Environmental Management最新文献

Sphagnum mosses are a dominant plant group in boreal and temperate peatlands, significantly contributing to peat accumulation and, consequently, terrestrial carbon stock. Sphagnum moss as a potentially renewable alternative for peat is an emerging raw material in the horticultural growing medium industry – hence Sphagnum is harvested or farmed in multiple countries worldwide. In Finland, Sphagnum harvesting is a new land use of peatlands, currently conducted on a small scale, preferentially on sites previously affected by other types of land use. However, with ample suitable harvesting areas available, such as forestry drained peatlands with low timber production, Sphagnum harvesting has the potential to become a significant land use practice. To assess the available Sphagnum harvesting land resources in Finland, we employed collaborative working methods, including repeated workshops with stakeholders and semi-structured interviews to establish criteria for site selection. Through stakeholder engagement, the criteria were selected, further modified, and used in spatial analysis to delineate potential harvesting areas and estimate land area. The criteria formulation involved several stages, including identifying existing land-use restrictions and other possible constraints on peatlands, and assessing where suitable Sphagnum yield and production costs can be achieved. The resulting area estimate ─ 241,000 hectares of potential Sphagnum harvesting area ─ is substantial, accounting for up to 3% of all peatland areas in Finland. It also exceeds the estimated area needed for Sphagnum harvesting to replace peat as a growing medium in Finland. The stakeholder engagement process revealed the need for further regulation of Sphagnum harvesting if the activity is upscaled.

Climate change has significantly intensified flood regimes in recent decades. While traditional flood management emphasizes disaster prevention through structural interventions, it often overlooks the ecological functions of flood pulses. This study first explores how flood frequency and phases affect riverine habitat quality, integrating two-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling with ecological habitat assessment. Using the Qingyi River as a case study, we quantified the habitat responses of multiple aquatic organisms under different flood frequencies and different hydrological stages. Results show that moderate floods (with a 10-year return period) enhanced fish habitat functionality (Weighted Usable Area, WUA) by up to 120% compared to multi-year average discharge, primarily by expanding shallow zones and improving lateral connectivity. Fish species reached peak habitat suitability during flood crests, while Benthic organisms favored recession phases, revealing phase-specific ecological responses. To further account for flood risks—often neglected in ecological evaluations—we introduced a Flood Assessment Method Coupling Ecology and Risk (FAMCER) and in this method we proposed the Flood Efficiency Index (FEI) to integrate ecological gains and hazard costs. This index identifies trade-offs between ecological benefits and flood risks, showing that 10-year floods achieve an optimal balance in our case study. The flexible FEI-based framework enables targeted evaluation across different conservation priorities and supports adaptive decision-making for ecological flow releases and floodplain restoration. These findings highlight the need to shift from purely defensive flood control to integrated flood management that balances ecological enhancement with risk mitigation.

The European Farm to Fork strategy mandates transformative measures to reduce agriculture’s environmental impacts, yet its translation into actionable policies remains ambiguous. In Germany, current fertilizer policies rely on rigid, action-oriented guidelines that stakeholders increasingly criticize for failing to address complex environmental challenges. This study captures policy demands for improved nutrient management by engaging primary stakeholders—from agriculture, environmental protection, and academia—through a modified policy Delphi process. Iterative online working groups and a plenary scenario workshop, structured around a systematic framework on environmental policy instrument selection, elicited open-ended, demand-driven responses. Findings reveal a strong consensus for shifting from prescriptive fertilization practices to target-oriented, scientifically grounded approaches. Stakeholders advocate adopting farm-gate nutrient balancing to reduce nitrogen losses and manage phosphorus surpluses while emphasizing the need for robust monitoring systems enhanced by digital technologies. This participatory approach integrates diverse expert perspectives into policy recommendation, enhancing the legitimacy and adaptability of future fertilizer policies while reducing political dissent. Although these stakeholder-driven recommendations offer promising directions for reconciling agricultural productivity with environmental sustainability, further empirical research—including pilot projects and simulation studies—is needed to validate feasibility and refine the methodological framework. The insights from this study contribute to the bottom-up development of fertilizer policy instruments that support the broader objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy.

The fertility of forest cover plays a crucial role in enhancing precipitation and freshwater availability, thereby significantly influencing ecosystem services. With global attention increasingly focused on ecosystem conservation, this article aims to estimate the monetary value of freshwater availability provided by forests, a vital component of provisioning services. The production function approach was used including the replacement cost method and market price method. The values obtained by the replacement cost method ranged from 59 to 129 US dollar per hectare per annum, which is lower than the market price method (191–424 US dollar per hectare per annum). The market price method, which requires less data and has been more commonly used in the literature, tends to overestimate the value of freshwater conservation due to the inclusion water treatment cost and value added tax which may not be relevant. The replacement cost method, which focuses directly on the forest ecosystem service, helps achieve a more accurate valuation of freshwater conservation efforts associated with forest preservation.

This paper reflects on the current state-of-the-art of cumulative effects assessment (CEA), monitoring and management, highlighting recent advances in regional science supportive of CEA practice, the expansion of practice to include non-regulatory regional-scale applications of CEA, and the uptake of CEA across diverse development sectors. We address how the role of CEA is rapidly evolving as an environmental justice tool, as a core component of environmental governance and planning, and as a means to protect Indigenous rights and territories. We also explore how the global shift to renewable energy sources and the related demand for critical minerals is a real and urgent opportunity to get CEA right.

Emerging pollutants, known for their complex chemical structures and varied sources, are gaining attention as significant environmental and public health concerns. Their persistence in the environment, ability to bioaccumulate, and widespread presence across ecosystems make them particularly troubling. These substances originate from diverse sources, including agricultural runoff, industrial effluents, and everyday consumer products like pharmaceuticals and personal care items. Exposure to these contaminants has been associated with health issues, particularly affecting the respiratory and digestive systems. This review offers an in-depth analysis of major classes of both organic and inorganic emerging contaminants such as antibiotics, nanomaterials, microplastics, and EDCs. It explores their origins, the pathways through which they enter and move through the environment, and their resistance to standard treatment processes. Furthermore, the review assesses a range of advanced treatment technologies, including advanced oxidation processes, membrane-based separation methods, and adsorption strategies. The discussion focuses on their effectiveness, economic feasibility, and potential l for large-scale application. In addition, the study underscores the need for integrated risk assessment frameworks to quantify ecological and human health risks, and it calls for strengthened policy measures and regulatory standards. By identifying current gaps in treatment technologies and governance, this review outlines critical opportunities for innovation in pollutant removal, sustainable resource management, and the development of adaptive regulatory systems. These insights contribute to more effective groundwater protection and broader environmental sustainability goals.

Graphical Abstract

There is an urgent need to improve water quality management in forested catchments, particularly in forestry-drained peatland areas. We utilized nutrient export models and forestry simulations to forecast the impact of forest management and water protection practices on nitrogen and phosphorus exports from forests to waters in the Kiiminkijoki catchment area, central Finland. Our simulations indicated that the choice between forest management systems (even-aged forestry, extended rotation length, continuous cover forestry, no forestry) may have a larger impact on nutrient exports from mineral soil forests than from drained peatland forests. Of the water protection practices, sedimentation ponds, peak runoff control dams, and riparian buffer zones may have little effect on nutrient exports, but wetland buffers in drained peatland forests may reduce nutrient exports to a significantly lower level. Our simulations suggested that forestry operators should consider continuous cover forestry and wetland buffers when trying to improve water quality in forested catchments.

Forest edge habitats created by forest management significantly influence species assemblage of hymenopteran communities. In 2021, we carried out research in a managed oak woodland located in Slovakia, utilizing three flight interception traps (FITs) to examine hymenopteran communities. Two of the traps were placed at the forest edge, with one facing the clearing and the other directed towards the closed-stand forest. The third trap was situated 100 meters within the closed-canopy forest. We separately collected subsamples within the forest edge. These subsamples were distinguished as ‘ecotone inwards’ and ‘ecotone outwards’ to accurately capture the distinct directional movements of hymenopterans at the forest edge (flying from the closed forest towards the clearing and vice versa). We identified 287 species in 19 families during the sampling period. The species richness, abundance and the phylogenetic diversity were found to be significantly different favouring the ecotone outwards microhabitats. However, we did not confirm higher species richness nor abundance in the forest edge compared to closed forest. The dissimilarity of species differed significantly between inwards- and outwards-facing ecotone and closed-forest stand. The life history traits exhibited the following trends: pollenophagous, herbivorous and nectarivorous species exhibited a positive association with the forest edge. Predatory species were associated more to closed forest. Cavity-nesting and above-substrate nesting species were situated in the ecotone outwards, while non-cavity nesters and below-substrate nesters were found in the ecotone inwards microhabitats. Our results support the creation of small-scale (~0.3 ha) open patches in temperate deciduous forests due to their positive effect on biodiversity of hymenopteran species within the outwards-facing part of the forest edge.

Policy documents allow for the study of prescribed knowledge flows in decision-making processes. Although policy documents have been analyzed previously in wastewater studies, a more systematic approach to analyze prescribed knowledge flows remains to be developed. Guided by governmentality, this article proposes a framework to investigate prescribed knowledge flows and gain insights into intended stakeholder roles, techniques and technologies used to govern, as well as the nature of knowledge that should be exchanged. The framework is built upon the new possibilities by Artificial Intelligence (AI) by developing a prompt to identify prescribed knowledge flows. Building on an analysis of Indonesian policies, the study presented in this paper illustrates how a decentralized and community-led approach for wastewater management is planned. The approach intends to drive behavioral change and community-led management initiatives, thereby protecting public health and environmental quality. However, challenges include scarce details on prescribed stakeholder roles and an incomplete operationalization of national and/or regional provisions. While verification of AI output remains necessary, AI support saves time by reducing the need for full-text reading and summarization of identified prescribed knowledge flows. The method described in this paper can be used by decision-makers to facilitate critical inquiry of policies, or by non-governmental stakeholders to better understand complex legal texts and opportunities for involvement in decision-making.

This study evaluated the cumulative effects of existing and proposed land use activities and climate change within a narrow and vital wildlife corridor considered of high value to Ktunaxa and non-Ktunaxa peoples. Cumulative alteration, degradation, and disturbance to habitat directly impacts Ktunaxa lands and waters on which the exercise of Ktunaxa rights depends. Increased access to backcountry areas are expected to substantially diminish habitat condition, increase wildlife displacement and mortality risk, and fragment wildlife populations with unavoidable population-level impacts. The effects of land use are likely to be exacerbated by accelerating climate change further limiting habitat suitability and creating additional human-wildlife interactions. This study is unique in that we applied Ktunaxa research methodology throughout all assessment stages. This iterative approach to knowledge gathering brings Ktunaxa and non-Ktunaxa together in concert with input from a diverse group of problem solvers. Further, we used this opportunity to refine our understanding of cumulative effects through a Ktunaxa linguistic perspective. Repeated interviews deepened research relationships and empowered use of Ktunaxa oral history in the evaluation of cumulative effects. Two species of key concern identified for this study were ʔaȼ̓pu (wolverine) and kɬawɬa (grizzly bear). We simulated current and future habitat condition for key values using a pre-contact baseline representing the Range of Natural Variability (RONV). The assessment presented herein considered past, current, and proposed future land use activities, with a focus on recreational interests. We found combined effects of proposed recreation developments with existing land use practices within the study area to substantially negatively impact both wolverine and grizzly bear habitat condition and population connectivity. We concluded that cumulative developments of past, current and any potential future land use that includes outdoor recreational activities in ʔamak̓is Ktunaxa must be informed by regional-scale and long-term land stewardship planning to prevent further adverse impacts and to ultimately improve the habitat conditions for ʔa·kxam̓is q̓api qapsin (All Living Things).