scholarly journals Soil Degradation and Socioeconomic Systems’ Complexity: Uncovering the Latent Nexus

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Filippo Gambella ◽  
Giovanni Quaranta ◽  
Nathan Morrow ◽  
Renata Vcelakova ◽  
Luca Salvati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Soil Degradation ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Local System ◽  
Local Systems ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Socioeconomic Dimension ◽  
External Signals

Understanding Soil Degradation Processes (SDPs) is a fundamental issue for humankind. Soil degradation involves complex processes that are influenced by a multifaceted ensemble of socioeconomic and ecological factors at vastly different spatial scales. Desertification risk (the ultimate outcome of soil degradation, seen as an irreversible process of natural resource destruction) and socioeconomic trends have been recently analyzed assuming “resilience thinking” as an appropriate interpretative paradigm. In a purely socioeconomic dimension, resilience is defined as the ability of a local system to react to external signals and to promote future development. This ability is intrinsically bonded with the socio-ecological dynamics characteristic of environmentally homogeneous districts. However, an evaluation of the relationship between SDPs and socioeconomic resilience in local systems is missing in mainstream literature. Our commentary formulates an exploratory framework for the assessment of soil degradation, intended as a dynamic process of natural resource depletion, and the level of socioeconomic resilience in local systems. Such a framework is intended to provide a suitable background to sustainability science and regional policies at the base of truly resilient local systems.

Allowing the Poor to Share the Earth

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Pogge
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Global Fund ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
Institutional Mechanism ◽  
Natural Resource Depletion

AbstractTwo of the greatest challenges facing humanity are environmental degradation and the persistence of poverty. Both can be met by instituting a Global Resources Dividend (GRD) that would slow pollution and natural-resource depletion while collecting funds to avert poverty worldwide. Unlike Hillel Steiner's Global Fund, which is presented as a fully just regime governing the use of planetary resources, the GRD is meant as merely a modest but widely acceptable and therefore realistic step toward justice. Paula Casal has set forth various ways in which this step might be improved upon. Solid counter-arguments can be given to her criticisms and suggestions. But to specify the best (effective and realizable) design of an appropriate global institutional mechanism with some confidence, economists, political scientists, jurists, environmental scientists, and activists would need to be drawn in to help think through the immense empirical and political complexities posed by this urgent task.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF UNCERTAINTIES IN MODEL FREE PARAMETERS AND SEA LEVEL RISE ON SHORELINE CHANGES: A 20-YEAR HINDCAST AT TRUC VERT BEACH, SW FRANCE

2020 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Maurizio D'Anna ◽  
Deborah Idier ◽  
Bruno Castelle ◽  
Goneri Le Cozannet ◽  
Jeremy Rohmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Shoreline Evolution ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Model Free ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Sw France

Chronic erosion of sandy coasts is a continuous potential threat for the growing coastal communities worldwide. The prediction of shoreline evolution is therefore key issue for robust decision making worldwide, especially in the context of climate change. Shorelines respond to various complex processes interacting at several temporal and spatial scales, making shoreline reconstructions and predictions challenging and uncertain, especially on long time scales (e.g. decades or century). Despite the increasing progresses in addressing uncertainties related to the physics of Sea Level Rise, very little effort is made towards understanding and reducing the uncertainties related to wave driven coastal response. To fill this gap, we analyse the uncertainties associated with long-term (2 decades) modelling of the cross-shore transport dominated high-energy sandy coast around Truc Vert beach, SW France, which has been surveyed semi-monthly over the last 12 years.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/_NBJ2v-koMs

Disappearing natural resources: what flowers tell us about new value chains

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Carton ◽  
Julia Parigot
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Cut Flower ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Natural Resource Exploitation ◽  
Natural Resource Depletion

Purpose This paper aims to question the capacity of firms embedded in global value chains to manage their natural resources in a sustainable way. Thus, it offers guidelines for more sustainable value chains. Design/methodology/approach While business strategies have focused on optimizing natural resource exploitation and on constructing global value chains to face sustainability issues, this study first explains why these strategies are not effective in preventing natural resource depletion. Second, it offers a model for anticipating resource depletion. The cut flower industry constitutes a central case to explain the model. Two other industry cases complement the demonstration. Findings To anticipate natural resource depletion and thus improve industry sustainability, firms must shift from the exploitation of endangered natural resources to the use of alternative local ones. This shift, however, encourages firms to reconstruct value chains and rethink how they create value within these new value chains. It also has an impact on firms’ growth strategy: they must replicate value chains on a local scale instead of taking part in global value chains. Research limitations/implications The findings rely on illustrations from the cut flower, fishing and textile fiber industries. Generalization to other industries may strengthen the argument. Originality/value This study offers a model of sustainable growth for firms willing to anticipate natural resource depletion by offering a shift in value chains. It consists of exploiting alternative natural resources and of rethinking the value offered to consumers. Thus, it goes against current models that merely focus on optimizing natural resource exploitation within global value chains.

scholarly journals Effects of air pollution on children from a socioecological perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong In Kim ◽  
Gukbin Kim ◽  
Yeonja Choi
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Solid Fuel ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Per Capita

Abstract Background Country-level inequality in life expectancy (ILE) and deaths of children under age five due to air pollution (DCAP) can be influenced by country-level income per capita, solid fuel, electrification, and natural resource depletion. The ILE and DCAP in the short-term are useful indicators that can help in developing ways to reduce environmental threats. This study confirms evidence for ILE and DCAP as the effects of environmental threats by country-level income, energy, and natural resource levels from a socioecological approach. Methods This study based on life expectancy and children data on 164 countries acquired from the United Nations Development Programme. We obtained the country-level socioecological data from the United Nations and the World Bank database. We assessed the associations between ILE, DCAP, and the country-level indicators applying correlations coefficient and the regression models. Results These study findings showed considerable correlations between ILE and country-level socioecological indicators: gross national income per capita (GNI), non-solid fuel (NSF), electrification rate (ER), and natural resource depletion (NRD). The DCAP in short-term predictors were low NSF and low ER (R2 = 0.552), and ILE predictors were low GNI, NSF, and ER and higher NRD (R2 = 0.816). Thus, the countries with higher incomes and electrification rates and more sustainable natural resources had lower expected DCAP in the short-term and ILE in the long-term. Conclusions Based on our results, we confirmed that country-level income, energy, and natural resource indicators had important effects on ILE in long-term and DCAP in short-term. We recommend that countries consider targeting high standards of living and national incomes, access to non-solid fuel and electricity as energy sources, and sustainable natural resources to reduce ILE and DCAP in short-term.

scholarly journals Integrating behaviour and ecology into global biodiversity conservation strategies

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1781) ◽  
pp. 20190012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Tobias ◽  
Alex L. Pigot
Keyword(s):  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Conservation Practice ◽  
Latent Extinction ◽  
Conservation Assessments ◽  
And Migration

Insights into animal behaviour play an increasingly central role in species-focused conservation practice. However, progress towards incorporating behaviour into regional or global conservation strategies has been more limited, not least because standardized datasets of behavioural traits are generally lacking at wider taxonomic or spatial scales. Here we make use of the recent expansion of global datasets for birds to assess the prospects for including behavioural traits in systematic conservation priority-setting and monitoring programmes. Using International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List classifications for more than 9500 bird species, we show that the incidence of threat can vary substantially across different behavioural categories, and that some types of behaviour—including particular foraging, mating and migration strategies—are significantly more threatened than others. The link between behavioural traits and extinction risk is partly driven by correlations with well-established geographical and ecological factors (e.g. range size, body mass, human population pressure), but our models also reveal that behaviour modifies the effect of these factors, helping to explain broad-scale patterns of extinction risk. Overall, these results suggest that a multi-species approach at the scale of communities, continents and ecosystems can be used to identify and monitor threatened behaviours, and to flag up cases of latent extinction risk, where threatened status may currently be underestimated. Our findings also highlight the importance of comprehensive standardized descriptive data for ecological and behavioural traits, and point the way towards deeper integration of behaviour into quantitative conservation assessments. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation’.

scholarly journals Environmental factors influencing fine-scale distribution of Antarctica’s only endemic insect

Oecologia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 194 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-539
Author(s):  
Leslie J. Potts ◽  
J. D. Gantz ◽  
Yuta Kawarasaki ◽  
Benjamin N. Philip ◽  
David J. Gonthier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Species Distributions ◽  
Biotic Factors ◽  
Belgica Antarctica ◽  
Abiotic And Biotic Factors ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractSpecies distributions are dependent on interactions with abiotic and biotic factors in the environment. Abiotic factors like temperature, moisture, and soil nutrients, along with biotic interactions within and between species, can all have strong influences on spatial distributions of plants and animals. Terrestrial Antarctic habitats are relatively simple and thus good systems to study ecological factors that drive species distributions and abundance. However, these environments are also sensitive to perturbation, and thus understanding the ecological drivers of species distribution is critical for predicting responses to environmental change. The Antarctic midge, Belgica antarctica, is the only endemic insect on the continent and has a patchy distribution along the Antarctic Peninsula. While its life history and physiology are well studied, factors that underlie variation in population density within its range are unknown. Previous work on Antarctic microfauna indicates that distribution over broad scales is primarily regulated by soil moisture, nitrogen content, and the presence of suitable plant life, but whether these patterns are true over smaller spatial scales has not been investigated. Here we sampled midges across five islands on the Antarctic Peninsula and tested a series of hypotheses to determine the relative influences of abiotic and biotic factors on midge abundance. While historical literature suggests that Antarctic organisms are limited by the abiotic environment, our best-supported hypothesis indicated that abundance is predicted by a combination of abiotic and biotic conditions. Our results are consistent with a growing body of literature that biotic interactions are more important in Antarctic ecosystems than historically appreciated.

Optimal rate of natural resource depletion

1978 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athol Fitzgibbons ◽  
Stuart Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Optimal Rate ◽  
Natural Resource Depletion

Local systems and Sylow subgroups in locally finite groups. II

1974 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rae
Keyword(s):  
Finite Group ◽  
Finite Groups ◽  
Local System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Locally Finite Group ◽  
Local Systems ◽  
Locally Finite ◽  
Sylow Subgroups ◽  
Locally Finite Groups ◽  
Other Hand

1.1. Introduction. In this paper, we continue with the theme of (1): the relationships holding between the Sπ (i.e. maximal π) subgroups of a locally finite group and the various local systems of that group. In (1), we were mainly concerned with ‘good’ Sπ subgroups – those which reduce into some local system (and are said to be good with respect to that system). Here, on the other hand, we are concerned with a very much more special sort of Sπ subgroup.

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