Damage To Biodiversity Research Articles

Sustainability and resilience interface at typical urban green and blue infrastructures: costs, benefits, and impacts assessment

The rapid urbanization witnessed in recent years has led to the deterioration of urban ecosystems, resulting in various environmental and socioeconomic challenges. In response to these concerns, the implementation of Green and Blue Infrastructures (GBI) has gained prominence as a sustainable urban planning approach. GBI is a planned network system of natural and semi-natural spaces, along with other environmental elements, managed and designed to provide a wide range of ecosystem services and improve ecological conditions, thereby contributing to citizens' wellbeing and quality of life. This study presents a comprehensive assessment of the costs, benefits (ecosystem services), and impacts (ecosystem dis-services) associated with the incorporation of GBI in urban environments using the technique of emergy accounting. To achieve this, the research paper introduces a novel integrated valuation framework. This framework encompasses key components such as constructing/maintenance costs, ecosystem services, needed costs to human health and biodiversity damage, as well as ecosystem dis-services. Furthermore, the study conducts a comparative analysis of the costs, benefits, and impacts associated with different urban GBIs via ternary phase diagram, shedding light on their varying contributions to the urban ecosystem. The findings reveal that green roofs offer more ecosystem benefits as compared to other GBIs, but this study also highlights that green roof entail higher initial construction costs and produce a greater number of dis-services. Conversely, street trees have lower initial costs and impacts yet generate higher benefits. Furthermore, green walls, despite having a lower input emergy value and fewer benefits, result in higher impacts compared to other green-blue ecosystems. These findings provide valuable insights for urban planners, policymakers, and stakeholders, enabling them to make informed decisions in developing sustainable cities for the wellbeing of present and future generations.

Assessment of the water-energy-food nexus in the life cycle of energy products

Given the urgent need to achieve energy security and transition from conventional to renewable energy sources, the energy sector is expanding rapidly. However, this growth often involves trade-offs with food and water resources. One way to address this complex interplay is to adopt the Water-Energy-Food nexus within a Life Cycle Assessment. This approach allows the analysis of interrelationships among the three sectors, aiming to foster synergies and minimize trade-offs. While numerous indicators exist to quantify the water-energy relationship, no similar approaches for the energy-food relationship could be found. To bridge this gap, in this paper, we introduce a novel indicator that measures the amount of food that could be produced causing the same land use impact in form of biodiversity damage as 1 MJ of the energy product. Together with another existing indicator that measures the water scarcity footprint per megajoule, a new framework for the analysis of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus of energy products is developed. Additionally, we present an optional net factor for both indicators. This factor helps to consider the energy use within the product's processes, contributing to a more comprehensive analysis. In our case study, we implement the outlined framework by examining biodiesel production in Argentina. We specifically analyze the impacts of two distinct agricultural technologies—Early and Late Soybean—on the Food and Water sectors. Our findings reveal that for every megajoule of the evaluated product, one could produce 62 or 93 kcal of food causing the same species loss. Additionally, the production process incurs a water scarcity footprint of 6.5 or 6.8 liters per megajoule, depending on the technology used. The proposed framework offers a means to mitigate the water and land use impacts associated with energy products. Consequently, it has the potential to enhance the WEF nexus.

Environmental trade-offs of meeting nutritional requirements with a lower share of animal protein for adult subpopulations

Decreasing the share of protein contributed by animal-based foods is recommended to move towards more sustainable and healthier diets. This study aimed to assess the potential environmental impacts of diets with a lower share of animal protein. The diets were modeled to include the minimum share of animal protein in total protein that met nutrient requirements and did not increase costs. The new diets also minimized the difference in the quantity of food from those of observed (OBS) diets. They were modeled for five adult subpopulations (defined by sex and age) using mathematical optimization. The model was created by combining the INCA2 database (to model OBS diets in the French population) and a database of 207 food items to adjust nutritional and price parameters. All modeled diets satisfied nutritional and cost constraints. A low-animal-protein (LAP) diet was identified for each subpopulation by progressively decreasing the share of animal protein by steps of 5% until the recommended quantity of protein and/or consumption constraints were no longer satisfied. Potential environmental impacts of the LAP diets in eight impact categories were calculated using life cycle assessment and life cycle inventories from Agribalyse® 3.0. A LAP diet for the entire population was calculated as a weighted mean of the subpopulations’ LAP diets. The share of animal protein decreased from 70% in the OBS diet to 50% in the LAP diet. Compared to the OBS diet, the LAP diet decreased five environmental impacts: climate change (greenhouse gas emissions), acidification (emissions of acidifying compounds) and land occupation (all by more than 30%), cumulative energy demand (by 23%) and marine eutrophication (by 13%). Conversely, it increased three environmental impacts: freshwater eutrophication and water use (both by ca. 40%) and biodiversity damage potential (potential loss of species associated with land use) (by 66%). These results suggest that decreasing the share of animal protein to 50% is compatible with nutritional requirements, affordability and consumption constraints, but would have mixed effects on the environment.

Plant based meat products: A sustainable, promising alternative to conventional red meat

The demand of the red meat is continuously increasing leading to biodiversity damage and pollution. To overcome this, plant-based meat offers a promising option due to its organoleptic qualities that resembles closely to those of an animal-based meat product. There are a variety of plant protein sources that can be used as an alternative to meat products. Plant-based diets are affordable and have several health benefits like it regulates blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk and lower mortality. The popularity of plant-based meat substitutes has increased because of their credibility as functional and healthy alternatives. In addition to providing a similar nutritional value, the creation of animal meat analogues is focused on altering the physical features of meat products to increase the sustainability of these products through appropriate sensory attributes. The composition of meat alternatives is influenced by the dosage and functioning of plant proteins. It is proven that meat alternatives contain 30% of protein and a low level of fat which is a fantastic substitute for meat from a nutritional standpoint. The physicochemical characteristics of the meat alternatives are manipulated by functional plant protein. In the present review, we have discussed various types of plant-based meats available, their physicochemical properties, environmental impact of animal-based meat and future prospective to increase demand and business of plant-based meat.

Examining inequities in species loss due to land use in China from an interregional trade perspective

The escalating impact of land use pressures indicates we've exceeded the proposed safe planetary boundary. Economic shifts and increased trade drive China's demand for agricultural and forestry products, land-use changes, and subsequent biodiversity damage often occur far from where they are consumed. Given many species in China are endemic or endangered, neglecting these interconnected economic trends threatens its biodiversity conservation targets. Here, we first quantify species loss due to six land use types embodied in the life cycle at the Chinese sub-national level. Then, a Chinese high-resolution multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model was used to link threatened species to key industrial sectors in the supply chain, tracking the spatiotemporal patterns of land use species loss embodied in Chinese trade from 2007 to 2017. Our results reveal a 6% increase in aggregated species loss in China during the study period. This subtle change in species loss footprints in recent years is partially due to increases in consumption levels being offset by reductions in species loss intensity, though drivers vary by region. Notably, the Northwest and Southwest, known for their high species richness, suffer the greatest inequalities in species loss. The domestic species loss transfer most apparent in the outsourcing from the Eastern Coast to the Southwest. The Southwest registered the highest territory-based species loss, particularly for amphibians, while the highest impacts in the supply chain are associated with Forestry, logging, and related activities. Our analysis underscores the need for enhanced provincial dialogue to systematically value and monitor biodiversity, a key natural capital, and encourage its conservation. Our study effectively monitors the consumption-based species losses across China, which can further improve knowledge and dialogue on ecological challenges associated with trade.

The European Green Deal improves the sustainability of food systems but has uneven economic impacts on consumers and farmers

The European Green Deal aims notably to achieve a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system in the European Union. We develop a partial equilibrium economic model to assess the market and non-market impacts of the three main levers of the Green Deal targeting the food chain: reducing the use of chemical inputs in agriculture, decreasing post-harvest losses, and shifting toward healthier average diets containing lower quantities of animal-based products. Substantially improving the climate, biodiversity, and nutrition performance of the European food system requires jointly using the three levers. This allows a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of food consumption and a 40–50% decrease in biodiversity damage. Consumers win economically thanks to lower food expenditures. Livestock producers lose through quantity and price declines. Impacts on revenues of food/feed field crop producers are positive only when the increase in food consumption products outweighs the decrease in feed consumption.

Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Impact of the Biopesticide Metarhizium anisopliae on the Immune System of Major Workers in Solenopsis invicta.

The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren, 1972) is a globally significant invasive species, causing extensive agricultural, human health, and biodiversity damage amounting to billions of dollars worldwide. The pathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokin (1883), widely distributed in natural environments, has been used to control S. invicta populations. However, the interaction between M. anisopliae and the immune system of the social insect S. invicta remains poorly understood. In this study, we employed RNA-seq to investigate the effects of M. anisopliae on the immune systems of S. invicta at different time points (0, 6, 24, and 48 h). A total of 1313 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified and classified into 12 expression profiles using short time-series expression miner (STEM) for analysis. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was employed to partition all genes into 21 gene modules. Upon analyzing the statistically significant WGCNA model and conducting Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis on the modules, we identified key immune pathways, including the Toll and Imd signaling pathways, lysosomes, autophagy, and phagosomes, which may collectively contribute to S. invicta defense against M. anisopliae infection. Subsequently, we conducted a comprehensive scan of all differentially expressed genes and identified 33 immune-related genes, encompassing various aspects such as recognition, signal transduction, and effector gene expression. Furthermore, by integrating the significant gene modules derived from the WGCNA analysis, we constructed illustrative pathway diagrams depicting the Toll and Imd signaling pathways. Overall, our research findings demonstrated that M. anisopliae suppressed the immune response of S. invicta during the early stages while stimulating its immune response at later stages, making it a potential biopesticide for controlling S. invicta populations. These discoveries lay the foundation for further understanding the immune mechanisms of S. invicta and the molecular mechanisms underlying its response to M. anisopliae.

Agriculture and biodiversity damage: A prospective evaluation of the impact of Brazilian agriculture on its ecoregions through life cycle assessment methodology

The natural ecosystems' replacement by farmland and the consequent biodiversity damage (BD) for agriculture are one of the principal concerns worldwide. The development of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology involves enormous efforts to include BD parameters and develop a prospective LCA approach for future evaluations of production and technologies use. Thus, this work aims to determine the current impacts and estimate the future impacts in terms of damage to biodiversity caused by land occupation by agricultural commodities produced in Brazil, such as coffee, corn, oranges, and sugar cane, for the six ecoregions present in the country—Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado, Pampas, and Pantanal—in the 20-year period from 2015 to 2035. For this and to search for hotpots, we applied the indicators proposed by Chaudhary and Books (2018), for inventories whose functional unit is production per m2 of 1 kg of crop. Although the Cerrado is one of the ecoregions in which deforestation has advanced the most, it has the area/production ratio that has evolved the most. In contrast, Pampas and Caatinga, which are not seen as agricultural frontiers, increased their impacts. The most optimistic scenarios for the future have been those in regions considered agricultural frontiers; however, these are the regions where agriculture is more technologically developed, for example, coffee production in the Atlantic Forest and in the Cerrado. The results indicate that the technological development of agriculture can contribute to mitigating the impacts of damage to biodiversity in the future, and that the implementation of legislative and inspection measures is fundamental to supporting the correct use of the soil and preventing illegal soil change. Otherwise, in the future, we will see the increasing disappearance of species. Thus, we need researchers, farmers, and policy makers to move from development to conservation.

Are lower pesticide doses better? An evolutionary perspective on integrated pest management

Pest management approaches, based on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), suggest that pesticide use could be reduced if dose recommendations move from a toxicological perspective (how much is needed to kill pests) to an ecological perspective (how much is needed to guarantee crop yield while minimizing environmental damage). However, the success of pesticides in maintaining crop yield security may be compromised by the evolution of resistance, which can be accelerated by reducing pesticide doses. To explore these relationships, we developed a mathematical model to evaluate the potential effect of pesticide dosing and pesticide-induced stress on mutation rates leading to major single gene resistance, or the accumulation of the multiple mutations leading to multi-factorial resistance. One of the main focuses was to determine the relative importance of resistance development generated before (i.e., pre-resistance) and after (i.e., post-resistance) pesticide exposure, tracking the proliferation of resistance under distinct scenarios of pesticide dosing. Our findings suggest that the relative importance of post-resistance increases under low pesticide doses and is particularly significant for the accumulation of resistance factors after pesticides are introduced. On the other hand, our model shows that lowering pesticide doses when used in conjunction with other control measures, can reduce the impact of post-resistance development. High pesticide doses may also hasten resistance if mutation rates increasingly scale with pesticide doses. This is due to the faster accumulation of resistance factors during pesticide administration. Under these circumstances, both ecological (i.e., reducing pesticide doses, minimizing biodiversity damage) and evolutionary (i.e., preventing resistance evolution) perspectives to the IPM framework are reconciled by lowering pesticide doses. Our results demonstrate the importance of taking evolution into account to evaluate management consequences, highlighting the urgent need to integrate the evolutionary perspective into pest management models to promote sustainability.

Dietary change and land use change: assessing preventable climate and biodiversity damage due to meat consumption in Germany

AbstractLand use change (LUC) is responsible for a large share of the emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) and is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Although much of the global LUC-related CO2 emissions and biodiversity loss occur in tropical countries, the actual drivers of this LUC can be located in the global North, particularly through the import of large quantities of agricultural commodities. The aim of this study is to quantify and monetize the LUC-related impacts of the consumption of animal-based food products in Germany and subsequently explore the potential benefits of transitioning to diets with lower dependence on animal-based products. We calculate the LUC-related impacts of consumption of animal-based products in Germany through a modeling approach that combines models for land balance, emissions, and physical trade. We determine the LUC-related CO2 emissions of this consumption, as well as the deforested area and associated impacts on biodiversity loss. Following the true cost accounting approach (TCA), the LUC-related impacts are monetized to estimate the external costs of the German consumption of animal-based products. Our results show that the consumption of these products is responsible for the deforestation of 16.4 kha annually in the period between 2013 and 2016. Out of the six analyzed animal-based product groups, the largest shares of deforestation are associated with milk (35%) and pork (33%) consumption. However, beef meat consumption has the highest relative LUC-related CO2 emissions at 0.75 tCO2 per ton. The LUC-related externalities of the German meat-based product consumption incur annually societal costs of EUR 1.1 billion (plus EUR 0.5 billion for biodiversity loss). The results also show that the animal-based products imported in Germany have only slightly higher LUC-related CO2 emissions than those produced within Germany. Overall, there is a great urgency for policy measures and shifts in consumer behavior to ensure that the consumption of animal-based products in Germany does not have unacceptably high negative sustainability impacts.

Environmental assessment of multiple “cleaner electricity mix” scenarios within just energy and circular economy transitions, in Italy and Europe

The current European context, affected by the dramatic conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the related energy and food shortages, is putting a strain on the natural gas availability of the European member states. The latter are forced to new negotiations with other potential energy suppliers, to urgent internal measures to reduce energy demand and, at the same time, to fulfil their commitments to internationally agreed climate targets, where the energy transition is a key strategy. A sustainable energy transition strategy is also essential in circular economy implementation (CE), requiring the replacement of fossil energies with renewable ones. In turn, the energy transition should meet the CE principles to reduce the consumption of natural resources and the contribution to climate change. In this context, this study assesses the environmental impacts of the Italian and EU electricity mixes under different governmental and research scenarios and perspectives, by means of the Life Cycle Assessment approach (Midpoint and Endpoint LCA). Results show that the shift from the BAU electricity mix (year 2021) to the emergency Government plan scenario (2021–2023) replacing 14% of Russian natural gas by means of 42% oil and coal and 58% renewables slightly reduces the contribution to Midpoint LCA impact indicators, including global warming and fossil resource scarcity, while still contributing to particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, eco-toxicity and water consumption. The contribution to global warming further decreases in the other modelled scenarios, where natural gas is assumed to decrease from 30% to a high 60% in favour of renewables (Governmental plan 2030 scenario). Other impacts, in particular terrestrial and human toxicity, are instead expected to worsen, calling for much needed improvement of renewable technologies. Further, the Endpoint LCA impact indicators, expressed as DALY (human health damage), lost species potential (biodiversity damage) and increased costs for the extraction of mineral and fossil resources, improve in the Governmental Plan 2030 scenario and other modelled options. LCA shows to be a key method for the energy transition, in order to identify hotspots of modelled electricity scenarios and suggest more environmentally, circular and socially just improvement solutions. The adoption of the concept of CE in energy transition entails the expansion of the boundaries of an LCA to include the end-of-life of renewable technologies (so-called “cradle to cradle” approach) and the assessment of the most successful options to mitigate the environmental and social impacts of energy transition.

Resource extraction, greenhouse emissions, and banking performance

The extraction of natural resources is responsible for more than fifty percent of the global emissions and biodiversity damage. The phenomenon is more profound in emerging markets with predominant reliance on natural resources for economic growth and warrants immediate attention. Such economies have multiple constraints including their over dependence on banking sector for corporate financing. However, this dependence provides an opportunity to financial intermediaries to facilitate the promotion of circular economy and sustainable business models. In this research, we explore inherent incentives for the banking sector to limit their exposure to high emitters. Using a sample of 290 banks in twenty emerging countries for over ten years, we assess the relationship between lending to resource emitters, banking spread, and default likelihood. Our results show a negative link between loans to high emission firms and banking spreads. Similarly, we observe that the default likelihood will increase with an increase in polluting borrowers. These findings demonstrate that limiting the lending to resource emitters incentivizes the banking firms, and consequently these intermediaries can assist in achieving sustainability goals through their credit practices.

Assessing environmental services and disservices of urban street trees. an application of the emergy accounting

The urban green infrastructure (UGI), with special focus on street trees, is a very complex engineered ecosystem which plays an important role in generating ecosystem services and, if improperly managed, a number of dis-services to be prevented. This study applies the Emergy Accounting method to the cost and benefit evaluation, in order to establish a non-monetary “supply-side” assessment framework capable to assign an environmental value to each kind of services provided by urban forests and other green infrastructures. Further, the study classifies urban street tree integrated valuation framework into ecosystem services, avoided cost for human health and biodiversity damage, growing/maintenance cost and ecosystem dis-services. In a like manner, the interaction among the three different component flows in street tree ecosystems (costs, benefits and associated dis-services) are compared by means of a ternary diagram. Taking the case of the street ecosystem in Beijing, China, eleven typical urban tree species, including oak, maple, Chinese ash and linden, are selected for services and dis-services evaluation. Results show that, in general, UGI provides a large number of services to urban population, but it may also generate dis-services affecting human health, well-being and biodiversity when tree selection, location and management is not accurate. Results may help improve management practices which enhance the overall ecosystem service provision by urban forests not only in Beijing as case study but also in other cities by means of appropriate management.

海洋生物多样性损害与沿海地区经济增长关系实证研究

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 海洋生物多样性损害与沿海地区经济增长关系实证研究 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202105141269 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家社会科学基金重大项目（16ZDA049） Empirical research on the relationship between marine biodiversity damage and economic growth in coastal areas, China Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:海洋生物多样性是海洋生态系统服务的基础，保护海洋生物多样性不仅对维持地球生态系统的功能至关重要，也与人类福祉密切相关。基于沿海11个省区生态系统亚健康程度指标和物种多样性损害指标，运用面板回归模型对中国沿海地区经济增长与海洋生物多样性损害的关系进行实证考察。研究结果表明：（1）海洋生态系统亚健康程度与沿海地区经济增长之间存在显著的线性关系，随着经济增长，典型海洋生态系统亚健康状态占比呈现出持续上升趋势。此外，实施排污费制度和建立海洋自然保护区有利于抑制海洋生态系统的恶化。（2）海洋物种多样性损害与沿海地区经济增长之间存在显著"倒U"型关系，随着经济增长，海洋物种多样性损害呈现先上升后下降的态势，转折点为人均GDP 45145元，目前海南省、广西壮族自治区、河北省未跨过转折点。此外，排污费制度有利于抑制海洋物种多样性损害，而沿海地区目前的产业结构加重了海洋物种多样性损害。根据实证分析结果，海洋生态系统健康尚未出现拐点，沿海地区经济增长如果建立在对生态环境破坏的基础上，则势必会造成生物多样性的损害。因此从规范海域利用方式，完善海岸生态保护红线划定，加强生态系统的监测与管理，保持绿色可持续的经济发展方式，引导沿海城市紧凑发展等方面提出保护和管理海洋生物多样性的建议。 Abstract:Marine biodiversity is fundamental to the provision of Marine ecosystem services. Protecting Marine biodiversity is not only essential to the functioning of the earth's ecosystems, but also closely related to human well-being. Based on the indicators of Marine ecosystem health and species diversity damage in China's coastal provinces, this paper use panel regression model to analyze the relationship between economic growth and Marine biodiversity damage in China's coastal areas. The results showed that:(1) there is a significant linear relationship between the sub-health degree of Marine ecosystems and the economic growth in coastal areas. With the economic growth, the sub-health status of typical Marine ecosystems has a continuous upward trend. In addition, the implementation of pollution charge system and the establishment of Marine nature reserves are conducive to suppress the deterioration of Marine ecosystem. (2) There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the damage of Marine species diversity and the economic growth of coastal areas. The turning point was 45,145 yuan per capita GDP. With economic growth, the damage of Marine species diversity increase first and then decrease. From the perspective of time trajectory, the inflection point of species diversity damage corresponds to the time stage from 2009 to 2010. From the perspective of spatial distribution, Hainan province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hebei Province are still in the rising part of the curve, The economic growth level of Shandong, Liaoning, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Fujian provinces has passed the inflection point value, those provinces are in the curve decline stage. The pollution charge system is beneficial to suppress the Marine species diversity damage, but the current industrial structure in coastal areas aggravate the Marine species diversity damage. According to the results of empirical analysis, we know that if the economic growth is based on the destruction of the ecological environment, it is bound to cause damage to biodiversity. Even though there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between Marine species diversity and economic growth in coastal areas, there is still no inflection point between economic growth and Marine ecosystem health, so the sub-health of Marine ecosystem may further lead to the loss of Marine biodiversity, forming a vicious circle. some suggestions are put forward to protect and manage Marine biodiversity:(1) we should strengthen biodiversity protection, broaden the ways of Marine biodiversity protection, and ensure the diversity of Marine biodiversity protection methods;(2) we should maintain a green and sustainable pattern of economic development and promote industrial restructuring and upgrading. meanwhile, we should guide the smart growth of coastal areas and prevent the occupation of coastal wetlands and large-scale reclamation of land due to blind pursuit of economic growth. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

167 Impacts on Biodiversity, Environment and Society of Beef Production in the Mexican Tropics: A Life Cycle Assessment Approach

Abstract Beef production exerts strong environmental pressures and can also generate negative social effects. In this study, the impacts on biodiversity, environment and society of beef production in the Mexican tropics, were evaluated through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The functional unit of the study was 1 kg live weight of calf and focused on three productive systems: native silvopastoral (NSP), intensive silvopastoral (ISP) and monoculture (MC). This research was divided into four analysis steps. (1) social impacts; (2) damage to biodiversity; (3) methane emissions and 4) environmental LCA impacts. Using the Social-LCA, we evaluated 18 social indicators, grouped into five categories: human rights, working conditions, health and safety, socio-economic repercussions, and governance. The results showed similarities between the three livestock systems, which revealed a deficient social performance. For projecting the biodiversity damage of pasture land use from an LCA perspective, characterization factors (CFs) were estimated. CFs consist of dimensionless figures representing the potential for damage per unit area of pasture land (potential species loss per m2). The CFs were calculated for three levels of pasture land use intensity (minimal/NSP, light/ISP, intense/MC). Based on the characterization factors developed, the MC showed the least potential species loss. Enteric methane emissions from the production systems were determined using the IPCC Tier 2. The results revealed that the emissions values from enteric methane calculated with Tier 1 overestimated the emissions compared to Tier 2 methodology. LCA indicated a lower environmental impact of the MC on four of the seven categories analyzed, highlighting its lower contribution to climate change and reducing species loss. However, consumption of water and scarcity of fossil fuel resources increased. To achieve tropical sustainable livestock farming, further lines of research should be aimed at evaluating its economic impacts and propose management systems that guarantee better social and environmental performance.

A Commodity Supply Mix for More Regionalized Life Cycle Assessments.

Supply chain information is invaluable to further regionalize product life cycle assessments (LCAs), but detailed information linking production and consumption centers is not always available. We introduce the commodity supply mix (CSM) defined as the trade-volume-weighted average representing the combined geographic areas for the production of a commodity exported to a given market with the goal of (1) enhancing the relevance of inventory and impact regionalization and (2) allocating these impacts to specific markets. We apply the CSM to the Brazilian soybean supply chain mapped by Trase to obtain the mix of ecoregions and river basins linked to domestic consumption and exports to China, EU, France, and the rest of the world, before quantifying damage to biodiversity, and water scarcity footprints. The EU had the lowest potential biodiversity damage but the largest water scarcity footprint following respective sourcing patterns in 12 ecoregions and 18 river basins. These results differed from the average impact scores obtained from Brazilian soybean production information alone. The CSM can be derived at different scales (subnationally, internationally) using existing supply chain information and constitutes an additional step toward greater regionalization in LCAs, particularly for impacts with greater spatial variability such as biodiversity and water scarcity.

Environmental impact of Danish pork at slaughterhouse gate – a life cycle assessment following biological and technological changes over a 10-year period

Pork is one of the most consumed types of meat globally and it contributes considerably to environmental impact. The aim of this study was to investigate the development of the environmental impact of Danish pork between 2005 and 2016 in relation to biological and technological changes that have occurred at the primary production and slaughterhouse level at that time.A life cycle assessment approach from cradle to slaughterhouse gate was used, where Climate Change (CC), Eutrophication Potential (EP), Acidification Potential (AP), Abiotic Depletion (fossil fuels) (AD), Land Occupation (LO), and Biodiversity Damage (BD) were assessed and expressed by three functional units (live weight, carcass weight and ‘meat’ for human consumption).A decrease was found in the environmental impact of Danish pork per kg ‘meat’ from 2005 to 2016 for all environmental categories, especially for CC (-31%), EP (-26%), and AD (-45%). This decrease was the result of several biological and technological changes that had occurred in the chain.At the primary production level, an increased herd productivity was documented: the number of pigs produced per sow per year increased (total live weight gain from offspring per sow per year was 3348 kg in 2016 compared to 2422 kg in 2005) and the feed use per kg live weight was reduced. These changes led to lower N excretion rates, which together with improved housing and manure handling strategies contributed to reducing the environmental impact of pork.At the feed production level, several technological changes decreased the impact. Firstly, reducing the N application rates for cereals and rapeseed led to reduced N emissions. Secondly, the use of new technologies for producing N fertilizers reduced the CC impact per kg N fertilizer. Finally, increasing the share of wind-based electricity in the Danish electricity mix caused decreases in the CC, EP, and AD impacts per kWh.At the slaughterhouse level, the increased utilization of the proportion of pig parts for human consumption reduced the total impact in the chain by 5%. Thus, it was identified as an important improvement option, with environmental and economic benefits. The improved utilization of by-products contributed to a reduction of more than 50% in the impact from the slaughterhouse.In terms of methodological choices, accounting for soil C changes, direct and indirect Land Use Change increased the CC impact in both years, but decreases were observed in 2016 compared to 2005. The need to include more by-products in pig feed rations was discussed in relation to LO and BD.

Nilai Kerugian Ekonomi Lingkungan Akibat Kebakaran Hutan dan Lahan Gambut di Kota Banjarbaru

This study aims to estimate environmental, economic losses value because of forest and peatland fires in Banjarbaru City and assess the government's prevention efforts. This study is a quantitative descriptive study by processing the data of the forest and the peatland fires. The data analysis technique used uses the total economic value (TEV) approach, where the used variables are biodiversity damage value, carbon release value, nutrient loss value, and water regulation value. The types of user data are secondary data which is time series among 2018-2019, and primary data regarding the prevention efforts also support these. The results of this study indicate that the total environmental, economic losses value due to forest peatland fires in Banjarbaru City in 2018 reached Rp.6.214.204.338, and in 2019 reached Rp.6.904.137.284. Thus, the occurrence of these fires extremely affects the environmental damage. TheSome prevention efforts have been carried out, such as doing integrated coordination meetings, mapping fire-prone areas, and doidirectingcialization to the public related to the danger of forest fire with its temporary countermeasures, including appeals regarding appeals fie forest through mass media.

Using the available indicators of potential biodiversity damage for Life Cycle Assessment on soybean crop according to Brazilian ecoregions

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of and suggest possible adjustments to indicators of biodiversity loss for LCA proposed by Chaudhary and Books (2018). For this, we analyzed soybean production in Brazil. Potential damage to biodiversity has been determined for all Brazilian ecoregions: the Amazon; the Atlantic forest; Caatinga; Cerrado; Pampas; and the Pantanal. Two dimensions of assessment were considered – global and regional – in addition to Average-country. An adjustment was proposed for the vulnerability coefficient to the indicators Average-country Brazil: the Regional Species Fragility Index (FI). Two inventories were created using two different functional units: area of production of soybean by ecoregion (year m2); and area corresponding to production of 1 kg of soybean (year m2). Thus, we observed that when the indicators of aggregate values were adopted, the Atlantic Forest was the ecoregion most affected by the crop. Regarding the assessments of the Potential Biodiversity Damage (BD) Global and Regional indicators, the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon were the ecoregions that suffered the highest impacts, mainly on plants, birds and amphibians taxa. Besides, the impacts at the global level were always more expressive than the regional ones. Due to this, we noticed that the results were influenced by the Vulnerability Score (VS). The suitability of the VS for FI is relevant and the adjustment in the equation can be suggested for other regions. Considering the results found here, to prevent regional impacts, technical measures such as extensive farming and crop rotation should be prioritized as impact mitigation actions. However, political measures tend to be more effective at geographic levels when addressing more than one ecoregion, due to the standardization of preservation procedures. Thus, from the results reported here, we conclude that the FI is relevant to diagnose measures at the administrative geographic levels of the ecoregions present in a single country, and the applied indicators reinforce that the Atlantic Forest ecoregion is the most vulnerable due to the replacement of wild forest for cultivated areas, which includes soybean crops.

A Dynamic Modeling Framework to Evaluate the Efficacy of Control Actions for a Woody Invasive Plant, Hakea sericea

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a significant component of global changes, causing severe economic and biodiversity damage. In this regard,Hakea sericeais one of the most widespread IAS throughout the Mediterranean region, including Portugal. The difficulty surrounding its management is exacerbated by post-fire situations, signifying a challenging task for managers. To assist in this effort, we used a system dynamic approach to model the population dynamics ofHakea sericearegarding the combinations of wildfire risk and control scenarios, which differ in periodicity, type of interventions, and cohort age. The ultimate goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness and costs of control efforts at reducing the abundance of this IAS. A Natura 2000 site Alvão/Marão (code PTCON0003) in northern Portugal, severely invaded byHakea sericea, served as the study site. The modeling results demonstrate thatHakea sericeais likely to continue spreading if left uncontrolled. Although it may not be possible to ensure eradication ofHakea sericeafrom the study, repeated control actions aimed at the entire IAS population could be very effective in reducing its area. From a practical standpoint, removing all plants 24 months after each fire event followed by subsequent monitoring appears to be the most cost-effective strategy for managingHakea sericea. Considering the modeling results, the dynamic modeling framework developed is a versatile, instructive tool that can support decision-making aimed at effective management ofHakea sericea.