A pre-Columbian society in the Amazon developed a sophisticated agricultural engineering system that allowed them to produce maize throughout the year, according to a recent discovery by a team of researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, (Spain); the Universities of Exeter, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading and Southampton (UK); the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and Bolivian collaborators. This finding contradicts previous theories that dismissed the possibility of intensive monoculture agriculture in the region.

A research team from the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and the Department of Mechanical Science, Saitama University, has developed a unified model to scale the transitional pressure development in a one-dimensional flow.  This achievement provides a better understanding of how pressure fields build up in the confined fluid system for various acceleration situations, which might be applicable to the biomechanics-related impact problem, such as human brain injuries caused by physical contact.

Smallholders in Western Kenya strongly support native-tree restoration due to long-term benefits for landscape restoration, productivity and livelihoods, new research shows. New digital tools and community buy-in are successfully backing restoration projects, though barriers remain. Researchers say that short-term farmers’ needs and concerns to planting trees should be given more attention to ensure the success of restoration projects.

A team of researchers from the University of Turku and the Natural Resources Institute Finland examined the foraging behaviour of barnacle geese in Northern Karelia, Finland. In this region, geese feeding on agricultural fields cause large economic damage to farms. The researchers’ findings suggest that the combined use of areas where geese are not disturbed and no-go areas where geese are repelled from fields can help to mitigate the damage to crops as well as the local human-wildlife conflict.