meat inspection as an alternative to on-farm animal welfare indicators. For this purpose, the assessments of twelve on-farm and seven slaughterhouse indicators of 628 pigs from three different farms were combined into three indices, differentiated between on-farm and slaughterhouse: (1) limb health, (2) other organ health, and (3) respiratory health. At first, an assessment at animal-level using agreement parameters was carried out to ascertain whether the same welfare or health issues were identified on-farm and at slaughterhouse, taking the production period (farrowing, rearing and fattening period) and the last weeks before slaughtering into account. Second, the connection of slaughterhouse findings on the individual on-farm health indices was examined using logistic regressions, to determine whether certain welfare issues can be better monitored using slaughterhouse indicators. Results Acceptable agreement was determined using the Prevalence-Adjusted Bias-Adjusted Kappa (PABAK) for the farrowing and fattening period, but not for the rearing period. A more detailed analysis of the weeks before slaughter shows that there is still a poor agreement 8 weeks before slaughter and an acceptable agreement 4 weeks before slaughter. This indicated the slaughterhouse indicators pneumonia, pleuritis and pericarditis as possible estimators of fever and deviant behavior on-farm and the slaughterhouse indicators bursitis and joint inflammations as possible estimators of lameness. In the second part of the analysis, the connection of slaughterhouse findings on the individual on-farm health indices was investigated; a significant influence of the farm on the limb and respiratory indices and no significant influence of the slaughterhouse findings could be determined, provided that all weekly assessments during the lifetime of the pigs have been taken into account. However, an influence of the slaughterhouse findings on the respiratory index and on the other organ index could be determined if only the weekly assessments four and eight weeks before slaughter, respectively, were taken into account. Conclusions In general, the possible suitable indicators detected by the PABAK, could replace some health-related indicators but a complete substitution of on-farm welfare assessment is not possible. In addition, the traceability over time must be investigated further.

International audience | Grasslands provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ESs). However, there is currently no method for easily diagnosing the level of ESs produced. Our aim was to develop ES indicators based on botanical surveys, which are readily available data and integrative of grassland spatiotemporal variability. Methods Based on academic knowledge and expertise, we identified several simple vegetation criteria that we aggregated using a multicriteria analysis tool to construct indicators of the level of ESs provided by grasslands. In this study, the indicators were calculated from over 2000 botanical surveys spread over a wide biogeographical gradient. Results Analyses of correlation between the various indicators show that “forage supply” and “diversity conservation” were not correlated. “Forage availability” and “nitrogen availability for the vegetation” were positively linked together and negatively linked to the robustness of the plant community to extreme events. A temporal approach highlights that the “biodiversity conservation” score decreased from 1970 to 2010 and that “nitrogen availability for the vegetation” was lower in 1970 and 1980 than in 2000 and 2010. Conclusions These results show that our aggregation method based on a large data set of botanical surveys could be appropriate for studying temporal dynamics of ESs.