Effects of changing water availability on land use in irrigated mountain oases of Al Jabal Al Akhdar, northern Oman

In Oman, during the last three decades, agricultural water use and groundwater extraction has dramatically increased to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and major changes in lifestyle. This has triggered agricultural land-use changes which have been poorly investigated. In view of this our study aimed at analysing patterns of shortterm land-use changes (2007-2009) in the five irrigated mountain oases of Ash Sharayjah, Al’Ayn, Al’Aqr, Qasha’ and Masayrat ar Ruwajah situated in the northern Oman Hajar mountains of Al Jabal Al Akhdar where competitive uses of irrigation water are particularly apparent. Comprehensive GIS-based field surveys were conducted over three years to record changes in terrace use in these five oases where farmers have traditionally adapted to rain-derived variations of irrigation water supply, e.g. by leaving agricultural terraces of annual crops uncultivated in drought years. Results show that the area occupied with field crops decreased in the dry years of 2008 and 2009 for all oases. In Ash Sharayjah, terrace areas grown with field crops declined from 4.7 ha (32.4 % of total terrace area) in 2007 to 3.1 ha (21.6 %) in 2008 and 3.0 ha (20.5 %) in 2009. Similarly, the area proportion of field crops shrunk in Al’Ayn, Qasha’ and Masayrat from 35.2, 36.3 and 49.6 % in 2007 to 19.8, 8.5 and 41.3 % in 2009, respectively. In Al’Aqr, the area of field crops slightly increased from 0.3 ha (17.0 %) in 2007 to 0.7 (39.1 %) in 2008, and decreased to 0.5 ha (28.8 %) in 2009. During the same period annual dry matter yields of the cash crop garlic in Ash Sharayjah increased from 16.3 t ha-1 in 2007 to 19.8 t ha-1 in 2008 and 18.3 t ha-1 in 2009, while the same crop yielded only 0.4, 1.6 and 1.1 t ha-1 in Masayrat. In 2009, the total estimated agricultural area of the new town of Sayh Qatanah above the five oases was around 13.5 ha. Our results suggest that scarcity of irrigation water as a result of low precipitation and increased irrigation and home water consumption in the new urban settlements above the five oases have led to major shifts in the land-use pattern and increasingly threaten the centuries-long tradition and drought-resilience of agriculture in the oases of the studied watershed.

Sustainability of Small Scale Farming in a Mountain Region: Case Study of the Khaling Rai Population of the Solukhumbu, Nepal

The Khaling Rai live in a remote area of the mountain region of Nepal. Subsistence farming is central to their livelihood strategy, the sustainability of which was examined in this study. The sustainable livelihood approach was identified as a suitable theoretical framework to analyse the assets of the Khaling Rai. A baseline study was conducted using indicators to assess the outcome of the livelihood strategies under the three pillars of sustainability – economic, social and environmental. Relationships between key factors were analysed. The outcome showed that farming fulfils their basic need of food security, with self-sufficiency in terms of seeds, organic fertilisers and tools. Agriculture is almost totally non-monitized: crops are grown mainly for household consumption. However, the crux faced by the Khaling Rai community is the need to develop high value cash crops in order to improve their livelihoods while at the same time maintaining food security. Institutional support in this regard was found to be lacking. At the same time there is declining soil fertility and an expanding population, which results in smaller land holdings. The capacity to absorb risk is inhibited by the small size of the resource base and access only to small local markets. A two-pronged approach is recommended. Firstly, the formation of agricultural cooperative associations in the area. Secondly, through them the selection of key personnel to be put forward for training in the adoption of improved low-cost technologies for staple crops and in the introduction of appropriate new cash crops.

Cold mountain : filme y novela. La tradición clásica en una historia de la Guerra de Secesión.

Resumen en inglés

The scots pine.

Material de apoyo para la enseñanza de la lectura en la educación primaria. El texto tiene dos niveles de dificultad y dos tamaños de letra. El segundo nivel es para lectores más expertos. Ilustrado con una selección de fotografías para animar a los niños a hacer sus propias observaciones del mundo natural. Apropiado para niños a partir de seis años.

Beetle boy : inspired by Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

Una adaptación de La Metamorfosis de Kafka, da pie a esta historia de invisibilidad en la infancia y la capacidad de adaptación para seguir adelante. Gregory Sampson se despierta una mañana y descubre que se ha convertido en un gigante escarabajo. Desconcertado por su extraña situación, Gregory hace recortes en su camisa para sacar los dos nuevos brazos y considera que las piernas extras le ayudarán a contar en clase de matemáticas. Nadie, con excepción de su mejor amigo, advierte su inexplicable transformación. Él sólo necesita atención amorosa, y la única manera que puede llegar a tenerla es subiéndose al techo de su dormitorio y dejar que pasen las horas.

Bobby, Charlton and the mountain.

Trata de la historia de una familia loca por el fútbol y de los sentimientos de amor y protección de la hermana para su hermano pequeño, que tiene el síndrome Down. Es divertida, nunca paternalista y tiene un gran final.

BeETLe: Herramienta ETL geo-espacial libre

Las herramientas ETL (Extract, Transform, Load – extraer, transformar, cargar) permiten modelizar flujos de datos, facilitando la ejecución automática de procesos repetitivos. El intercambio de información entre dos modelos de datos heterogéneos es un claro ejemplo del tipo de tareas que pueden abordarse con software ETL. El proyecto Kettle es una herramienta ETL con licencia LGPL (Library General Public License) que utiliza técnicas de computación grid (ejecución paralela y distribuida) para poder procesar grandes cantidades de datos en un tiempo reducido. Kettle combina una potente ejecución en modo servidor con una intuitiva herramienta de escritorio para modelar los procesos y configurar los parámetros de ejecución. GeoKettle es una extensión de Kettle, que añade la posibilidad de tratar datos con componente geográfica, si bien está limitado a datos vectoriales y a ciertas operaciones espaciales muy concreta. El Centro Temático Europeo de Usos del Suelo e Información Espacial (ETC-LUSI) está impulsando un proyecto complementario, llamado BeETLe, que pretende ampliar drásticamente las capacidades de análisis y transformación espacial de GeoKettle. Para ello se ha elegido el proyecto Sextante, una librería de análisis espacial que incluye más de doscientos algoritmos ráster y vectoriales. La intención del proyecto BeETLe es integrar el conjunto de algoritmos de Sextante en GeoKettle, de forma que estén disponibles como transformaciones de GeoKettle. Las principales características de la herramienta BeETLe incluyen: automatización de procesos de análisis espacial o de transformaciones repetitivas de datos espaciales, ejecución paralela y distribuida (grid computing), capacidad para procesar grandes cantidades de datos sin limitaciones de memoria, y soporte de datos ráster y vectorial. Los usuarios actuales de Sextante descubrirán que BeETLe les propone una forma de trabajo sencilla e intuitiva, que añade a Sextante toda la potencia que ofrecen las herramientas ETL para procesar y transformar información en bases de datos

Building wood debris piles benefits avian seed dispersers in burned and logged Mediterranean pine forests

Salvage logging is a common practice carried out in burned forests worldwide, and intended to mitigate the economic losses caused by wildfires. Logging implies an additional disturbance occurring shortly after fire, although its ecological effects can be somewhat mitigated by leaving wood debris on site. The composition of the bird community and its capacity to provide ecosystem services such as seed dispersal of fleshy-fruited plants have been shown to be affected by postfire logging. We assessed the effects of the habitat structure resulting from different postfire management practices on the bird community, in three burned pine forests in Catalonia (western Mediterranean). For this purpose, we focused on the group of species that is responsible for seed dispersal, a process which takes place primarily during the winter in the Mediterranean basin. In addition, we assessed microhabitat selection by seed disperser birds in such environments in relation to management practices. Our results showed a significant, positive relationship between the density of wood debris piles and the abundance of seed disperser birds. Furthermore, such piles were the preferred microhabitat of these species. This reveals an important effect of forest management on seed disperser birds, which is likely to affect the dynamics of bird-dependent seed dispersal. Thus, building wood debris piles can be a useful practice for the conservation of both the species and their ecosystem services, while also being compatible with timber harvesting

Trace elements biogeochemistry in high mountain lake catchments: identifying anthropogenic versus natural components from the atmospheric contamination legacy in remote natural areas

Human activities have been interfering with the natural biogeochemical cycles of trace elements since the ancient civilizations. Although they are inaccessible and remote, high mountain lake catchments are irrefutably trace-element contaminated by anthropogenic emissions, which can travel by long-range atmospheric transport before they are deposited. This has been revealed by several natural archives. High mountain lake catchments are thus excellent sentinels of long-range contamination. Continuous accumulation can lead to a build up of potentially toxic trace elements in these remote, or relatively remote, ecosystems. The thesis focuses on the biogeochemistry of a suite of trace elements of environmental concern (Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd and Pb) in Pyrenean lake catchments, with special emphasis on discerning the “natural” components from the “anthropogenic” contributions. Five other metallic elements (Al, Fe, Ti, Mn and Zr) have also been studied to trace natural fluxes and biogeochemical processes within the lake catchment systems.