Pub Date : 2024-07-18DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5ab5
Gabriel I Gadsden, Kristy M Ferraro and Nyeema C Harris
Cities spend millions of dollars on rodent mitigation to reduce public health risks. Despite these efforts, infestations remain high and distressing. Rodents thrive in the built environment in part due to reduced natural predators and their exploitation of garbage. Though sanitation and greenspace are important factors in rodent mitigation, more complex governance and actions are needed. Urban rodents are dynamic and commensal in nature, so understanding the influence of prolific urban features, like building attributes, warrants scrutiny and additionally intersects mitigation strategies with stakeholders at a localized level. Here, we model how residential structures’ efficiency influences urban rodent populations. To do so, we created an agent-based model using characteristics of urban brown rats and their natural predator, red foxes, based on three distinct neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We varied whether retrofitting occurred and its duration as well as the percent of initial energy-efficient homes in each neighborhood. We found that initial housing conditions, retrofitting, and the duration of retrofitting all significantly reduced final rodent populations. However, retrofitting was most effective in reducing rodent populations in neighborhoods with extensive park access and low commercial activity. Additionally, across neighborhoods, single large efficiency initiatives showed greater potential for rodent reduction. Lastly, we show that the costs of large-scale retrofitting schemes are comparable to ten-year public health spending, demonstrating that retrofitting may have the potential to offset near-term costs. Our results showcase how system-view investments in integrated pest management can lead to sustained rodent pest mitigation and advance sustainable development goals, infrastructure innovation (Goal #9), reduced inequalities (Goal #10), and sustainable cities and communities (Goal #11).
{"title":"Energy efficient homes for rodent control across cityscapes","authors":"Gabriel I Gadsden, Kristy M Ferraro and Nyeema C Harris","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5ab5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5ab5","url":null,"abstract":"Cities spend millions of dollars on rodent mitigation to reduce public health risks. Despite these efforts, infestations remain high and distressing. Rodents thrive in the built environment in part due to reduced natural predators and their exploitation of garbage. Though sanitation and greenspace are important factors in rodent mitigation, more complex governance and actions are needed. Urban rodents are dynamic and commensal in nature, so understanding the influence of prolific urban features, like building attributes, warrants scrutiny and additionally intersects mitigation strategies with stakeholders at a localized level. Here, we model how residential structures’ efficiency influences urban rodent populations. To do so, we created an agent-based model using characteristics of urban brown rats and their natural predator, red foxes, based on three distinct neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We varied whether retrofitting occurred and its duration as well as the percent of initial energy-efficient homes in each neighborhood. We found that initial housing conditions, retrofitting, and the duration of retrofitting all significantly reduced final rodent populations. However, retrofitting was most effective in reducing rodent populations in neighborhoods with extensive park access and low commercial activity. Additionally, across neighborhoods, single large efficiency initiatives showed greater potential for rodent reduction. Lastly, we show that the costs of large-scale retrofitting schemes are comparable to ten-year public health spending, demonstrating that retrofitting may have the potential to offset near-term costs. Our results showcase how system-view investments in integrated pest management can lead to sustained rodent pest mitigation and advance sustainable development goals, infrastructure innovation (Goal #9), reduced inequalities (Goal #10), and sustainable cities and communities (Goal #11).","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141744223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-18DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d0a
Johannes Brehm and Henri Gruhl
Taxes targeting fuel, road usage, or carbon emissions for environmental protection often face public opposition. Can widely accessible machine learning methods aid in predicting and understanding opposition to environmental taxes? This study uses the random forest algorithm to predict opposition to increased environmental taxes based on 41 theoretically relevant respondent characteristics. Drawing on nationally representative surveys, we predict individual tax opposition across 28 countries in 2010 and 2020 (N = 70 710). Personal values and environmental evaluations tend to be more influential than demographics in predicting tax opposition, with key variables differing between countries and over time. A lack of commitment to pro-environmental behavior is the most important predictor in emerging economies. Conversely, concerns about environmental issues and prioritization of jobs and prices are influential in high-income countries, gaining prominence over the previous decade. Policymakers can leverage these insights to tailor communication of environmental tax increases in different contexts, emphasizing, for instance, job creation.
{"title":"Leveraging machine learning to understand opposition to environmental tax increases across countries and over time","authors":"Johannes Brehm and Henri Gruhl","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d0a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d0a","url":null,"abstract":"Taxes targeting fuel, road usage, or carbon emissions for environmental protection often face public opposition. Can widely accessible machine learning methods aid in predicting and understanding opposition to environmental taxes? This study uses the random forest algorithm to predict opposition to increased environmental taxes based on 41 theoretically relevant respondent characteristics. Drawing on nationally representative surveys, we predict individual tax opposition across 28 countries in 2010 and 2020 (N = 70 710). Personal values and environmental evaluations tend to be more influential than demographics in predicting tax opposition, with key variables differing between countries and over time. A lack of commitment to pro-environmental behavior is the most important predictor in emerging economies. Conversely, concerns about environmental issues and prioritization of jobs and prices are influential in high-income countries, gaining prominence over the previous decade. Policymakers can leverage these insights to tailor communication of environmental tax increases in different contexts, emphasizing, for instance, job creation.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141744372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5f43
Yang Song, Yahui Guo, Shijie Li, Wangyipu Li and Xiuliang Jin
The Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, with large human populations and terrestrial carbon sinks, have a high demand for and dependence on water resources. Despite the growing interest in vegetation responses to drought under climate change in this region, our understanding of changes in the relationship between vegetation growth and water availability (referred to as Rvw) remains limited. Here, we aim to explore the Rvw and its drivers in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes between 1982 and 2015. We used the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the fine-resolution Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) as proxies for vegetation growth and water availability, respectively. The trend analysis results showed that changes in NDVI and PDSI were asynchronous over the past three decades. Moreover, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of the correlation coefficient between NDVI and PDSI. The results indicated that the Rvw was getting closer in more areas over the period, but there were differences across ecosystems. Specifically, most croplands and grasslands were primarily constrained by water deficit, which was getting stronger; however, most forests were primarily constrained by water surplus, which was getting weaker. Furthermore, our random forest regression models indicated that the dominant driver of changes in the NDVI-PDSI correlation was atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in more than 45% of grid cells. In addition, the partial correlation analysis results demonstrated that elevated CO2 concentrations not only boosted vegetation growth through the fertilizer effect but also indirectly enhanced water availability by improving water use efficiency. Overall, this study highlights the important role of atmospheric CO2 in mediating the Rvw under climate change, implying a potential link between vegetation greening and drought risk.
{"title":"Elevated CO2 concentrations contribute to a closer relationship between vegetation growth and water availability in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes","authors":"Yang Song, Yahui Guo, Shijie Li, Wangyipu Li and Xiuliang Jin","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5f43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5f43","url":null,"abstract":"The Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, with large human populations and terrestrial carbon sinks, have a high demand for and dependence on water resources. Despite the growing interest in vegetation responses to drought under climate change in this region, our understanding of changes in the relationship between vegetation growth and water availability (referred to as Rvw) remains limited. Here, we aim to explore the Rvw and its drivers in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes between 1982 and 2015. We used the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the fine-resolution Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) as proxies for vegetation growth and water availability, respectively. The trend analysis results showed that changes in NDVI and PDSI were asynchronous over the past three decades. Moreover, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of the correlation coefficient between NDVI and PDSI. The results indicated that the Rvw was getting closer in more areas over the period, but there were differences across ecosystems. Specifically, most croplands and grasslands were primarily constrained by water deficit, which was getting stronger; however, most forests were primarily constrained by water surplus, which was getting weaker. Furthermore, our random forest regression models indicated that the dominant driver of changes in the NDVI-PDSI correlation was atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in more than 45% of grid cells. In addition, the partial correlation analysis results demonstrated that elevated CO2 concentrations not only boosted vegetation growth through the fertilizer effect but also indirectly enhanced water availability by improving water use efficiency. Overall, this study highlights the important role of atmospheric CO2 in mediating the Rvw under climate change, implying a potential link between vegetation greening and drought risk.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d06
Carlos F Gould, Rob Bailis, Kalpana Balakrishnan, Marshall Burke, Sebastián Espinoza, Sumi Mehta, Samuel B Schlesinger, José R Suarez-Lopez and Ajay Pillarisetti
Households that burn biomass in inefficient open fires—a practice that results in $1.6 trillion in global damages from health impacts and climate-altering emissions yearly—are often unable to access cleaner alternatives, like gas, which is widely available but unaffordable, or electricity, which is unattainable for many due to insufficient supply and reliability of electricity services. Governments are often reluctant to make gas affordable. We argue that condemnation of all fossil fuel subsidies is short-sighted and does not adequately consider subsidizing gas for cooking as a potential strategy to improve public health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
{"title":"In praise of cooking gas subsidies: transitional fuels to advance health and equity *","authors":"Carlos F Gould, Rob Bailis, Kalpana Balakrishnan, Marshall Burke, Sebastián Espinoza, Sumi Mehta, Samuel B Schlesinger, José R Suarez-Lopez and Ajay Pillarisetti","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d06","url":null,"abstract":"Households that burn biomass in inefficient open fires—a practice that results in $1.6 trillion in global damages from health impacts and climate-altering emissions yearly—are often unable to access cleaner alternatives, like gas, which is widely available but unaffordable, or electricity, which is unattainable for many due to insufficient supply and reliability of electricity services. Governments are often reluctant to make gas affordable. We argue that condemnation of all fossil fuel subsidies is short-sighted and does not adequately consider subsidizing gas for cooking as a potential strategy to improve public health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5dce
Feng Yang, Yingzuo Qin, Rongrong Xu, Lei Deng and Zhenzhong Zeng
The vast potential of hydropower remains crucial in addressing the escalating need for clean energy, particularly in Tropical Moist Forests (TMFs) regions. Yet, the widespread construction of reservoirs within TMFs has resulted in the inundation of forested areas, exacerbating the fragmentation of forest landscapes and contributing additional loss of carbon stored in these ecosystems. Despite this, the scale and degree of forest loss within reservoirs due to inundation from reservoir construction remain poorly quantified and mapped across tropical regions. Here, we leverage long-term TMFs data spanning from 1990 to 2021 to investigate forest loss within reservoirs across tropical regions. We reveal that forest losses within reservoirs total 3521 km2, constituting a relatively small fraction of total forest loss. Nonetheless, the spatial distribution of forest loss within reservoirs varies significantly across the tropics, with patchy distributions observed in the American and African TMFs, and striped patterns evident in the Asian TMFs. Contrary to common assumptions, we show that small reservoirs exhibit higher levels of forest loss compared to large reservoirs, particularly pronounced in the African TMFs region. Furthermore, our projections indicate that the exclusive construction of small reservoirs contributes to approximately 27% of Africa’s total forest area lost. We underscore the importance of policymakers carefully evaluating the trade-offs associated with the construction of large versus small reservoirs in TMF regions, to minimize the adverse impacts of hydropower development on forest ecosystems.
{"title":"The forest loss within small reservoirs surpasses that of large reservoirs across the tropics","authors":"Feng Yang, Yingzuo Qin, Rongrong Xu, Lei Deng and Zhenzhong Zeng","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5dce","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5dce","url":null,"abstract":"The vast potential of hydropower remains crucial in addressing the escalating need for clean energy, particularly in Tropical Moist Forests (TMFs) regions. Yet, the widespread construction of reservoirs within TMFs has resulted in the inundation of forested areas, exacerbating the fragmentation of forest landscapes and contributing additional loss of carbon stored in these ecosystems. Despite this, the scale and degree of forest loss within reservoirs due to inundation from reservoir construction remain poorly quantified and mapped across tropical regions. Here, we leverage long-term TMFs data spanning from 1990 to 2021 to investigate forest loss within reservoirs across tropical regions. We reveal that forest losses within reservoirs total 3521 km2, constituting a relatively small fraction of total forest loss. Nonetheless, the spatial distribution of forest loss within reservoirs varies significantly across the tropics, with patchy distributions observed in the American and African TMFs, and striped patterns evident in the Asian TMFs. Contrary to common assumptions, we show that small reservoirs exhibit higher levels of forest loss compared to large reservoirs, particularly pronounced in the African TMFs region. Furthermore, our projections indicate that the exclusive construction of small reservoirs contributes to approximately 27% of Africa’s total forest area lost. We underscore the importance of policymakers carefully evaluating the trade-offs associated with the construction of large versus small reservoirs in TMF regions, to minimize the adverse impacts of hydropower development on forest ecosystems.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5f46
Kashi Kafle, Soumya Balasubramanya, David Stifel and Manohara Khadka
In recent years, use of solar-powered irrigation pumps (SIPs) has increased significantly in the agricultural plains (terai) of Nepal. Federal and local governments there have subsidized the pumps in an effort to expand irrigated agriculture using renewable energy. We use data from a cross-sectional survey of 656 farming households in the terai to examine how SIPs affect fossil fuel use and groundwater extraction. We find that most SIP users continued to use their fossil-fuel pumps, as very few completely replaced them with solar pumps. Farmers who received SIPs operated their irrigation pumps more hours than those who did not receive SIPs. Taken together, these findings suggest that groundwater use has increased, as SIP recipients ‘stack’ their pumps. We also find that solar pumps were more likely to be owned by richer households and those with better social networks than those who were poorer and had relative social disadvantage. As Nepal expands the use of solar pumps in agriculture, policy efforts may benefit from managing expectations about the carbon-mitigation potential of this technology, managing groundwater risks as SIP use expands, and making SIPs more inclusive.
{"title":"Solar-powered irrigation in Nepal: implications for fossil fuel use and groundwater extraction","authors":"Kashi Kafle, Soumya Balasubramanya, David Stifel and Manohara Khadka","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5f46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5f46","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, use of solar-powered irrigation pumps (SIPs) has increased significantly in the agricultural plains (terai) of Nepal. Federal and local governments there have subsidized the pumps in an effort to expand irrigated agriculture using renewable energy. We use data from a cross-sectional survey of 656 farming households in the terai to examine how SIPs affect fossil fuel use and groundwater extraction. We find that most SIP users continued to use their fossil-fuel pumps, as very few completely replaced them with solar pumps. Farmers who received SIPs operated their irrigation pumps more hours than those who did not receive SIPs. Taken together, these findings suggest that groundwater use has increased, as SIP recipients ‘stack’ their pumps. We also find that solar pumps were more likely to be owned by richer households and those with better social networks than those who were poorer and had relative social disadvantage. As Nepal expands the use of solar pumps in agriculture, policy efforts may benefit from managing expectations about the carbon-mitigation potential of this technology, managing groundwater risks as SIP use expands, and making SIPs more inclusive.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5fa5
Jingchao Huang, Xu Yue, Bin Wang, Xiaofei Lu and Gang Dong
Solar radiation is a key driver of ecosystem carbon and water fluxes. However, the impacts of radiation quantity and quality on the carbon-water coupling are not well distinguished. In this study, we used simultaneous flux and radiation measurements at two grassland sites in northeastern China to explore the joint impacts of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and diffuse fraction (Kd) on carbon and water fluxes and their coupling relationships. Under the low to medium PAR levels (<280 W m−2), gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) increased continuously with Kd but the sensitivity of GPP (8.4%–8.8% per 0.1 increase in Kd) was significantly higher than that of ET (2.2%–5.0% per 0.1 increase in Kd) at both sites. Under the high PAR levels (>280 W m−2), the GPP continued to grow at the southern site but showed limited responses to Kd at the northern site, likely due to the temperature constraint in the latter. Meanwhile, the contribution of evaporation to ET increased under the high radiation conditions, resulting in a decreased ET due to the reduced direct radiation following Kd increment at both sites. Consequently, water use efficiency (WUE) increased with Kd for all radiation levels but showed low sensitivity to PAR changes due to the synchronized GPP and ET responses to PAR. This study unraveled the positive dependence of ecosystem WUE on the increased Kd though with varied sensitivities of GPP and ET under different PAR levels, highlighting the strong impacts of diffuse radiation on ecosystem fluxes over the regions with aerosol pollution and cloud variations.
太阳辐射是生态系统碳通量和水通量的主要驱动力。然而,辐射的数量和质量对碳-水耦合的影响并不十分明确。在本研究中,我们在中国东北的两个草地上同时测量了通量和辐射,探讨了光合有效辐射(PAR)和漫射分量(Kd)对碳通量和水通量的共同影响及其耦合关系。在中低PAR水平(280 W m-2)下,南部草地的GPP持续增长,但北部草地的GPP对Kd的响应有限,这可能是由于北部草地的温度限制。同时,在高辐射条件下,蒸发对蒸散发的贡献增加,导致蒸散发减少,原因是两地 Kd 增加后直接辐射减少。因此,在所有辐射水平下,水分利用效率(WUE)都随 Kd 的增加而增加,但由于 GPP 和蒸散发对 PAR 的同步响应,对 PAR 变化的敏感性较低。这项研究揭示了生态系统水分利用效率对 Kd 增加的正向依赖性,尽管在不同 PAR 水平下 GPP 和蒸散发的敏感性各不相同,这突出表明了在气溶胶污染和云量变化地区,漫射辐射对生态系统通量的强烈影响。
{"title":"Impact of diffuse radiation on the coupling of carbon and water fluxes in the grassland of northeastern China","authors":"Jingchao Huang, Xu Yue, Bin Wang, Xiaofei Lu and Gang Dong","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5fa5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5fa5","url":null,"abstract":"Solar radiation is a key driver of ecosystem carbon and water fluxes. However, the impacts of radiation quantity and quality on the carbon-water coupling are not well distinguished. In this study, we used simultaneous flux and radiation measurements at two grassland sites in northeastern China to explore the joint impacts of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and diffuse fraction (Kd) on carbon and water fluxes and their coupling relationships. Under the low to medium PAR levels (<280 W m−2), gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) increased continuously with Kd but the sensitivity of GPP (8.4%–8.8% per 0.1 increase in Kd) was significantly higher than that of ET (2.2%–5.0% per 0.1 increase in Kd) at both sites. Under the high PAR levels (>280 W m−2), the GPP continued to grow at the southern site but showed limited responses to Kd at the northern site, likely due to the temperature constraint in the latter. Meanwhile, the contribution of evaporation to ET increased under the high radiation conditions, resulting in a decreased ET due to the reduced direct radiation following Kd increment at both sites. Consequently, water use efficiency (WUE) increased with Kd for all radiation levels but showed low sensitivity to PAR changes due to the synchronized GPP and ET responses to PAR. This study unraveled the positive dependence of ecosystem WUE on the increased Kd though with varied sensitivities of GPP and ET under different PAR levels, highlighting the strong impacts of diffuse radiation on ecosystem fluxes over the regions with aerosol pollution and cloud variations.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5bf2
Gemma Coxon, Hilary McMillan, John P Bloomfield, Lauren Bolotin, Joshua F Dean, Christa Kelleher, Louise Slater and Yanchen Zheng
Urbanisation is an important driver of changes in streamflow. These changes are not uniform across catchments due to the diverse nature of water sources, storage, and pathways in urban river systems. While land cover data are typically used in urban hydrology analyses, other characteristics of urban systems (such as water management practices) are poorly quantified which means that urbanisation impacts on streamflow are often difficult to detect and quantify. Here, we assess urban impacts on streamflow dynamics for 711 catchments across England and Wales. We use the CAMELS-GB dataset, which is a large-sample hydrology dataset containing hydro-meteorological timeseries and catchment attributes characterising climate, geology, water management practices and land cover. We quantify urban impacts on a wide range of streamflow dynamics (flow magnitudes, variability, frequency, and duration) using random forest models. We demonstrate that wastewater discharges from sewage treatment plants and urban land cover dominate urban hydrology signals across England and Wales. Wastewater discharges increase low flows and reduce flashiness in urban catchments. In contrast, urban land cover increases flashiness and frequency of medium and high flow events. We highlight the need to move beyond land cover metrics and include other features of urban river systems in hydrological analyses to quantify current and future drivers of urban streamflow.
{"title":"Wastewater discharges and urban land cover dominate urban hydrology signals across England and Wales","authors":"Gemma Coxon, Hilary McMillan, John P Bloomfield, Lauren Bolotin, Joshua F Dean, Christa Kelleher, Louise Slater and Yanchen Zheng","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5bf2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5bf2","url":null,"abstract":"Urbanisation is an important driver of changes in streamflow. These changes are not uniform across catchments due to the diverse nature of water sources, storage, and pathways in urban river systems. While land cover data are typically used in urban hydrology analyses, other characteristics of urban systems (such as water management practices) are poorly quantified which means that urbanisation impacts on streamflow are often difficult to detect and quantify. Here, we assess urban impacts on streamflow dynamics for 711 catchments across England and Wales. We use the CAMELS-GB dataset, which is a large-sample hydrology dataset containing hydro-meteorological timeseries and catchment attributes characterising climate, geology, water management practices and land cover. We quantify urban impacts on a wide range of streamflow dynamics (flow magnitudes, variability, frequency, and duration) using random forest models. We demonstrate that wastewater discharges from sewage treatment plants and urban land cover dominate urban hydrology signals across England and Wales. Wastewater discharges increase low flows and reduce flashiness in urban catchments. In contrast, urban land cover increases flashiness and frequency of medium and high flow events. We highlight the need to move beyond land cover metrics and include other features of urban river systems in hydrological analyses to quantify current and future drivers of urban streamflow.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5ab3
Vilma Sandström, Thomas Kastner, Florian Schwarzmueller and Matti Kummu
Many key feed commodities used in livestock and aquaculture production are highly traded in global agricultural markets. The dependence on these imported inputs may create vulnerabilities for importing countries when disturbances in global trade flows occur. Replacing feed imports with domestic food system byproducts—i.e. secondary products from crop, livestock and aquaculture processing—offers a solution to decrease trade dependency, increase food system resilience, and contribute to environmental sustainability. The potential impacts of such replacements on global food-trade patterns—and consequently on heightened self-sufficiency—remain largely unexplored. In this study, we assessed the material flows in the global feed trade at the country level and estimated the potential to replace imported feeds with more efficient use of domestic food system byproducts. We focus on three key feed groups in both livestock and aquaculture production: cereals, oilseed meals and fishmeal. We show that, at the global level, 19% of cereal, 16% of oilseed meals, and 27% of fishmeal feed imports can be replaced with domestic food system byproducts without affecting animal productivity. The high-input animal production countries in East and Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and North America show the highest potential. This study highlights the commodities and areas with the most potential to guide and inform decisions and investments to build more local and circular livestock and aquaculture production that would be more resilient to several kinds of shocks. Replacing feed imports with food system byproducts can increase food system resilience. Nevertheless, larger sustainability strategies, such as dietary change and reducing food loss and waste, should be implemented to ensure a transition towards more sustainable food systems.
{"title":"The potential to increase food system resilience by replacing feed imports with domestic food system byproducts","authors":"Vilma Sandström, Thomas Kastner, Florian Schwarzmueller and Matti Kummu","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5ab3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5ab3","url":null,"abstract":"Many key feed commodities used in livestock and aquaculture production are highly traded in global agricultural markets. The dependence on these imported inputs may create vulnerabilities for importing countries when disturbances in global trade flows occur. Replacing feed imports with domestic food system byproducts—i.e. secondary products from crop, livestock and aquaculture processing—offers a solution to decrease trade dependency, increase food system resilience, and contribute to environmental sustainability. The potential impacts of such replacements on global food-trade patterns—and consequently on heightened self-sufficiency—remain largely unexplored. In this study, we assessed the material flows in the global feed trade at the country level and estimated the potential to replace imported feeds with more efficient use of domestic food system byproducts. We focus on three key feed groups in both livestock and aquaculture production: cereals, oilseed meals and fishmeal. We show that, at the global level, 19% of cereal, 16% of oilseed meals, and 27% of fishmeal feed imports can be replaced with domestic food system byproducts without affecting animal productivity. The high-input animal production countries in East and Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and North America show the highest potential. This study highlights the commodities and areas with the most potential to guide and inform decisions and investments to build more local and circular livestock and aquaculture production that would be more resilient to several kinds of shocks. Replacing feed imports with food system byproducts can increase food system resilience. Nevertheless, larger sustainability strategies, such as dietary change and reducing food loss and waste, should be implemented to ensure a transition towards more sustainable food systems.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-11DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad5fa8
Xuan Ma, Fei Xie, Xiaosong Chen, Na Liu and Rizhou Liang
Autumn typhoons, despite their lower occurrence rate, impose significant, and at times, greater economic impacts on Asia than summer typhoons. Accurately predicting the interannual variations in autumn typhoon frequency remains a persistent challenge. Our finding discovers a pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the western Pacific, termed the horseshoe-shaped mode (HWP), and finds a strong interannual correlation between the February–March SST anomalies in the western Pacific and September–October tropical cyclones (TCs) frequency in the western North Pacific. The February–March warming HWP triggers enhanced easterlies over the equatorial Pacific as a Kelvin wave response, strengthening the east-west SST gradient and, in turn, further intensifying the September–October HWP through positive feedback. The intensified September–October HWP could boost upwelling in the northwestern and southwestern Pacific and induce dynamic subsidence in the equatorial western Pacific, mirroring a localized reversal of Hadley-like circulation. This is accompanied by higher relative humidity, cloud cover, and longwave radiation over the western North Pacific, warming local SST and fostering TC formation. An SST-based statistical linear model could reproduce September–October TCs for both training and testing periods, demonstrating the reliability and stability of this linear model. Our results indicate that HWP could be an important indicator for improving TC prediction level.
{"title":"The frequency of autumn western North Pacific tropical cyclone linking to spring western Pacific SST anomalies","authors":"Xuan Ma, Fei Xie, Xiaosong Chen, Na Liu and Rizhou Liang","doi":"10.1088/1748-9326/ad5fa8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5fa8","url":null,"abstract":"Autumn typhoons, despite their lower occurrence rate, impose significant, and at times, greater economic impacts on Asia than summer typhoons. Accurately predicting the interannual variations in autumn typhoon frequency remains a persistent challenge. Our finding discovers a pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the western Pacific, termed the horseshoe-shaped mode (HWP), and finds a strong interannual correlation between the February–March SST anomalies in the western Pacific and September–October tropical cyclones (TCs) frequency in the western North Pacific. The February–March warming HWP triggers enhanced easterlies over the equatorial Pacific as a Kelvin wave response, strengthening the east-west SST gradient and, in turn, further intensifying the September–October HWP through positive feedback. The intensified September–October HWP could boost upwelling in the northwestern and southwestern Pacific and induce dynamic subsidence in the equatorial western Pacific, mirroring a localized reversal of Hadley-like circulation. This is accompanied by higher relative humidity, cloud cover, and longwave radiation over the western North Pacific, warming local SST and fostering TC formation. An SST-based statistical linear model could reproduce September–October TCs for both training and testing periods, demonstrating the reliability and stability of this linear model. Our results indicate that HWP could be an important indicator for improving TC prediction level.","PeriodicalId":11747,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141610224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}