scholarly journals The Variation of Air Purification Benefit Provided by Street Tree Assemblages in Shenyang, China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yao ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Miao Liu ◽  
Xiaobo Wang ◽  
Nina Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Vegetation Management ◽  
Air Purification ◽  
Street Trees ◽  
Street Tree ◽  
Lag Effect ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Main Driver

Abstract Background: Street trees assemblage is a widespread natural component in the cities and provides a wide range of ecosystem services to the cities. However, the distribution of street trees assemblage within a city is inequal. In this paper, we took air purification benefit provided by street trees for example to examine how urban form, urban geography and drivers of vegetation management affect the variation of ecosystem services provided by street trees in metropolitan Shenyang, Northeastern China. The i-Tree Street (2018) was utilizing to evaluate air purification benefit provided by street trees.Results: We analyze the results using 2 indices: per kilometer benefit and average tree benefit. The results showed us that (1) both indices didn’t vary along the population gradient. (2) The per kilometer benefit had a decreasing trend along the urban-suburban gradient. (3) The districts which had the highest per kilometer benefit and average tree benefit are neither the old ones nor the newest one, but the districts start to develop from around 2002 and 2003.Conclusions: We infer that the public policy is a main driver of vegetation management, especially for street trees, because street tree is closely related to road/street development which is closely related to economic development of a region. Besides, there could be a time lag effect for ecosystem services provided by trees.

scholarly journals The Variation of Air Purification Benefit Provided by Street Tree Assemblages in Shenyang, China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yao ◽  
Miao Liu ◽  
Nina Chen ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Xiaobo Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Vegetation Management ◽  
Air Purification ◽  
Street Trees ◽  
Street Tree ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Tree Assemblages

Abstract Street tree assemblages are a widespread natural component in cities and provide a range of ecosystem services. The spatial distribution of street tree assemblages within cities, however, is not uniform. We assessed the air purification benefits provided by street trees in Shenyang, China, to examine how urban form, urban geography and drivers of vegetation management affect this ecosystem service. The i-Tree Street Model was utilized to evaluate air purification benefits provided by street trees. We analyzed the results using two indices, with values expressed in US dollars (USD, $): the per kilometer benefit (PKB) and average tree benefit (ATB). Neither index displayed a consistent trend across the human population density gradient or along the urban-suburban continuum. The district with the highest PKB and ATB is neither the oldest nor the newest one to develop, but rather the one that began to develop around 2002. We conclude that public policy is a main driver of vegetation management, especially for street trees, because street tree abundance is closely related to road construction, which, in turn, is closely tied to economic development in a region. We also discovered no significant difference in the benefit of street tree assemblages along the urban-suburban continuum. That's probably because all areas within the different beltways contain mature street trees, the time-lag effect for growth is inconsequential. We recommend that the dynamic variations of street tree assemblages over a certain time span be taken into consideration when examining the effects of urban sprawl on ecosystem services provided by street tree assemblages.

The Effects of Residential Street Tree Spacing and Crown Interactions on Crown Dimensions and Canopy Cover

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 183-195
Author(s):  
Bimal Aryal ◽  
James Steenberg ◽  
Peter Duinker
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Interaction Effects ◽  
Projection Area ◽  
Street Trees ◽  
Street Tree ◽  
Crown Shape ◽  
Crown Projection Area ◽  
Crown Dimensions

Urban trees provide people with a range of ecosystem services. Trees planted along streets have been a large focus of urban forest research and practice, and municipalities invest significant resources in their survival. However, the optimal spacing of street trees is not addressed in the scientific literature, and existing municipal street tree spacing standards are highly variable and poorly enforced. In this study, we examine variability in crown shape and size for street trees to test for possible interaction effects at closer spacings. We measured variability in crown diameters both parallel and perpendicular to street tree rows to test whether changes in crown dimensions can be explained by interaction effects with neighbouring trees, and whether crown interactions lead to a reduction in total crown projection area (i.e., canopy cover). We measured the crown dimensions and diameter at breast height of 1,338 street trees in Halifax, Canada. We used two-way analysis of variance to test whether crown shape and crown projection area were affected by crown interactions and spacing. We found that the effect of narrower spacing and interactions (i.e., crowns touching/overlapping) among trees translated to crowns extending away from the direction of interaction. We also found that these changing crown dimensions were associated with increases in canopy cover. Urban forest ecosystems are a vital resource for the increasingly urban population. There is a need for empirical research on spacing standards and practices that investigate their influence on the supply of ecosystem services, such as stormwater retention, air pollution removal, and cooling.

scholarly journals Street Tree Density and Distribution: An International Analysis of Five Capital Cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Smart ◽  
Theodore S. Eisenman ◽  
Andrew Karvonen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Tree Density ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Street Trees ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Climate Zone ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Tree Distribution ◽  
Street Tree

Municipal leaders around the world are demonstrating significant interest in urban greening to realize a range of socioecological benefits. The urban greening toolkit often includes street trees, an essential component of urban design informed by historic legacies of both human and environmental factors. To date, there has been little comparative analysis of street tree density and distribution across international and intercontinental settings, and associated research has not been situated within the broader discussion of historical legacies. This study focuses on five capital cities (Ottawa, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Washington, DC) situated in two climate zones and it addresses two research questions: (1) What are the density and distribution of street trees across a given city and its street hierarchy? and (2) How do these metrics compare within and between cities by climate zone? The analysis draws upon up-to-date datasets from local authorities and includes geospatial analysis of street trees across hierarchical street classes within the central zones of each city. The results show clear differences in street tree density in cities within and between climate zones as well as differences in street tree distribution in cities within the same climate zone. Substantial differences within climate zones further suggest that cultural factors—including but not limited to urban form, aesthetic norms, and governance regimes—may play a pivotal role in the distribution and density of street trees. This illustrates the importance of place-specific cultural and environmental legacies as determinants of street tree density and distribution and supports further comparative research on the topic.

Pruning intensity of street trees and associated effects on ecosystem services

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su-Ting Cheng ◽  
Shuo Wei
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Tree Height ◽  
City Government ◽  
Street Trees ◽  
Street Tree ◽  
Taipei City ◽  
Pollution Removal ◽  
Pruning Intensity

<p>Urban street trees provide multiple ecosystem services to city residents. In the Taipei city of Taiwan, street tree pruning is periodically applied due to disastrous prevention of typhoons or storms. To understand how pruning intensity affects the value of ecosystem services, we evaluated the changes of ecosystem services provided by a total of 87,014 street trees in Taipei in terms of pollution removal, carbon storage, gross carbon sequestration, and runoff avoidance. The current status of each ecosystem service was calculated using i-Tree Eco developed by US Forest Service based on the street tree inventory conducted by Parks and Street Lights Office, Taipei City Government during 2015 to 2017. Inventory information included tree species, diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height, and their locations. To simulate pruning intensity from 10% to 100%, we adjusted the crown missing rate from the current canopy cover estimated by DBH and tree height and quantified their associated effects on the ecosystem services. Then, for comparison purposes, each ecosystem service was transformed into monetary values using US market value of water, carbon, air pollution removal, and electricity. Our analysis showed that the Taipei street trees currently hold a relatively stable age structure with lower risk of disease or pest outbreak. These trees were estimated to deliver ecosystem services of equivalent value of 5.6 million USD, to which 4.97 million USD was contributed by carbon storage. Based on the pruning intensity simulation, we suggest a 20% or lower pruning intensity considering street trees’ impairment and physiology, to maximize the ecosystem service values. We also recommend landscape managers to monitor and assess the growth and health of the street trees to promote sustainable development in the Taipei city.</p>

scholarly journals Accommodating a tree asset register of street trees in a local government authority setting

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Humphrey Boogaerdt ◽  
Alistair Brown
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Street Trees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Government Authority ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Government Authority

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to consider how a local government authority may present a tree asset register of street trees for the decision-making of the authority's stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachUsing the tenets of population density theory, urban form theory and social stratification theory, the approach of the study is to develop a tree asset register in a local government authority's setting that could be modelled using many different attributes to derive important information for decision-making purposes.FindingsTree asset registers represent a critical tool in managing street trees across local government authorities.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the efficacy of an asset tree register may be curtailed by lack of internal audit or yearly updates, the practical consequence of an asset tree register is that local administrators may use the register to gather summarised, organised and parsimonious measures of a wide range of environmental, historical, cultural, aesthetic and scientific values of street trees.Practical implicationsTree asset registers affords ratepayers, developers, tree managers and valuers a technology to plan, coordinate and manage street trees to support ecosystem services.Social implicationsAsset tree registers offer planners a means to bring about sustainable change management.Originality/valueThe originality of the study rests in introducing tree registers as a means to meet diverse strategies for street tree management by interested stakeholders.

Registration of animal rabies in Krasnodar region

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-4
Author(s):  
Oleg Yu. Chernykh ◽  
◽  
Vadim A. Bobrov ◽  
Sergey N. Zabashta ◽  
Roman A. Krivonos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Natural Focus ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Epizootic Process ◽  
Krasnodar Region ◽  
Spread Of Infection ◽  
Reporting Data

Rabies remains a constant threat to humanity in many parts of the world. At the same time, scientifically grounded antiepizootic measures should be based on the peculiarities of the regional epizootology of this zooanthroponosis. The authors studied the epizootological and statistical reporting data of the Kropotkin Regional Veterinary Laboratory, presented an analysis of the registration of rabies in animals in Krasnodar region. From the obtained data, it should be noted that despite the wide range of animals involved in the epizootic process of rabies infection in Krasnodar region, dogs, cats and foxes play a major role in the reservation and spread of infection, which account for 78.6. Of the total number of registered cases, 15.5% falls on foxes, that indicates the natural focus of the disease, along with the manifestation of the disease in an urban form. At the same time, stray and neglected dogs and cats, which occupy a significant place among the total number of sick animals, are also sources and spread of the infection. Thus farm animals (8.3% of the total number of infected animals) are a biological dead end for the infection. Isolated cases of the disease were noted in muskrat, donkey, raccoon, raccoon dog, marten, ferret and jackal. The authors also established the specific morbidity of various animal species with rabies infection, that is an important aspect in the development and implementation of antiepizootic measures complex

scholarly journals Metabolic engineering in woody plants: challenges, advances, and opportunities

aBIOTECH ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Yu ◽  
Cody S. Bekkering ◽  
Li Tian
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Metabolic Engineering ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Plant Transformation ◽  
Woody Plants ◽  
Woody Plant ◽  
High Biomass ◽  
Generation Times ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Biochemical Diversity

AbstractWoody plant species represent an invaluable reserve of biochemical diversity to which metabolic engineering can be applied to satisfy the need for commodity and specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy. Woody plants are particularly promising for this application due to their low input needs, high biomass, and immeasurable ecosystem services. However, existing challenges have hindered their widespread adoption in metabolic engineering efforts, such as long generation times, large and highly heterozygous genomes, and difficulties in transformation and regeneration. Recent advances in omics approaches, systems biology modeling, and plant transformation and regeneration methods provide effective approaches in overcoming these outstanding challenges. Promises brought by developments in this space are steadily opening the door to widespread metabolic engineering of woody plants to meet the global need for a wide range of sustainably sourced chemicals and materials.

scholarly journals A Weighted-Time-Lag Method to Detect Lag Vegetation Response to Climate Variation: A Case Study in Loess Plateau, China, 1982–2013

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 923
Author(s):  
Qianqian Sun ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Tianyang Chen ◽  
Anbing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
New Method ◽  
Climate Factors ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Vegetation Growth ◽  
Lag Effect

Vegetation fluctuation is sensitive to climate change, and this response exhibits a time lag. Traditionally, scholars estimated this lag effect by considering the immediate prior lag (e.g., where vegetation in the current month is impacted by the climate in a certain prior month) or the lag accumulation (e.g., where vegetation in the current month is impacted by the last several months). The essence of these two methods is that vegetation growth is impacted by climate conditions in the prior period or several consecutive previous periods, which fails to consider the different impacts coming from each of those prior periods. Therefore, this study proposed a new approach, the weighted time-lag method, in detecting the lag effect of climate conditions coming from different prior periods. Essentially, the new method is a generalized extension of the lag-accumulation method. However, the new method detects how many prior periods need to be considered and, most importantly, the differentiated climate impact on vegetation growth in each of the determined prior periods. We tested the performance of the new method in the Loess Plateau by comparing various lag detection methods by using the linear model between the climate factors and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The case study confirmed four main findings: (1) the response of vegetation growth exhibits time lag to both precipitation and temperature; (2) there are apparent differences in the time lag effect detected by various methods, but the weighted time-lag method produced the highest determination coefficient (R2) in the linear model and provided the most specific lag pattern over the determined prior periods; (3) the vegetation growth is most sensitive to climate factors in the current month and the last month in the Loess Plateau but reflects a varied of responses to other prior months; and (4) the impact of temperature on vegetation growth is higher than that of precipitation. The new method provides a much more precise detection of the lag effect of climate change on vegetation growth and makes a smart decision about soil conservation and ecological restoration after severe climate events, such as long-lasting drought or flooding.

The Hidden Half: Linking microbial communities to habitat condition and vegetation management in UK blanket bogs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Burn ◽  
Andreas Heinemeyer ◽  
Thorunn Helgason ◽  
David Glaves ◽  
Michael Morecroft
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Vegetation Management ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Habitat Condition ◽  
Blanket Bog ◽  
The Uk

<p>Peatlands are globally valued for the ecosystem services they deliver, including water quality regulation and carbon sequestration. In the UK, blanket bogs are the main peatland habitat and previous work has linked blanket bog management, especially rotational burning of heather vegetation on grousemoors, to impacts on these ecosystem services. However, we still lack a mechanistic, process-level understanding of how peatland management and habitat status is linked to ecosystem service provision, which is mostly driven by soil microbial processes.</p><p>Here we examine bacterial and fungal communities across a spectrum of “intact” to degraded UK blanket bogs and under different vegetation management strategies. Sites included grousemoors under burnt and alternative mown or uncut management along with further locations including 'near intact', degraded and restored sites across a UK climatic gradient ranging from Exmoor (South UK), the Peak District (Mid) to the Flow Country (North). Moreover, an experiment was setup at the University of York with peat mesocosms taken from all sites and management/habitat conditions to allow a comparison between field and controlled conditions and assessing root-mediated processes. Using a structural equation model, we linked grousemoor management to specific fungal/bacterial functional groups, and have started to relate this to changes in water quality provision and carbon cycle aspects. This represents a significant step in the effort to use microbial communities as indicators of peatland habitat condition in UK upland blanket bogs. </p><p> </p>

Information technology investment and innovation performance: does investment paradox exist?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peinan Ji ◽  
Xiangbin Yan ◽  
Yan Shi
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Test Model ◽  
It Investment ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lag Effect ◽  
Enterprise Innovation

Purpose The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of the effects of information technology (IT) investment on firm innovation performance and examining the investment paradox effect in China. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of China’ public firms IT investment data between 2010 and 2016, the authors establish a test model of IT investment and innovation performance. Findings The result indicates that IT investment in firms have no effect on innovation performance in the investment period. However, in the full sample and manufacturing sample, the IT investment has a significant positive effect on innovation performance in the post-investment years. In addition, this study finds that large companies and low-age companies may contribute more to innovation when firm investment in IT. Research limitations/implications There are several limitations in this research. First, the authors are failed to obtain a larger sample about the IT investment information data set in China, so this study was compelled to use limited sample data from China, hence, this could lead to errors of too early generalization. Second, the authors use the number of invention patent applications to represent the performance of enterprise innovation, which may not show enterprise innovation effectively. Third, the firms in the sample are all in China Listed Companies, so this may not accurately reflect the entire environment of firm innovation performance, and could possibly. Practical implications The research confirms that there is a paradox and time lag effect in IT investment, which enterprises should pay attention to. Originality/value Existing research confirms that corporate IT investments can bring new products or services. However, the authors still do not know whether IT investment has improved the company’s ability of innovation. This study will fill this gap and the industry effect and time lag effect of the influence of IT investment on innovative performance are also examined.

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