Forests provide ecosystem services, including timber production. In some cases, private forest owners perform management actions in order to enhance the provision of such services, or they may be encouraged by public policies and payments. This paper focuses specifically on the decision to set forest land aside for biodiversity conservation, as part of the more general question of the efficiency of multiple-use vs. specialised management of forest lands. We propose an econometric analysis to identify factors in the set-aside choice and measure the impact of this decision on forest management costs. The results show that the set-aside choice depends on the landowners’ income and motivations related to forest amenities. The choice of specialised management, as reflected in the set-aside decision, has a significant and positive impact on the intensity of management in the remainder of the forest and on management costs. From a policy implications point of view, these results suggest that instruments such as forest certification, subsidies and reverse auctions for conservation will be most likely to attract the interest of those forest owners with personal motivations and forest properties that offer both benefit and cost advantages in opting for such specialised management strategies.
Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Free ferulic acid (FA) is a natural compound with antioxidant properties which mitigates the negative effects of cold stress in sheep; however, its... 相似文献
Predicted climate warming is expected to have profound effects on bark beetle population dynamics in the southwestern United
States. Temperature-mediated effects may include increases in developmental rates, generations per year, and changes in habitat
suitability. As a result, the impacts of Dendroctonus frontalis and Dendroctonus mexicanus on forest resources are likely subject to amplification. To assess the implications of such change, we evaluated the generations
per year of these species under three climate scenarios using a degree-day development model. We also assessed economic impacts
of increased beetle outbreaks in terms of the costs of application of preventative silvicultural treatments and potential
economic revenues forgone. Across the southwestern USA, the potential number of beetle generations per year ranged from 1–3+ under
historical climate, an increase of 2–4+ under the minimal warming scenario and 3–5+ under the greatest warming scenario. Economic
benefits of applying basal area reduction treatments to reduce forest susceptibility to beetle outbreaks ranged from 7.75/ha (NM) to7.75/ha
(NM) to 95.69/ha (AZ) under historical conditions, and 47.96/ha (NM) to47.96/ha (NM) to 174.58/ha (AZ) under simulated severe drought conditions.
Basal area reduction treatments that reduce forest susceptibility to beetle outbreak result in higher net present values than
no action scenarios. Coupled with other deleterious consequences associated with beetle outbreaks, such as increased wildfires,
the results suggest that forest thinning treatments play a useful role in a period of climate warming. 相似文献
Whether communities respond smoothly or discontinuously to changing environmental conditions has important consequences for the preservation and restoration of ecosystems. Theory shows that communities may exhibit a variety of responses to environmental change, including abrupt transitions due to the existence of alternate states. However, there have been few opportunities to look for such transitions in nature. Here, we examine the impact of a two-orders-of-magnitude decrease and then increase in planktivore abundance in Wintergreen lake (Michigan, USA), caused by the extinction and reintroduction of two dominant fish species (largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, and bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus). Over a 16 + yr period of slow change from high planktivory to low planktivory back to high planktivory, the zooplankton community changed smoothly and predictably between states. In years of low planktivory, the zooplankton assemblage was dominated by a single, large, cladoceran species, Daphnia pulicaria, whereas in years of high planktivory, D. pulicaria disappeared and was replaced by a suite of small-bodied cladocerans. We quantified the multivariate change in zooplankton community dissimilarity and found that community state smoothly tracked changes in planktivore density in both a forward and backward direction. Thus, there was little evidence of discontinuity in this system where transitions are strongly driven by planktivory. 相似文献
Since 1995, the Institute for Environment and Development in Portugal has obtained >300 stack samples from various point sources of Portuguese industries. A coherent database was made with the collected results. The limit values fixed by several European legal documents consulted, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch emission legislation, were applied to the Institute for Environment and Development stack sampling inventory (from 1995 to 2000) to evaluate the efficiency of these standards in promoting the control and reduction of atmospheric pollutants emissions, especially regarding nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. The conclusion was that the original Portuguese legislation was not restrictive enough and not very efficient regarding emissions reduction. In contrast, the Dutch and Italian legislations are quite restrictive but very efficient concerning emission control for the three pollutants analyzed. One of the outcomes of this study was the publication of a new law in Portugal regulating the emissions of atmospheric pollutants. The strategy of this emissions control law follows the conclusions found in this study including the concept of a mass flow threshold and different approaches depending on source dimension. 相似文献