Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia have limited resources and inadequate knowledge of good agricultural and storage practices, resulting in frequent mycotoxin contamination of staple crops. Information on the health impacts of mycotoxins and the relationships between farming practices and contamination remains fragmented. Generating evidence on contamination levels, associated health burdens, and management practices is therefore essential to inform policies that protect public health and supp ...

Insects have evolved genetic pathways that determine whether they develop as a male or female. These pathways also shape physical and behavioural differences in their pheromone communication systems to facilitate how they share and process information. Research into how these pathways regulate these differences has primarily been limited to the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which utilizes a so-called dedicated labelled-line system to perceive and process pheromones. Hymenoptera – ants, ...

Tropical forests are of crucial importance but are seriously threatened by human-driven deforestation and forest degradation. To better manage and protect tropical forests, we need fast and precise satellite-derived information on forest change, its causes, and its impacts. Current remote sensing-based monitoring systems commonly focus on generic detections of tree cover loss only, without thematic distinction of direct drivers, and often have a critical blind spot for selective logging act ...

The mechanisation, specialisation and intensification of agriculture have resulted in highly efficient and productive agricultural systems. However, this mode of agriculture also comes at a cost; it contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and land and water pollution. Monocultures - (large-scale) fields where a single crop type is grown - are a key element of such agricultural systems, and relatively vulnerable to pests and diseases. Intercropping, the ...

This thesis investigates how methodological choices and regional context shape freshwater microplastic monitoring and risk assessment. It first evaluates key analytical parameters, showing that higher-resolution micro-FTIR objectives greatly increase detected particle numbers, while a 20 micro-m sieve can be sufficient for routine work. It then quantifies abundances, size spectra and polymer types in the Yangtze–Huangpu system and the Rhine–Meuse delta, revealing high contamination and regi ...

Microbial communities are continuously faced with environmental changes, leading to unpredictable states in their structure and functioning. Species sorting has been one of the important concepts pursued to understand the microbial community assembly process, which views member species as being driven by their differential fitness traits in response to selection. Several model systems have been applied regarding the study of species sorting, yet the complexity of field-based models often at ...

The Green Revolution increased global food production, but intensive agriculture now relies heavily on fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in soil degradation, pollution, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss. Sustainable agriculture therefore requires not only maintaining crop yields but also supporting multiple soil functions, such as biomass production, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and disease suppressiveness, simultaneously, a concept known as soil multifunctionality. These f ...

The invention of plastic has revolutionized our world by providing a readily available,---moldable material which is light, strong and durable. However, excessive use of plastics has led to universal pollution of our planet. Over time plastic waste and products---can degrade, leading to release of microscopic particles called microplastics and---nanoplastics(MNPs). MNPs are abundant in our food, the water we drink and the air we---breathe and in turn human exposure is unavoidable. Oral inge ...

Emerging contaminants, including micropollutants (OMPs), antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB), and their genes (ARGs), are frequently detected in municipal wastewater and are only partially removed by conventional activated sludge systems. Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) process offers a promising alternative, but its granule size distribution and batch-fed operation lead to different treatment dynamics. To date, the fate and removal of these contaminants in full-scale AGS systems, especially ...

Feeding a growing global population in a healthy manner while reducing environmental degradation is one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. Addressing this challenge calls for a transition from the current food system towards a system that is not only resilient but also equitable and environmentally sustainable. Although numerous studies have examined the environmental benefits of various food system transformation options, many of them neglect the economic interactions. Us ...