A change in landscape: Lessons learned from abandonment of ancient Wari agricultural terraces in Southern Peru

Soil nutrients shape the composition and function of fungal communities in abandoned ancient rice terraces

In recent decades, terraces abandonment has been prevalent in the hilly areas of China. Soil fungi play an important role in clarifying soil ecosystematic feedback after ancient rice terraces abandonment, but how their community composition and function shift remains unclear. Soil profiles of 0-120 cm were excavated in ancient rice terraces, dry land, and forest land (formed from ancient rice terraces abandonment), respectively. The ¹³C NMR and high-throughput sequencing were used to determine soil organic carbon chemical groups and fungal community, respectively, and FUNGuild was used to predict functional groups. The results showed that the soil fungal community changed from Ascomycota to Basidiomycota after ancient rice terraces abandonment. The trophic modes of dry land and forest land were transformed into pathotrophic fungi and symbiotrophic fungi, respectively. The number of nodes and edges of fungal co-occurrence networks increased by 83.8% and 644.1% in dry land, and 81.3% and 431.2% in forest land, respectively. Moreover, soil nutrients (especially DOC, TN, and TP) can more affected the variation of fungal community composition and function than soil organic carbon chemical groups. These findings indicate that soil fungal community shifts in different directions in response to ancient rice terraces abandonment, which is related to the adaptive strategies for environmental changes and may be more conducive to the acquisition and turnover of soil nutrients.

Multi-Stakeholder Involvement Mechanism in Tourism Management for Maintaining Terraced Landscape in Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS) Sites: A Case Study of Dazhai Village in Longji Terraces, China

Terraced tourism sustainability depends on maintenance for terraced landscape. The effective measures for protecting terraces rest on the cooperation among multi-stakeholders. Therefore, a multi-stakeholder involvement mechanism (MSIM) is very important for terraced landscape conservation. Dazhai village in Longji Terraces, Guangxi Province, Southwest China, explored a MSIM to maintain terraced tourism sustainability in the past 20 years. Based on the statistical data and the data from household interviews, this study analyses the development history of Dazhai tourism. Comparing the changes in different stages in components of MSIM of Dazhai, we revealed the successful key factors of MSIM for maintaining terraces tourism sustainability includes identifying accurately core attractions and stakeholders, an effective communication strategy, a democratic decision-making mechanism, dynamic benefit distribution schemes (BDS) facing terraced conservation, coordination teams with foresight and selflessness, and the effective supervision and management. In the end, we conclude that economic income is the most important driver stimulating villagers in Dazhai to insist on growing rice. It is crucial factor to drive farmers to protect their terraces. but economic income improvement of the households depends on a systemic and dynamic MSIM. The most important causes for Dazhai MSIM success results from the wise coordination teams and the effective communication strategy.

European agricultural terraces and lynchets: from archaeological theory to heritage management

Terraces are highly productive, culturally distinctive socioecological systems. Although they form part of time/place-specific debates, terraces per se have been neglected - fields on slopes or landscape elements. We argue that this is due to mapping and dating problems, and lack of artefacts/ecofacts. However, new techniques can overcome some of these constraints, allowing us to re-engage with theoretical debates around agricultural intensification. Starting from neo-Broserupian propositions, we can engage with the sociopolitical and environmental aspects of terrace emergence, maintenance and abandonment. Non-reductionist avenues include identifying and dating different phases of development within single terrace systems, identifying a full crop-range, and other activities not generally associated with terraces (e.g. metallurgy). The proposition here is that terraces are a multi-facetted investment that includes both intensification and diversification and can occur under a range of social conditions but which constitutes a response to demographic pressure in the face to fluctuating environmental conditions.

A Scientometrics Review on Farmland Abandonment Research

Using the Web of Science database, 1498 research articles published between 1900 and 2019 on the subject of farmland abandonment were retrieved. With the help of the SciMAT tool, a theme strategic diagram, overlay map and evolution map represented by keywords were constructed, and the strategic coordinate analysis and data flow analysis methods were used to analyze the research themes, evolutionary states and paths of farmland abandonment in different research time periods. The results show the following: (1) Research on farmland abandonment has rapidly grown in the past ten years, the development of studies on farmland abandonment has become more mature, and the research topics and content have tended to solidify; (2) The research topics of studies on farmland abandonment are mostly centered on forests, patterns, landscapes, land use changes, climate change, etc. The research topics have had strong continuity and few new research hotspots; (3) The study of the ecological environment effect of farmland abandonment is the basic research direction in the field of farmland abandonment and will continue to become a research hotspot; (4) Farmland abandonment has become an important part of the research on land use change and ecosystem processes; (5) The driving force of farmland abandonment includes natural, social and economic factors, among which the socioeconomic factors are the most important driving force, and will continue to be a research hotspot. Finally, this study concludes that the research directions on farmland abandonment in future should strengthen the quantitative assessment of environmental effects of farmland abandonment, information extraction and multiscale simulation monitoring, trend prediction and risk assessment.

Archaeometric Approaches to Defining Sustainable Governance: Wari Brewing Traditions and the Building of Political Relationships in Ancient Peru

Utilizing archaeometric methods, we evaluate the nature of production of feasting events in the ancient Wari state (600–1000 CE). Specifically, we focus on the fabrication of ceramic serving and brewing wares for the alcoholic beverage chicha de molle. We examine the source materials used in the creation of these vessels with elemental analysis techniques (INAA and LA-ICP-MS). We then assess the chemical traces of the residues present in the ceramic pores of the vessels to detect compounds indicative of the plants used in chicha production (DART-MS).While previous research has identified circumstantial evidence for the use of Schinus molle in the production process, this research presents direct evidence of its existence in the pores of the ceramic vessels. We also assess what this material evidence suggests about the sustainability of the feasting events as a mode of political interaction in the Wari sphere. Our evaluation indicates that regional resource use in the production of the ceramic vessels promoted locally sustainable raw material procurement for the making of the festivities. Likewise, drought resistant crops became the key ingredients in the beverages produced and provided a resilient harvest for chicha production that was adopted by successor groups.

Labor migration and farmland abandonment in rural China: Empirical results and policy implications

Farmland abandonment is a universal socio-economic phenomenon in various countries in the world. However, there is a lack of the large-sample empirical research on rural households' farmland abandonment in China, and few studies have explored the quantitative influences of labor migration on rural households' farmland abandonment. This study uses the survey data of 8031 rural households from 27 provinces (cities) in China. It analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics of labor migration and farmland abandonment on the basis of provinces (cities). Moreover, it constructs the iv-probit models and the iv-tobit models to quantitatively explore the influences of off-farm employment and part-time employment on rural households' farmland abandonment. The results show that: Labor migration and farmland abandonment in various provinces (cities) of China present the trend of spatial area agglomeration. The regional differences of off-farm laborers are significant, whereas the regional differences of part-time laborers are relatively small; Labor migration would promote rural households' farmland abandonment. When other conditions remain unchanged, with every 10% increase in off-farm employment and part-time employment, the average probability of rural households' farmland abandonment increases by 4% and 5%, respectively, and the average farmland area that rural household abandons increases by 3% and 5%, respectively. This study can enhance the understanding of the relationship between labor migration and rural households' farmland abandonment in China, so as to provide reference for the rational allocation of labor resources and the formulation of the policies related to ensuring food security.