scholarly journals Combining resource use assessment techniques reveals trade‐offs in trophic specialization of polymorphic perch

Ecosphere ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Scharnweber ◽  
Ursula Strandberg ◽  
Maria Helena Katarina Marklund ◽  
Peter Eklöv
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Trophic Specialization ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Assessment Techniques

Yield, resource use efficiency or flavour: Trade-offs of varying blue-to-red lighting ratio in urban plant factories

2022 ◽  
Vol 295 ◽  
pp. 110802
Author(s):  
Hao Zhou ◽  
Rhydian Beynon-Davies ◽  
Nicola Carslaw ◽  
Ian C. Dodd ◽  
Kirsti Ashworth
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Use Efficiency

Current issues and controversies in assessing the environmental impacts of livestock production.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (044) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith L. Capper
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Environment Impact ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Specific Practice ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The environment impact of livestock production is one of the most significant issues within agriculture. Global concerns over climate change, resource use, pollution and other environment indicators means that producers must implement practices and systems to reduce environmental impacts, yet this may only be achieved through assessments that allow impacts to be quantified, benchmarked and improved over time. Although environmental indicators are widely accepted, the metrics by which these are assessed continue to evolve over time as assessment objectives gain clarity and focus, and as the science relating to controversial topics (e.g. global warming or carbon sequestration) becomes more refined. however, significant negative trade-offs may occur between different metrics and denominators such that a specific practice or system may appear to have greater or lesser impacts, depending on assessment methodology. A number of tools and models have been developed to empower producers in quantifying environmental impacts, which will be increasingly important is satisfying future consumers' hunger for information as well as food. These tools must be supplied in tandem with information as to the potential consequences of changing management practices and systems. At present however, tools available are based on differing methodologies, are often opaque in their background calculations and do not necessarily account for all the factors that influence environmental impacts from livestock. There is a clear need for robust tools that can be used as standards for assessing environmental impacts from the global livestock industry and that go beyond GHG emissions to produce a more rounded holistic assessment.

Balancing effective conservation with sustainable resource use in protected areas: precluded by knowledge gaps

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLA J. VAN WILGEN ◽  
MELODIE A. MCGEOCH
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Sustainable Resource Use ◽  
Management Capacity ◽  
Harvest Sustainability ◽  
Adequate Data

SUMMARYDespite significant expansion of the global protected area (PA) network, this investment has not commonly been matched by investment in their management. This includes managing trade-offs between social and biodiversity goals, including resource use in PAs. While some resource-use activities receive significant attention, the full suite of resources extracted from PA systems is rarely documented. This paper illustrates the potential risk of resource use to PA ecological performance through a survey of resources harvested in South Africa's national parks. Even for this comparatively well-managed suite of parks, significant data gaps preclude assessments of harvest sustainability. Harvest quantities were known for < 8% of the 341 used resources, while 23% were not identified to species level. International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List conservation status had not been evaluated for 78% of species, and 31% of all species (83% of marine species) had not been evaluated nationally. Protected areas face ongoing pressure to balance people-based and biodiversity outcomes, but whether or not both objectives can be achieved cannot be assessed without adequate data. Managing PAs in future will require consideration of trade-offs between investing in PA expansion, increasing the monitoring and management capacity of PA agencies, and investing in the research needed to support decision making.

scholarly journals Trade-Offs between Sustainability Indicators in Response to the Production Choices of Different Farm Household Types in Drylands

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loubna El Ansari ◽  
Roza Chenoune ◽  
Yigezu A. Yigezu ◽  
Christian Gary ◽  
Hatem Belhouchette
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Farm Household ◽  
Resource Use Efficiency ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Limited Food ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Farming Households

A lot of national and international effort has been made to promote sustainable agricultural production systems in drylands. However, success has been seriously limited due to lack of thorough characterization of the impact of the diversity of farm household types on productivity, resource-use efficiency and economic and nutritional status. This study applied hierarchical ascendant classification to a random sample of 286 cereal-producing farm households in Morocco and identified distinct household typologies. It also carried out an analysis of trade-offs between economic, nutritional and environmental factors induced by the production decisions of the different farm household typologies. Our analysis identified three dominant farm household typologies in the production system, namely: (i) intensive predominantly-vegetable farming households with high input intensities, (ii) semi-intensive cereal mono-crop farming households with moderate input intensities and (iii) extensive mixed cereal-legume farming households with low input intensities. Extensive mixed cereal-legume farming households exhibited the highest resource-use efficiency and high biodiversity. These benefits, however, came at the expense of a much lower farm income and limited food supplies relative to the other two systems. These results show that, as is the case for many dryland regions, all three farm types showed precarious conditions for one or more of the sustainability-related indicators.

Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Fishery Management ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Biological Assessment ◽  
Inland Fisheries ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Assessment Techniques

<em>Abstract</em> .—The assessment process is fundamental to ensuring that inland fisheries are managed sustainably and valued appropriately so that they can support livelihoods, contribute to food security, and generate other ecosystem services. To that end, a global group of leaders in inland fishery assessment convened to generate a list of recommendations and specific actions for improving assessment of inland fisheries. Recommendations included the needs to assess the global contribution of inland fisheries to food security, develop and implement rigorous approaches to evaluate various inland fishery management actions, develop and implement creative approaches to improve the assessment of illegal fishing activities, and improve statistical data for unreported and unregulated catches in inland waters. The group also identified a need to develop standardized and defensible methods of biological assessment of inland fish and fisheries that include data collection, database management, and data sharing and reporting to reflect diverse ecosystem types. Moreover, it was recommended that assessment be designed to better inform inland fishery management and other sector planning and decision making at the appropriate scales (e.g., integrated water resource management) through stakeholder engagement, valuation of fisheries outputs, and identification of policy alternatives with consideration of trade-offs. The inherent diversity of inland fisheries in terms of ecological, socioeconomic, and governance attributes was recognized throughout the process of developing the suggested actions, including how such attributes combine to provide fisheries-specific contexts for management. Using appropriate and accessible communication channels is critical to more effectively package, present, and transfer information that raises awareness about inland fisheries values and issues; alter human behavior; and influence relevant policy and management actions. Creating mechanisms to facilitate dialogue among the diverse range of stakeholders is equally important. Improved assessment techniques should play a fundamental role in supporting sustainable inland fisheries management and contributing to food security and livelihoods, while also maintaining or improving ecological integrity.

Whole-farm economic, risk and resource-use trade-offs associated with integrating forages into crop–livestock systems in western China

2015 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 63-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam M. Komarek ◽  
Lindsay W. Bell ◽  
Jeremy P.M. Whish ◽  
Michael J. Robertson ◽  
William D. Bellotti
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Western China ◽  
Economic Risk ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Livestock Systems

Maximising net benefits through biodiversity as a primary land use

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIAN WALKER
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Multiple Use ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Management Advice ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable

In many developing regions of the world conventional agriculture is failing to meet the needs of people and at the same time is becoming progressively less ecologically sustainable. It is proposed that in a number of these regions, both overall economic development and the welfare of the inhabitants would improve if the primary form of land use was based on multiple use of those regions' natural biological resources, rather than continuing the practice of replacing or displacing them with marginal forms of agriculture. Testing this proposition, and then (if appropriate) effecting it, requires answers to a number of ecological, economic and management questions, in particular to do with: identifying those regions where biodiversity use has high potential the appropriate spatial scales for planning and management compatible combinations of different types of resource use ecological and economic trade-offs between different resource use enterprises how to arrive at the most efficient form of resource use sustainable levels of biodiversity harvest resource use decisions in relation to ecological drivers (such as climate and fire) institutional and regulatory structures that dictate current resource use. These questions, it is proposed, should form the basis of an international 'virtual' institute, composed of three Biodiversity Centres, one each in Latin America, southern Africa and Southeast Asia. Examples of multiple use, such as of wildlife in southern Africa, are used to illustrate the potential, and the management scale and other issues involved. If the development of this form of land use is to succeed, it will require technical and management advice and, in many cases, removal of 'perverse incentives' that prevent a change to the more economically and ecologically sustainable form of land use. From the beginning, the emphasis in the proposed centres would be on collaborative work involving governments, landowners and resource-based industries.

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