Environmental Management最新文献

This study assesses the perceived participatory governance effectiveness of Ethiopia’s church forests versus state-led exclosure systems using a multidimensional Participatory Governance Effectiveness Index (PGEI) across five dimensions: Participation, Rule Enforcement, Adaptive Governance, Equity and Inclusion, and Legitimacy and Trust. Drawing on mixed-methods data from household surveys and participatory observations, church forests consistently outperformed exclosures across all dimensions, with the largest differences observed in Legitimacy and Trust, Equity and Inclusion, and Adaptive Governance. Women and youth consistently rated governance lower, particularly in participation and enforcement, revealing persistent inclusion deficits. The study demonstrates that while cultural traditions provide legitimacy to forest governance, they do not in themselves secure inclusive participation in decision-making. Evidence from church forests and exclosures suggests that integrating customary authority with inclusive practices could offer a more resilient and equitable pathway for forest restoration.

Lake ecosystems are increasingly threatened by multiple stressors, notably climate warming and microplastic (MP) pollution, which have emerged as a major environmental concern. Although there is evidence of harmful effects on aquatic organisms, their interactive effects on macrophyte litter decomposition in lake ecosystems remain poorly understood. Here, we conduct a 30-day microcosm experiment to examine the individual and combined impacts of warming and polystyrene MPs (PS MPs) on Vallisneria natans litter decomposition dynamics and linked microbial structure and function in the lake ecosystem. The results demonstrated that combined warming and PS-MPs treatments did not significantly affect litter decomposition at low PS-MPs concentrations but promoted it at high concentrations, indicating a concentration-dependent effect. The combined warming and PS-MPs significantly increased bacterial biomass and some extracellular enzymatic (β-1,4-xylosidase, acid phosphatase, and leucine-aminopeptidase) activities; this enhancement is likely attributable to the abundance and diversity of bacteria at higher PS concentrations. Notably, the combined warming and PS-MPs significantly increased the bacterial diversity and the relative abundance of unclassified Paludibacteraceae and Treponema. The presence of pathogens such as unclassified Paludibacteraceae and Treponema on MPs highlights significant potential risks to public health and aquatic food webs. These shifts suggest that warming and PS-MPs selectively enrich taxa with functional traits adapted to disturbed environments, thereby driving enhanced decomposition. Our findings highlight the need to consider stressor interactions when assessing the ecological and health risks posed by global change to lake ecosystems

In light of global efforts to advance a circular economy for plastics, this study examines Latin America’s transition through three core objectives. First, it analyzes secondary data on plastic production and consumption and the generation, mismanagement, and transboundary trade of plastic waste. Second, it scrutinizes government-led initiatives across the region based on official policy documents. Third, it conducts a SWOT analysis, evaluating the initiatives’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to assess the current landscape of circular product design and business models, as well as their potential to mitigate the environmental impacts of the triple planetary crisis. Findings reveal that plastic production, consumption, and waste are steadily increasing in the region, while waste management and sustainable trade remain insufficient. The circular economy for plastics has gained traction through national strategies, roadmaps, and legal instruments. Its adoption has been notable in Chile and Uruguay, but negligent in several countries. Governments are supporting research into recycled materials and polymer innovation, yet policy gaps persist around microplastics and harmful additives in plastic product design. Most initiatives prioritize circular supply chains and resource recovery business models, while giving limited attention to other models and the underlying drivers and barriers. Furthermore, initiatives often address plastic pollution with weak linkages to climate change and biodiversity loss. This research strengthens the understanding and implementation of actions positioning circular design as pivotal to reducing plastic waste at the source, circular business models as catalysts for low-carbon economies, and the fight against the triple planetary crisis as an environmental objective of circular economy initiatives.

The quest for cleaner and more sustainable energy sources has become imperative due to escalating carbon emissions and their impact on the environment. Coal-fired thermal power plants remain a dominant source of electricity worldwide but are also among the largest contributors to CO₂ emissions, underscoring the importance of developing effective mitigation strategies. With the critical need to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change, the study investigates the pre-combustion CO₂ capture processes as a promising strategy for reducing carbon emissions and fostering cleaner energy generation. The analysis focuses on conventional processes such as coal gasification, syngas cleaning, and chemical looping combustion, which enable CO₂ removal from high-pressure, CO₂-rich gas streams with reduced energy penalties compared to post-combustion capture. In addition, emerging process-intensification strategies, including plasma-assisted gasification and sorption-enhanced reforming, are examined for their potential to enhance hydrogen yields, improve CO₂ capture efficiency, and minimize operational costs. These technologies demonstrate significant promise when integrated with Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants offering opportunities to produce hydrogen-rich fuels while simultaneously capturing concentrated CO₂ streams suitable for storage or utilization. Findings highlight that pre-combustion CO₂ capture can achieve capture efficiencies above 90% with lower solvent or sorbent requirements, although challenges such as high capital costs, oxygen demand, sorbent regeneration, and scale-up limitations remain. Future development should focus on material innovation, pilot-to-demonstration deployment, and integration with renewable and circular energy systems. Overall, pre-combustion CO₂ capture represents a technically robust pathway to mitigate coal-based emissions and advance the transition toward sustainable, low-carbon energy futures.

Optimal investment in conservation requires balancing the benefits of conservation against its costs. We model the benefit of groundwater, less the cost of conserving groundwater through a subsidy for on-farm surface water storage. On-farm surface water storage reduces arable land but provides a substitute for groundwater used in irrigation. The average social net benefit from conserving water is $12.32 per acre-foot after thirty years with the current subsidy for surface storage, and the aquifer thickness rises by 10.6%. The average social net benefit of groundwater conserved rises by lowering the subsidy, but the volume of conservation also declines. A third of the sites where groundwater is nearly exhausted after thirty years increase surface storage with the subsidy and experience a rebound in groundwater volumes. Conserving groundwater with the subsidy generates the highest net benefit for sites with a high yield for rice, a low yield for dryland soybean, a low depth to the aquifer, and high natural recharge.

Environmental civic engagement provides an essential avenue to combat global environmental crises. However, opportunity and ability to participate in such civic action are not equal for everyone. Concerningly, the conservation movement in the U.S. has historically marginalized Black, Asian, and Latine voices from policy and decision-making processes. While previous research has focused on predictors of civic engagement in general and what barriers reduce participation, using an asset-based framing to consider what supports environmental civic engagement is less common. We used qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the role of community cultural wealth (CCW) in Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals’ participation in environmental civic engagement. CCW is an asset-based model, which has been used to understand persistence of marginalized groups in historically exclusionary spaces. We used CCW to identify factors that support Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals’ environmental civic engagement as these behaviors have been affected by structural racism. Results showed that understanding systems of oppression and being motivated to change such systems were important predictors of environmental civic engagement for Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals. Furthermore, our results suggest that organizations, social connections, and family connections are important sources of civic knowledge and opportunity. These findings suggest that taking an asset-based approach can be a promising way to support environmental civic engagement among Black, Asian, and Latine/Hispanic individuals.

There is growing concern over integrating carbon reduction objectives into environmental impact assessment (EIA). Drawing on multiple sources of statistical data (e.g., provincial panel data from 2001 to 2019 and from January 2018 to December 2023, etc.), this study employs econometric models to empirically examine the carbon reduction effects of China’s EIA system and its underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that EIA implementation is significantly associated with reductions in carbon emissions, and this conclusion remains robust across various tests. Mechanism analysis further reveals that EIA promotes local industrial upgrading, curbs the expansion of heavily polluting enterprises, enhances the green total factor productivity of industries, and facilitates the transition toward cleaner energy systems. Nevertheless, the synergistic effect between EIA activities and EIA management in achieving carbon reduction goals has not been effectively realized. Our findings contribute to the literature on environmental regulation by providing a quantitative framework for evaluating the carbon reduction effect of EIA and uncovering its mechanisms, while also offering evidence-based guidance for incorporating carbon assessment into the EIA system, optimizing EIA management, and designing differentiated policies to strengthen its role in driving the low-carbon transition.

The capacity of brackish and freshwater tidal marshes to accrete vertically in response to sea level rise is threatened where drought and salinity intrusion are being amplified by climate change. Episodic salinity management with purchased augmented freshwater is an option for two modest-sized tracts in southeast Texas, where drought and hydrologic modifications threaten wetland resiliency and the Mottled Duck. We developed a transferable methodology to assess biophysical benefits in a spatially explicit manner for these heterogeneous wetlands. Four salinity objectives reflected zonal geography of the wetland plant communities and Mottled Duck brood-rearing needs. A calibrated daily wetlands hydrologic-salinity model contrasted scenarios of severe drought with those of freshwater augmentation. The volume of freshwater available, up to 12.33 M m³ per year, could be effective at moderating salinity over significant wetland areas, but benefits were sensitive to management approach, as well as delivery rates and duration of augmentation. Additionally, fixed freshwater application rates could depress salinities to suboptimal ranges and waste a purchased resource. Feedback scenarios based on in-marsh salinity conditions elevated the ratio of benefits to delivered water volumes but would entail additional monitoring and management cost. Compared to the extremely deleterious conditions of severe drought, most freshwater augmentation approaches would greatly benefit the Mottled Duck and the productivity of the wetland vegetation within the tracts. However, portions of a fragile brackish zone dominated by Spartina patens would remain at risk from elevated salinity, suggesting a need for complementary restoration actions.