Climate justice and energy: applying international principles to UK residential energy policy

This paper draws on climate justice principles developed in the context of international negotiations between national governments to assess the distribution of carbon reduction roles between different actors involved in residential energy use within the UK. In so doing, it aims to provide a new understanding of equity aspects of current residential policy and to highlight opportunities for more effective and equitable policy. The paper uses three criteria: rights and corresponding duties; mitigation responsibilities and capabilities. It applies them systematically to assess the roles of five key actors involved in residential energy use in the UK. The assessment finds a suboptimal distribution of actors’ duties, responsibilities and capabilities and roles and discusses whether and how a more effective and fair allocation of outcomes, in terms of carbon reduction and fuel poverty, could be achieved. In particular, it raises questions about whether the right actors are being legally obliged or incentivised to deliver energy efficiency improvements, and suggests that particular actors – local authorities and community groups – are under-used and require greater government support with capability. The paper represents the first use of international climate justice frameworks to investigate residential energy policy within a country.     

Communicating About Bioenergy Sustainability

Defining and measuring sustainability of bioenergy systems are difficult because the systems are complex, the science is in early stages of development, and there is a need to generalize what are inherently context-specific enterprises. These challenges, and the fact that decisions are being made now, create a need for improved communications among scientists as well as between scientists and decision makers. In order for scientists to provide information that is useful to decision makers, they need to come to an agreement on how to measure and report potential risks and benefits of diverse energy alternatives in a way that allows decision makers to compare options. Scientists also need to develop approaches that contribute information about problems and opportunities relevant to policy and decision making. The need for clear communication is especially important at this time when there is a plethora of scientific papers and reports and it is difficult for the public or decision makers to assess the merits of each analysis. We propose three communication guidelines for scientists whose work can contribute to decision making: (1) relationships between the question and the analytical approach should be clearly defined and make common sense; (2) the information should be presented in a manner that non-scientists can understand; and (3) the implications of methods, assumptions, and limitations should be clear. The scientists’ job is to analyze information to build a better understanding of environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic aspects of the sustainability of energy alternatives. The scientific process requires transparency, debate, review, and collaboration across disciplines and time. This paper serves as an introduction to the papers in the special issue on “Sustainability of Bioenergy Systems: Cradle to Grave” because scientific communication is essential to developing more sustainable energy systems. Together these four papers provide a framework under which the effects of bioenergy can be assessed and compared to other energy alternatives to foster sustainability.     

A reassessment of the mating system characteristics of the army ant Eciton burchellii

In a recent study, Denny et al. (2004a) showed that queens of the army ant, Eciton burchellii, mate with multiple males and presented estimates suggesting that they mate with more males than queens of any other ant species so far investigated. They also inferred that data were consistent with queens being inseminated repeatedly throughout their life, which would be exceptional among the social Hymenoptera and contradictory to predictions from kin selection theory. In the present study, we reanalyze these data using new software and supplement them with similar microsatellite data from other colonies of the same species. Mating frequencies in E. burchellii are indeed very high (mean observed and effective queen-mating frequencies of 12.9 each) but considerably lower than the previous estimates. We show that the number of patrilines represented in the first worker offspring of a young queen is lower than in older queens but suggest that this may be due to initial sperm clumping in the queen’s sperm storage organ, rather than to repeated inseminations. Moreover, we found no evidence for repeated mating by genotyping sequential worker generations produced by a single old queen, showing that she did not obtain new inseminations despite ample opportunities for mating.     

Assessing trophic position from nitrogen isotope ratios: effective calibration against spatially varying baselines

Nitrogen isotope signatures (δ¹⁵N) provide powerful measures of the trophic positions of individuals, populations and communities. Obtaining reliable consumer δ¹⁵N values depends upon controlling for spatial variation in plant δ¹⁵N values, which form the trophic ‘baseline’. However, recent studies make differing assumptions about the scale over which plant δ¹⁵N values vary, and approaches to baseline control differ markedly. We examined spatial variation in the δ¹⁵N values of plants and ants sampled from eight 150-m transects in both unlogged and logged rainforests. We then investigated whether ant δ¹⁵N values were related to variation in plant δ¹⁵N values following baseline correction of ant values at two spatial scales: (1) using ‘local’ means of plants collected from the same transect and (2) using ‘global’ means of plants collected from all transects within each forest type. Plant δ¹⁵N baselines varied by the equivalent of one trophic level within each forest type. Correcting ant δ¹⁵N values using global plant means resulted in consumer values that were strongly positively related to the transect baseline, whereas local corrections yielded reliable estimates of consumer trophic positions that were largely independent of transect baselines. These results were consistent at the community level and when three trophically distinct ant subfamilies and eight abundant ant species were considered separately. Our results suggest that assuming baselines do not vary can produce misleading estimates of consumer trophic positions. We therefore emphasise the importance of clearly defining and applying baseline corrections at a scale that accounts for spatial variation in plant δ¹⁵N values.     

耕作和混合农业体系未来植物养分利用的前景和挑战

在不污染环境的情况下生产足量的健康食品对未来世界农业是一个严重挑战.瑞典"21世纪的食物"研究计划已经研究了可持续耕作体系的经济的、环境的以及社会的各个方面,本文列举了瑞典"21世纪的食物"研究计划以及其它相关的国际研究计划中注重改善养分利用效率的一些研究,特别是氮和磷.它表明有许多可持续性解决养分利用效率的方法,有些很复杂,但有些就很简单.政府政策包括津贴、研究和技术以及公众对耕作方式的认可,所有这些都与制定这些解决方法结合在一起.需要知识转让的参与式途径,这样科学家、政策决策者、农场主、顾问以及消费者们可以交流信息,一起构建可持续的耕作体系.     

Drought can offset potential water use efficiency of forest ecosystems from rising atmospheric CO2

Increasing atmospheric CO₂ is both leading to climate change and providing a potential fertilisation effect on plant growth. However, southern Australia has also experienced a significant decline in rainfall over the last 30 years, resulting in increased vegetative water stress. To better understand the dynamics and responses of Australian forest ecosystems to drought and elevated CO₂, the magnitude and trend in water use efficiency (WUE) of forests, and their response to drought and elevated CO₂ from 1982 to 2014 were analysed, using the best available model estimates constrained by observed fluxes from simulations with fixed and time-varying CO₂. The ratio of gross primary productivity (GPP) to evapotranspiration (ET) (WUEe) was used to identify the ecosystem scale WUE, while the ratio of GPP to transpiration (Tr) (WUEc) was used as a measure of canopy scale WUE. WUE increased significantly in northern Australia (p < 0.001) for woody savannas (WSA), whereas there was a slight decline in the WUE of evergreen broadleaf forests (EBF) in the southeast and southwest of Australia. The lag of WUEc to drought was consistent and relatively short and stable between biomes (≤3 months), but notably varied for WUEe, with a long time-lag (mean of 10 months). The dissimilar responses of WUEe and WUEc to climate change for different geographical areas result from the different proportion of Tr in ET. CO₂ fertilization and a wetter climate enhanced WUE in northern Australia, whereas drought offset the CO₂ fertilization effect in southern Australia.     

Tissue accumulation of aluminium is not a predictor of toxicity in the freshwater snail, Lymnaea stagnalis

The amount of toxic metal accumulated by an organism is often taken as an indicator of potential toxicity. We investigated this relationship in the freshwater snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, exposed to 500 μg l⁻¹ Al over 30 days, either alone or in the presence of phosphate (500 μg l⁻¹ P) or a fulvic acid surrogate (FAS; 10 mg l⁻¹ C). Behavioural activity was assessed and tissue accumulation of Al quantified. Lability of Al within the water column was a good predictor of toxicity. FAS increased both Al lability and behavioural dysfunction, whereas phosphate reduced Al lability, and completely abolished Al-induced behavioural toxicity. Tissue accumulation of Al was not linked to toxicity. Higher levels of Al were accumulated in snails exposed to Al + P, compared to those exposed to Al alone, whereas FAS reduced Al accumulation. These findings demonstrate that the degree of tissue accumulation of a metal can be independent of toxicity.     

Impacts of Land‐Cover Change on Suspended Sediment Transport in Two Agricultural Watersheds1

Schilling, Keith E., Thomas M. Isenhart, Jason A. Palmer, Calvin F. Wolter, and Jean Spooner, 2011. Impacts of Land‐Cover Change on Suspended Sediment Transport in Two Agricultural Watersheds. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(4):672‐686. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00533.x Abstract: Suspended sediment is a major water quality problem, yet few monitoring studies have been of sufficient scale and duration to assess the effectiveness of land‐use change or conservation practice implementation at a watershed scale. Daily discharge and suspended sediment export from two 5,000‐ha watersheds in central Iowa were monitored over a 10‐year period (water years 1996‐2005). In Walnut Creek watershed, a large portion of land was converted from row crop to native prairie, whereas in Squaw Creek land use remained predominantly row crop agriculture. Suspended sediment loads were similar in both watersheds, exhibiting flashy behavior typical of incised channels. Modeling suggested that expected total soil erosion in Walnut Creek should have been reduced 46% relative to Squaw Creek due to changes in land use, yet measured suspended sediment loads showed no significant differences. Stream mapping indicated that Walnut Creek had three times more eroding streambank lengths than did Squaw Creek suggesting that streambank erosion dominated sediment sources in Walnut Creek and sheet and rill sources dominated sediment sources in Squaw Creek. Our results demonstrate that an accounting of all sources of sediment erosion and delivery is needed to characterize sediment reductions in watershed projects combined with long‐term, intensive monitoring and modeling to account for possible lag times in the manifestation of the benefits of conservation practices on water quality.     

Potential effects of forest policies on terrestrial biodiversity in a multi-ownership province.

We used spatial simulation models to evaluate how current and two alternative policies might affect potential biodiversity over 100 years in the Coast Ranges Physiographic Province of Oregon. This 2.3-million-ha province is characterized by a diversity of public and private forest owners, and a wide range of forest policy and management objectives. We evaluated habitat availability for seven focal species representing different life histories. We also examined how policies affected old-growth stand structure, age distributions relative to the historical range of variability, and landscape patterns of forest types. Under the current policy scenario, the area of habitat for old-growth forest structure and associated species increased over time, the habitat for some early-successional associates remained stable, and the area of hardwood vegetation and diverse early-successional stages declined. The province is projected to move toward but not reach the historical range of variation of forest age classes that may have occurred under the wildfire regimes of the pre-Euroamerican settlement period. Ownership explained much of the pattern of biodiversity in the province, and under the current policy scenario, its effect increased over time as the landscape diverged into highly contrasting forest structures and ages. Patch type diversity declined slightly overall but declined strongly within ownerships. Most of the modeled change in biodiversity over time resulted from policies on public forest lands that were intended to increase the area of late-successional forests and species. One of the alternative policies, increased retention of wildlife trees on private lands, reduced the contrast between ownerships and increased habitat availability over time for both early- and late-successional species. Analysis of another alternative, stopping thinning of plantations on federal lands, indicated that current thinning regimes improve habitat for the Olive-sided Flycatcher, but the no-thinning alternative had no effect on the habitat scores for the late-successional species in the 100-year simulation. A comparison of indicators of biological diversity suggests that using focal species and forest structural measures can provide complementary information on biodiversity. The multi-ownership perspective provided a more complete synthesis of province-wide biodiversity patterns than assessments based on single ownerships.