With changing climate and increased frequency of wet weather extremes, increased attention is being directed towards understanding the resilience of agroecosystems and the goods and services they deliver. The world's most instrumented and monitored farm (the North Wyke Fam Platform - a UK National Bioscience Research Infrastructure) has been used to explore the resilience of sediment loss regulation delivered by lowland grazing livestock and arable systems under conventional best management. The robustness of water quality regulation was explored using exceedance of modern background (i.e. pre-World War II) net soil loss rates (i.e., sediment delivery) during both typical (2012-13, 2015-16) and the most extreme (2013-14, 2019-20, 2023-24) winters (December - February, inclusive), in terms of seasonal rainfall totals, over the past similar to decade. Exceedances of maximum modern background sediment loss rates from pasture were as high as 2.4X when scheduled ploughing and reseeding for sward improvement occurred immediately prior to the winters in question. Exceedances of maximum modern background sediment loss rates in the arable system (winter wheat and spring oats) were as high as 21.7X. Over the five monitored winters, the environmental damage costs for cumulative sediment loss from the permanent pasture system ranged from pound 163-203 and pound 197-245 ha(-1) to pound 321-421 and pound 386-507 ha(-1). Over the same five winters, environmental damage costs for cumulative sediment loss from catchments subjected to reseeding and, more latterly, arable conversion, ranged between pound 382-584 and pound 461-703 ha(-1) to pound 1978-2334 and pound 2384-2812 ha(-1). Our data provide valuable quantitative insight into the impacts of winter rainfall and land use on the resilience of sediment loss regulation.

Vibrators are widely used in agriculture, such as for vibrating trees to harvest fruits and nuts, or for vibrating screens to separate different materials (e.g. plants and soil or grain and debris) in the harvesting process. Traditional vibrators are bulky and configured with fixed mechanical transmission, so they cannot be precisely controlled and cannot adapt to different conditions, causing negative effects such as ineffective vibration or damaging tree barks. In this paper, a full-directional and lightweight electric vibrator is designed. The unidirectional vibration force is produced through the utilization of two centrifugal forces that are generated by the eccentric mass rotation of two motors. Firstly, the vibration direction can be adjusted to any direction by adjusting the meeting position of the two centrifugal forces. Secondly, the vibration force can be adjusted by changing the motor speed, as the centrifugal force is proportional to the square of the rotation speed. The vibrator is tested with laboratory bench experiment and with agricultural application for vibrating a tree. The prototype vibrator can produce 680N with the weight of 7.2kg, the force can be further improved by increasing the eccentric mass, increasing the rotation speed or decreasing the rotation arm length. The vibrator can be applied to smart agriculture, such as nut and fruit harvesting, or adaptive vibration screening.

Air pollution is a global problem affecting millions of people worldwide. Climate warming, increasingly difficult access to drinking water resources, and desertification of areas have all resulted in population migrations in search of better areas to live and work. High mortality rates due to smog and crop, soil, and water pollution are just some of the problems facing the whole civilised world. In 2019, in response to these and other climate challenges, the EU adopted the Green Deal, a strategy whereby the EU member states have committed to an energy transition. Climate neutrality, according to the document, should be achieved by 2050. From 2018 to 2029, the government program Clean Air will be implemented in Poland with the aim of reducing environmentally damaging emissions from heating single-family houses with harmful fuel in old and polluting stoves. The article presents the program's assumptions in relation to the priorities of the European Green Deal and statistical data concerning the replacement of boilers under the Clean Air program by province, the use of various heat sources in Poland, as well as the demand for each heat source based on the number of applications submitted. The paper highlights two aspects related to the functioning of the Clean Air program, the first of which is economic in character and pertains to heat source replacement costs, whilst the second concerns the management of renewable energy sources. Statistical data referred to in this article were finalised as of December 2022.