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107-637: Clipperton Island, an uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean, became the subject of a territorial dispute between France and Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The island gained significant attention due to its strategic location in the Pacific Ocean and the potential for guano deposits, which were used to enhance fertilizer. Initially France, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States all laid claims to Clipperton. Both

214-498: A luna ), who was usually white, had nearly unlimited power over them. Wages varied from lows of $ 5/month to highs of $ 14/month. Native Hawaiian laborers of Jarvis Island referred to the island as Paukeaho , meaning "out of breath" or "exhausted", due to the strain of loading heavy bags of guano onto ships. Pacific Islanders also risked death: one in thirty-six laborers from Honolulu died before completing their contract. Slaves blackbirded from Easter Island in 1862 were repatriated by

321-455: A phytohormone involved in regulating stem growth via its effect on cell division. Photosynthate investment in the stem is reduced dramatically in shorter plants and nutrients become redirected to grain production, amplifying in particular the yield effect of chemical fertilizers. High-yielding varieties outperformed traditional varieties several fold and responded better to the addition of irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizers. Hybrid vigour

428-655: A purine base, consisting of a fused pyrimidine - imidazole planar ring system with conjugated double bonds. Guanine was first obtained from guano by Julius Bodo Unger  [ de ] , who incorrectly first described it as xanthine , a closely related purine, in 1844. After he was corrected by Einbrodt two years later, Bodo Unger agreed and published it with the new name of "guanine" in 1846. [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of guano at Wiktionary Intensive farming Intensive agriculture , also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming ), conventional , or industrial agriculture ,

535-569: A rebellion on Navassa Island in 1889 where black workers killed their white overseers. In defending the workers, lawyer Everett J. Waring argued that the men could not be tried by U.S. law because the guano islands were not legally part of the country. The case went to the Supreme Court of the United States where it was decided in Jones v. United States (1890) . The Court decided that Navassa Island and other guano islands were legally part of

642-407: A terrace is a leveled section of a hilly cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. The human landscapes of rice cultivation in terraces that follow the natural contours of the escarpments, like contour ploughing , are a classic feature of

749-564: A Mexican expedition raised the Mexican flag on Clipperton as a way to strengthen their claim to Clipperton. In 1905, the Mexican government established a military garrison on the island, and later erected a lighthouse under the orders of President Porfirio Díaz . By 1914, around 100 Mexican settlers had landed on the island to further establish Mexico's claim. Due to the start of the Mexican Revolution , supply ships ceased visiting

856-461: A cave can result in the extinction of species that rely on their guano. Unsustainable harvesting of bat guano may cause bats to abandon their roost. Demand for guano rapidly declined after 1910 with the development of the Haber–Bosch process for extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere. Seabird guano is the fecal excrement from marine birds and has an organic matter content greater than 40%, and

963-489: A daily output of 100 lb (45 kg) of saltpetre, produced from 2,500 lb (1,100 kg) of guano from two area caves. From the 1930s, Bat Cave mine in Arizona was used for guano extraction, though it cost more to develop than it was worth. U.S. Guano Corporation bought the property in 1958 and invested 3.5 million dollars to make it operational; actual guano deposits in the cave were one percent of predicted and

1070-618: A deal to commercialize guano export among a merchant house in Liverpool , a group of French businessmen, and the Peruvian government. This agreement resulted in the abolition of all preexisting claims to Peruvian guano; thereafter, it was the exclusive resource of the State. By nationalizing its guano resources, the Peruvian government was able to collect royalties on its sale, becoming the country's largest source of revenue. Some of this income

1177-541: A factory in Germany began the first large-scale synthesis of ammonia using German chemist Fritz Haber 's catalytic process . The scaling of this energy-intensive process meant that farmers could cease practices such as crop rotation with nitrogen-fixing legumes or the application of naturally derived fertilizers such as guano. The international trade of guano and nitrates such as Chile saltpetre declined as artificially synthesized fertilizers became more widely used. With

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1284-581: A fertilizer was eclipsed by Chile saltpetre in the form of caliche (a sedimentary rock ) extraction from the interior of the Atacama Desert , close to the guano areas. The Guano Age ended with the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), which saw Chilean marines invade coastal Bolivia to claim its guano and saltpetre resources. Knowing that Bolivia and Peru had a mutual defense agreement, Chile mounted

1391-426: A much lower bar than territory with a native population. France's continued claims of sovereignty over the island, even when Mexico made claims, was an important part of the arbitration going in their favor. As a further result of this ruling, nations which make claims on territory do not forfeit said territory when it is unoccupied or not actively developed. Guano Guano (Spanish from Quechua : wanu )

1498-606: A much more equal and controlled distribution pattern. Drip irrigation is the most expensive and least-used type, but delivers water to plant roots with minimal losses. Water catchment management measures include recharge pits, which capture rainwater and runoff and use it to recharge groundwater supplies. This helps in the replenishment of groundwater wells and eventually reduces soil erosion. Dammed rivers creating reservoirs store water for irrigation and other uses over large areas. Smaller areas sometimes use irrigation ponds or groundwater. In agriculture, systematic weed management

1605-476: A paddock, while allowing the others to recover. Resting grazed lands allows the vegetation to renew energy reserves, rebuild shoot systems, and deepen root systems, resulting in long-term maximum biomass production. Pasture systems alone can allow grazers to meet their energy requirements, but rotational grazing is especially effective because grazers thrive on the more tender younger plant stems. Parasites are also left behind to die off, minimizing or eliminating

1712-555: A popular product in Europe until the 19th century. In November 1802, Prussian geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt first encountered guano and began investigating its fertilizing properties at Callao in Peru, and his subsequent writings on this topic made the subject well known in Europe. Although Europeans knew of its fertilizing properties, guano was not widely used before this time. Cornish chemist Humphry Davy delivered

1819-648: A preemptive strike on Peru, resulting in its occupation of the Tarapacá , which included Peru's guano islands. With the Treaty of Ancón of 1884, the War of the Pacific ended. Bolivia ceded its entire coastline to Chile, which also gained half of Peru's guano income from the 1880s and its guano islands. The conflict ended with Chilean control over the most valuable nitrogen resources in the world. Chile's national treasury grew by 900% between 1879 and 1902 thanks to taxes coming from

1926-521: A regional or national scale, and the functioning of agro-ecosystems has been profoundly altered. Agricultural intensification includes a variety of factors, including the loss of landscape elements, increased farm and field sizes, and increase usage of insecticides and herbicides. The large scale of insecticides and herbicides lead to the rapid developing resistance among pests renders herbicides and insecticides increasingly ineffective. Agrochemicals have may be involved in colony collapse disorder , in which

2033-488: A relatively small area of land, for example by rotational grazing , or sometimes as concentrated animal feeding operations . These methods increase the yields of food and fiber per unit land area compared to those of extensive animal husbandry ; concentrated feed is brought to seldom-moved animals, or, with rotational grazing, the animals are repeatedly moved to fresh forage. Agricultural development in Britain between

2140-471: A series of lectures which he compiled into an 1813 bestselling book about the role of nitrogenous manure as a fertilizer, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry . It highlighted the special efficacy of Peruvian guano, noting that it made the "sterile plains" of Peru fruitful. Though Europe had marine seabird colonies and thus, guano, it was of poorer quality because its potency was leached by high levels of rainfall and humidity . Elements of Agricultural Chemistry

2247-462: A small space poses ethical issues to some consumers. Animal rights and animal welfare activists have charged that intensive animal rearing is cruel to animals. The Green Revolution transformed farming in many developing countries. It spread technologies that had already existed, but had not been widely used outside of industrialized nations. These technologies included "miracle seeds", pesticides, irrigation, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. In

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2354-532: Is a progressive, sustainable agriculture system such as zero waste agriculture or integrated multi-trophic aquaculture , which involves the interactions of multiple species. Elements of this integration can include: Industrial agriculture uses huge amounts of water , energy , and industrial chemicals , increasing pollution in the arable land , usable water , and atmosphere . Herbicides , insecticides , and fertilizers accumulate in ground and surface waters . Industrial agricultural practices are one of

2461-434: Is a source of nitrogen (N) and available phosphate (P 2 O 5 ). Unlike most mammals, birds do not excrete urea , but uric acid , so that the amount of nitrogen per volume is much higher than in other animal excrement. Seabird guano contains plant nutrients including nitrogen , phosphorus , calcium and potassium . Bat guano is partially decomposed bat excrement and has an organic matter content greater than 40%; it

2568-439: Is a source of nitrogen, and may contain up to 6% available phosphate (P 2 O 5 ). The feces of insectivorous bats consists of fine particles of insect exoskeleton , which are largely composed of chitin . Elements found in large concentrations include nitrogen , phosphorus , potassium and trace elements needed for plant growth. Bat guano is slightly alkaline with an average pH of 7.25. Chitin from insect exoskeletons

2675-475: Is a type of agriculture , both of crop plants and of animals , with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital , labour , agrochemicals and water, and higher crop yields per unit land area. Most commercial agriculture is intensive in one or more ways. Forms that rely heavily on industrial methods are often called industrial agriculture , which

2782-428: Is an essential compound needed by soil fungi to grow and expand. Chitin is a major component of fungal cell wall membranes. The growth of beneficial fungi adds to soil fertility. Bat guano composition varies between species with different diets. Insectivorous bats are the only species that congregate in large enough numbers to produce sufficient guano for sustainable harvesting.  The word "guano" originates from

2889-593: Is characterized by technologies designed to increase yield. Techniques include planting multiple crops per year, reducing the frequency of fallow years, improving cultivars , mechanised agriculture , controlled by increased and more detailed analysis of growing conditions, including weather, soil , water, weeds, and pests. Modern methods frequently involve increased use of non-biotic inputs, such as fertilizers , plant growth regulators, pesticides , and antibiotics for livestock. Intensive farms are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of

2996-432: Is continuously cropped. Crop rotation also seeks to balance the nutrient demands of various crops to avoid soil nutrient depletion. A traditional component of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of legumes and green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops. Crop rotation can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. A related technique

3103-585: Is easy to distinguish Coolies who have been at the islands a short time from the new comers. They soon become emaciated and their faces have a wild desparing expression. That they are worked to death is as apparent as that the hack horses in our cities are used up in the same manner. Hundreds or thousands of Pacific Islanders , especially Native Hawaiians , traveled or were blackbirded to the U.S.-held and Peruvian guano islands for work, including Howland Island , Jarvis Island , and Baker Island . While most Hawaiians were literate, they could usually not read English;

3210-657: Is hostile to many species of weeds . As the only draft animal species which is comfortable in wetlands , the water buffalo is in widespread use in Asian rice paddies. A recent development in the intensive production of rice is the System of Rice Intensification . Developed in 1983 by the French Jesuit Father Henri de Laulanié in Madagascar , by 2013 the number of smallholder farmers using

3317-483: Is hypothesized that Egyptian fruit bats , which are native to Africa and the Middle East, can spread Marburg virus to each other through contact with infected secretions such as guano, but a 2018 review concluded that more studies are necessary to determine the specific mechanisms of exposure that cause Marburg virus disease in humans. Exposure to guano could be a route of transmission to humans. As early as in

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3424-483: Is integral to the existence of endangered cave fauna. The critically endangered Shelta Cave crayfish feeds on guano and other detritus . The Ozark cavefish , a U.S. federally listed species , also consumes guano. The loss of bats from a cave can result in declines or extinctions of other species that rely on their guano. A 1987 cave flood resulted in the death of its bat colony; the Valdina Farms salamander

3531-410: Is inundated by the guano's nutrients, causing algae to grow more rapidly and coalesce into algal mats . These algal mats are in turn colonized by invertebrates. The abundance of nutrients offshore of guano islands also supports coral reef ecosystems. Cave ecosystems are often limited by nutrient availability. Bats bring nutrients into these ecosystems via their excretions, however, which are often

3638-462: Is more than twice the average national monthly income of $ 300. Workers also have health insurance , meals, and eight-hour shifts. Guano is one of the habitats of the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum , which can cause the disease histoplasmosis in humans, cats , and dogs . H. capsulatum grows best in the nitrogen-rich conditions present in guano. In the United States, histoplasmosis affects 3.4 adults per 100,000 over age 65, with higher rates in

3745-412: Is no reason to suppose that France has subsequently lost her right by derelictio , since she never had the animus of abandoning the island, and the fact that she has not exercised her authority there in a positive manner does not imply the forfeiture of an acquisition already definitively perfected. France's argument for its ownership of Clipperton was based on its 1858 claim and the formal annexation of

3852-538: Is now likely extinct as a result. Bat guano also has a role in shaping caves by making them larger. It has been estimated that 70–95% of the total volume of Gomantong cave in Borneo is due to biological processes such as guano excretion, as the acidity of the guano weathers the rocky substrate. The presence of high densities of bats in a cave is predicted to cause the erosion of 1 metre (3 ft) of rock over 30,000 years. There are several references to guano in

3959-441: Is often increased, yields of any single crop often decrease. There are also challenges to farmers who rely on farming equipment optimized for monoculture , often resulting in increased labor inputs. Vertical farming is intensive crop production on a large scale in urban centers, in multi-story, artificially-lit structures, for the production of low-calorie foods like herbs, microgreens , and lettuce. An integrated farming system

4066-465: Is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats . Guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen , phosphate , and potassium , all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a lesser extent, sought for the production of gunpowder and other explosive materials. The 19th-century seabird guano trade played a pivotal role in the development of modern input-intensive farming . The demand for guano spurred

4173-556: Is the concentration of livestock in a given space. The aim is to provide maximum output at the lowest possible cost and with the greatest level of food safety. The term is often used pejoratively. CAFOs have dramatically increased the production of food from animal husbandry worldwide, both in terms of total food produced and efficiency. Food and water is delivered to the animals, and therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones are often employed. Growth hormones are not used on chickens nor on any animal in

4280-770: Is the improvement of pasture soils and grasses to increase the food production potential of livestock systems. It is commonly used to reverse pasture degradation , a process characterized by loss of forage and decreased animal carrying capacity which results from overgrazing , poor nutrient management , and lack of soil conservation . This degradation leads to poor pasture soils with decreased fertility and water availability and increased rates of erosion, compaction, and acidification . Degraded pastures have significantly lower productivity and higher carbon footprints compared to intensified pastures. Management practices which improve soil health and consequently grass productivity include irrigation , soil scarification, and

4387-411: Is the modern method to minimize pesticide use to more sustainable levels. There are concerns over the sustainability of industrial agriculture, and the environmental effects of fertilizers and pesticides, which has given rise to the organic movement and has built a market for sustainable intensive farming, as well as funding for the development of appropriate technology . Pasture intensification

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4494-493: Is to plant multi-species cover crops between commercial crops. This combines the advantages of intensive farming with continuous cover and polyculture . Crop irrigation accounts for 70% of the world's fresh water use. Flood irrigation , the oldest and most common type, is typically unevenly distributed, as parts of a field may receive excess water in order to deliver sufficient quantities to other parts. Overhead irrigation , using center-pivot or lateral-moving sprinklers, gives

4601-426: Is usually required, often performed by machines such as cultivators or liquid herbicide sprayers. Herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often based on plant hormones . Weed control through herbicide is made more difficult when the weeds become resistant to the herbicide. Solutions include: In agriculture ,

4708-530: Is utilized in many important crops to greatly increase yields for farmers. However, the advantage is lost for the progeny of the F1 hybrids , meaning seeds for annual crops need to be purchased every season, thus increasing costs and profits for farmers. Crop rotation or crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same space in sequential seasons for benefits such as avoiding pathogen and pest buildup that occurs when one species

4815-453: Is very rare; less than 1% of those infected develop symptoms. Only patients with more severe cases require medical attention, and only about 1% of acute cases are fatal. It is a much more serious illness for the immunocompromised , however. Histoplasmosis is the first symptom of HIV/AIDS in 50–75% of patients, and results in death for 39–58% of those with HIV/AIDS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that

4922-492: The European Union . Undesirable behaviors often related to the stress of confinement led to a search for docile breeds (e.g., with natural dominant behaviors bred out), physical restraints to stop interaction, such as individual cages for chickens, or physical modification such as the debeaking of chickens to reduce the harm of fighting. The CAFO designation resulted from the 1972 U.S. Federal Clean Water Act , which

5029-607: The Mexican War of Independence , Mexico retained all of the Spanish territory including the adjacent islands and annexed lands. Additionally, Mexico had both geographic proximity and effective occupation of the island in the early 20th century. The core legal question was which principle was more important in international law: historical claim or effective occupation. An important result of the Clipperton Island case

5136-626: The Midwestern United States (6.1 cases per 100,000). In addition to the United States, H. capsulatum is found in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Of 105 outbreaks in the U.S. from 1938–2013, seventeen occurred after exposure to a chicken coop while nine occurred after exposure to a cave. Birds or their droppings were present in 56% of outbreaks, while bats or their droppings were present in 23%. Developing any symptoms after exposure to H. capsulatum

5243-985: The carbon balance is the use of integrated crop-livestock (ICL) and crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF) systems, which combine several ecosystems into one optimized agricultural framework. Correctly performed, such production systems are able to create synergies potentially providing benefits to pastures through optimal plant usage, improved feed and fattening rates, increased soil fertility and quality, intensified nutrient cycling , integrated pest control , and improved biodiversity . The introduction of certain legume crops to pastures can increase carbon accumulation and nitrogen fixation in soils, while their digestibility helps animal fattening and reduces methane emissions from enteric fermentation . ICLF systems yield beef cattle productivity up to ten times that of degraded pastures; additional crop production from maize , sorghum , and soybean harvests; and greatly reduced greenhouse gas balances due to forest carbon sequestration. In

5350-585: The waste disposal issue and requires that animal waste be stored in lagoons . These lagoons can be as large as 7.5 acres (30,000 m ). Lagoons not protected with an impermeable liner can leak into groundwater under some conditions, as can runoff from manure used as fertilizer. A lagoon that burst in 1995 released 25 million gallons of nitrous sludge in North Carolina's New River . The spill allegedly killed eight to ten million fish. The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and dead animals in

5457-522: The 16th century and the mid-19th century saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn contributed to unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, and thereby helped enable the Industrial Revolution . Historians cited enclosure , mechanization , four-field crop rotation , and selective breeding as the most important innovations. Industrial agriculture arose in

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5564-486: The 18th century there are reports of travellers complaining about the unhealthy air of Arica and Iquique resulting from abundant bird spilling. Colonial birds and their guano deposits have an outsized role on the surrounding ecosystem. Bird guano stimulates productivity , though species richness may be lower on guano islands than islands without the deposits. Guano islands have a greater abundance of detritivorous beetles than islands without guano. The intertidal zone

5671-403: The 1970s, scientists created high-yielding varieties of maize, wheat , and rice. These have an increased nitrogen-absorbing potential compared to other varieties. Since cereals that absorbed extra nitrogen would typically lodge (fall over) before harvest, semi-dwarfing genes were bred into their genomes. Norin 10 wheat , a variety developed by Orville Vogel from Japanese dwarf wheat varieties,

5778-606: The Andean indigenous language Quechua , where it refers to any form of dung used as an agricultural fertilizer. Archaeological evidence suggests that Andean people collected seabird guano from small islands and points off the desert coast of Peru for use as a soil amendment for well over 1,500 years and perhaps as long as 5,000 years. Spanish colonial documents suggest that the rulers of the Inca Empire greatly valued guano, restricted access to it, and punished any disturbance of

5885-593: The Industrial Revolution. By the early 19th century, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks, and cultivars had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages . The first phase involved a continuing process of mechanization. Horse-drawn machinery such as the McCormick reaper revolutionized harvesting, while inventions such as the cotton gin reduced

5992-473: The Peruvian government in 1863; only twelve of 800 slaves survived the journey. On Navassa Island, the guano mining company switched from white convicts to largely black laborers after the American Civil War. Black laborers from Baltimore claimed that they were misled into signing contracts with stories of mostly fruit-picking, not guano mining, and "access to beautiful women". Instead, the work

6099-586: The Philippines. They are also found in other rice-growing regions such as Piedmont (Italy), the Camargue (France), and the Artibonite Valley (Haiti). They can occur naturally along rivers or marshes , or can be constructed, even on hillsides. They require large water quantities for irrigation, much of it from flooding. It gives an environment favourable to the strain of rice being grown, and

6206-632: The Twelve Aprils grazing program for dairy production, developed by the USDA - SARE , forage crops for dairy herds are planted into a perennial pasture. Rotational grazing is a variety of foraging in which herds or flocks are regularly and systematically moved to fresh, rested grazing areas (sometimes called paddocks ) to maximize the quality and quantity of forage growth. It can be used with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other animals. The herds graze one portion of pasture, or

6313-606: The U.S. American historian Daniel Immerwahr claimed that by establishing these land claims as constitutional, the Court laid the "basis for the legal foundation for the U.S. empire ". Other countries also used their desire for guano as a reason to expand their empires. The United Kingdom claimed Kiritimati and Malden Island for the British Empire . Others nations that claimed guano islands included Australia, France , Germany , Hawaii , Japan , and Mexico . In 1913,

6420-580: The United Kingdom and United States dropped their claims to the island, leaving only France and Mexico. On November 17, 1858, Lieutenant Victor Le Coat de Kervéguen on the French merchant ship L'Amiral took possession of Clipperton for France. Upon arriving in the Kingdom of Hawaii, a notice of France's annexation of Clipperton was published on November 17, 1858, in a local newspaper in Honolulu . In 1897,

6527-582: The application of lime , fertilizers, and pesticides . Depending on the productivity goals of the target agricultural system, more involved restoration projects can be undertaken to replace invasive and under-productive grasses with grass species that are better suited to the soil and climate conditions of the region. These intensified grass systems allow higher stocking rates with faster animal weight gain and reduced time to slaughter, resulting in more productive, carbon-efficient livestock systems. Another technique to optimize yield while maintaining

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6634-497: The arts. In his 1845 poem "Guanosong", German author Joseph Victor von Scheffel used a humorous verse to take a position in the popular polemic against Hegel 's Naturphilosophie . The poem starts with an allusion to Heinrich Heine 's Lorelei and may be sung to the same tune. The poem ends, however, with the blunt statement of a Swabian rapeseed farmer from Böblingen who praises the seagulls of Peru as providing better manure even than his fellow countryman Hegel. This refuted

6741-426: The association with intensive agricultural farming practices. For example the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus is causing significant economic loss for salmon farms. The ISA virus is an orthomyxovirus with two distinct clades, one European and one North American, that diverged before 1900 (Krossøy et al. 2001). This divergence suggests that an ancestral form of the virus was present in wild salmonids prior to

6848-813: The bats are not present, such as when migratory bats are gone for the season or when non-migratory bats are out foraging at night. Guano mining in Peru was at first done with black slaves. After Peru formally ended slavery , it sought another source of cheap labor. In the 1840s and 1850s, thousands of men were blackbirded (coerced or kidnapped) from the Pacific islands and southern China. Thousands of coolies from South China worked as "virtual slaves" mining guano. By 1852, Chinese laborers comprised two-thirds of Peru's guano miners; others who mined guano included convicts and forced laborers paying off debts . Chinese laborers agreed to work for eight years in exchange for passage from China, though many were misled that they were headed to California 's gold mines. Conditions on

6955-471: The birds with death. The guanay cormorant is historically the most abundant and important producer of guano. Other important guano-producing bird species off the coast of Peru are the Peruvian pelican and the Peruvian booby . The earliest European records noting the use of guano as fertilizer date back to 1548. Although the first shipments of guano reached Spain as early as 1700, it did not become

7062-874: The cave as a roost, as happened when Robertson Cave in Australia had a hole opened in its ceiling for guano harvesting. Guano harvesting may also introduce artificial light into caves; one cave in the U.S. state of New Mexico was abandoned by its bat colony after the installation of electric lights. In addition to harming bats by necessitating they find another roost, guano harvesting techniques can ultimately harm human livelihood as well. Harming or killing bats means that less guano will be produced, resulting in unsustainable harvesting practices. In contrast, sustainable harvesting practices do not negatively impact bat colonies nor other cave fauna. The International Union for Conservation of Nature 's (IUCN) 2014 recommendations for sustainable guano harvesting include extracting guano when

7169-591: The coast of Namibia , and surrounding islands to Great Britain. Guano pirating took off in other regions as well, causing prices to plummet and more consumers to try it. The biggest markets for guano from 1840–1879 were in Great Britain, the Low Countries , Germany, and the United States. By the late 1860s, it became apparent that Peru's most productive guano site, the Chincha Islands ,

7276-603: The contract they received in their own language lacked key amendments that the English version had. Because of this, the Hawaiian language contract was often missing key information, such as the departure date, the length of the contract, and the name of the company for which they would be working. When they arrived at their destination to begin mining, they learned that both contracts were largely meaningless in terms of work conditions. Instead, their overseer (commonly referred to as

7383-811: The cost of processing. During this same period, farmers began to use steam-powered threshers and tractors . In 1892, the first gasoline-powered tractor was successfully developed, and in 1923, the International Harvester Farmall tractor became the first all-purpose tractor, marking an inflection point in the replacement of draft animals with machines. Mechanical harvesters ( combines ), planters, transplanters, and other equipment were then developed, further revolutionizing agriculture. These inventions increased yields and allowed individual farmers to manage increasingly large farms. The identification of nitrogen , phosphorus , and potassium (NPK) as critical factors in plant growth led to

7490-417: The deterioration of agricultural land and even regenerate soil health and ecosystem services . These developments may fall in the category of organic farming , or the integration of organic and conventional agriculture. Pasture cropping involves planting grain crops directly into grassland without first applying herbicides. The perennial grasses form a living mulch understory to the grain crop, eliminating

7597-855: The dominant energy resource of a cave. Many cave species depend on bat guano for sustenance, directly or indirectly. Because cave-roosting bats are often highly colonial , they can deposit substantial quantities of nutrients into caves. The largest colony of bats in the world at Bracken Cave (about 20 million individuals) deposit 50,000 kg (110,000 lb) of guano into the cave every year. Even smaller colonies have relatively large impacts, with one colony of 3,000 gray bats annually depositing 9 kg (20 lb) of guano into their cave. Invertebrates inhabit guano piles, including fly larvae , nematodes , springtails , beetles , mites , pseudoscorpions , thrips , silverfish , moths , harvestmen , spiders , isopods , millipedes , centipedes , and barklice . The invertebrate communities associated with

7704-592: The food supply . The discovery of vitamins and their role in nutrition , in the first two decades of the 20th century, led to vitamin supplements, which in the 1920s allowed some livestock to be raised indoors, reducing their exposure to adverse natural elements. Following World War II synthetic fertilizer use increased rapidly. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines facilitated raising livestock by reducing diseases. Developments in logistics and refrigeration as well as processing technology made long-distance distribution feasible. Integrated pest management

7811-420: The guano depends on the bat species' feeding guild : frugivorous bat guano has the greatest invertebrate diversity. Some invertebrates feed directly on the guano, while others consume the fungi that use it as a growth medium. Predators such as spiders depend on guano to support their prey base. Vertebrates consume guano as well, including the bullhead catfish and larvae of the grotto salamander . Bat guano

7918-429: The guano islands were very poor, commonly resulting in floggings , unrest, and suicide . Workers experienced lung damage by inhaling guano dust, were buried alive by falling piles of guano, and risked falling into the ocean. After visiting the guano islands, U.S. politician George Washington Peck wrote: I observed Coolies shoveling and wheeling as if for dear life and yet their backs were covered with great welts...It

8025-402: The guano. The use of excavation machinery is not only impractical due to the terrain but also prohibited because it would frighten the seabirds. The guano is then placed in sacks and carried to sieves , where impurities are removed. Similarly, harvesting bat guano in caves was and is manual. In Puerto Rico , cave entrances were enlarged to facilitate access and extraction. Guano was freed from

8132-440: The human colonization of remote bird islands in many parts of the world. Unsustainable seabird guano mining processes can result in permanent habitat destruction and the loss of millions of seabirds. Bat guano is found in caves throughout the world. Many cave ecosystems are wholly dependent on bats to provide nutrients via their guano which supports bacteria , fungi , invertebrates , and vertebrates . The loss of bats from

8239-448: The immunocompromised avoid exploring caves or old buildings, cleaning chicken coops, or disturbing soil where guano is present. Rabies , which can affect humans who have been bitten by infected mammals including bats, cannot be transmitted through bat guano. A 2011 study of bat guano viromes in the U.S. states of Texas and California recovered no viruses that are pathogenic to humans, nor any close relatives of pathogenic viruses. It

8346-466: The individual members of bee colonies disappear. (Agricultural production is highly dependent on bees to pollinate many varieties of fruits and vegetables.) Intensive farming creates conditions for parasite growth and transmission that are vastly different from what parasites encounter in natural host populations, potentially altering selection on a variety of traits such as life-history traits and virulence. Some recent epidemic outbreaks have highlighted

8453-409: The introduction of cage-cultured salmonids. As the virus spread from vertical transmission (parent to offspring) . Intensive monoculture increases the risk of failures due to pests , adverse weather and disease. A study for the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment concluded that regarding industrial agriculture, there is a "negative relationship between the trend toward increasing farm size and

8560-458: The island and by 1917 many settlers had perished from scurvy . The survivors were rescued, and returned to Mexico. On March 2, 1909, the two countries signed an agreement in Mexico to submit the dispute to arbitration, and selected King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy as arbiter. Nearly 22 years later, on January 28, 1931, Victor Emmanuel rendered his decision, awarding the island to France. There

8667-464: The island and that the land was terra nullius . Additionally, France had maintained its ownership of Clipperton when other nations had claimed or landed on Clipperton. Mexico made the claim that Clipperton had been discovered by the Spanish Navy and that the papal bull of Alexander VI in 1492 had given sovereignty of the island to Spain. Following Spain's recognition of Mexico in 1836 following

8774-700: The island of Bali and the Banaue Rice Terraces in Banaue, Ifugao , Philippines . In Peru , the Inca made use of otherwise unusable slopes by building drystone walls to create terraces known as Andéns . A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops . Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice-growing countries of east and southeast Asia , including Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, India , and

8881-533: The late 1800s, approximately 53 million seabirds lived on the twenty-two islands. As of 2011, only 4.2 million seabirds lived there. After realizing the depletion of guano in the Guano Age, the Peruvian government recognized that it needed to conserve the seabirds. In 1906, American zoologist Robert Ervin Coker was hired by the Peruvian government to create management plans for its marine species, including

8988-533: The latest farming experiments, including guano. In an effort to impress the upper class around him and disguise his low-class origins, Jorrocks references guano in conversation at every chance he can. At one point, he exclaims, "Guano!" along with two other varieties of fertilizer, to which the Duke replies, "I see you understand it all!" Guano is also the namesake for one of the nucleobases in RNA and DNA : guanine ,

9095-600: The main drivers of global warming , accounting for 14–28% of net greenhouse gas emissions . Many of the negative effects of industrial agriculture may emerge at some distance from fields and farms. Nitrogen compounds from the Midwest, for example, travel down the Mississippi to degrade coastal fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, causing so-called oceanic dead zones . Many wild plant and animal species have become extinct on

9202-496: The manufacture of synthetic fertilizers , further increasing crop yields . In 1909, the Haber-Bosch method to synthesize ammonium nitrate was first demonstrated. NPK fertilizers stimulated the first concerns about industrial agriculture, due to concerns that they came with side effects such as soil compaction , soil erosion , and declines in overall soil fertility , along with health concerns about toxic chemicals entering

9309-567: The meat, dairy products , eggs , fruits, and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced by such farms. Some intensive farms can use sustainable methods , although this typically necessitates higher inputs of labor or lower yields. Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity , especially on smallholdings , is an important way to decrease the amount of land needed for farming and slow and reverse environmental degradation caused by processes such as deforestation . Intensive animal farming involves large numbers of animals raised on

9416-546: The mine was abandoned in 1960. In Australia, the first documented claim on Naracoorte 's Bat Cave guano deposits was in 1867. Guano mining in the country remained a localized and small industry. In modern times, bat guano is used in low levels in developed countries . It remains an important resource in developing countries , particularly in Asia. Coring accumulations of bat guano can be useful in determining past climate conditions. The level of rainfall, for example, impacts

9523-566: The need for de-wormers. With the increased productivity of rotational systems, the animals may need less supplemental feed than in continuous grazing systems. Farmers can therefore increase stocking rates. Intensive livestock farming or "factory farming", is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density. " Concentrated animal feeding operations " (CAFO), or "intensive livestock operations", can hold large numbers (some up to hundreds of thousands) of cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors. The essence of such farms

9630-768: The need to plant cover crops after harvest . The pasture is intensively grazed both before and after grain production. This intensive system yields equivalent farmer profits (partly from increased livestock forage) while building new topsoil and sequestering up to 33 tons of CO 2 /ha/year. Biointensive agriculture focuses on maximizing efficiency such as per unit area, energy input and water input. Agroforestry combines agriculture and orchard/forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems. Intercropping can increase yields or reduce inputs and thus represents (potentially sustainable) agricultural intensification. However, while total yield per unit land area

9737-694: The newly acquired lands. The demand for guano led the United States to pass the Guano Islands Act in 1856, which gave U.S. citizens discovering a source of guano on an unclaimed island exclusive rights to the deposits. In 1857, the U.S. began annexing uninhabited islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, totaling nearly 100, though some islands claimed under the Act did not end up having guano mining operations established on them. Several of these islands are still officially U.S. territories. Conditions on annexed guano islands were poor for workers, resulting in

9844-422: The relative frequency of nitrogen isotopes . In times of higher rainfall, N is more common. Bat guano also contains pollen , which can be used to identify prior plant assemblages. A layer of charcoal recovered from a guano core in the U.S. state of Alabama was seen as evidence that a Woodlands tribe inhabited the cave for some time, leaving charcoal via the fires they lit. Stable isotope analysis of bat guano

9951-728: The rising popularity of organic food in the twenty-first century, the demand for guano has started to rise again. In the U.S., bat guano was harvested from caves as early as the 1780s to manufacture gunpowder . During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Union 's blockade of the southern Confederate States of America meant that the Confederacy resorted to mining guano from caves to produce saltpetre . One Confederate guano kiln in New Braunfels, Texas , had

10058-426: The rocky substrate by explosives. Then, it was shoveled into carts and removed from the cave. From there, the guano was taken to kilns to dry. The dried guano would then be loaded into sacks, ready for transport via ship. Today, bat guano is usually harvested in the developing world, using "strong backs and shovels". Peru's guano islands experienced severe ecological effects as a result of unsustainable mining. In

10165-538: The seabirds, including keeping unauthorized visitors a mile away from guano islands at all times, eliminating all the birds' natural predators, armed patrols of the islands, and decreasing the frequency of harvest on each island to once every three to four years. In 2009, these conservation efforts culminated in the establishment of the Guano Islands, Isles, and Capes National Reserve System , which consists of twenty-two islands and eleven capes . This Reserve System

10272-505: The seabirds. Specifically, he made five recommendations: Despite these policies, the seabird population continued to decline, which was exacerbated by the 1911 El Niño–Southern Oscillation . In 1913, Scottish ornithologist Henry Ogg Forbes authored a report on behalf of the Peruvian Corporation focusing on how human actions harmed the birds and subsequent guano production. Forbes suggested additional policies to conserve

10379-408: The system had grown to between 4 and 5 million. Aquaculture is the cultivation of the natural products of water ( fish , shellfish , algae , seaweed , and other aquatic organisms). Intensive aquaculture takes place on land using tanks, ponds, or other controlled systems, or in the ocean, using cages. Intensive farming practices which are thought to be sustainable have been developed to slow

10486-535: The widespread Enlightenment belief that nature in the New World was inferior to the Old World . The poem has been translated by, among others, Charles Godfrey Leland . English author Robert Smith Surtees parodied the obsession of wealthy landowners with the "religion of progress" in 1843. In one of his works featuring the character John Jorrocks, Surtees has the character develop an obsession with trying all

10593-576: Was also used to support that the climate of the Grand Canyon was cooler and wetter during the Pleistocene epoch than it is now in the Holocene . Additionally, the climatic conditions were more variable in the past. Mining seabird guano from Peruvian islands has remained largely the same since the industry began, relying on manual labor . First, picks, brooms, and shovels are used to loosen

10700-455: Was enacted to protect and restore lakes and rivers to a "fishable, swimmable" quality. The United States Environmental Protection Agency identified certain animal feeding operations, along with many other types of industry, as "point source" groundwater polluters. These operations were subjected to regulation. In 17 states in the U.S., isolated cases of groundwater contamination were linked to CAFOs. The U.S. federal government acknowledges

10807-412: Was exhausting and punishments were brutal. Laborers were frequently placed in stocks or tied up and dangled in the air. A labor revolt ensued, where the workers attacked their overseers with stones, axes, and even dynamite, killing five overseers. Although the process for mining guano is mostly the same today, worker conditions have improved. As of 2018, guano miners in Peru made US$ 750 per month, which

10914-714: Was instrumental in developing wheat cultivars. IR8 , the first widely implemented high-yielding rice to be developed by the International Rice Research Institute , was created through a cross between an Indonesian variety named "Peta" and a Chinese variety named "Dee Geo Woo Gen". With the availability of molecular genetics in Arabidopsis and rice the mutant genes responsible ( reduced height (rht) , gibberellin insensitive (gai1) and slender rice (slr1) ) have been cloned and identified as cellular signalling components of gibberellic acid ,

11021-486: Was nearing depletion. This caused guano mining to shift to other islands north and south of the Chincha Islands. Despite this near exhaustion, Peru achieved its greatest ever export of guano in 1870 at more than 700,000 tonnes (770,000 short tons). Concern of exhaustion was ameliorated by the discovery of a new Peruvian resource: sodium nitrate , also called Chile saltpetre. After 1870, the use of Peruvian guano as

11128-441: Was that the first nation to discover and prove unclaimed land exists has claim to said territory. This means that the occupation of a territory is not always a requirement for making a claim on it. Nations wishing to make a claim on territory are required to exercise exclusive authority on the territory. Although the levels of exclusive authority are interrupted on a case-by-case basis, with uninhabitable areas such as Clipperton having

11235-495: Was the first marine protected area in South America, encompassing 140,833 hectares (348,010 acres). Unlike bird guano which is deposited on the surface of islands, bat guano can be deep within caves. Cave structure is often altered via explosives or excavation to facilitate extraction of the guano, which changes the cave's microclimate . Bats are sensitive to cave microclimate, and such changes can cause them to abandon

11342-789: Was translated into German, Italian, and French; American historian Wyndham D. Miles said that it was likely "the most popular book ever written on the subject, outselling the works of Dundonald , Chaptal , Liebig ..." He also said that "No other work on agricultural chemistry was read by as many English-speaking farmers." The arrival of commercial whaling on the Pacific coast of South America contributed to scaling of its guano industry. Whaling vessels carried consumer goods to Peru such as textiles, flour, and lard; unequal trade meant that ships returning north were often half empty, leaving entrepreneurs in search of profitable goods that could be exported. In 1840, Peruvian politician and entrepreneur Francisco Quirós y Ampudia  [ es ] negotiated

11449-551: Was used by the State to free its more than 25,000 black slaves. Peru also used guano revenue to abolish the head tax on its indigenous citizens. This export of guano from Peru to Europe has been suggested as the vehicle that brought a virulent strain of potato blight from the Andean highlands that began the Great Famine of Ireland . Soon guano was sourced from regions besides Peru. By 1846, 462,057 tonnes (509,331 short tons) of guano had been exported from Ichaboe Island , off

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