Human expansion throughout the world caused that agriculture is a dominant form of land management globally. Human influence on the land is accelerating because of rapid population growth and increasing food requirements. To stress the interactions between society and the environment, the driving forces (D), pressures (P), states (S), impacts (I), and response (R) (DPSIR) framework approach was used for analyzing and assessing the influence of agriculture on land use, environment, and ecosystem services. The DPSIR model was used to identify a series of core indicators and to establish the nature of interactions between different driving forces, pressures, states, impacts, and responses. We assessed selected indicators at global, national, and local levels. Driving force indicators describe growing population trend and linking land‐use patterns. The driving forces exert pressure on the environment assessed by indicators describing development in fertilizer and pesticides consumption, by number of livestock, and by intensification joined growing release of ammonia and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, and water abstraction. The pressure reflects in the state of environment, mainly expressed by soil and water quality indicators. Negative changes in the state then have negative impacts on landscape, e.g., traditional landscape disappearance, biodiversity, climate, and ecosystem services. As a response, technological, economic, policy, or legislation measures are adopted.
Article Details: Received: 2021-10-15 | Accepted: 2021-11-15 | Available online: 2021-12-31 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2021.24.04.286-292 Agricultural soil pollution by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is a major concern nowadays. We selected 11 soil profiles of Fluvisols used as arable land along the River Orava and two study sites located outside the alluvium (1 soil profile of Cambisol used as a permanent grassland, 1 soil profile of Technosol classified as an environmental burden). We determined basic soil properties, total PTEs content and the mobile fraction using inductive coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. The level of pollution of selected PTEs was assessed by single contamination factor (Cf) and pollution load index (PLI). The total PTEs content indicated their increased concentrations at many study sites. But the mobile form content of PTEs did not exceed the Slovak threshold limits in agricultural soils. Nevertheless, the pollution indices also reached higher values in agricultural soils. According to the Cf, Technosol was very highly polluted by Pb (12.89), Sb (11.94), Cd (11.82), Zn (9.19); considerably polluted by As (5.75), Cu (5.70), Mo (4.86); moderately polluted by Cr (2.47), Co (1.92), Ni (1.48). For Fluvisols, a moderate level of pollution was confirmed, with the exception of Cr (3.24) which confirmed a considerable level of pollution. The average Cf for Fluvisols ranged from 1.02 to 9.00 for Cr, from 0.87 to 1.87 for As, from 0.76 to 2.37 for Pb, from 0.61 to 3.48 for Cd. In Cambisol we recorded a low level of contamination for Zn (0.87), Cu (0.99), and Pb (0.94), and a moderate level of contamination for the other PTEs. The PLI reached in Technosol 6.02, in Fluvisols 1.46 (range from 1.08 to 2.09) and in Cambisol the lowest value (1.15).Keywords: arable land, soil properties, potentially toxic elements, contamination factor, pollution load index References:Ahmad, W. et al. 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Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties. Datasets were required, at a minimum, to include abundance or biomass of earthworms at a site. Where possible, site-level species lists were included, as well as the abundance and biomass of individual species and ecological groups. This global dataset contains 10,840 sites, with 184 species, from 60 countries and all continents except Antarctica. The data were obtained from 182 published articles, published between 1973 and 2017, and 17 unpublished datasets. Amalgamating data into a single global database will assist researchers in investigating and answering a wide variety of pressing questions, for example, jointly assessing aboveground and belowground biodiversity distributions and drivers of biodiversity change. ; H.R.P.P., B.K-R., and the sWorm workshops were supported by the sDiv [Synthesis Centre of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (DFG FZT 118)]. H.R.P.P., O.F. and N.E. acknowledge funding by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 677232 to NE). K.S.R. and W.H.v.d.P. were supported by ERC-ADV grant 323020 to W.H.v.d.P. Also supported by iDiv (DFG FZT118) Flexpool proposal 34600850 (C.A.G. and N.E.); the Academy of Finland (285882) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (postdoctoral fellowship and RGPIN-2019-05758) (E.K.C.); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01LO0901A) (D.J.R.); ERC-AdG 694368 (M.R.); the TULIP Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-10-LABX-41) (M.L); and the BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship to F.T.d.V. (BB/L02456X/1). In addition, data collection was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (12-04-01538-а, 12-04-01734-a, 14-44-03666-r_center_a, 15-29-02724-ofi_m, 16-04-01878-a 19-05-00245, 19-04-00-609-a); Tarbiat Modares University; Aurora Organic Dairy; UGC(NERO) (F. 1-6/Acctt./NERO/2007-08/1485); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (RGPIN-2017-05391); Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV-0098-12); Science for Global Development through Wageningen University; Norman Borlaug LEAP Programme and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP (12/22510-8); Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station; INIA - Spanish Agency (SUM 2006-00012-00-0); Royal Canadian Geographical Society; Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) (2005-S-LS-8); University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (HAW01127H; HAW01123M); European Union FP7 (FunDivEurope, 265171; ROUTES 265156); U.S. Department of the Navy, Commander Pacific Fleet (W9126G-13-2-0047); Science and Engineering Research Board (SB/SO/AS-030/2013) Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India; Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) of the U.S. Department of Defense (RC-1542); Maranhão State Research Foundation (FAPEMA 03135/13, 02471/17); Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES 3281/2013); Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (LTT17033); Colorado Wheat Research Foundation; Zone Atelier Alpes, French National Research Agency (ANR-11-BSV7-020-01, ANR-09-STRA-02-01, ANR 06 BIODIV 009-01); Austrian Science Fund (P16027, T441); Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank Frankfurt am Main; Welsh Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (Project Ref. A AAB 62 03 qA731606); SÉPAQ, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland; Science Foundation Ireland (EEB0061); University of Toronto (Faculty of Forestry); National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve; NKU College of Arts & Sciences Grant; Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (837393 and 837426); Mountain Agriculture Research Unit of the University of Innsbruck; Higher Education Commission of Pakistan; Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Kerala; UNEP/GEF/TSBF-CIAT Project on Conservation and Sustainable Management of Belowground Biodiversity; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland; Complutense University of Madrid/European Union FP7 project BioBio (FPU UCM 613520); GRDC; AWI; LWRRDC; DRDC; CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council) and FONCyT (National Agency of Scientific and Technological Promotion) (PICT, PAE, PIP), Universidad Nacional de Luján y FONCyT (PICT 2293 (2006)); Fonds de recherche sur la nature et les technologies du Québec (131894); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SCHR1000/3-1, SCHR1000/6-1, 6-2 (FOR 1598), WO 670/7-1, WO 670/7-2, & SCHA 1719/1-2), CONACYT (FONDOS MIXTOS TABASCO/PROYECTO11316); NSF (DGE-0549245, DGE-0549245, DEB-BE-0909452, NSF1241932, LTER Program DEB-97–14835); Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Dean's Scholar Program at UIC; Garden Club of America Zone VI Fellowship in Urban Forestry from the Casey Tree Endowment Fund; J.E. Weaver Competitive Grant from the Nebraska Chapter of The Nature Conservancy; The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Depaul University; Elmore Hadley Award for Research in Ecology and Evolution from the UIC Dept. of Biological Sciences, Spanish CICYT (AMB96-1161; REN2000-0783/GLO; REN2003-05553/GLO; REN2003-03989/GLO; CGL2007-60661/BOS); Yokohama National University; MEXT KAKENHI (25220104); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (25281053, 17KT0074, 25252026); ADEME (0775C0035); Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain (CGL2017-86926-P); Syngenta Philippines; UPSTREAM; LTSER (Val Mazia/Matschertal); Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (747607); National Science & Technology Base Resource Survey Project of China (2018FY100306); McKnight Foundation (14–168); Program of Fundamental Researches of Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences (AААА-A18–118021490070–5); Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq 310690/2017–0, 404191/2019–3, 307486/2013–3); French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs; Bavarian Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry (Project No B62); INRA AIDY project; MIUR PRIN 2008; Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station; Estonian Science Foundation; Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Canada; Russian Science Foundation (16-17-10284); National Natural Science Foundation of China (41371270); Australian Research Council (FT120100463); USDA Forest Service-IITF. ; Peer reviewed