Two new articles have now been published in the scientific journal Icelandic Agricultural Sciences and can be accessed at IAS website.
The first article A Comparative Analysis of the Energy Return on Investment of Organic and Conventional Icelandic Dairy Farms (EROI) by Reyni Smári Atlason, Karl Martin Kjareheim, Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir and Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir. It was examined which agricultural method returns the most energy to the community against the energy that the farms use. This is the first time that energy used by Icelandic farms is compared with the energy they produce. This is an important contribution to the debate on energy efficiency in agriculture and how we use non-renewable energy and raw materials in agriculture. It also allows us to start comparisons with other countries in this field.
Another innovation was that the energy profitability of traditional and organic farms was compared here. The results are not unequivocal as there were too few organic farms to draw definitive conclusions, but the study indicates that organic cow farms can provide better energy yields than traditional farms. The yield per hectare is smaller, but on the other hand, artificial fertilizers are not used, but their preparation, transport and anesthesia require a great deal of energy combined.
The other article Soil nematode communities on Surtsey 50 years after its formation (50 years after the formation of the volcanic island) is by Krassimira Ilieva-Makulec, Brynhildur Bjarnadóttir and Bjarni D. Sigurðsson. The article discusses the changes that have taken place in wireworm communities in the soil on Surtsey since it was formed in 1963, but nematodes play an important role in the primary development of ecosystems and in soil formation. The authors compare malnourished areas and areas that were nutrient-rich due to dense gulls. A total of 25 genera of nematodes were found, of which 14 had not been found before. The authors found a connection between several soil factors and vegetation, but at the same time the development of nematodes had a different process than the development of vegetation.
Research on soil life is very rare in Iceland and therefore this research can be seen as a novelty in that field and an important contribution to basic research on soil life. This study is also an important contribution to the development of soil life on a new island, on previously unvegetated land.