Agriculture is challenged by large scale issues, like impacts of land system changes on the prese... more Agriculture is challenged by large scale issues, like impacts of land system changes on the preservation of environmental resources, urging agronomy to evolve. Landscape agronomy has been proposed as new perspective to address these issues (Benoît, Rizzo et al. 2012). It stressed the need for developing spatially-explicit modeling and assessment of agricultural activities at spatial levels encompassing the farm and its contexts. In line with this, we aimed at comparing two empirical studies whose common purpose was to characterize the landscape organization of agricultural land uses within a hydrological spatial framework. In particular, primary catchments were aggregated or segmented according to land use dynamics, stressing out the role of crops and meadows dynamics at different stream order levels (see Strahler, 1957). Both studies had thus to face difficulties at retrieving datasets to describe agriculture at wide spatial levels over long periods.[...]
Several interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g., landscape agronomy, land system science, ecoagricul... more Several interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g., landscape agronomy, land system science, ecoagriculture) urge agronomy to contextualize the characterization of agricultural activities within the land management system. This challenges the discipline to scale up the analysis of agricultural dynamics from farm to landscape levels, where conflicting choices may emerge about the management of natural resources. Shortcoming of data covering large areas, especially about farming practices and decision-making processes, is a major constraint. Nevertheless, we consider that segmenting the land according to the observed land cover sequences can eventually incorporate a relevant part of the farmers' medium-term decision-making processes, influenced for instance by climate changes or territorial conflicts related to local resources. Furthermore, focusing on land cover sequences may provide a consistent target of analysis across multiple scales. Our aim is to discuss the relevance of a data-m...
All stakeholders, from consumers to regulators are focusing their demand on reducing the environm... more All stakeholders, from consumers to regulators are focusing their demand on reducing the environmental impact of French viticulture, but not at the expense of the quality of the wine. After presenting these impacts, the authors expose the Life Cycle Assessment method. They propose an approach to adapt the method to assess environmental impacts in Loire Valley PDO viticulture, in the frame of an evaluation of compatibility between qualitative and environmental objectives of wine grapes production. The limits of the system considered are explained and the choice of functional unit and its importance in viticultural context are discussed. Tous les acteurs, du consommateur au législateur imposent plus que jamais à la viticulture de prendre en compte ses impacts environnementaux tout en produisant des vins de qualité. Après avoir présenté ces impacts, les auteurs exposent la méthode de l’Analyse du Cycle de Vie. Ils proposent une démarche pour son adaptation pour évaluer les impacts envi...
As agronomists, we are concerned by the landscapes seen as a result of human decisions. So, lands... more As agronomists, we are concerned by the landscapes seen as a result of human decisions. So, landscape is for us human-made and the main driving forces of landscape design processes are farming systems. In this way, landscape is designed by the farming systems in a complex relationship with the land. Just like ecologists twenty years ago developed a trend of ecology focusing on landscape ecology, we propose to create a new trend in agronomic research: landscape agronomy.
Sheep meat production in France is characterized by large flocks and a limited supply of labour. ... more Sheep meat production in France is characterized by large flocks and a limited supply of labour. Digestive-tract strongyles are considered as one of the main health problems and control relies mostly on the use of anthelminthics, although resistance to at least the benzimidazoles is increasing. We conducted interviews on nine conventional and seven organic farms regarding whether an anthelmintic targeted selective treatment program could fit within the operations of the farms. In addition, necropsies of lambs were performed on three organic farms, and faecal egg counts and small lungworm counts were performed on all farms in autumn in ewes. Each interview consisted of an open discussion on sheep health and was terminated with comments on digestive-tract helminth infection as detected in parallel with the interview. Factors likely to affect the adoption of the targeted selective treatment approach were subjected to cluster analysis. Conventional farms were mostly advised by veterinar...
During prolonged strenuous exercise, racehorses can experience acidemia. To counteract this pheno... more During prolonged strenuous exercise, racehorses can experience acidemia. To counteract this phenomenon, trainers can administer blood alkalizing agents that raise the plasma pH and total carbon dioxide (TCO2) concentration. In Illinois, the administrative threshold for TCO2 in plasma is 37.0 mmol/L. Because accuracy in the reported measurement of TCO2 must be ensured, uncertainty measurements are often issued alongside the reported concentrations. We report a validated method for measuring TCO2 levels in equine plasma using the Beckman UniCel DxC 600. A six-point calibration curve ranging from 5 to 50 mmol/L is analyzed along with controls at four TCO2 levels with each set of samples. Using this method, we collected data from 5,199 race samples during 2012, with 134 being from thoroughbred horses and 5,065 from standardbred horses. During method validation, uncertainty was determined using the simplified Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement approach and was found to...
Clenbuterol (CLE) is used in horses as a bronchodilator and for its anabolic steroid-like effects... more Clenbuterol (CLE) is used in horses as a bronchodilator and for its anabolic steroid-like effects. CLE is a Class 3 drug according to current Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Uniform Classification Guidelines. The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium recommended a urine CLE threshold of 140 pg/mL after careful scientific review of the results of studies describing the disposition of CLE in the horse and this threshold was adopted by the ARCI. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was previously used to screen samples for CLE in Illinois, but could not detect such low concentrations in urine. Thus, a liquid-liquid extraction of CLE from urine followed by quantification by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed and validated. Method validation included testing stability, ion suppression and enhancement, precision, accuracy and uncertainty. Intra-, interday and total precision and accuracy were calculated for each control and found to be wi...
A software package is presented here to predict the fate of nitrogen fertilizers and the transpor... more A software package is presented here to predict the fate of nitrogen fertilizers and the transport of nitrate from the rooting zone of agricultural areas to surface water and groundwater in the Seine basin, taking into account the long residence times of water and nitrate in the unsaturated and aquifer systems. Information on pedological characteristics, land use and farming practices is used to determine the spatial units to be considered. These data are converted into input data for the crop model STICS which simulates the water and nitrogen balances in the soil-plant system with a daily time-step. A spatial application of STICS has been derived at the catchment scale which computes the water and nitrate fluxes at the bottom of the rooting zone. These fluxes are integrated into a surface and groundwater coupled model MODCOU which calculates the daily water balance in the hydrological system, the flow in the rivers and the piezometric variations in the aquifers, using standard clim...
ABSTRACT Agriculture faces big challenges, such as feeding a growing population and providing an ... more ABSTRACT Agriculture faces big challenges, such as feeding a growing population and providing an increasing amount of biomass for energy production. Land is though a limited resource and intensification of agricultural practices is deprecated because of the negative impacts on natural resources. Effective answers should therefore be fostered by the development of smarter spatial configurations of agricultural activities. The improvement of farming systems accordingly requires agronomy to interact with geography and other disciplines that deal with spatially-explicit aspects of agricultural land management. Different research approaches have supported so far agronomy in the development of a landscape approach. In this paper we focus on the interactions with geography fostering the enhancement of a common language about the way farming practices are observed and understood by the two disciplines. For that, we compare some land management units, identified in recent agronomic literature, with the aim to facilitate future synergies on a landscape oriented research about farming system design. We conclude arguing for the enhancement of the interface between agronomy and geography and discussing some perspectives on the use of the various land management units into the design of future farming systems with a landscape approach. Link to the FULL paper: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00167223.2013.849391
... Developed as a result of the increased attention given to localised environmental problems re... more ... Developed as a result of the increased attention given to localised environmental problems resulting from farming activity, this emerging discipline combines the concepts and approaches of geographers with those of agronomists (Benoît and Papy, 1997). ...
... 191, Issue 1, 27 January 2006, Pages 170-185 Selected Papers from the Fourth International Wo... more ... 191, Issue 1, 27 January 2006, Pages 170-185 Selected Papers from the Fourth International Workshop on Environmental Applications of Machine ... Keywords: Data mining; Land use; Crop sequences; Hidden Markov models. ... The relationships between land and agriculture 2.2. ...
Agriculture is challenged by large scale issues, like impacts of land system changes on the prese... more Agriculture is challenged by large scale issues, like impacts of land system changes on the preservation of environmental resources, urging agronomy to evolve. Landscape agronomy has been proposed as new perspective to address these issues (Benoît, Rizzo et al. 2012). It stressed the need for developing spatially-explicit modeling and assessment of agricultural activities at spatial levels encompassing the farm and its contexts. In line with this, we aimed at comparing two empirical studies whose common purpose was to characterize the landscape organization of agricultural land uses within a hydrological spatial framework. In particular, primary catchments were aggregated or segmented according to land use dynamics, stressing out the role of crops and meadows dynamics at different stream order levels (see Strahler, 1957). Both studies had thus to face difficulties at retrieving datasets to describe agriculture at wide spatial levels over long periods.[...]
Several interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g., landscape agronomy, land system science, ecoagricul... more Several interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g., landscape agronomy, land system science, ecoagriculture) urge agronomy to contextualize the characterization of agricultural activities within the land management system. This challenges the discipline to scale up the analysis of agricultural dynamics from farm to landscape levels, where conflicting choices may emerge about the management of natural resources. Shortcoming of data covering large areas, especially about farming practices and decision-making processes, is a major constraint. Nevertheless, we consider that segmenting the land according to the observed land cover sequences can eventually incorporate a relevant part of the farmers' medium-term decision-making processes, influenced for instance by climate changes or territorial conflicts related to local resources. Furthermore, focusing on land cover sequences may provide a consistent target of analysis across multiple scales. Our aim is to discuss the relevance of a data-m...
All stakeholders, from consumers to regulators are focusing their demand on reducing the environm... more All stakeholders, from consumers to regulators are focusing their demand on reducing the environmental impact of French viticulture, but not at the expense of the quality of the wine. After presenting these impacts, the authors expose the Life Cycle Assessment method. They propose an approach to adapt the method to assess environmental impacts in Loire Valley PDO viticulture, in the frame of an evaluation of compatibility between qualitative and environmental objectives of wine grapes production. The limits of the system considered are explained and the choice of functional unit and its importance in viticultural context are discussed. Tous les acteurs, du consommateur au législateur imposent plus que jamais à la viticulture de prendre en compte ses impacts environnementaux tout en produisant des vins de qualité. Après avoir présenté ces impacts, les auteurs exposent la méthode de l’Analyse du Cycle de Vie. Ils proposent une démarche pour son adaptation pour évaluer les impacts envi...
As agronomists, we are concerned by the landscapes seen as a result of human decisions. So, lands... more As agronomists, we are concerned by the landscapes seen as a result of human decisions. So, landscape is for us human-made and the main driving forces of landscape design processes are farming systems. In this way, landscape is designed by the farming systems in a complex relationship with the land. Just like ecologists twenty years ago developed a trend of ecology focusing on landscape ecology, we propose to create a new trend in agronomic research: landscape agronomy.
Sheep meat production in France is characterized by large flocks and a limited supply of labour. ... more Sheep meat production in France is characterized by large flocks and a limited supply of labour. Digestive-tract strongyles are considered as one of the main health problems and control relies mostly on the use of anthelminthics, although resistance to at least the benzimidazoles is increasing. We conducted interviews on nine conventional and seven organic farms regarding whether an anthelmintic targeted selective treatment program could fit within the operations of the farms. In addition, necropsies of lambs were performed on three organic farms, and faecal egg counts and small lungworm counts were performed on all farms in autumn in ewes. Each interview consisted of an open discussion on sheep health and was terminated with comments on digestive-tract helminth infection as detected in parallel with the interview. Factors likely to affect the adoption of the targeted selective treatment approach were subjected to cluster analysis. Conventional farms were mostly advised by veterinar...
During prolonged strenuous exercise, racehorses can experience acidemia. To counteract this pheno... more During prolonged strenuous exercise, racehorses can experience acidemia. To counteract this phenomenon, trainers can administer blood alkalizing agents that raise the plasma pH and total carbon dioxide (TCO2) concentration. In Illinois, the administrative threshold for TCO2 in plasma is 37.0 mmol/L. Because accuracy in the reported measurement of TCO2 must be ensured, uncertainty measurements are often issued alongside the reported concentrations. We report a validated method for measuring TCO2 levels in equine plasma using the Beckman UniCel DxC 600. A six-point calibration curve ranging from 5 to 50 mmol/L is analyzed along with controls at four TCO2 levels with each set of samples. Using this method, we collected data from 5,199 race samples during 2012, with 134 being from thoroughbred horses and 5,065 from standardbred horses. During method validation, uncertainty was determined using the simplified Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement approach and was found to...
Clenbuterol (CLE) is used in horses as a bronchodilator and for its anabolic steroid-like effects... more Clenbuterol (CLE) is used in horses as a bronchodilator and for its anabolic steroid-like effects. CLE is a Class 3 drug according to current Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Uniform Classification Guidelines. The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium recommended a urine CLE threshold of 140 pg/mL after careful scientific review of the results of studies describing the disposition of CLE in the horse and this threshold was adopted by the ARCI. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was previously used to screen samples for CLE in Illinois, but could not detect such low concentrations in urine. Thus, a liquid-liquid extraction of CLE from urine followed by quantification by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed and validated. Method validation included testing stability, ion suppression and enhancement, precision, accuracy and uncertainty. Intra-, interday and total precision and accuracy were calculated for each control and found to be wi...
A software package is presented here to predict the fate of nitrogen fertilizers and the transpor... more A software package is presented here to predict the fate of nitrogen fertilizers and the transport of nitrate from the rooting zone of agricultural areas to surface water and groundwater in the Seine basin, taking into account the long residence times of water and nitrate in the unsaturated and aquifer systems. Information on pedological characteristics, land use and farming practices is used to determine the spatial units to be considered. These data are converted into input data for the crop model STICS which simulates the water and nitrogen balances in the soil-plant system with a daily time-step. A spatial application of STICS has been derived at the catchment scale which computes the water and nitrate fluxes at the bottom of the rooting zone. These fluxes are integrated into a surface and groundwater coupled model MODCOU which calculates the daily water balance in the hydrological system, the flow in the rivers and the piezometric variations in the aquifers, using standard clim...
ABSTRACT Agriculture faces big challenges, such as feeding a growing population and providing an ... more ABSTRACT Agriculture faces big challenges, such as feeding a growing population and providing an increasing amount of biomass for energy production. Land is though a limited resource and intensification of agricultural practices is deprecated because of the negative impacts on natural resources. Effective answers should therefore be fostered by the development of smarter spatial configurations of agricultural activities. The improvement of farming systems accordingly requires agronomy to interact with geography and other disciplines that deal with spatially-explicit aspects of agricultural land management. Different research approaches have supported so far agronomy in the development of a landscape approach. In this paper we focus on the interactions with geography fostering the enhancement of a common language about the way farming practices are observed and understood by the two disciplines. For that, we compare some land management units, identified in recent agronomic literature, with the aim to facilitate future synergies on a landscape oriented research about farming system design. We conclude arguing for the enhancement of the interface between agronomy and geography and discussing some perspectives on the use of the various land management units into the design of future farming systems with a landscape approach. Link to the FULL paper: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00167223.2013.849391
... Developed as a result of the increased attention given to localised environmental problems re... more ... Developed as a result of the increased attention given to localised environmental problems resulting from farming activity, this emerging discipline combines the concepts and approaches of geographers with those of agronomists (Benoît and Papy, 1997). ...
... 191, Issue 1, 27 January 2006, Pages 170-185 Selected Papers from the Fourth International Wo... more ... 191, Issue 1, 27 January 2006, Pages 170-185 Selected Papers from the Fourth International Workshop on Environmental Applications of Machine ... Keywords: Data mining; Land use; Crop sequences; Hidden Markov models. ... The relationships between land and agriculture 2.2. ...
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Papers by Marc Benoît