Industrial Inputs Research Articles

The Effect of Industrial Intermediate Inputs on the Export Diversity of Chinese Enterprises

China has put forward the policy direction of domestic market integration in response to the volatile domestic and international political and economic environment. Meanwhile, enterprise export diversification is becoming the research frontier of the new trade theory (NTT). In order to make research on the factors affecting or determining export diversification in the contemporary context, this paper links the trend of domestic market integration with export diversification, and constructs a fixed-effects regression model using the Chinese industrial-enterprise customs matching database from 2000 to 2007 to study the relationship between industrial intermediate inputs and export diversification and the enterprise heterogeneity effects. According to the empirical results, it shows that the increase of intermediate inputs can promote the export diversification. The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that such kind of effect also varies depending on the differences in firm ownership, firm location, firm trade patterns, and capital intensity. In such a case, in order to complete the industrial upgrading of the domestic value chain and upgrade the export industrial structure under the trend of domestic market integration, it is necessary to pay attention to the liberalization of intermediate goods trade and the improvement of relevant policy conditions.

A Scoping Review of the Hospitality Industry and Tertiary Partnership to Prepare Work-ready Graduates

This paper is a literature review, aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the collaboration between the hospitality higher educational sector and the industry to prepare work-ready graduates. A scoping review of 111 research papers published between April 2000 and September 2021 in reputable hospitality and tourism journals was conducted. Research revealed different perceptions between industry employers, educators, and students about competencies required of entry-level hospitality employees. Previous studies confirmed the positive impact of the industry-university collaboration on enhancing hospitality graduates’ employability. The work-integrated model has been widely implemented to develop hospitality students’ skill sets. Thus, hospitality higher education institutions need to adapt to the constantly changing business environment and present graduates with sufficient industry knowledge and skills. This study adds to the current literature on hospitality competencies expected from tertiary education graduates and highlights the appropriate methods to ensure effective industry-academia partnership. Generally, hospitality students and educators place more value on industry knowledge and technical skills. Hospitality tertiary educators should, thus, seek industry inputs more proactively to redesign their education programs, and industry professionals should engage and offer more support to higher education institutions to raise the quality of potential candidates.

Assessment of Soybean Value Chain in North-Western Ethiopia

Soybean is one of the industrial crops that have been given high emphasis on GTP II to enhance its production and productivity through improved soybean varieties development and/or adaptation with different management and agronomic practices. Although Soybean has plenty importance to enhance soil fertility, source of nutrient to human and animals, main source of income to smallholder farmers and traders at household level as well as main source of income and foreign currency to Ethiopian economy as whole, smallholder farmers complain about its lowest output price relative to its production cost, other pulses and oil crops prices. This is due to one kilogram of soybean price could not cover the cost of one kilogram of faba bean, chicken pea, grass pea and other beans that purchased for “wet” purpose by selling soybean outputs. This research investigated the major opportunity and challenges of soybean production and marketing along value chain actors using focus group discussion, key informant interview and desk review. Storable ability, required less organic fertilizer, used as input for oil and feed industries and ongoing to enter ECX among major opportunity whereas low output price, poor linkage along value chain actors, lack of certified seed multiplier, limited usage of newly released improved soybean varieties were among major challenges of soybean sector. Therefore to stimulate the soybean sector GO and NGO should be focused on the strong linkage between soybean producers and oil and feed industries, soybean marketing agents and soybean seed multipliers with price ceiling. Keywords: Soybean, Production, Marketing Focus group and Key informant Interview DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/14-9-02 Publication date: May 31 st 2023

Research on the Impact of Industrial Intermediate Inputs on Export Diversification of Chinese Enterprises

China has put forward the policy direction of domestic market integration in response to the volatile domestic and international political and economic environment. Meanwhile, enterprise export diversification is becoming the research frontier of the new trade theory (NTT). In order to make research on the factors affecting or determining export diversification in the contemporary context, this paper links the trend of domestic market integration with export diversification, and constructs a fixed-effects regression model using the Chinese industrial-enterprise customs matching database from 2000 to 2007 to study the relationship between industrial intermediate inputs and export diversification and the enterprise heterogeneity effects. According to the empirical results, it shows that the increase of intermediate inputs can promote the export diversification. The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that such kind of effect also varies depending on the differences in firm ownership, firm location, firm trade patterns, and capital intensity. In such a case, in order to complete the industrial upgrading of the domestic value chain and upgrade the export industrial structure under the trend of domestic market integration, it is necessary to pay attention to the liberalization of intermediate goods trade and the improvement of relevant policy conditions.

The Identity Of Loyalty To The Surabaya Hero Museum In East Java

This research is to look for the influence of loyalty identity in the form of perceived value, experience quality and patriotism in museums that have historical value in Surabaya, East Java. The number of respondents was 160 respondents where respondents before visiting the museum had obtained information through social media. The results of data processing show that all the influence tests are said to be significant, both direct and indirect influence tests. The existence of significant influence test results can be stated that the predictor variable of loyalty can be a good antecedent because it is important to be input for the tourism industry which focuses on historical museums, so that managerial implications can help how to manage and provide satisfaction to visitors so that visitors besides feel the good atmosphere, also get the experience and desire to revisit.
 Keywords: loyalty, patriotism, perceived value, experience quality

Soybean Production and Marketing in North-Western Ethiopia: In the Case of Jawi Distrcit Amhara Regional State

Soybean is one of the industrial crops that have been given high emphasis on GTP II to enhance its production and productivity through improved soybean varieties development and/or adaptation with different management and agronomic practices. Although Soybean has plenty importance to enhance soil fertility, source of nutrient to human and animals, main source of income to smallholder farmers and traders at household level as well as main source of income and foreign currency to Ethiopian economy as whole, smallholder farmers complain about its lowest output price relative to its production cost, other pulses and oil crops prices. This is due to one kilogram of soybean price could not cover the cost of one kilogram of faba bean, chicken pea, grass pea and other beans that purchased for “wet” purpose by selling soybean outputs. This research investigated the major opportunity and challenges of soybean production and marketing along value chain actors using focus group discussion, key informant interview and desk review. Storable ability, required less organic fertilizer, used as input for oil and feed industries and ongoing to enter ECX among major opportunity whereas low output price, poor linkage along value chain actors, lack of certified seed multiplier, limited usage of newly released improved soybean varieties were among major challenges of soybean sector. Therefore to stimulate the soybean sector GO and NGO should be focused on the strong linkage between soybean producers and oil and feed industries, soybean marketing agents and soybean seed multipliers with price ceiling. Keywords: Soybean, Production, Marketing Focus group and Key informant Interview DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/89-01 Publication date: April 30 th 2023

Socioecological transformations at the specialized productive space in coffee and sugarcane in the context of the Green Revolution. Costa Rica (1955–1973)

This paper provides new evidence on the energy balances and energy returns of the agricultural systems specialized in coffee and sugarcane (SPS_CS) in Costa Rica between 1955 and 1973, during the peak of the Green Revolution. The analysis is developed in the Costa Rican region of that the 1955 Agricultural Census characterized as specialized in these productions of coffee and sugarcane and using the concept of Specialized Productive Spaces (SPS) developed by the researchers. Based on this regionalization as system boundaries, the authors proposed carrying out a retrospective historical analysis (1955 and 1973) to show, from the Social Metabolism approach and the multi-Energy Return on Investment (multi-EROI) accountings, the different exchanges of experience in the material and energy flows interlinking the agroecosystem funds and functioning and materials from a historical perspective. The findings suggest that this Costa Rican productive space (SPS_CS) presents moved from an agroecosystem with low energy efficiency in energy terms in 1955 that tended to improve towards an improved one in 1973, contrary to what happened in other countries of the Global North though only in the socioeconomic flows, which does not imply that the bioconversion chains have not been simplified. Results also conclude that subsistence mixed cropping may have contributed to a slower deterioration of energy efficiency in the SPS_CS. Other agroecological energy indicators more potentially related to farm-associated biodiversity show the other side of the coin: increased agrifood yields through a reduction in the total amount of photosynthesized biomass, in reused biomass by farmers, and in recirculated biomass through direct intake by non-domesticated species. As these internal recirculating flows help reproduce the living funds of agroecosystems, their contraction undermined nature-based ecosystem services that were replaced by an increase in external industrial inputs that, even as they grew, in those Costa Rican areas still held up comparatively low in the total energy throughput.

Estimating Black Oat Biomass Using Digital Surface Models and a Vegetation Index Derived from RGB-Based Aerial Images

Responsible for food production and industry inputs, agriculture needs to adapt to worldwide increasing demands and environmental requirements. In this scenario, black oat has gained environmental and economic importance since it can be used in no-tillage systems, green manure, or animal feed supplementation. Despite its importance, few studies have been conducted to introduce more accurate and technological applications. Plant height (H) correlates with biomass production, which is related to yield. Similarly, productivity status can be estimated from vegetation indices (VIs). The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for imaging enables greater spatial and temporal resolutions from which to derive information such as H and VI. However, faster and more accurate methodologies are necessary for the application of this technology. This study intended to obtain high-quality digital surface models (DSMs) and orthoimages from UAV-based RGB images via a direct-to-process means; that is, without the use of ground control points or image pre-processing. DSMs and orthoimages were used to derive H (HDSM) and VIs (VIRGB), which were used for H and dry biomass (DB) modeling. Results showed that HDSM presented a strong correlation with actual plant height (HREF) (R2 = 0.85). Modeling biomass based on HDSM demonstrated better performance for data collected up until and including the grain filling (R2 = 0.84) and flowering (R2 = 0.82) stages. Biomass modeling based on VIRGB performed better for data collected up until and including the booting stage (R2 = 0.80). The best results for biomass estimation were obtained by combining HDSM and VIRGB, with data collected up until and including the grain filling stage (R2 = 0.86). Therefore, the presented methodology has permitted the generation of trustworthy models for estimating the H and DB of black oats.

Pond Sediments Reveal the Increasing Importance of Road Runoff as a Source of Metal Contamination in Industrialized Urban Environments Downwind of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA).

Toxic levels of trace metals from human activities accumulate in natural environments, yet these metal mixtures are rarely characterized or quantified. Metal mixtures accumulate in historically industrial urban areas and change as economies shift. Previous research has often focused on the sources and fate of a specific element, which limits our understanding of metal contaminant interactions in our environment. Here, we reconstruct the history of metal contamination in a small pond downstream of an interstate highway and downwind of fossil fuel and metallurgical industries that have been active since the middle of the nineteenth century. Metal contamination histories were reconstructed from the sediment record using metal ratio mixing analysis to attribute the relative contributions of contamination sources. Cadmium, copper, and zinc concentrations in sediments accumulated since the construction of major road arteries in the 1930s and 40s are, respectively, 3.9, 2.4, and 6.6 times more concentrated than those during industry-dominated time periods. Shifts in elemental ratios suggest these changes in metal concentrations coincide with increased contributions from road and parking lot traffic, and to a lesser extent, from airborne sources. The metal mixture analysis demonstrates that in near-road environments, contributions from modern surface water pathways can obscure historical atmospheric industrial inputs.

Quantifying GHG emissions enabled by capital and labor: Economic and gender inequalities in France

AbstractMany studies have investigated the carbon footprint of households. They rely on consumption‐based responsibility and focus on how many emissions are embodied in a product. Here we open a new field by discussing the emissions that individuals enable by providing labor and capital to companies, using the framework of income‐based (downstream) responsibility. This perspective focuses on the emissions enabled by providing inputs to production processes, and is relevant for discussion of sustainable work and the carbon impact of investment and financial portfolios. We compute the downstream carbon intensity of primary inputs for 35 industries in France using the multi‐regional input–output database EXIOBASE. We provide a detailed picture of enabled emissions, disaggregating those by industry and primary inputs. On average, capital inputs are more carbon intensive than labor inputs. Finally, we couple downstream carbon intensities with an extensive national survey on wages to obtain a distribution of the income‐based emissions of employees. Income‐based emissions are much more unequally distributed than wages due to the huge variability of carbon intensity across industries: a truck driver enables far more emissions than a social‐care worker. Inequalities in emissions do not strongly interact with economic inequality. Yet they are gendered because women work disproportionately in low‐carbon‐intensive industries such as healthcare. As a result, women contribute less to GHG emissions than their wage share would seem to indicate.

A novel approach for measuring the accuracy of front end engineering design

PurposeAssessing front end engineering design (FEED) accuracy is significant for project owners because it can support informed decision-making, including confidence in cost and schedule predictions. A framework to measure FEED accuracy does not exist in the literature or in practice, not does systematic data directly linking FEED accuracy to project performance. This paper aims to focus first on gauging and quantifying FEED accuracy, and second on measuring its impact on project performance in terms of cost change, schedule change, change performance, financial performance and customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachA novel measurement scheme was developed for FEED accuracy as a comprehensive assessment of factors related to the project leadership and execution teams, management processes and resources; to assess the environment surrounding FEED. The development of this framework built on a literature review and focus groups, and used the research charrettes methodology, guided by a research team of 20 industry professionals and input from 48 practitioners representing 31 organizations. Data were collected from 33 large industrial projects representing over $8.8 billion of installed cost, allowing for a statistical analysis of the framework's impact on performance.FindingsThis paper describes: (1) twenty-seven critical FEED accuracy factors; (2) an objective and scalable method to measure FEED accuracy; and (3) data showing that projects with high FEED accuracy outperformed projects with low FEED accuracy by 20 percent in terms of cost growth in relation to their approved budgets.Practical implicationsFEED accuracy is defined as the degree of confidence in the measured level of maturity of the FEED deliverables to serve as a basis of decision at the end of detailed scope, prior to detailed design. Assessing FEED accuracy is significant for project owners because it can support informed decision-making, including confidence in cost and schedule predictions.Originality/valueFEED accuracy has not been assessed before, and it turned out to have considerable project performance implications. The new framework presented in this paper is the first of its kind, it has been tested rigorously, and it contributes to both the literature body of knowledge as well as to practice. As one industry leader recently stated, “it not only helped to assess the quality and adequacy of the technical documentation required, but also provided an opportunity to check the organization's readiness before making a capital investment decision.”

Research on a Coordination Evaluation and Prediction Model of Water Use and Industrial Ecosystem Development.

Coordinating the relationship between water use and industrial ecosystem development is the key to ensuring high-quality and sustainable development of the industrial economy. In this paper, a model was proposed for evaluating and predicting the coordination between water use and industrial ecosystem development. First, aiming at the coordination of water use and industrial ecosystem development, this paper determined 15 indicators from the aspects of water demand and supply, water conservation and environmental protection, industrial sustainable development, input and output, and industrial development status. The combination weighting method based on game theory was used to determine the weight of the evaluation index. Then, the coordination evaluation model called the back propagation neural network (BP)-coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) and the coordination prediction model called gray models (GM)-BP-CCDM were established. Finally, the model was applied to the coordination evaluation and prediction of water use and industrial ecosystem development in the Hebei Province, China. The results show that the coordination degree of cities in the Hebei Province is moderate. Therefore, based on the research results, some scientific and reasonable suggestions for water resources utilization and industrial ecosystem development were put forward.

Lignocellulosic Biomass as Agricultural Bioresource and Input to the Circular Economy

Given the global economic issues and environmental pollution, there is a growing interest in research addressing the use of biomasses resulting from agricultural production. One main category of biomass components is lignin, the use of plant waste in the pulp industry being one of the ways in avoiding additional deforestation by suppling inputs for the paper industry. The implementation of a strategy for capitalizing the potential of renewable sources, as, but not limited to, paper production, provides the appropriate framework for decision on renewable alternatives and inclusion in the acquis domains in Romania. The present study analyzed the potential use of waste obtained from field crops, mainly annual, as wheat, sunflower, maize, soy, rape, rye, barley, sorghum, rice, to produce paper. Biomass/waste from field crops is a promising source for paper, primarily because it is renewable and has the potential to exploit over 7 million hectares of arable land, with annual use. The diversity of pedoclimatic conditions in Romania makes possible the cultivation of a wider range of species and, within them, a multitude of varieties and hybrids, with variable amounts of lignocellulosic agricultural waste. In addition, accidental years as 2022, the year with the worst drought in Europe in the last 500 years, reshaped the need of valorizing any available biomass, regardless of the production of the main crop. Our calculations show that for a paper containing 28% of renewable cellulose, with the wheat straws collected from Romania in 2019, 9633.31 thousand tons of paper would have been obtained, with an average per hectare of 2786.62 kg of paper. Our analysis shows the opportunity of using lignocellulosic agricultural waste for use as a raw material for paper production. A throughout analysis is needed in the context of extreme droughts experienced recently, to show which valorization of by-products is the most economically justified.

Life cycle assessment of extraction of edible oil from mustard seeds: A case study of an oil industry

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used to quantify the potential environmental impact of a process. The present study assessed the environmental hotspots of mustard oil extraction process from mustard seeds using a life cycle assessment (LCA) method. This study applies the LCA methodology to assessing environmental hotspots in the entire chain of the oil extraction and comparing the environmental impact of each process at the stages of extraction. The primary inventory data collection of industrial processes, inputs and energy consumption of oil extraction was collected by visiting the plant units and interviewing of plant manager and engineers. A gate to gate system boundary condition was used for this study. The LCA analysis includes the seed + seed cleaning machine, seed conveyor, kohlu plant, expeller, pumping and filtration. The LCA was performed using the Gabi software, and the CML 2001 technique was employed for the impact assessment. Environmental effect categories such as global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication, ozone depletion, and abiotic depletion were identified. Results of this study indicate that the seed + seed cleaning machine and oil filteration & packaging are the primary contributor to GWP, HP, POCP, and HTP. The seed + seed cleaning machine and oil filteration & packaging processes are serving as bottlenecks when it comes to meeting their environmental indicators.

Compostagem de resíduos vegetais frescos e sua aplicação no cultivo de alface

ABSTRACT A considerable part of fresh plant-based food has been discarded as waste, although it could be used to make organic compost for growing plants, retaining nutrient that would be discarded without any control in the environment. The aim of this study was to produce an organic compost using fresh vegetable food discarded from restaurants and mowed grass and to evaluate it for production of lettuce. The compost was produced and mixed with the commercial substrate Tropstrato HT Hortaliças® to occupy 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25% of the volume of the mixture, which was used to grow Imperial and Imperial Roxa cultivars in the first experiment, and Camila and Red Star lettuce cultivars in the second one. The experiments were conducted under protected environment, organized in a 6x2 factorial scheme, following completely randomized design with three replicates. Chemical analyses of the substrate and compost and measurements of plant size and mass were carried out. The addition of compost caused an increase in all measurements of the plant traits, with the maximum estimated increase ranging from 1.7 to 9.0 times that estimated for the absence of compost in the plant growth substrate. Maximum estimated values for size and mass were observed with compost concentrations ranging from 20.1 to 26.7% of the mixture volume. The production of organic compost and its mixture with a commercial substrate proved to be an alternative for lettuce production, giving a better destination to the organic residues and promoting a reduction in the use of industrial inputs.

Estimating Total Factor Productivity and Its Components: Evidence from Major Manufacturing Industries of Pakistan

Manufacturing sector of Pakistan accounts for 19.1 percent of GDP and is the second largest sector of the economy. It grew by 8.4 percent during 2007 as against 10 percent last year. In the manufacturing sector, large scale manufacturing (LSM), plays a vital role and accounts for approximately 70 percent of overall manufacturing [Economic Survey of Pakistan (2006-07)]. During 2006-07 relatively slower pace of expansion exhibits signs of moderation on accounts of higher capacity utilisation, difficulties in the textile sector and lower than expected scale of operations of oil refineries. A number of other factors have also contributed to the low pace of expansion in manufacturing including zero percent growth in raw cotton production which is a critical input for the textile industry, vegetable ghee and cooking oil which comprise about 5.5 percent of the LSM sector, showed uninspiring performance due to unparalleled rise in international palm and soybean oil prices. The performance of the automobile sector has been far less impressive this year as compared to previous five years due to a fall in domestic demand for cars on account of increasing auto financing rates. The higher imports of used cars in the beginning of fiscal year 2006-07 also affected the performance of domestic auto mobile sector.

How processing trade assists local industrial upgrading: input–output analysis of export processing zones in China

Processing trade and related policies have been at the center of some major disputes concerning global segmentation. China has built numerous Export Processing Zones (EPZs) with the backing of local governments to facilitate greater integration into the global supply chain and boost local industrial upgrading. We create a series of backward and forward linkage indices and examine the spillover effect of the increase in EPZ processing trade on local economic activities and industry upgrades using Chinese firm-level industrial trade data and input–output table. Evidence reveals that EPZs have enhanced nearby enterprises' performance and productivity in the policy zone's upstream and horizontal industries. But the downstream industries show no signs of improvement. We also find that foreign-owned and young enterprises profit more from proximity to an EPZ. Additionally, the spillover benefits of EPZs are greater when the zone is moderate in size, supports high-tech industries, or encourages heavy import-and-assembly processing trade. The study sheds light on the processing trade's industrial linkage effects. The findings will provide an invaluable resource for developing policies aimed at both deeper integration into the global value chain and fostering local industrial upgrading.

Analysis of China's heavy industry energy-related CO2 emissions and its influencing factors: an input-output perspective.

As one of the industries with high energy-extensive consumption in China, the carbon emissions (CO2-E) generated by heavy industry cannot be ignored. However, the related literatures that take heavy industry energy-related CO2-E as the research object in the past mainly focus on the index decomposition model (IDM), econometric analysis, and other aspects. At present, few literatures use the structural decomposition model (SDM) to analyze the CO2-E and influencing factors of the industry from the perspective of input-output (I-O) analysis. This perspective and model can unify the supply side and demand side energy-related CO2-E of the heavy industry, which is conducive to a more comprehensive analysis of the heavy industry energy-related CO2-E and further various direct and indirect influencing factors. Based on this, this paper employs the energy consumption method (ECM), the I-O analysis method, and SDM to examine the energy-related CO2-E and influencing factors of China's heavy industry. The findings show that while the growth tendency of China's heavy industry energy-related CO2-E has been effectively controlled within the sample interval. Simultaneously, the supply side's optimization of the energy consumption structure (ECS), theupgrading of energy utilization technologies, and the generalized technological progress rate (GTPR) reflecting the input structure effect (ISE) have an inhibitory effect on the heavy industry's energy-related CO2-E, while the final demand effect (FDE) has an increasing effect on the energy-related CO2-E in the heavy industry, indicating that the products produced by the heavy industry are still characterized by high carbonation. This paper not only further enriches the existing research literature on energy-related CO2-E from the heavy industry in theory, but also provides guidance for efficient control of excessive growth of energy-related CO2-E from the perspective of input and output for the heavy industry in practice.

Occurrence, characteristics, and removal of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants located on the Moroccan Atlantic: The case of Agadir metropolis

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are some of the main sources of microplastics (MPs) in the environment. However, studies on the occurrence and removal efficiency of MPs in WWTPs are still scarce, especially in African countries. Thus, the aim of this work was to study the abundance of MPs in the influent and effluent of two WWTPs (Aourir and M'zar) from the Agadir metropolis (Moroccan Atlantic). The two WWTPs receive different wastewater inputs (domestic and industrial). In addition, the impacts of seasonality on the fate and removal efficiency were investigated. The results showed that the MPs abundance in the wastewater decreased from 188 MPs/L in the influent to 50 MPs/L in the effluent for Aourir WWTP (domestic inputs); while the abundance was greater in the M'zar WWTP (urban and industrial inputs) recording a mean value of 519 MPs/L and 86 MPs/L in the influent and effluent, respectively. MPs collected in the Aourir WWTP ranged from 290 to 3200 μm, while MPs from the M'zar WWTP, ranged from 330 to 4200 μm. Overall, the size range of 100–500 μm was the most abundant for both WWTPs. Fibers were the highest MPs morphotype found, followed by fragments. MP colors were mainly red, black, blue, and transparent for both treatment plants. Additionally, FTIR spectroscopy showed the presence of eight different polymers, mainly polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS). Seasonal variation analysis showed that MPs abundance in summer was significantly higher compared to other seasons. However, the comparison of the removal efficiency (RE) between the different seasons indicated that the winter season (74 %) recorded the highest RE for Aourir WWTP. Conversely, spring (87 %) recorded the highest RE for M'zar WWTP. SEM/EDX micrographs showed different degrees of weathering and chemical elements adhering to the surface of the MPs. The findings of the current study will serve as a baseline for future considerations about management strategies, wastewater reuse, as well as the understanding of the occurrence of microplastic pollution along the marine ecosystems of Morocco.

Biological soil quality and soil organic carbon change in biodynamic, organic, and conventional farming systems after 42 years

Soils are the basis of life on land and the ways in which we manage them for crop production, impact their role, functions and quality. Conventional farming uses industrial inputs to a level that is economically justified, whilst organic farming systems avoid mineral fertilizers and synthetic chemical pesticides. This study investigates the long-term effect of organic and conventional farming systems on soil quality. The DOK trial (bioDynamic, bioOrganic, Konventionell (German for conventional)) running since 1978 in Therwil (CH), compares bioorganic (BIOORG), biodynamic (BIODYN), and conventional (CONFYM) farming systems at two farmyard manure intensities corresponding to 0.7 and 1.4 livestock units per hectare with a purely mineral fertilized system (CONMIN) and an unfertilized control (NOFERT). The treatments in the DOK trial vary in plant protection and receive system-specific organic matter inputs differing in rate and quality. With this work, we revisit the soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics across 42 years and redefine the previous perception of mainly declining SOC contents after 21 years of organic and conventional management (Fliessbach et al. 2007). After 42 years, we found SOC contents to be increased in BIODYN 1.4 and to a lesser extent also in BIOORG 1.4. CONFYM 1.4 showed stable SOC contents, while systems fertilized with manure of 0.7 livestock units and CONMIN lost SOC. SOC loss was highest in NOFERT. Enhanced biological soil quality under organic and particularly biodynamic management highlights the close link between soil biology and SOC changes. The impact of farming systems on SOC was detectable after 2 decades of continuous management. We conclude that recycling manure at a level of 1.4 livestock units per hectare permits maintenance of SOC levels and that composting manure, as performed in BIODYN 1.4, helps to further increase SOC levels and improve biological soil quality.