Anthropocene Science最新文献

Understanding the diversity, abundance, and habitat preferences of the fauna is essential for determining the status and suggesting effective conservation actions. A study was conducted in Tirba Lake Awi zone, Ethiopia, to evaluate the wealth, diversity, and composition of the medium and large mammal communities. It is also important to consider how these parameters differ from one habitat type to another and from one season to another. Researchers collected data using a transect method. As a result of the study, 330 individuals and 11 different species of mammals were identified across four orders and six families. The result shows that globally threatened species like the Leopard (Panthera pardus) were included. In terms of seasonal variation in wild mammal abundance, the difference was statistically significant (P (le) 0.001). A total of 330 ± 26.2 wild mammals were recorded, of which 180 ± 11 (55%) were observed during the wet season and 150 ± 6.5 (45%) during the dry season. Olive Baboons (Papio Anubis) accounted for 30.61% of the 11 mammalian species with 101 individuals, followed by Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) with 16.67% and 55 individuals, respectively. Mammalian populations were statistically significant among habitat types, with the highest similarity index (SI = 0.8) observed between open forests and shrubland, followed by shrubland adjacent to Cliff sites (SI = 0.7). The shrubland habitat type (Hʹ = 1) supports the greatest diversity of mammalian species, followed by the open forest habitat type (Hʹ = 0.8). In terms of diversity among habitat types, dense forests had the lowest Hʹ value (0.5). Based on the species similarity index, open forest and shrubland shared the most similarity of mammalian species (Sl = 0.8), while shrubland and cliff sites hosted the least similar species (SI = 0.7). To conclude, our findings contribute significantly to the conservation of Ethiopia's mammal populations. As a result of our findings, managers of the area will be able to make effective conservation decisions, and researchers wishing to conduct related studies will be able to use the findings as a baseline for their research. Studies in the study area have revealed that anthropogenic factors interact with the mammals in the area, putting them at risk. It is imperative that these animals are protected through an urgent conservation program.

Rapid population growth and economic expansion affect environmental sustainability by raising emissions from increased urbanization, industrialization, and energy consumption in South Asia. Therefore, the current research aims to scrutinize the dynamic impacts of urbanization, industrialization, and energy consumption on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in five South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) under the umbrella of the famous stochastic regression for impact for technology, population, and asset on environmental condition (STIRPAT) model. This research employed the second-generation unit root and cointegration tests by applying the data from 1972 to 2021 to investigate the existence of slope heterogeneity (SH) and cross-sectional dependence (CSD) problem. After checking CSD, SH, unit root, and cointegration tests, the research utilized cross-sectional autoregressive distributive lag (CS-ARDL) as a baseline model and augmented mean group (AMG), mean group (MG), and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) as a robustness check. The evidence shows that the economic boom, urbanization, and industrialization increase CO₂ emissions. CO₂ emissions in South Asian nations have been reduced due to population growth, natural resources rent, and electrification. All estimators point to urbanization’s negative effects, being far more severe than any other environmental impact. Conversely, natural resource rent prevents environmental degradation more effectively than electricity. Therefore, it is recommended that South Asian economies adopt consistent, sustainable economic policies to reap the benefits of industrialization, urbanization, and increased electricity use. The findings are generally consistent with the policy implications.

This paper examines the neglected and underutilized crop diversity in four selected districts of the Eastern Region of Ghana to make conservation and production meaningful to local people. Through direct observation, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions, the study identified 27 neglected and underutilized crop species in the four districts. The availability of these crop species varies from high to moderate, including root and tuber, vegetables, cereals, fruits, trees, medicinal plant species, and legumes. According to the respondents, Garcinia kola was highly diverse in terms of spread. The commonly grown, but underutilized crop species included Dioscorea spp. (kookoo ase bayere and afasie), Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato), Colocasia esculenta (taro), Phaseolus spp. (white-Apatram), Capsicum chinense (Kpakposhito), and Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme (Afii ntoose/Ntos pa). Neglected and underutilized crop species are essential for reducing high-input demand and enhancing climate-resilient agriculture. Ensuring the sustainability of the food system requires adding value to these crop species.

The concept of ‘ecosystem service’ has gained momentum in the twenty-first century to bridge the gap between human–nature interactions. However, the challenge remains to map the flow of ecosystem services (ES) for their efficient management. Among the multiple existing methods, biophysical assessments provide better knowledge of the state of the ecosystem and its mapping for complimentary services. Trait–service linkage is one of the tools to reliably link biodiversity with ES if we better understand the role functional traits play in the underlying ecosystem processes. In this paper, we have performed a bibliometric analysis of published literature on ES and plant functional traits to identify the current state of knowledge on trait–service linkage, biases, research gaps, and challenges. There was a skewed geographical basis for trait–service linkage studies; most studies were conducted in Europe and North America. The majority of the research focused on supporting and regulating ES, mainly carbon sequestration, biomass production, and climate regulation, using a particular set of vegetative traits, such as leaf, root, and plant height, and ignored most regeneration traits, except for a few flower traits. A matrix to quantify the association between ES and selected plant traits (specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf area, leaf nitrogen content, vegetation height, wood density, canopy density, root length, root density, flowering time, flower color and flower size) revealed that the two leaf traits (specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content) in the linkage have contrasting associations with multiple ES. The study illustrated that there is still a considerable research gap in linking plant traits with essential ES (biomass production, climate and water regulation). Thus, suggest future studies on ES should focus more on trait–service linkage across major ecosystems to underpin key ecosystem processes for better sustenance of ES and human well-being.

Two major multilateral environmental agreements–the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)–were negotiated in 1992 to tackle the global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. However, the interlinkages between these two concerns were less recognized and structured which impaired the development of streamlined policies to tackle both simultaneously. Over the last nearly 20 years, increased scientific output on their interlinkages seems to have galvanized the world towards synergistic approaches aimed at transformation instead of business-as-usual effort. The Paris Climate Agreement to the UNFCCC characterizes this synergy by recognizing the importance of conservation and biodiversity protection and ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems. To understand to what extent, scientific output helped reach such synergistic decisions, we studied the temporal distribution of publications on the interlinkages between climate and biodiversity, vis-à-vis important decisions and approaches recognized by the UNFCCC and CBD. The research is based on scientometric meta-analysis of publications, assessing the trends, geographic distribution, key authors, journals, and funding organizations from 1992 to 2021. This information is simultaneously mapped for its significance for major decisions of the two conventions. The later part of the paper sheds light on the science-policy interface by taking cues from outputs of this research and recent workshops and meetings on climate- and biodiversity-related topics.

Coal is widely used as a thermal energy source and also as fuel for thermal power plants producing electricity. Thermal power plants (TPPs) have emerged as a major source of air, water, and soil pollution because of the presence of many toxic metals (As, Pb, Hg, Cr, etc.). Coal-fired power plants are major emitters of mercury to the atmosphere. Approximately, 30–80% of the total Hg content in coal is found in fly ash (FA) after the combustion process. Mercury (Hg), a potentially toxic element, has raised concerns for worldwide public health as it has the property to get bioaccumulated and biomagnified in the food chain. Aquatic ecosystems are an essential component of the global biogeochemical cycle of mercury, as inorganic mercury can be converted into toxic methylmercury. The biogeochemical cycle of mercury is complex, making it difficult to accurately assess the hazards to the environment and to human health. Importantly, several developing nations, like India and China, make large contributions to the supply, commerce, and anthropogenic emissions of mercury globally. India is one of the major emitters of anthropogenic mercury into the atmosphere due to its recent rapid economic growth, and forecasts indicate that it will continue to make a large contribution to global mercury emissions in the future. Considering the severity of the issue and growing risk of mercury pollution, this study attempts to understand, provide a synthesis of the mercury risk posed to India, and actions taken in accordance with the Minamata Convention to reduce mercury pollution.

The impact of land use changes, soil nutrient deterioration, indiscriminate use of agrochemicals, unpredictable weathers and global climate change with regard to agriculture productivity and food security is most challenging issues confronting mankind today worldwide. Abiotic and biotic ecological environmental drivers, such as soil salinity, drought, floods, soil pollutions, pathogens, insects and other annoying calamities, collectively affect agriculture production and environmental sustainability globally. Therefore, harnessing the plant–microbe interactions as a nature-based solution (NbS) could be a viable option for addressing agriculture sustainability for future generations. The soil rhizospheric microbiomes in association with crop plants can accelerate the plant growth and may enhance their resistance to various abiotic and biotic environmental drivers by producing bioactive plant growth promoting substances. Agriculturally important soil microflora can influence both the efficiency of nutrient availability to crop plants and they also regulate the interactions between plants and other harmful pathogens. Such interactions among plants and microbes may be beneficial to influence the physicochemical and microbiological properties of soils. Hence, it is important to recognize the best soil–plant microbiome dynamics-based management practices to attain a more sustainable and green agriculture for future food demand and security. This review describes the role of soil–plant microbiome dynamics as NbS and next-generation microbiome engineering in sustainable management of stress agriculture and global crop productivity.

The unnecessary flaring of natural gas impacts public and environmental health, contributes to climate change and wastes fuel resources. Though reducing flaring is an emergent global environmental governance priority, progress has been slow. We assess gas flaring policy in the critical case of Nigeria through multi-level governance (MLG) structure. Our analysis assesses policy coherence (leading to progress in reaching shared goals) and divergence (creating tension and undermining progress) amongst sectors and institutional structures across the supranational, federal, state and local government scales. A combined dataset of documents, stakeholder interviews and expert surveys is analysed using Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) and content analysis. We identify the principal actors involved, examine the extent of gas flaring awareness and policy coherence across multiple sectors/policy domains, and assess progress towards Nigeria’s national intended contribution and national policy on climate change mitigation. We find that policy coherence around gas flaring, including efforts towards climate change mitigation, has been slowed by political partisanship, poor governance, lack of regulatory compliance, and policy conflict between environmental protection and economic development priorities. Nigeria urgently requires inclusive involvement of stakeholder voices across multiple sectors and scales of local/regional government, the strengthening of federal institutions, a revaluation of economic aspirations through revenue diversification, and leadership that can temper the power of International Oil Companies (IOCs) to exploit the complexity of the MLG structure. These actions would help the government in improving environmental justice outcomes for flaring-affected communities.