Decisions to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture and product transport: LCA case study of organic and conventional wheat

A streamlined hybrid life cycle assessment is conducted to compare the global warming potential (GWP) and primary energy use of conventional and organic wheat production and delivery in the US. Impact differences from agricultural inputs, grain farming, and transport processes are estimated. The GWP of a 1 kg loaf of organic wheat bread is about 30 g CO₂-eq less than the conventional loaf. When organic wheat is shipped 420 km farther to market, organic and conventional wheat systems have similar impacts. These results can change dramatically depending on soil carbon accumulation and nitrous oxide emissions from the two systems. Key parameters and their variability are discussed to provide producers, wholesale and retail consumers, and policymakers metrics to align their decisions with low-carbon objectives.     

Effects of a shipwreck on the zooplankton community in a port region of the Amazon

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The port regions of the Amazon are subject to environmental impacts high shipping traffic. In October 2015, a cargo ship containing 5000 oxen sank in...     

Multi-hazard, multi-infrastructure, economic scenario analysis

Over the past 10 years, the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) has conducted over 150 detailed multi-hazard, multi-infrastructure scenario analyses of a wide range of man-made and natural disasters. Using a model-based implementation of the Department of Homeland Security risk management framework, NISAC analyzes scenarios ranging from extreme-event situational awareness to long-term strategic policy for improved homeland security and resilience to these events. This article describes the essential elements of the NISAC scenario analysis process, the toolkit of subject-matter expertise and models used, with a particular focus on the economics component. An example set of Hurricane Katrina economic-analysis results is used to illustrate basic elements of NISAC economics scenario analysis.     

Quantification of ozone uptake at the stand level in a Pinus canariensis forest in Tenerife, Canary Islands: an approach based on sap flow measurements

Ozone uptake was studied in a pine forest in Tenerife, Canary Islands, an ecotone with strong seasonal changes in climate. Ambient ozone concentration showed a pronounced seasonal course with high concentrations during the dry and warm period and low concentrations during the wet and cold season. Ozone uptake by contrast showed no clear seasonal trend. This is because canopy conductance significantly decreased with soil water availability and vapour pressure deficit. Mean daily ozone uptake averaged 1.9 nmol m(-2) s(-1) during the wet and cold season, and 1.5 nmol m(-2) s(-1) during the warm and dry period. The corresponding daily mean ambient ozone concentrations were 42 and 51 nl l(-1), respectively. Thus we conclude that in Mediterranean type forest ecosystems the flux based approach is more capable for risk assessment than an external, concentration based approach.     

Examination of a New Remedial Technology for Capping Contaminated Sediments: Large-Scale Laboratory Evaluation of Sediment Mixing and Cap Resistance to Erosive Forces

The potential effectiveness of a new composite-aggregate capping technology, AquaBlok^TM—in physically isolating contaminated, fine-grained sediments derived from an Ohio, Lake Erie tributary—was evaluated in the laboratory. In particular, large-scale settling-column studies were conducted to determine the degree to which composite-aggregate material penetrates into and/or mixes with the sediment, perhaps affecting the degree to which sediment could be physically isolated through capping. Additionally, large-scale flume studies were conducted to determine resistance of the composite-aggregate material to significant and long-term, fluvial-like erosive forces; the resistance of other potential capping materials was also evaluated for comparison. Experimental results indicate that the composite-aggregate material effectively isolates sediment through the formation of a continuous and relatively erosion-resistant, hydrated capping layer atop the sediments.     

Land cover effects on water balance partitioning in the Colombian Andes: improved water availability in early stages of natural vegetation recovery

Regional Environmental Change - Vegetation actively affects different components of the water budget in multiple spatial and temporal scales. Changes in vegetation cover and structure—such as...     

Properties of Distillers Grains Composites: A Preliminary Investigation

Interest in renewable biofuel sources has intensified in recent years, leading to greatly increased production of ethanol and its primary coproduct, Distillers Dried Grain with Solubles (DDGS). Consequently, the development of new outlets for DDGS has become crucial to maintaining the economic viability of the industry. In light of these developments, this preliminary study aimed to determine the suitability of DDGS for use as a biofiller in low-cost composites that could be produced by rapid prototyping applications. The effects of DDGS content, particle size, curing temperature, and compression on resulting properties, such as flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, water activity, and color were evaluated for two adhesive bases. The composites formed with phenolic resin glue were found to be greatly superior to glue in terms of mechanical strength and durability: resin-based composites had maximum fiber stresses of 150–380 kPa, while glue composites had values between 6 kPa and 35 kPa; additionally, glue composites experienced relatively rapid microbial growth. In the resin composites, both decreased particle size and increased compression resulted in increased mechanical strength, while a moderate DDGS content was found to increase flexural strength but decrease Young’s modulus. These results indicate that DDGS has the potential to be used in resin glue-based composites to both improve flexural strength and improve potential biodegradability.     

Efficient and equitable design of marine protected areas in Fiji through inclusion of stakeholder‐specific objectives in conservation planning

The efficacy of protected areas varies, partly because socioeconomic factors are not sufficiently considered in planning and management. Although integrating socioeconomic factors into systematic conservation planning is increasingly advocated, research is needed to progress from recognition of these factors to incorporating them effectively in spatial prioritization of protected areas. We evaluated 2 key aspects of incorporating socioeconomic factors into spatial prioritization: treatment of socioeconomic factors as costs or objectives and treatment of stakeholders as a single group or multiple groups. Using as a case study the design of a system of no‐take marine protected areas (MPAs) in Kubulau, Fiji, we assessed how these aspects affected the configuration of no‐take MPAs in terms of trade‐offs between biodiversity objectives, fisheries objectives, and equity in catch losses among fisher stakeholder groups. The achievement of fisheries objectives and equity tended to trade‐off concavely with increasing biodiversity objectives, indicating that it is possible to achieve low to mid‐range biodiversity objectives with relatively small losses to fisheries and equity. Importantly, the extent of trade‐offs depended on the method used to incorporate socioeconomic data and was least severe when objectives were set for each fisher stakeholder group explicitly. We found that using different methods to incorporate socioeconomic factors that require similar data and expertise can result in plans with very different impacts on local stakeholders.     

Attributing changes in land cover using independent disturbance datasets: a case study of the Yucatan Peninsula,Mexico

Detailed observations of natural and anthropogenic disturbance events that impact forest structure and the distribution of carbon are essential to estimate changes in terrestrial carbon pools and the associated emissions and removals of greenhouse gasses. Recent advances in remote sensing approaches have resulted in annual and decadal estimates of land-cover change derived from observations using broad-scale moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 m–1 km imagery. These land-use change estimates, however, are often not attributed directly to a cause or activity and are not well validated, especially in tropical areas. Knowledge of the type of disturbance that caused the observed land-cover changes is important, however, for the quantification of the associated impacts on ecosystem carbon stocks and fluxes. In this paper, we provide estimates of the amount of forest land-cover change in a Mexican forested region and propose an approach for attributing the cause of the observed changes to the underlying disturbance driver. To do so, we collate geospatial and remote sensing data from a variety of sources to summarize statistics about the major disturbances within the Yucatan Peninsula, an “early action” region for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation, from 2005 to 2010. We combine the datasets to develop rules to estimate the likely disturbances that caused the observed land-cover changes based on their spatially explicit location. Finally, we compare our observed disturbance rates to those detected using classified land-cover data derived from MODIS.