Risken för översvämningar runt Mälaren idag är stor, vilket riskerar att drabba både städer och stora områden med jordbruksmark i Mälardalen. I samband med att Slussen i centrala Stockholm byggs om kommer regleringen av Mälaren att ändras. Den nya regleringen innebär bland annat att avtappningskapaciteten ökas, vilket syftar till att minska risken för översvämningar. Syftet med detta arbete har varit att redogöra för vilka konsekvenser olika stora översvämningar i Mälaren skulle kunna få på åkermark i Mälardalen samt att jämföra konsekvenserna vid den nuvarande och den nya regleringen. För att göra detta har kartor över översvämningar vid ett 10 000-årsflöde för de två regleringarna producerats med hjälp av geografiska informationssystem (GIS). Dessa har sedan använts för att beräkna arean översvämmad åkermark. Översvämningars varaktighet vid 100-, 1 000- och 10 000-årsflöden i sjön har även beräknats. Resultaten visar att betydligt större områden med åkermark skulle översvämmas vid ett 10 000-årsflöde med den nuvarande regleringen jämfört med den nya regleringen samt att varaktigheten hos en översvämning vid 100-, 1 000- och 10 000-årsflöden förkortas avsevärt med den nya regleringen. Eftersom långvariga översvämningar innebär större konsekvenser på åkermark än kortvariga översvämningar blir konsekvenserna på åkermark mindre med den nya regleringen jämfört med den nuvarande regleringen. / The risk of flooding around Lake Mälaren today is great and both cities and large areas of agricultural land in Mälardalen are at risk. When Slussen in central Stockholm is rebuilt, the regulation of Lake Mälaren will be altered. Changes in the new regulation include increase of the discharge capacity, which aims to reduce the risk of flooding. This report aims to describe which consequences floods in Lake Mälaren might have on arable land in Mälardalen and to compare the consequences of the current and the new regulation. To do this maps of the extent of the 10,000-year flood for the two regulations have been produced using geographic information systems (GIS). These maps have then been used to calculate the flooded area of arable land. Also the duration of the 100-, 1,000- and 10,000-year floods in the lake have been calculated. The results show that much larger areas of arable land would be flooded at a 10,000-year flood with the current regulation compared to the new regulation and that the duration of the 100-, 1,000- and 10,000-year floods will be considerably shorter with the new regulation. Because long-term flooding means greater impacts on arable land than short-term flooding, the impact on arable land will be less with the new regulation compared to the current regulation.

The purpose of this thesis is to elucidate the importance of the enclosure movement for the agricultural development in the area of Mälardalen, Sweden. This is done through a case study of Torstuna härad between the years 1750-1914 by sampling five points in time. By studying the long term development of land reclamation and its correlation with meadow acreage, crop rotation and animal stock the thesis argues that the the radical enclosures in the 1850’s was a course of action to regain opportunities for agricultural expansion. The most intense period of land reclamation was after the implementation of radical enclosure which brought with it a change from communal land use to private ownership. Private property rights meant a new set of advantages for the individual farmer to plan and invest and balance the arable and the meadow.

The Master´s thesis is focused on optimizing the procedure for the transfer of ownership of agricultural land, which will also form the aim of this work. The theoretical part consists of information on the acquisition of property rights to agricultural land. They also described the basic concepts related to the issue. The practical part is formed at the beginning of the analysis of the situation on the market of agricultural land type arable land species in the selected area. It is followed by the creation of objective work, which is creating the optimal procedure for the transfer of ownership of agricultural land. Conclusion the Master´s thesis contains a description of differences in the transfer of ownership of practice and also a summary of the law legislation in the Czech and Slovak Republics

The main topic of the dissertation thesis is the evaluation of the influence of socio- geographical exposure and other factors (natural: altitude, inclination of slopes, productivity of land) on the extensification processes of the land use in Czechia in the period of more than 160 years, 1845-2010. Emphasis is also placed on the associated losses of agricultural and arable land, given that afforestation and increase of grassland took place essentially at the expense of that land. The main data source is the "Database of long-term land use changes in Czechia (1845-2010)", LUCC Czechia, based on cadastral records. It is a detailed monitoring which covers almost 9,000 so-called stable territorial units. Both the extensification processes and the overall intensity of land use (using the coefficient of ecological importance) are evaluated. Given that most of the Czechia's territory is still used as agricultural land, the thesis also includes an overview of the evolution of the selected agricultural intensity indicators. Attention is likewise paid to the wider context of land use changes at the European level. The essential part of the thesis is to build models of socio-geographical exposure of Czechia, which are comparable with the data on land use in the time horizons of 1845, 1896, 1948, 1990 and...

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the climate impact from different arable land use options and protein feeds aimed for cattle. This has been made by executing two life cycle assessments (LCAs). The first LCA aimed to compare the following three arable land use options: Cultivation of wheat used for production of bioethanol, carbon dioxide and DDGS Cultivation of rapeseed used for production of RME, rapeseed meal and glycerine Fallow in the form of long-term grassland The second LCA aimed to compare the three protein feeds DDGS, rapeseed meal and soybean meal. In the LCA of arable land, the functional unit 1 ha arable land during one year was used and the LCA had a cradle-to-grave perspective. The LCA of protein feeds had the functional unit 100 kg digestible crude protein and had a cradle-to-gate perspective, hence the use and disposal phases of the feeds were excluded. Bioethanol, DDGS and carbon dioxide produced at Lantmännen Agroetanol, Norrköping, were investigated in this study. The production of RME, rapeseed meal and glycerine were considered to occur at a large-scale plant in Östergötland, but no site-specific data was used. Instead, general data of Swedish production was used in the assessment. The wheat and rapeseed cultivations were considered to take place at the same Swedish field as the fallow takes place. The protein feed DDGS was produced at Lantmännen Agroetanol and the rapeseed meal was assumed to be produced at a general large-scale plant in Sweden. In the soybean meal scenario, a general case for the Brazilian state Mato Grosso was assumed and no specific production site was investigated. Data required for the LCAs was retrieved from literature, the LCI database Ecoinvent and from Lantmännen Agroetanol. In the LCA of arable land use options, system expansion was used on all products produced to be able to compare the wheat and rapeseed scenarios with the fallow scenario. In the LCA of protein feeds, system expansion was used on co-products. The products in the arable land use options and the co-products in the protein feed scenarios are considered to replace the production and use of products on the market with the same function. The result shows that the best arable land use option from a climate change perspective is to cultivate wheat and produce bioethanol, carbon dioxide and DDGS. This is since wheat cultivation has a higher yield per hectare compared to rapeseed and therefore a bigger amount of fossil products and feed ingredients can be substituted. To have the arable land in fallow is the worst option from a climate change perspective, since no products are produced that can substitute alternative products. Furthermore, the result shows that DDGS and rapeseed meal are to prefer before soybean meal from a climate change perspective, since soybean meal has a higher climate impact than DDGS and rapeseed meal. This can be explained by the smaller share of co-products produced in the soybean meal scenario compared to the DDGS and rapeseed meal scenarios. Since the production and use of co-products leads to avoided greenhouse gas emissions (since they substitute alternatives), the amount of co-products being produced is an important factor. A sensitivity analysis was also executed testing different system boundaries and variables critical for the result in both LCAs. The conclusion of this study is that arable land should be used to cultivate wheat in order to reduce the total climate impact from arable land. Furthermore, it is favorable for the climate if DDGS or rapeseed meal are used as protein feeds instead of imported soybean meal.

No description available.

The thesis work was done as a part of the company's proposal writing work for the Horizon Europe projects, which is the European Union's key funding program for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion. The budget for this project call was €5 million and aimed towards demonstrating the possibilities of Photovoltaic thermal technologies (PVT), which will produce heat and electricity at the same time on agricultural land to combat climate change. The initial stage of the project, which the thesis work corresponds to, consists of the concept of implementing the objectives of the call and demonstrating how it could be achieved by forming a consortium of different companies, allocating the sites, possible applications of the PVT technology, understanding the plants which can grow in the relevant climate conditions under the shading of the panels. There are different companies who participate in the project call and, if they succeed, are liable to demonstrate the objectives of the call under the allocated budget and share the results with the European Union. The thesis work tried to focus on the company's objective for the call, which was to find out the suitable crops to be planted under the integrated PVT greenhouses, details on the weather conditions and applications of heat and electricity on the demonstration sites, i.e., Greece and Portugal. The emphasis was also given to creating a business canvas model and doing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to make a business plan for this project. In this project, an Absolicon X10 PVT collector has been proposed with thermal heat up to 75 ºC and electricity at 230V. The outcomes also showed that each PVT collector integrated into the greenhouse could produce 4.73 MWh/year of thermal energy and can supply 2.2 MWh/year of electrical energy, which can save up to 0.48 tons/year of oil equivalent and avoid 37.6 tons of CO2 emissions during its lifetime of 25 years compared to burning oil. Considering the weather conditions in Greece and Portugal and to make sure the plants do not need much shading, tomatoes, barley and cacao seeds were identified as the potential crops to be planted in the PVT-integrated greenhouses.

No description available.

The incorporation of cereal straw/stubble often immobilises nitrogen (N). This can help conserve N in soil in organic forms, thus reducing loss through leaching over dormant winter periods. However, N-depressions that arise during decomposition can reduce crop yield. The inclusion of a legume green manure can supply fixed-N, thus alleviating the low N availability to crops. In this study, the effect of lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) green manure incorporation on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) straw/stubble decomposition, and N availability was investigated. A field experiment was used to determine the effects of the green manure on decomposition. Decomposition of straw/stubble was monitored using the litterbag technique. Following green manure incorporation, soil cores were incubated in a glasshouse to determine mineral-N availability. Though not significant, the inclusion of lupin green manure seemed to increase the decomposition of straw/stubble during the growth period, then slowing it after its incorporation at 110 d. This was described by a logarithmic pattern of loss of - 4.97 g AFDW residue day⁻¹, with 60% remaining after 140 d. Treatments without lupin had a linear decomposition of - 0.12 g AFDW residue day⁻¹, with 49% remaining after 140 d. The loss of cellulose confirmed the differences in decomposition with the inclusion of lupin resulting in 2.79% less cellulose remaining in straw/stubble after 140 d compared to its exclusion. Lupin significantly increased pot oat N uptake and DM yield by 55 % and 46 %, respectively, compared to its exclusion. However, this effect was not observed in field sown wheat yields and the soil mineral-N measurements made. This study showed that the potential of lupin to increase straw/stubble decomposition by improving the retention and availability of N, leading to long-term yield benefits, needed further investigation.

Agricultural management is essential for achieving optimum crop production and maintaining soil quality. Soil microorganisms are responsible for nutrient cycling and are an important consideration for effective soil management. The overall goal of the present research was to better understand microbial communities in agricultural soils as they relate to soil management practices. For this, we evaluated the differential impact of two contrasting drainage practices on microbial community composition and characterized active denitrifiers from selected agricultural sites. Field drainage is important for crop growth in arable soils. Controlled and uncontrolled tile drainage practices maintain water in the field or fully drain it, respectively. Because soil water content influences nutrient concentration, moisture, and oxygen availability, the effects of these two disparate practices on microbial community composition was compared in paired fields that had diverse land management histories. Libraries of the 16S rRNA gene were generated from DNA from 168 soil samples collected from eight fields during the 2012 growing season. Paired-end sequencing using next-generation sequencing was followed by read assembly and multivariate statistical analyses. Results showed that drainage practice exerted no measureable effect on the bacterial communities. However, bacterial communities were impacted by plant cultivar and applied fertilizer, in addition to sampled soil depth. Indicator species were only recovered for depth; plant cultivar or applied fertilizer type had no strong and specific indicator species. Among indicator species for soil depth (30-90 cm) were Chloroflexi (Anaerolineae), Betaproteobacteria (Janthinobacterium, Herminiimonas, Rhodoferax, Polaromonas), Deltaproteobacteria (Anaeromyxobacter, Geobacter), Alphaproteobacteria (Novosphingobium, Rhodobacter), and Actinobacteria (Promicromonospora). Denitrification in agricultural fields transforms nitrogen applied as fertilizer, reduces crop production, and emits N2O, which is a potent greenhouse gas. Agriculture is the highest anthropogenic source of N2O, which underlines the importance of understanding the microbiology of denitrification for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by altered management practices. Existing denitrifier probes and primers are biased due to their development based mostly on sequence information from cultured denitrifiers. To circumvent this limitation, this study investigated active and uncultivated denitrifiers from two agricultural sites in Ottawa, Ontario. Using DNA stable-isotope probing, we enriched nucleic acids from active soil denitrifiers by exposing intact replicate soil cores to NO3- and 13C6-glucose under anoxic conditions using flow-through reactors, with parallel native substrate controls. Spectrophotometric chemistry assays and gas chromatography confirmed active NO3- depletion and N2O production, respectively. Duplicate flow-through reactors were sacrificed after one and four week incubation periods to assess temporal changes due to food web dynamics. Soil DNA was extracted and processed by density gradient ultracentrifugation, followed by fractionation to separate DNA contributed by active denitrifiers (i.e., “heavy” DNA) from that of the background community (i.e., “light” DNA). Light and heavy DNA samples were analyzed by paired-end sequencing of 16S rRNA genes using next-generation sequencing. Multivariate statistics of assembled 16S rRNA genes confirmed unique taxonomic representation in heavy fractions from flow-through reactors fed 13C6-glucose, which exceeded any site-specific or temporal shifts in putative denitrifiers. Based on high relative abundance in heavy DNA, labelled taxa affiliated with the Betaproteobacteria (71%; Janthinobacterium, Acidovorax, Azoarcus, Dechloromonas), Alphaproteobacteria (8%; Rhizobium), Gammaproteobacteria (4%; Pseudomonas), and Actinobacteria (4%; Streptomycetaceae). Metagenomic DNA from the original soil and recovered heavy fractions were subjected to next-generation sequencing and the results demonstrated enrichment of denitrification genes with taxonomic affiliations to Brucella, Ralstonia, and Chromobacterium in heavy fractions of flow-through reactors fed 13C6-glucose. The vast majority of heavy-DNA-associated nitrite-reductase reads annotated to the copper-containing form (nirK), rather than the heme-containing enzyme (nirS). Analysis of recovered nirK genes demonstrated low sequence identity across common primer-binding sites used for the detection and quantification of soil denitrifiers, indicating that these active denitrifiers would not have been detected in molecular surveys of these same soils.