Search results for " pol"
showing 10 items of 21911 documents
Enabling policy innovations promoting multiple ecosystem benefits: lessons learnt from case studies in the Baltic Sea Region
2019
Abstract This paper analyses how specific institutional barriers and drivers affect the success of agri-environmental governance and policy innovations in four case study catchments in Germany, Latvia, Poland and Sweden. Possible adaptations of institutional settings are explored, aiming at increased effectiveness of policies and governance in delivering multiple ecosystem benefits along with reduced nutrient emissions and flood management. Factors of success synthesized from existing examples of innovative policy instruments in the EU and further afield are used to identify barriers and opportunities for the implementation of policy innovations in different institutional settings across th…
Responses of boreal carabid beetle assemblages (Coleoptera, Carabidae) to clear-cutting and top-soil preparation
2006
Today, forestry is the most important disturbance force in Fennoscandian boreal forests, having remarkably altered fauna and flora in this biome. However, since the late 1900s, forest-management practices have been modified to better consider biodiversity while harvesting timber. For example, green-tree retention, gap felling, and lighter top-soil preparation methods (harrowing) have been introduced, but little is known about the ecological effects of these changes. We sampled carabid beetles in seven clear-cut stands that were subsequently harrowed. We studied the effects of (1) clear-cut size by comparing carabid catches of small gaps (ca. 0.16 ha) with those of larger clear-cuts (ca. 2 h…
Are coastal communities able to pay for the protection of fish resources impacted by climate change?
2020
Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine inhabitants’ motivation and their willingness to pay to mitigate the impact of climate change on fish resources. Willingness to pay was tested empirically using survey data from 333 inhabitants of Sciacca, a fishing community in Sicily, Italy, which has the island’s second largest fishing fleet. People’s attitudes towards climate change, their degree of involvement in the issue, and their concerns about this phenomenon’s potential impact on the marine environment are the key factors affecting their willingness to pay. It was further found that respondents are willing to pay an average of €6.81 per month to support mitigation policies in the f…
Resource polymorphism in European whitefish: Analysis of fatty acid profiles provides more detailed evidence than traditional methods alone
2019
Published version, licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. , available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221338 Resource polymorphism—whereby ancestral generalist populations give rise to several specialised morphs along a resource gradient—is common where species colonise newly formed ecosystems. This phenomenon is particularly well documented in freshwater fish populations inhabiting postglacial lakes formed at the end of the last ice age. However, knowledge on how such differential exploitation of resources across contrasting habitats might be reflected in the biochemical compositions of diverging populations is still limited, though such patterns might be expected. Here, we aimed to assess …
The genome sequencing of an albino Western lowland gorilla reveals inbreeding in the wild
2013
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.
How to reconcile wood production and biodiversity conservation? The Pan-European boreal forest history gradient as an "experiment".
2018
There are currently competing demands on Europe's forests and the finite resources and services that they can offer. Forestry intensification that aims at mitigating climate change and biodiversity conservation is one example. Whether or not these two objectives compete can be evaluated by comparative studies of forest landscapes with different histories. We test the hypothesis that indicators of wood production and biodiversity conservation are inversely related in a gradient of long to short forestry intensification histories. Forest management data containing stand age, volume and tree species were used to model the opportunity for wood production and biodiversity conservation in five no…
Assessing environmental conditions of Antarctic footpaths to support management decisions.
2016
Thousands of tourists visit certain Antarctic sites each year, generating a wide variety of environmental impacts. Scientific knowledge of human activities and their impacts can help in the effective design of management measures and impact mitigation. We present a case study from Barrientos Island in which a management measure was originally put in place with the goal of minimizing environmental impacts but resulted in new undesired impacts. Two alternative footpaths used by tourist groups were compared. Both affected extensive moss carpets that cover the middle part of the island and that are very vulnerable to trampling. The first path has been used by tourists and scientists since over …
Optimal conservation resource allocation under variable economic and ecological time discounting rates in boreal forest
2016
Resource allocation to multiple alternative conservation actions is a complex task. A common trade-off occurs between protection of smaller, expensive, high-quality areas versus larger, cheaper, partially degraded areas. We investigate optimal allocation into three actions in boreal forest: current standard forest management rules, setting aside of mature stands, or setting aside of clear-cuts. We first estimated how habitat availability for focal indicator species and economic returns from timber harvesting develop through time as a function of forest type and action chosen. We then developed an optimal resource allocation by accounting for budget size and habitat availability of indicator…
Combined effects of fishing and oil spills on marine fish: Role of stock demographic structure for offspring overlap with oil
2018
It has been proposed that the multiple pressures of fishing and petroleum activities impact fish stocks in synergy, as fishing-induced demographic changes in a stock may lead to increased sensitivity to detrimental effects of acute oil spills. High fishing pressure may erode the demographic structure of fish stocks, lead to less diverse spawning strategies, and more concentrated distributions of offspring in space and time. Hence an oil spill may potentially hit a larger fraction of a year-class of offspring. Such a link between demographic structure and egg distribution was recently demonstrated for the Northeast Arctic stock of Atlantic cod for years 1959–1993. We here estimate that this …
Consumer behaviour change through education for sustainable development: case of Latvia
2018
More sustainability and sustainable development are major challenges faced by society today. Consumer's choices and the use of products and services have important impacts on the environment; consequently, consumer behaviour is crucial. Education and pedagogics help select real sustainable living attitudes of students, their families and friends. This case study describes the mid-term results of a teaching assignment and survey in three Latvian higher education organisations which involve system thinking and students' action on consumer choices of household chemicals. The multilayer results provide insight into the consumption of these chemicals and show that one year after the assignment, …